title: India–Pakistan border

text: The border between Indian-administered Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab is officially called the "Working Boundary" by the UN. India regards it as the international border.


title: India–Pakistan border

text: At the following border crossing sites the beating retreat flag ceremonies are jointly held by the military of both nations every day at 6 pm, which are open to public as tourist attractions. No special permit or ticket is needed. The ceremony sites are as follows (from north to south):


title: India–Pakistan border

text: The flag lowering ceremony at the village of Wagah is held each evening immediately before sunset by the border agents of Pakistan (Pakistan Rangers) and India (Border Security Force or BSF). It is a tradition dating back to 1959. The ceremony begins with battle calls from both sides in the form of loud screaming done by the border guards. This is followed by a series of organized high kicks, stomps, and dance moves during which the opposing forces stare each other down. The event ends with a handshake of good faith being exchanged by the head guards along with the lowering of the flags. The crowd cheers and claps enthusiastically through it all. The ritual is known to attract international tourists and even celebrities. It is symbolic of the brotherhood as well as the rivalry that these two nations share. The border troops are known to exchange sweets with the opposing side during the Muslim holidays of Eid and Hindu holiday of Diwali, but in 2016 and 2018 the BSF have avoided doing so due to rising military tensions. It has been a peaceful gathering with the exception of the 2014 Wagah border suicide attack in which 60 people were killed and over 110 people were left injured. It has also been cancelled on occasion such as when Pakistan returned Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman back to India after his plane was shot down by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) during the 2019 India-Pakistan standoff.


title: India–Pakistan border

text: Similar border ceremonies held by India (Border Security Force, BSF) and Pakistan (Pakistan Rangers) occur at Fazilka border (India side) / Sulaimanki, Punjab and Hussainiwala border, Punjab (India side) / Ganda Singh Wala border, Kasur District (Pakistan side). These rituals are attended primarily by the local villagers and garner very few spectator tourists.


title: Narcotic

text: The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ "narkō", "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates and opioids, commonly morphine and heroin, as well as derivatives of many of the compounds found within raw opium latex. The primary three are morphine, codeine, and thebaine (while thebaine itself is only very mildly psychoactive, it is a crucial precursor in the vast majority of semi-synthetic opioids, such as oxycodone or hydrocodone).


title: Narcotic

text: Legally speaking, the term "narcotic" may be imprecisely defined and typically has negative connotations. When used in a legal context in the U.S., a narcotic drug is totally prohibited, such as heroin, or one that is used in violation of legal regulation (in this word sense, equal to any controlled substance or illicit drug).


title: Narcotic

text: In the medical community, the term is more precisely defined and generally does not carry the same negative connotations.


title: Narcotic

text: Statutory classification of a drug as a narcotic often increases the penalties for violation of drug control statutes. For example, although U.S. federal law classifies both cocaine and amphetamines as "Schedule II" drugs, the penalty for possession of cocaine is greater than the penalty for possession of amphetamines because cocaine, unlike amphetamines, is classified as a narcotic.


title: Narcotic

text: The adoption of this convention is regarded as a milestone in the history of the international drug ban. The Single Convention codified all existing multilateral treaties on drug control and extended the existing control systems to include the cultivation of plants that were grown as the raw material of narcotic drugs. The principal objectives of the convention are to limit the possession, use, trade, distribution, import, export, manufacture, and production of drugs exclusively for medical and scientific purposes, and to address drug trafficking through international cooperation to deter and discourage drug traffickers. The convention also established the International Narcotics Control Board, merging the Permanent Central Board and the Drug Supervisory Board.


title: Narcotic

text: The Convention divides drugs into four groups, or schedules, to enforce a greater or lesser degree of control for the various substances and compounds. Opium smoking and eating, coca leaf chewing, cannabis resin smoking, and the non-medical use of cannabis are prohibited. The 1972 Protocol to this Convention calls for increased efforts to prevent illicit production of, traffic in, and use of narcotics as defined by the convention, while highlighting the need to provide treatment and rehabilitation services to drug abusers.


title: Narcotic

text: information to assist governments in filling in the International Narcotics Control Board questionnaires


title: Narcotic

text: In order to avoid room for difference in interpretation, lawmakers ("codificators") sometimes deviate from etymological (definiendum plus definientia) definitions. In doing so, they approach the term from the law enforcement point of view.


title: Narcotic

text: The best example is the definition of "narcotics" in the United Nations Conventions. Narcotics are substances and preparations that induce drowsiness, sleep, stupor, insensibility, etc., and that these effects (and their rate) are complicated to prove, e.g. during litigation. Thus, the legal definition of a narcotic is whether or not it is listed on the Schedules of the convention. If it is on some of the Schedules, it is narcotic.


title: Narcotic

text: The term usually refers to opiates or opioids, which are called narcotic analgesics. In common parlance and legal usage, it is often used imprecisely to mean illicit drugs, irrespective of their pharmacology. For example, narcotics control legislation in Canada, the US, and certain other countries includes cocaine and cannabis as well as opioids (see also conventions, international drug). Because of this variation in usage, the term is best replaced by one with a more specific meaning (e.g. opioid).


title: Narcotic

text: expanded and revised definition of "narcotic drug", including within term poppy straw, cocaine, and ecgonine.


title: Narcotic

text: The term "narcotic" is believed to have been coined by the Greek physician Galen to refer to agents that numb or deaden, causing paralysis or loss of feeling. It is based on the Greek word "ναρκωσις" (narcosis)"," the term used by Hippocrates for the process of numbing or the numbed state. Galen listed mandrake root, altercus (eclata), seeds, and poppy juice (opium) as the chief examples. It originally referred to any substance that relieved pain, dulled the senses, or induced sleep. Now, the term is used in many ways. Some people might define narcotics as substances that bind at opioid receptors (cellular membrane proteins activated by substances like heroin or morphine), while others refer to any "illicit" substance as a narcotic. From a U.S. "legal" perspective, narcotics refer to opium, opium derivatives, and their semi-synthetic substitutes, though in U.S. law, due to its numbing properties, cocaine is also considered a narcotic.


title: Narcotic

text: The definition encompassing "any illegal drug" was first recorded in 1926. Its first use as an adjective is first attested to c. 1600. There are many different types of narcotics. The two most common forms of narcotic drugs are morphine and codeine. Both are synthesized from opium for medicinal use. The most commonly used drug for recreational purposes created from opium is heroin. Synthesized drugs created with an opium base for use in pain management are fentanyl, oxycodone, tramadol, pethidine (Demerol), hydrocodone, methadone, and hydromorphone.


title: Narcotic

text: New forms of existing pain medications are being created regularly. The newest formulation to come out was in 2014 when zohydro, an increased dosage formula of hydrocodone, was released; this is so far the strongest hydrocodone formulation created for pain management, on par with a moderate dose of oxycodone .


title: Narcotic

text: Analgesics are drugs that relieve pain. There are two main types: non-narcotic analgesics for mild pain, and narcotic analgesics for severe pain.


title: Narcotic

text: Narcotic analgesics tend to be opioids. They bind to opioid receptors which are G-Protein coupled receptors distributed in brain, spinal cord, digestive tract, peripheral neurons.


title: Narcotic

text: There are three types of opioid receptors: Mu (μ-opioid receptors), delta, and kappa (κ-opioid receptor). Endogenous opioids (enkephalins, dynorphin, endorphin) do not bind specifically to any particular opioid receptor. Receptor binding of the opioid causes a cascade leading to the channel opening and hyperpolarization of the neuron. The opioid receptors have the following channel types: Mu, K+ channel; l Delta, K+ channel; Kappa, Ca2+ channel. Hyperpolarization can lead to post-synaptic neural inhibition and presynaptic inhibition of neurotransmitter release. Post-synaptic neural inhibition can reduce analgesia and central hyperactivity may reduce its efficacy.


title: Narcotic

text: The mechanism of Kappa receptors is slightly different than Mu and Delta, in that Ca2+ channels close instead of K+ channels, and K+ channels open in mu and delta.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: John Truman Carter III, M.D. is a fictional character from the NBC television series "ER." He was portrayed by Noah Wyle and appeared as one of the series' principal characters from the pilot episode until the eleventh season finale. Carter's career path is one of the main story arcs of the series, beginning as a third-year medical student, becoming a resident, first in surgery and then in emergency medicine, before being promoted to an attending physician.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: In the twelfth season, Wyle made guest appearances in four episodes, from "Quintessence of Dust" to "There Are No Angels Here". During the fifteenth season, Wyle again reprised the role for eight additional episodes, first returning in "The Beginning of the End" and ending with the series finale. Carter is the only character that appears in the first and last episode of the series.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: Carter arrived at County General as a third-year medical student. His career got off to a rocky start when on his first day at County, he nearly vomited in the emergency room after seeing a critically wounded patient and had to be consoled by Chief Resident Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards).


title: John Carter (ER)

text: Carter had a dedicated and compassionate approach with his patients. Initially interested in surgery, he switched to emergency medicine, much to his mentor Dr. Peter Benton's (Eriq La Salle) initial dismay and disappointment. During his surgical residency, Carter laments on the lack of patient connection, specifically the lack of thorough follow-up and care.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: In order for Carter to change from his surgical residency to an emergency medicine residency, he agreed to work without pay. He was part of an influential and wealthy family and did not need a salary, enabling County General to take him on despite the lack of funding for an additional position. As a resident, his confidence grew, and he often went out of his way to help patients.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: During season 6, Carter and medical student Lucy Knight (Kellie Martin) are stabbed by patient Paul Sobricki (David Krumholtz), a law student suffering from schizophrenia. Knight dies from her injuries while Carter's injuries leave him with lifelong kidney problems. As a result of Carter's chronic battle with pain, survivor guilt, and resistance to getting help, he eventually develops an addiction to narcotics. He begins making mistakes at work. After Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney) catches him injecting left-over fentanyl from a trauma into his wrist, Carter's colleagues hold an intervention and Dr. Greene demands that he go to an inpatient rehab center for medical doctors in Atlanta or be fired. Although Carter is initially opposed to going, Dr. Benton convinces him and boards the plane with him.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: Upon returning from rehab in season 7, Carter makes peace with Chase, and apologizes for his long absence, saying, "I didn't want to admit to the fact that I was just like you." At the end of the season, Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes) rejects Carter's application for Chief Resident because of his history of addiction.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: During season 9, Carter and Abby begin sleeping together after they are quarantined in the ER for two weeks during an outbreak of monkeypox. Meanwhile, the health of Carter's grandmother, Millicent (Gamma), continued to decline, and his mother, Eleanor, had difficulty accepting her divorce from Carter's father, Jack. Worse, Abby and Carter continued to disagree over whether or not Abby, a recovering alcoholic, should be drinking at all, even moderately. These personal issues come to a head when Abby's bipolar brother Eric (Tom Everett Scott) reappears the day Gamma dies. Abby giving precedence to her duty as a sister marks the beginning of the end of Carter and Abby's relationship.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: Unable to shake his grief, Carter decides to join Dr. Luka Kovač (Goran Visnjic) in Congo without Abby's support. While there, he mended his previous rift with Kovač (due to their feelings for Abby) and they began to understand one another better. When the clinic is overrun by militia, Luka is threatened by guerrilla soldiers. However, a young soldier recognized Carter as the doctor that tried desperately to save his brother though he ultimately failed. Out of respect for Carter’s actions, the guerrillas spare everyone at the clinic aside from an Army soldier they had been treating.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: He returned two weeks later in season 10. When Kovač is reported killed in Africa, Carter goes back to retrieve his body, but finds that Kovač is alive but ill with malaria. He arranges for Kovač to be sent home, and sends a letter to Abby ending their relationship. Carter remains in Africa for several months and works in Makemba "Kem" Likasu's (Thandiwe Newton) AIDS clinic. Carter and Kem develop a relationship, and when she gets pregnant with his child he asks her to accompany him to Chicago, where he introduces her to his colleagues.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: Kem's pregnancy ends tragically at eight months when she gives birth to a stillborn son in the episode "Midnight". While they are both devastated, Kem and Carter's relationship manages to survive.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: During season 11, Carter started building an HIV/AIDS clinic adjacent to County General, with funding from his family's charity foundation. It is named after his stillborn son - "The Joshua Makalo Carter Center." Afterward, he went to Paris, where Kem is visiting her mother. They reconnect and he offered to go to Africa with her so they can start afresh. She hesitated but later accepted the offer. Dr. Carter returned to Chicago and bids adieu to his friends and colleagues. In a fitting ending to his career at County, Carter's last patient is a young girl who he had delivered 11 years before when he had just been first starting out.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: In season 12, Carter appeared in a four episode arc, working with a fellow doctor in Darfur, Sudan, where he is joined by Dr. Greg Pratt (Mekhi Phifer) and Debbie (Mary McCormack). Pratt informed him that Luka and Abby have reunited and are expecting a baby.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: In the season 15 episode, "The Book of Abby", long-serving nurse Haleh Adams shows the departing Abby Lockhart a closet wall where all the past doctors and employees have put their locker name tags. However, Carter's is missing; according to Haleh, he did not want to do it because it was "defacing government property."


title: John Carter (ER)

text: Carter later returned in the season 15 episode, "The Beginning of the End”, in which he rejoined the ER at County General. He explains to Cate Banfield that he is relocating to Chicago, and is looking to pick up some shifts. She agreed, after finding out that one of his teachers at the hospital was Mark Greene. He visited the Joshua Makalo Carter Center. At the end of the episode, it is shown that Carter is on dialysis because of amyloidosis developing from schistosomiasis which irreparably damages Carter's remaining kidney. He was back in Chicago to be placed on the US transplant list. Working in the ER once again, he is shown to still be a good doctor with good judgment, but is still catching up with the latest medicines and techniques being used in the US. Eventually, his condition worsens, causing him to collapse while attending to a patient. While being treated by Dr. Gates and Dr. Archie Morris (Scott Grimes), he goes into V-tach, but is brought back thanks to Morris' quick thinking. He is then transferred to Northwestern Medical Center.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: In the episode "Old Times", while a patient at Northwestern, he is visited by Benton, to whom he reveals that his marriage with Kem is going through a rough patch. In the same episode, Benton acts as a back-seat driver and supervises the operation to make sure Carter is well taken care of. Thanks to Benton's thoroughness which initially annoys the surgeon performing the operation, a complication is resolved and the operation is a success. Unbeknownst to Carter, the kidney is arranged for him thanks to the efforts of his old friends Carol Hathaway (Julianne Margulies) and Doug Ross (George Clooney), who are also unaware that they are helping Carter and only find out that "some doctor" got the kidney.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: In "And In The End", the series finale, Carter uses his family fortune to finally open the Joshua Carter Center, a medical clinic for the underprivileged that fits into the plans he announces when his grandmother's will is read. Kem surprises Carter by attending the opening ceremony, but she is seemingly uncomfortable around him. In a later conversation she tells him that she felt sad in Chicago because it reminded her of their son's death. As she leaves the clinic's opening, she tells Carter to call her to set up breakfast before she flies back to Paris. Carter indicates he might come back to County for good; however, this is potentially contradicted by his earlier idea that he would leave Chicago if it would save his marriage.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: In the final scene, victims of an explosion come to County and while tending to a patient he invites Rachel Greene (Hallee Hirsh), Dr. Mark Greene's daughter who is considering going to medical school, to come help him, even calling her "Dr. Greene".


title: John Carter (ER)

text: Early in the series, Carter's plots typically stayed in the realm of the ER. In a symbolic gesture of this transference, he was told by Mark Greene "you set the tone" on Dr. Greene's last day in the ER. Dr. Greene had been told the same thing, by Dr. Morgenstern, in the pilot episode in season 1 of the show. Dr. Carter, in turn, said the same thing to Dr. Archie Morris as Carter left the ER, although Morris did not understand the significance.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: Throughout the course of the series (particularly at the beginning of season 8) we meet various members of Carter's wealthy family and see that he is very uncomfortable with coming from money, to the point where he goes out of his way to not talk about his background.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: His father, John (Jack) Truman Carter Jr. (Michael Gross) is caring but reserved, and very acquiescent with his wife until he gets tired of her being an "emotional vampire" and divorces her. He and Carter have an awkward relationship; they love each other, but John does not respect his father. Jack recognizes this and keeps some distance from his son as a result. Carter's mother, Eleanor (Mary McDonnell), is emotionally distant and cold. Her personality was largely shaped because she blamed herself for the death of Carter's older brother, Bobby, from leukemia. Carter eventually figures out that much of her sadness comes from this and they briefly become closer, but eventually Eleanor cut ties with her family after Jack divorces her, to the point where John has no idea how to reach her and she refuses to return a phone call he makes after her mother passes away. It is noteworthy that neither of Carter's parents are present when he dedicates the Joshua Carter Public Health building in the series finale.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: Carter's grandfather, John Truman Carter Sr. (George Plimpton), is disappointed by Carter's career choice, and though Carter respects him, he also resents him. Carter's grandmother, Millicent Carter (Frances Sternhagen), is a benefactor of the hospital, even funding Carol Hathaway's clinic. Carter is very close to his grandmother, whom he calls "Gamma", and intermittently lives at her home. They do occasionally argue, however, usually in regard to Carter's reluctance to participate in matters related to the family foundation; Gamma modifies her will to remove Jack as the head of the foundation and puts John in charge of it, leading to him changing its mission from supporting Chicago arts programs to supporting public health initiatives.


title: John Carter (ER)

text: Chase Carter (Jonathan Scarfe) is John's first cousin and a "functioning" heroin addict. Carter, with the assistance of his colleague Anna, attempts to detox and rehabilitate him, but fails. Chase eventually overdoses, resulting in severe brain damage. Carter pleads for the family to keep Chase in physical therapy, and Chase improves significantly. Elaine Nichols Carter (Rebecca De Mornay), the ex-wife of another of Carter's cousins, comes to the hospital for treatment for breast cancer and she and Carter have an affair.


title: Cricket ball

text: A cricket ball is a hard, solid ball used to play cricket. A cricket ball consists of a cork core wound with string then a leather cover stitched on, and manufacture is regulated by cricket law at first-class level. The trajectory of a cricket ball when bowled, through movement in the air, and off the ground, is influenced by the action of the bowler and the condition of the ball and the pitch, while working on the cricket ball to obtain optimal condition is a key role of the fielding side. The principal method through which the batsman scores runs is by hitting the ball, with the bat, into a position where it would be safe to take a run, or by directing the ball through or over the boundary. Cricket balls are harder and heavier than baseballs.


title: Cricket ball

text: In Test cricket, professional domestic games that spread over a multitude of days, and almost the entirety of amateur cricket, the traditional red cricket ball is normally used. In many one day cricket matches, a white ball is used instead in order to remain visible under floodlights, and since 2010, pink has been introduced to contrast with players' white clothing and for improved night visibility during day/night Test matches. Training balls of white, red and pink are also common, and tennis balls and other similar-sized balls can be used for training or informal cricket matches. During cricket matches, the quality of the ball changes to a point where it is no longer usable, and during this decline its properties alter and thus can influence the match. Altering the state of the cricket ball outside the permitted manners designated in the rules of cricket is prohibited during a match, and so-called "ball tampering" has resulted in numerous controversies.


title: Cricket ball

text: Injuries and fatalities have been caused by cricket balls during matches. The hazards posed by cricket balls were a key motivator for the introduction of protective equipment.


title: Cricket ball

text: British Standard BS 5993 specifies the construction details, dimensions, quality and performance of cricket balls.


title: Cricket ball

text: A cricket ball is made with a core of cork, which is layered with tightly wound string, and covered by a leather case with a slightly raised sewn seam. In a top-quality ball suitable for the highest levels of competition, the covering is constructed of four pieces of leather shaped similar to the peel of a quartered orange, but one hemisphere is rotated by 90 degrees with respect to the other. The "equator" of the ball is stitched with string to form the ball's prominent seam, with six rows of stitches. The remaining two joins between the leather pieces are stitched internally forming the quarter seam. Lower-quality balls with a two-piece covering are also popular for practice and lower-level competition due to their lower cost.


title: Cricket ball

text: The nature of the cricket ball slightly varies with its manufacturer. White Kookaburra balls are used in one-day and Twenty20 international matches, while red Kookaburras are used in test matches played in most of the twelve test-playing nations, except for the West Indies, Ireland and England, who use Dukes, and India, who use SG balls.


title: Cricket ball

text: Cricket balls are traditionally red, and red balls are used in Test cricket and First-class cricket but proposals to introduce other colours date back at least as early as 1937.


title: Cricket ball

text: White balls were introduced when one-day matches began being played at night under floodlights, as they are more visible at night; all professional one-day matches are now played with white balls, even when they are not played at night. The white balls have been found to behave differently from the red balls: most notably, they swing a lot more during the first half of an innings than the red balls, and they deteriorate more quickly. Manufacturers claim that white and red balls are manufactured using the same methods and materials, other than the dyeing of the leather. Another problem associated with white cricket balls used in One Day Internationals is that they quickly become dirty or dull in colour, which makes it more difficult for batsmen to sight the ball after 30–40 overs of use. Since October 2012, this has been managed by the use of two new white balls in each innings, with a different ball used from each bowling end; the same strategy was used in the 1992 and 1996 Cricket World Cups. Between October 2007 and October 2012, the issue had been managed using one new ball from the start of the innings, then swapping it at the end of the 34th over with a "reconditioned ball", which was neither new nor too dirty to see. Before October 2007, except during 1992 and 1996 World Cups, only one ball was used during an innings of an ODI and it was at the umpires' discretion to change the ball if it was difficult to see.


title: Cricket ball

text: Pink balls were developed in the 2000s to enable Tests and first-class matches played at night. The red ball is unsuited to night tests due to poor visibility, and the white ball is unsuited to first-class cricket because it deteriorates rapidly and cannot be used for eighty overs as specified in the rules, so the pink ball was designed to provide a satisfactory compromise on both issues. It is still considered more difficult to see than a white ball; and the leather is more heavily dyed than a red ball, which better preserves its colour and visibility as it wears but also gives it slightly different wear characteristics. It has performed well enough in testing and first-class cricket to be approved for use in international cricket. A pink ball was used for the first time in an international match in July 2009 when the England Women's team defeated Australia in a one-day match at Wormsley, and a pink ball was used in a day-night Test match for the first time in November 2015. Other colours were also experimented with, such as yellow and orange (glowing composite), for improved night visibility, but pink proved to be the preferred option.


title: Cricket ball

text: As of 2014, the ball used in Test match cricket in England had a UK recommended retail price of £100. In test match cricket this ball is used for a minimum of 80 overs (theoretically five hours and twenty minutes of play), after which the fielding side has the option of using a new ball. In professional one day cricket, at least two new balls are used for each match. Amateur cricketers often have to use old balls, or cheap substitutes, in which case the changes in the condition of the ball may be different from professional cricket.


title: Cricket ball

text: There are three main manufacturers of cricket balls used in international matches: Kookaburra, Dukes and SG. The manufacturer of the red (or pink) balls used for Tests varies depending on location: India uses SG; England, Ireland and the West Indies use Dukes; and all other countries use Kookaburra. The different manufacturers' balls behave differently: for instance Dukes balls have a prouder seam and will tend to swing more than Kookaburra balls – providing a home advantage when playing against a team unfamiliar with the ball. All limited overs international matches, regardless of location, are played with white Kookaburra balls. White Dukes balls were used at the 1999 Cricket World Cup, but the ball behaved more erratically than the Kookaburra and white Dukes have not been used since. Domestic competitions may use a domestic manufacturer: for example, Pakistan uses Grays balls in its first-class competitions.


title: Cricket ball

text: Cricket balls can be bowled at close to 160 km/h (100 mph) by pace bowlers and made to deviate from a straight course, both in the air (known as 'swinging') and off the ground (known as 'seaming'). A spin bowler bowls at a slower speed, but imparts lateral revolutions on the ball at the point of delivery, so that when it bounces it deviates from a straight course more significantly then other methods. As cricket bats have become thicker, the ball can now be hit well over 100 metres before touching the ground.


title: Cricket ball

text: Cricket commentator and former Test bowler Simon Doull noted that cricket balls produced after Cricket World Cup 2015 produced a lot less swing regardless of manufacturer. This was said to be apparent in 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, even on traditionally swing-friendly British pitches, particularly with white balls, but the former West Indian bowler Ian Bishop was unwilling to support this.


title: Cricket ball

text: In Test cricket and T20 cricket, a new ball is used at the start of each innings in a match. In One Day Cricket, two new balls, one from each end, are used at the start of each innings. A cricket ball may not be replaced except under specific conditions described in the "Laws of Cricket":


title: Cricket ball

text: The ball is not replaced if it is hit into the crowd - the crowd must return it. If the ball is damaged, lost, or illegally modified, it will be replaced by a "used" ball in a similar condition to the replaced ball. A "new" ball can only be used after the specified minimum number of overs have been bowled with the old one.


title: Cricket ball

text: Because a single ball is used for an extended period of play, its surface wears down and becomes rough. The bowlers may polish it whenever they can, usually by rubbing it on their trousers, producing the characteristic red stain that can often be seen there. However, they will usually only polish one side of the ball, in order to create 'swing' as it travels through the air. They may apply saliva or sweat to the ball as they polish it. The practice of applying saliva has been banned by the ICC during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In a June 2020 press release, the ICC announced that "A team can be issued up to two warnings per innings but repeated use of saliva on the ball will result in a 5-run penalty to the batting side. Whenever saliva is applied to the ball, the umpires will be instructed to clean the ball before play recommences".


title: Cricket ball

text: The seam of a cricket ball can also be used to produce different trajectories through the air, with the technique known as swing bowling, or to produce sideways movement as it bounces off the pitch, with the technique known as seam bowling.


title: Cricket ball

text: Since the condition of the cricket ball is crucial to the amount of movement through the air a bowler can produce, the laws governing what players may and may not do to the ball are specific and rigorously enforced. The umpires will inspect the ball frequently during a match. If the ball is out of shape due to normal wear and tear due to batting and ball hitting the pitch, a ball of similar usage and condition will be used as a replacement: e.g. a ball about 30 overs old will be replaced by a ball about the same age.


title: Cricket ball

text: Despite these rules, it can be tempting for players to gain an advantage by breaking them. There have been a handful of incidents of so-called ball tampering at the highest levels of cricket.


title: Cricket ball

text: A new cricket ball is harder than a worn one and is preferred by fast bowlers because of the pace and bounce of the ball off the pitch as well as the seam movement. Older balls tend to spin more as the roughness grips the pitch more when the ball bounces, so spin bowlers prefer to use a worn ball, though a ball of about 8–10 overs old is still useful to a spinner as it can get more drift in the air. Uneven wear on older balls may also make reverse swing possible. A captain may delay the request for a new ball if they prefer to have spin bowlers operating but usually asks for the new ball soon after it becomes available.


title: Cricket ball

text: Cricket balls are hard and potentially lethal, so most of today's batsmen and close fielders often wear protective equipment. Cricket ball injuries are fairly frequent, including eye (with some players having lost eyes), head and face, finger and toe, teeth and testicular injuries.


title: Cricket ball

text: Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707–1751) is often said to have died of complications after being hit by a cricket ball, although the connection between the incident and his actual cause of death is unproven. Glamorgan player Roger Davis was seriously injured by a ball in 1971 when he was hit on the head while fielding. The Indian batsman Nariman 'Nari' Contractor had to retire from the game after being hit on the head by a ball in the West Indies in 1962.


title: Cricket ball

text: In 1998, Indian cricketer Raman Lamba died when a cricket ball hit his head in a club match in Dhaka. Lamba was fielding at forward short leg without a helmet when a ball struck by batsman Mehrab Hossain hit him hard on the head and rebounded to wicket-keeper Khaled Mashud.


title: Cricket ball

text: A cricket umpire, Alcwyn Jenkins, died in 2009 in Swansea, Wales after being hit on the head by a ball thrown by a fielder.


title: Cricket ball

text: On 27 October 2013, South African cricketer Darryn Randall died after being hit on the head by the ball while batting. He collapsed immediately and was rushed to the Alice Hospital, but the medical staff could not revive him.


title: Cricket ball

text: In November 2014, Australia and South Australia batsman Phillip Hughes died at the age of 25 at a Sydney hospital after he was hit on the side of the neck by a bouncer bowled by Sean Abbott during a Sheffield Shield game. The same week, Hillel Oscar, an umpire and former captain of Israel's national cricket team, died after being hit in the neck by a ball.


title: Cricket ball

text: On 14 August 2017, Zubair Ahmed died after being hit on the head while batting in a club match played in the Mardan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.


title: Cricket ball

text: Sometimes alternatives to a real cricket ball may be preferred for reasons of safety, availability and cost. Examples include a tennis ball and a plastic version of the cricket ball.


title: Cricket ball

text: Many casual players use a tennis ball wrapped in layers of some type of adhesive tape (often electrical tape), which makes the relatively soft tennis ball harder and smoother. This is commonly referred to as a tape ball. A common variant is to tape only half the tennis ball, to provide two different sides and make it easy to bowl with prodigious amounts of swing.


title: Cricket ball

text: Younger players often use either tennis balls or an air-filled plastic 'windball' for safety reasons before using the 'hard' cricket ball after a certain age: windball cricket is also a popular sport in its own right. They might also use an 'IncrediBall' or an 'Aeroball' whilst making the step between windballs and 'hard' cricket balls. These balls are designed to mimic the feel, speed and bounce of a regular hard ball, but soften when coming in contact with objects at high speed, reducing the risk of injury.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: Of Mice and Men is a 1992 American period drama film based on John Steinbeck's 1937 novella of the same name. Directed and produced by Gary Sinise, the film features Sinise as George Milton, alongside John Malkovich as Lennie Small, with Casey Siemaszko as Curley, John Terry as Slim, Ray Walston as Candy, Joe Morton as Crooks, and Sherilyn Fenn as Curley's wife.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: Horton Foote adapted the story for film. Its plot centers on George and the intellectually disabled Lennie, two farm workers who travel together and dream of one day owning their own land. The film explores themes of discrimination, loneliness, and the American Dream, as well as the desire for a place to call home.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: "Of Mice and Men" took part in the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, where Sinise was nominated for the Palme d'Or award, given to the director of the best-featured film. After the film debuted in the United States on October 2, 1992, it received acclaim from critics.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: During the Great Depression, quick-witted George Milton and physically strong but mentally disabled Lennie Small are fleeing their previous employment, where Lennie was accused of attempted rape after he held on to a young woman, prompted by his love of stroking soft things. They travel to work on Tyler ranch near Soledad.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: George reluctantly agrees to tell Lennie again about their dream, describing how they will one day have their own piece of land where Lennie will tend their rabbits. George says if Lennie should ever get in trouble, he is to hide in the brush and wait for him. At Tyler Ranch, the Boss is suspicious of Lennie's mental condition. George lies to the boss saying Lennie is his cousin and was kicked in the head by a horse when he was a child. They befriend old one-handed ranch-hand Candy, but dislike the Boss' son, Curley, who hates people bigger than him. Curley's attractive wife flirts with Lennie and George, and George instructs Lennie to avoid her.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: George meets their work team, respected head man Slim, and Carlson, who suggests they shoot Candy's sick old dog and get one of his pups. Lennie excitedly asks George for a pup. After a hard day, George is proud of Lennie's work and gets him his puppy. Candy offers to pitch in with Lennie and George to buy their farm. Just as it seems their dream is moving closer to fruition, Curley accuses Slim of keeping his wife company. Curley viciously attacks Lennie for laughing, yelling at him to fight back. Prompted by George, Lennie crushes Curley's hand. George fears for their jobs, but Slim gives Curley an ultimatum: if Curley tries to get George and Lennie fired, Slim will humiliate Curley by telling everyone how Curley's hand really got crushed. Concerned for his reputation, Curley reluctantly agrees to say his hand got caught in a machine.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: Lennie talks about being lonely, and Curley's wife attempts to engage him in conversation. Frustrated, she runs to the house in tears vowing to leave the ranch forever. In the barn that evening, Lennie has accidentally killed his puppy and is greatly upset. Curley's wife enters and admits her loneliness, confiding that her dreams of being a movie star were crushed. Learning of Lennie's love of petting soft things, she lets him stroke her hair. She soon complains and then screams that he is pulling too hard. Trying to keep her quiet, Lennie accidentally breaks her neck. He runs to hide in the brush as George told him to do. Candy finds Curley's wife dead and informs George. Curley leads a lynch mob but George finds Lennie first and calms him by retelling their dream. As George gets to the part where Lennie tends the rabbits, he shoots Lennie in the back of the head, sparing him from a cruel death at the hands of the mob.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: The scene returns to George in the boxcar, heading South, sadly remembering his times working with Lennie.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: The first experience Sinise had with Steinbeck's work came when Sinise attended Highland Park High School. His drama class went to Guthrie Theater and observed three plays in two days, one being "Of Mice and Men". After viewing the play, he "stood up and applauded" and "was trying to scream some sort of acknowledgement of my feelings ... but I was so choked up nothing came out except tears." He credits the play with "[introducing] me to literature".


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: Through the story of George and Lennie and their pursuit of a place to call home Steinbeck highlights that sometimes as stated by Charlotte Cook Hadella in her "Of Mice and Men: A Kinship of Powerlessness" "real life is more complex than “life” as depicted in realistic art." This is shown in George and Lennie's pursuit of the American dream, which to them meant purchasing their own farm so they would finally have a place to call their own. What follows is a tragic tale of how life can be more unpredictable and tragic than any film or novel ever devised.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: The Great Depression was a period within the 1930s that reflected a great growth between the wealth-gap in America, Steinbeck worked as a laborer during the 1920s which exposed him to the lives of many migrant workers and their stories off hardship, many of his early works reflect these experiences such as stated by Charlotte Cook Hadella in her "Of Mice and Men: A Kinship of Powerlessness" "One of his earliest published stories, “Fingers of Cloud” (1924), takes place in the bunkhouse of a Filipino work gang. Tortilla Flat (1935), his first commercial success, details the lives of the paisanos, people of Spanish-Mexican descent who lived in the hills above Monterey. Juan Chicoy, a Mexican Indian, is the central character in The Wayward Bus (1947). Given the multiracial configuration of the California labor force in the early decades of the twentieth century, we may conclude that in Of Mice and Men, where the laborers are white Americans, Steinbeck did not intend to draw an accurate sociohistorical picture. Still, the subsistence-level economy, the tensions between workers and owners, and the social marginality of the migrant workers in the novella ring true to the historical details of the actual setting."


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: While the film and book tell the same story, there are some creative liberties taken within the film, such as the scene that depicts Lennie killing the puppy. In the book Lennie feels remorse for what he had done, while in the film he simply paces around while holding the puppy. This shows how the book depicts Lennie in a much more sympathetic fashion compared to the film. Another difference between the film and the book is the important scene depicting George shooting Lennie, within the movie George shoots Lennie very quickly with little to no hesitation. In the book George hesitates to shoot Lennie which shows how he is depicted as a more sympathetic character within the book. Another difference is the depiction of the character of Curley's wife, in the book she is depicted as flirtatious and cruel and when she dies she is painted as less of a victim than in the movie where she is depicted as more bland/bored and therefore painted as more of a victim.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: On April 16, 1992, Gilles Jacob, director of the Cannes Film Festival, announced the 27 films competing in the "Official Competition" category, including "Of Mice and Men". The film premiered the next month, and was Sinise's second film to compete at Cannes, after the 1988 feature "Miles from Home". After viewing "Of Mice and Men", critic Don Marshall noted how the audience gave a standing ovation to its cast. Marshall said he was "surprised" that the film did not win an award, although Sinise was nominated for the Palme d'Or, given to the director of the best featured film.


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: The film made its American debut on October 2, 1992, and grossed $5,471,088 from a total of 398 theaters. Despite what the "Los Angeles Daily News" described as a "poor box office performance", the film received positive critical acclaim. Critic Roger Ebert complimented the cast on their attention to detail. Writing for "Variety", Todd McCarthy was impressed at the set design, and contrasted the film's "lovely, burnished hues" with the studio-produced 1939 film. He went on to say that the actors' performances were "sterling" and gave the supporting cast positive reception. Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" also praised the physical production and supporting cast, but added that the film "is not very exciting", possibly because "looking back at Lennie and George with the perspective of time robs them of their urgency." "The Austin Chronicle" Steve Davis called "Of Mice and Men" "unassuming but well-made".


title: Of Mice and Men (1992 film)

text: MGM released "Of Mice and Men" on VHS in 1993 and on Video CD in 1995. The film was later released as a DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on March 4, 2003. The DVD is featured in widescreen with English, French, and Spanish subtitles, and has the option of French dubbing. The film was then released on Blu-ray by Olive Films on January 19, 2016.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol, sold under the brand name Soma among others, is a medication used for musculoskeletal pain. Use is only approved for up to three weeks. Effects generally begin within half an hour and last for up to six hours. It is taken orally.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Common side effects include headache, dizziness, and sleepiness. Serious side effect may include addiction, allergic reactions, and seizures. In people with a sulfa allergy certain formulations may result in problems. Safety during pregnancy and breastfeeding is not clear. How it works is not clear. Some of its effects are believed to occur following being converted into meprobamate.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol was approved for medical use in the United States in 1959. Its approval in the European Union was withdrawn in 2008. It is available as a generic medication. In 2019, it was the 343rd most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 800thousand prescriptions. In the United States, it is a Schedule IV controlled substance.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol is meant to be used along with rest, physical therapy and other measures to relax muscles after strains, sprains and muscle injuries. It comes in tablet format and is taken by the mouth three times a day and before bed.


title: Carisoprodol

text: The usual dose of 350 mg is unlikely to engender prominent side effects other than somnolence, and mild to significant euphoria or dysphoria, but the euphoria is generally short-lived due to the fast metabolism of carisoprodol into meprobamate and other metabolites; the euphoria derived is, according to new research, most likely due to carisoprodol's inherent, potent anxiolytic effects that are far stronger than those produced by its primary metabolite, meprobamate, which is often misblamed for the drug-seeking associated with carisoprodol, as carisoprodol itself is responsible for the significantly more intense central nervous system effects than meprobamate alone. Carisoprodol has a qualitatively different set of effects to that of meprobamate (Miltown). The medication is well tolerated and without adverse effects in the majority of patients for whom it is indicated. In some patients, however, and/or early in therapy, carisoprodol can have the full spectrum of sedative side effects and can impair the patient's ability to operate a firearm, motor vehicles, and other machinery of various types, especially when taken with medications containing alcohol, in which case an alternative medication would be considered. The intensity of the side effects of carisoprodol tends to lessen as therapy continues, as is the case with many other drugs. Other side effects include: dizziness, clumsiness, headache, fast heart rate, upset stomach, vomiting and skin rash.


title: Carisoprodol

text: The interaction of carisoprodol with essentially all opioids, and other centrally acting analgesics, but especially codeine, those of the codeine-derived subgroup of the semisynthetic class (ethylmorphine, dihydrocodeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, nicocodeine, benzylmorphine, the various acetylated codeine derivatives including acetyldihydrocodeine, dihydroisocodeine, nicodicodeine and others) which allows the use of a smaller dose of the opioid to have a given effect, is useful in general and especially where skeletal muscle injury and/or spasm is a large part of the problem. The potentiation effect is also useful in other pain situations and is also especially useful with opioids of the open-chain class, such as methadone, levomethadone, ketobemidone, phenadoxone and others. In recreational drug users, deaths have resulted from combining doses of hydrocodone and carisoprodol. Another danger of misuse of carisoprodol and opiates is the potential to aspirate while unconscious.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Meprobamate and other muscle-relaxing drugs often were subjects of misuse in the 1950s and 60s. Overdose cases were reported as early as 1957, and have been reported on several occasions since then.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol is metabolized by the liver and excreted by the kidneys so this drug must be used with caution with patients that have impaired hepatic or renal function. Because of potential for more severe side effects, this drug is on the list to avoid for elderly people.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol, meprobamate, and related drugs such as tybamate, have the potential to produce physical dependence of the barbiturate type following periods of prolonged use. Withdrawal of the drug after extensive use may require hospitalization in medically compromised patients. In severe cases the withdrawal can mimic the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal including the potentially lethal status epilepticus.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Psychological dependence has also been linked to carisoprodol use although this is much less severe than with meprobamate itself (presumably due to the slower onset of effects). Psychological dependence is more common in those who use carisoprodol non-medically and those who have a history of substance use (particularly sedatives or alcohol). It may reach clinical significance before physiological tolerance and dependence have occurred and (as with benzodiazepines) has been demonstrated to persist to varying degrees of severity for months or years after discontinuation.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Discontinuation of carisoprodol, as with all GABA-ergics, can result in cognitive changes which persist for weeks, months, or rarely even years including greatly increased anxiety and depression, social withdrawal, hair-trigger agitation/aggression, chronic insomnia, new or aggravated (often illogical) phobias, reduced IQ, short term and long-term memory loss, and dozens of other sequelae. The effects, severity, and duration appear to be slightly dose-dependent but are mainly determined by the patients pattern of use (taken as prescribed, taken in bulk doses, mixed with other drugs, a combination of the above, etc.), genetic predisposition to substance use, and a history of substance use all increase the patients risk of persistent discontinuation syndrome symptoms.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Treatment for physical withdrawal generally involves switching the patient to a long-acting benzodiazepine such as diazepam or clonazepam then slowly titrating them off the replacement drug completely at a rate which is both reasonably comfortable for the patient but rapid enough for the managing physician to consider the rate of progress acceptable (overly rapid dose reduction greatly increases the risk of patient non-compliance such as the use of illicitly obtained alternative sedatives and/or alcohol). Psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy have demonstrated moderate success in reducing the rebound anxiety which results upon carisoprodol discontinuation but only when combined with regular and active attendance to a substance use support group.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol withdrawal can be life-threatening (especially in high dose users and those who attempt to quit "cold turkey"). Medical supervision is recommended, with gradual reduction of dose of carisoprodol or a substituted medication, typical of other depressant drugs.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Combining a muscle relaxant like carisoprodol with opioids and benzodiazepines is referred to as "The Holy Trinity" as it has been reported to increase the power of the "high".


title: Carisoprodol

text: Recreational users of carisoprodol usually seek its potentially heavy sedating, relaxant, and anxiolytic effects. Also, because of its potentiating effects on narcotics, it is often used in conjunction with many opioid drugs. Also it is not detected on standard drug testing screens. On 26 March 2010 the DEA issued a Notice of Hearing on proposed rule making in respect to the placement of carisoprodol in schedule IV of the Controlled Substances Act. The DEA ended up classifying it under schedule IV. Carisoprodol is sometimes mixed with date rape drugs.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Many overdoses have resulted from recreational users combining these drugs to combine their individual effects without being aware of the enzyme-induction induced potentiation.


title: Carisoprodol

text: As with other GABAergic drugs, combination with other GABAergic drugs, including alcohol, as well as with sedatives in general, possess a significant risk to the user in the form of overdose. Overdose symptoms are similar to those of other GABAergics including excessive sedation and unresponsiveness to stimuli, severe ataxia, amnesia, confusion, agitation, intoxication and inappropriate (potentially violent) behavior. Severe overdoses may present with respiratory depression (and subsequent pulmonary aspiration), coma, and death.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol is not detected on all toxicology tests which may delay diagnosis of overdose. Overdose symptoms in combination with opiates are similar but are distinguished by the presentation of normal or pinpoint pupils, which are generally unresponsive to light. Carisoprodol (as with its metabolite meprobamate) is particularly dangerous in combination with alcohol. Flumazenil (the benzodiazepine antidote) is not effective in the management of carisoprodol overdose as carisoprodol acts at the barbiturate binding site. Treatment mirrors that of barbiturate overdoses and is generally supportive, including the administration of mechanical respiration and pressors as implicated (and in rare cases, bemegride). Total amnesia of the experience is not uncommon following recovery.


title: Carisoprodol

text: In 2014 actress Skye McCole Bartusiak died of an overdose due to the combined effects of carisoprodol, hydrocodone and difluoroethane.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol, has a chemical structure similar to Glutamate, a neurotransmitter, and dimethylglycine. Upon analysis, this pharmacological agent seems to be an agonist of the NMDA receptor, with an unknown [Km].


title: Carisoprodol

text: Because excess Glutamate causes excitotoxicity and neuronal apoptosis, Carisoprodol overdose may also lead to NMDA related toxicity, thus inducing seizures at high doses, and muscle relaxation upon administration.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol's structural similarity to Meprobamate indicates GABAergic activity, including GABA A agonism, similar to the mechanism of benzodiazepines.


title: Carisoprodol

text: This will allow for further muscle relaxation and anxiety reduction. Therefore, Carisoprodol, at low to moderate dosages, may be clinically indicated for absent seizures, yet exacerbate Tonic-clonic seizures.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol has a rapid, 30-minute onset of action, with the aforementioned effects lasting about two to six hours. It is metabolized in the liver via the cytochrome P450 oxidase isozyme CYP2C19, excreted by the kidneys and has about an eight-hour half-life. In patients with low levels of CYP2C19 (poor metabolizers), standard doses can lead to increased concentrations of carisoprodol (up-to a four-fold increase). A considerable proportion of carisoprodol is metabolized to meprobamate, which is a known addictive substance; this could account for the addictive potential of carisoprodol (meprobamate levels reach higher peak plasma levels than carisoprodol itself following administration). As mentioned above, carisoprodol appears to have strong anxiolytic effects on its own; however, a large part of its effects also come from the fact that it is metabolized into meprobamate: at least a 25% of the carisoprodol administered will be transformed into meprobamate which means that meprobamate is 3.25× stronger than carisoprodol (although this rate varies from person to person according to their levels of CYP2C19 enzymes in their livers with some people having considerably higher levels) or, in other words, 200 mg of meprobamate (which is the lowest standard dose) is equivalent to 650 mg of carisoprodol. As such, meprobamate is believed to play a significant role in the effects of carisoprodol and meprobamate's long half-life results in bioaccumulation following extended periods of carisoprodol administration.


title: Carisoprodol

text: It is slightly soluble in water and freely soluble in ethanol, chloroform and acetone. The drug's solubility is practically independent of pH.


title: Carisoprodol

text: On 1 June 1959, several American pharmacologists convened at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan to discuss a newly discovered structural analogue of meprobamate. The substitution of one hydrogen atom with an isopropyl group on one of the carbamyl nitrogens was intended to yield a drug with new pharmacological properties. It had been developed by Frank Berger at Wallace Laboratories and was named carisoprodol.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Building on meprobamate's pharmacological effects, carisoprodol was intended to have better muscle relaxing properties, less potential for addiction, and a lower risk of overdose. Carisoprodol's effect profile did indeed turn out to differ significantly with respect to meprobamate, with carisoprodol possessing stronger muscle relaxant and analgesic effects.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Reports from Norway have shown carisoprodol has addictive potential as a prodrug of meprobamate and/or potentiator of hydrocodone, oxycodone, codeine, and similar drugs. In May 2008 it was taken off the market in Norway.


title: Carisoprodol

text: In the EU, the European Medicines Agency issued a release recommending member states suspend marketing authorization for this product in the treatment of acute (not chronic) back pain.


title: Carisoprodol

text: As of November 2007, carisoprodol has been taken off the market in Sweden due to problems with dependence and side effects. The agency overseeing pharmaceuticals considered other drugs used with the same indications as carisoprodol to have the same or better effects without the risks of the drug.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Until 12 December 2011, when the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued the final ruling placing the substance carisoprodol into Schedule IV of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), carisoprodol was not a controlled substance. The placement of carisoprodol into Schedule IV was effective 11 January 2012.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Carisoprodol is available generically as 350 mg and, more recently, 250 mg tablets. Compounded tablets with acetaminophen and codeine are also available.


title: Carisoprodol

text: Federally, carisoprodol is a prescription drug (Schedule I, sub-schedule F1). Provincial regulations vary. It is no longer readily available.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad ( ), also spelled Mashad, is the second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province and has a population of 3,001,184 (2016 census), which includes the areas of Mashhad Taman and Torqabeh.


title: Mashhad

text: The city has been governed by different ethnic groups over the course of its history. Mashhad was once a major oasis along the ancient Silk Road connecting with Merv to the east. It enjoyed relative prosperity in the Mongol period. The city is named after the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam, who was buried in a village in Khorasan which afterward gained the name, meaning the "place of martyrdom". Every year, millions of pilgrims visit the Imam Reza shrine. The Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid is also buried within the same shrine.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad is also known colloquially as the city of Ferdowsi, after the Iranian poet who composed the "Shahnameh". The city is the hometown of some of the most significant Iranian literary figures and artists, such as the poet Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, and Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, the traditional Iranian singer and composer. Ferdowsi and Akhavan-Sales are both buried in Tus, an ancient city that is considered to be the main origin of the current city of Mashhad. On 30 October 2009 (the anniversary of Imam Reza's martyrdom), Iran's then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Mashhad to be "Iran's spiritual capital".


title: Mashhad

text: Ancient Greek sources mention the passage and residence of Alexander the Great in this land, which was called "Susia" (), in 330 BC. The map of Tabula Peutingeriana, which dates back to the early Roman era, names this city on the west of Merv, Alexandria, instead of Susia. Pliny the Elder, says there is a city in the middle of Parthia, near Arsace and Nisiaea, called "Alexandropolis" after its founder. Many Muslim historians, from the 10th to the 16th century AD, attribute the founding of "Sanaabad" (the old name of the city) to Alexander. Also in the Shia hadith sources, which the narrators connect to the 7th to 9th centuries AD, there are quotations that Imam Ridha and Harun al-Rashid are buried in a city founded by "The righteous servant, The two-horned one", which title that known for Alexander the Great.


title: Mashhad

text: The older name of Mashhad is Sanaabad (سناباد). It was eventually renamed to Mashhad during the Safavid Empire. The name Mashhad comes from Arabic, meaning a martyrium. It is also known as the place where Ali ar-Ridha (Persian, Imam Reza), the eighth Imam of Shia Muslims, died (according to the Shias, was martyred). Reza's shrine was placed there.


title: Mashhad

text: The ancient Parthian city of Patigrabanâ, mentioned in the Behistun inscription (520 BCE) of the Achaemenid Emperor Darius I, may have been located at the present-day Mashhad.


title: Mashhad

text: At the beginning of the 9th century (3rd century AH), Mashhad was a small city called Sanabad, which was situated away from Tus. There was a summer palace of Humayd ibn Qahtaba, the governor of Khurasan. In 808, when Harun al-Rashid, Abbasid caliph, was passing through to quell the insurrection of Rafi ibn al-Layth in Transoxania, he became ill and died. He was buried under the palace of Humayd ibn Qahtaba. Thus the Dar al-Imarah was known as the Mausoleum of Haruniyyeh. In 818, Ali al-Ridha was martyred by al-Ma'mun and was buried beside the grave of Harun.


title: Mashhad

text: Although Mashhad owns the cultural heritage of Tus (including its figures like Nizam al-Mulk, Al-Ghazali, Ahmad Ghazali, Ferdowsi, Asadi Tusi, and Shaykh Tusi), earlier Arab geographers have correctly identified Mashhad and Tus as two separate cities that are now located about from each other.


title: Mashhad

text: Although some believe that after this event, the city was called Mashhad al-Ridha (the place of martyrdom of al-Ridha), it seems that Mashhad, as a place-name, first appears in al-Maqdisi, i.e., in the last third of the 10th century. About the middle of the 14th century, the traveller Ibn Battuta uses the expression "town of Mashhad al-Rida". Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the name Nuqan, which is still found on coins in the first half of the 14th century under the Il-Khanids, seems to have been gradually replaced by al-Mashhad or Mashhad.


title: Mashhad

text: Shias began to make pilgrimages to his grave. By the end of the 9th century, a dome was built above the grave, and many other buildings and bazaars sprang up around it. Over the course of more than a millennium, it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. In 1161, however, the Seljuks seized the city, but they spared the sacred area their pillaging. Mashad al-Ridha was not considered a "great" city until Mongol raids in 1220, which caused the destruction of many large cities in Khurasan but leaving Mashhad relatively intact in the hands of Mongolian commanders because of the cemetery of Ali Al-Rezza and Harun al-Rashid (the latter was stolen). Thus the survivors of the massacres migrated to Mashhad. When the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta visited the town in 1333, he reported that it was a large town with abundant fruit trees, streams and mills. A great dome of elegant construction surmounts the noble mausoleum, the walls being decorated with colored tiles.


title: Mashhad

text: The most well-known dish cooked in Mashhad, "sholeh Mashhadi" (شله مشهدی) or "Sholeh", dates back to the era of the Mongolian invasion when it is thought to be cooked with any food available (the main ingredients are meat, grains and abundant spices) and be a Mongolian word.


title: Mashhad

text: It seems that the importance of Sanabad-Mashhad continually increased with the growing fame of its sanctuary and the decline of Tus, which received its death-blow in 1389 from Miran Shah, a son of Timur. When the Mongol noble who governed the place rebelled and attempted to make himself independent, Miran Shah was sent against him by his father. Tus was stormed after a siege of several months, sacked and left a heap of ruins; 10,000 inhabitants were massacred. Those who escaped the holocaust settled in the shelter of the 'Alid sanctuary. Tus was henceforth abandoned and Mashhad took its place as the capital of the district.


title: Mashhad

text: Later on, during the reign of the Timurid Shahrukh Mirza, Mashhad became one of the main cities of the realm. In 1418, his wife Goharshad funded the construction of an outstanding mosque beside the shrine, which is known as the Goharshad Mosque. The mosque remains relatively intact to this date, its great size an indicator to the status the city held in the 15th century.


title: Mashhad

text: Shah Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty, conquered Mashhad after the death of Husayn Bayqarah and the decline of the Timurid dynasty. He was later captured by the Uzbeks during the reign of Shah Abbas I. In the 16th century the town suffered considerably from the repeated raids of the Özbegs (Uzbeks). In 1507, it was taken by the troops of the Shaybani or Shabani Khan. After two decades, Shah Tahmasp I succeeded in repelling the enemy from the town again in 1528. But in 1544, the Özbegs again succeeded in entering the town and plundering and murdering there. The year 1589 was a disastrous one for Mashhad. The Shaybanid 'Abd al-Mu'min after a four months' siege forced the town to surrender. Shah Abbas I, who lived in Mashhad from 1585 until his official ascent of the throne in Qazwin in 1587, was not able to retake Mashhad from the Özbegs until 1598. Mashhad was retaken by the Shah Abbas after a long and hard struggle, defeating the Uzbeks in a great battle near Herat as well as managing to drive them beyond the Oxus River. Shah Abbas I wanted to encourage Iranians to go to Mashhad for pilgrimage. He is said to have walked from Isfahan to Mashhad. During the Safavid era, Mashhad gained even more religious recognition, becoming the most important city of Greater Khorasan, as several madrasah and other structures were built beside the Imam Reza shrine. Besides its religious significance, Mashhad has played an important political role as well. The Safavid dynasty has been criticized in a book (Red Shi'sm vs. Black Shi'ism) on the perceived dual aspects of the Shi'a religion throughout history) as a period in which although the dynasty didn't form the idea of Black Shi'ism, but this idea was formed after the defeat of Shah Ismail against the Ottoman leader Sultan Yavuz Selim. Black Shi'ism is a product of the post-Safavid period.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashad saw its greatest glory under Nader Shah, ruler of Iran from 1736 to 1747, and also a great benefactor of the shrine of Imam Reza, who made the city his capital. Nearly the whole eastern part of the kingdom of Nadir Shah passed to foreign rulers in this period of Persian impotence under the rule of the vigorous Ahmad Shah Durrani of the Afghan Durrani Empire. Ahmad defeated the Persians and took Mashhad after an eight-month siege in 1753. Ahmad Shah and his successor Timur Shah left Shah Rukh in possession of Khurasan as their vassal, making Khurasan a kind of buffer state between them and Persia. As the city's real rulers, however, both these Durrani rulers struck coins in Mashhad. Otherwise, the reign of the blind Shah Rukh, which with repeated short interruptions lasted for nearly half a century, passed without any events of special note. It was only after the death of Timur Shah (1792) that Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, the founder of the Qajar dynasty, succeeded in taking Shah Rukh's domains and putting him to death in 1795, thus ending the separation of Khurasan from the rest of Persia.


title: Mashhad

text: Some believe that Mashhad was ruled by Shahrukh Afshar and remained the capital of the Afsharid dynasty during Zand dynasty until Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar conquered the then larger region of Khorasan in 1796.


title: Mashhad

text: In 1911 Yusuf Khan of Herat was declared independent in Mashhad as Muhammad Ali Shah and brought together a large group of reactionaries opposed to the revolution, and keep stirring for some time. This gave Russia the excuse to intervene and 29 March 1912 bombed the city; this bombing killed several people and pilgrims; action against a Muslim shrine caused a great shock to all Islamic countries. On 29 March 1912, the sanctuary of Imam Reza was bombed by the Russian artillery fire, causing some damage, including to the golden dome, resulting in a widespread and persisting resentment in the Shiite Muslim world as well as British India. This bombing was orchestrated by Prince Aristid Mikhailovich Dabizha (a Moldovan who was the Russian Consul in Mashhad) and General Radko (a Bulgarian who was commander of the Russian Cossacks in the city). Yusuf Khan ended up captured by the Persians and was executed.


title: Mashhad

text: The modern development of the city accelerated under Reza Shah (1925-1941). Shah Reza Hospital (currently Imam Reza Hospital, affiliated with the Basij organization) was founded in 1934; the sugar factory of Abkuh in 1935; and the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 1939. The city's first power station was installed in 1936, and in 1939, the first urban transport service began with two buses. In this year the first population census was performed, with a result of 76,471 inhabitants.


title: Mashhad

text: In 1935, a backlash against the modernizing, anti-religious policies of Reza Shah erupted in the Mashhad shrine. Responding to a cleric who denounced the Shah's heretical innovations, corruption, and heavy consumer taxes, many bazaars and villagers took refuge in the shrine, chanted slogans such as "The Shah is a new Yazid." For four days local police and army refused to violate the shrine and the standoff was ended when troops from Azerbaijan arrived and broke into the shrine, killing dozens and injuring hundreds, and marking a final rupture between Shi'ite clergy and the Shah. According to some Mashhadi historians, the Goharshad Mosque uprising, which took place in 1935, is an uprising against Reza Shah's decree banning all veils (headscarf and chador) on 8 January 1936.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad experienced population growth after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941 because of relative insecurity in rural areas, the 1948 drought, and the establishment of Mashhad University in 1949. At the same time, public transport vehicles increased to 77 buses and 200 taxis and the railway link with the capital, Tehran, was established in 1957. The 1956 census reflected a population of 241,989 people. The increase in population continued in the following years thanks to the increase in Iranian oil revenues, the decline of the feudal social model, the agrarian reform of 1963, the founding of the city's airport, the creation of new factories and the development of the health system. In 1966, the population reached 409,616 inhabitants, and 667,770 in 1976. The extension of the city was expanded from .


title: Mashhad

text: In 1965 an important urban renewal development project for the surroundings of the shrine of Imam Reza was proposed by the Iranian architect and urban designer Dariush Borbor to replace the dilapidated slum conditions which surrounded the historic monuments. The project was officially approved in 1968. In 1977 the surrounding areas were demolished to make way for the implementation of this project. To relocate the demolished businesses, a new bazaar was designed and constructed in Meydan-e Ab square (in Persian, "میدان آب") by Dariush Borbor. After the revolution, the urban renewal project was abandoned.


title: Mashhad

text: On 20 June 1994, a bomb exploded in a prayer hall of the shrine of the Imam Reza. The bomb that killed at least 25 people on 20 June in Mashhad exploded on Ashura. The Baloch terrorist, Ramzi Yousef, a Sunni Muslim turned Wahhabi, one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was found to be behind the plot.


title: Mashhad

text: The city is located at 36.20º North latitude and 59.35º East longitude, in the valley of the Kashafrud River near Turkmenistan, between the two mountain ranges of Binalood and Hezar Masjed Mountains. The city benefits from the proximity of the mountains, having cool winters, pleasant springs, and mild summers. It is only about from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.


title: Mashhad

text: The city is the administrative center of Mashhad County (or the "Shahrestan" of Mashhad) as well as the somewhat smaller district ("Bakhsh") of Mashhad. The city itself, excluding parts of the surrounding "Bakhsh" and "Shahrestan", is divided into 13 smaller administrative units, with a total population of more than 3 million.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad features a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSk") with hot summers and cold winters. The city only sees about of precipitation per year, some of which occasionally falls in the form of snow. Mashhad also has wetter and drier periods with the bulk of the annual precipitation falling between the months of December and May. Summers are typically hot and dry, with high temperatures sometimes exceeding . Winters are typically cool to cold and somewhat damper, with overnight lows routinely dropping below freezing. Mashhad enjoys on average just above 2900 hours of sunshine per year.


title: Mashhad

text: The highest recorded temperature was on 6 July 1998 and the lowest recorded temperature was on 3 February 1972.


title: Mashhad

text: The vast majority of Mashhadi people are ethnic Persians, who form the majority of the city's population. Other ethnic groups include Kurdish and Turkmen people who have emigrated recently to the city from the North Khorasan province. There is also a significant community of non-Arabic speakers of Arabian descent who have retained a distinct Arabian culture, cuisine and religious practices.


title: Mashhad

text: Today, the holy shrine and its museum hold one of the most extensive cultural and artistic treasuries of Iran, in particular manuscript books and paintings. Several important theological schools are associated with the shrine of the Eighth Imam.


title: Mashhad

text: The second-largest holy city in the world, Mashhad attracts more than 20 million tourists and pilgrims every year, many of whom come to pay homage to the Imam Reza shrine (the eighth Shi'ite Imam). It has been a magnet for travellers since medieval times. Thus, even as those who complete the pilgrimage to Mecca receive the title of "Haji", those who make the pilgrimage to Mashhad—and especially to the Imam Reza shrine—are known as "Mashtee", a term employed also of its inhabitants.


title: Mashhad

text: As an important problem, the duration when new passengers stay in Mashhad has been considerably reduced to 2 days nowadays and they prefer to finish their trip immediately after doing pilgrimage and shopping in the markets. There are about 3000–5000 unauthorized residential units in Mashhad, which, as a unique statistic worldwide, has caused various problems in the city.


title: Mashhad

text: Although mainly inhabited by Muslims, there were in the past some religious minorities in Mashhad, mainly Jews who were forcibly converted to Islam in 1839 after the Allahdad incident took place for Mashhadi Jews in 1839. They became known as Jadid al-Islam ("Newcomers in Islam"). On the outside, they adapted to the Islamic way of life, but often secretly kept their faith and traditions.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad is Iran's second largest automobile production hub. The city's economy is based mainly on dry fruits, salted nuts, saffron, Iranian sweets like gaz and sohaan, precious stones like agates, turquoise, intricately designed silver jewelry studded with rubies and emeralds, eighteen carat gold jewelry, perfumes, religious souvenirs, trench coats, scarves, termeh, carpets, and rugs.


title: Mashhad

text: According to the writings and documents, the oldest existing carpet attributed to the city belongs to the reign of Shah Abbas (Abbas I of Persia). Also, there is a type of carpet, classified as Mashhad Turkbâf, which, as its name suggests, is woven by hand with Turkish knots by craftsmen who emigrated from Tabriz to Mashhad in the nineteenth century.


title: Mashhad

text: Among other major industries in the city are the nutrition, clothing, leather, textiles, chemical, steel, metallic, and non-metallic mineral industries, construction materials factories, & the handicraft industry.


title: Mashhad

text: With more than 55% of all the hotels in Iran, Mashhad is the hub of tourism in the country. Religious shrines are the most powerful attractions for foreign travelers; every year, 20 to 30 million pilgrims from Iran and more than 2 million pilgrims and tourists from elsewhere around the world come to Mashhad.


title: Mashhad

text: Unemployment, poverty, drug addiction, theft, and sexual exploitation are the most important social problems of the city.


title: Mashhad

text: The divorce rate in Mashhad had increased by 35 percent by 2014. Khorasan and Mashhad ranked the second in violence across the country in 2013.


title: Mashhad

text: At the same time, the city has kept its character as a goal of pilgrimage, dominated by the strength of the economic and political authority of the Astan Quds Razavi, the administration of the Shrine waqf, probably the most important in the Muslim world and the largest active bonyad in Iran. The Astan Quds Razavi is a major player in the economy of the city of Mashhad. The land occupied by the shrine has grown fourfold since 1979 according to the head of the foundation's international relations department. The Shrine of Imam Reza is vaster than Vatican City.


title: Mashhad

text: The foundation owns most of the real estate in Mashhad and rents out shop space to bazaaris and hoteliers. The main resource of the institution is endowments, estimated to have annual revenue of $210 billion. Ahmad Marvi is the current Custodian of Astan Quds Razavi.


title: Mashhad

text: Padideh Shandiz International Tourism Development Company, an Iranian private joint-stock holding company, behaves like a public company by selling stocks despite being a joint-stock in the field of restaurants, tourism and construction, with a football club (Padideh F.C.; formerly named Azadegan League club Mes Sarcheshmeh). In January 2015, the company was accused of a "fraud" worth $34.3 billion, which is one eighth of Iran budget.


title: Mashhad

text: Several credit institutions have been established in Mashhad, including Samenolhojaj (), Samenola'emmeh () and Melal (formerly Askariye, ). The depositors of the first institution have faced problem in receiving cash from the institution.


title: Mashhad

text: The city's International Exhibition Center is the second most active exhibition center after Tehran, which due to proximity to Central Asian countries hosts dozens of international exhibitions each year. Companies such as Smart-innovators in Mashhad are pioneers in electrical and computer technology.


title: Mashhad

text: The language mainly spoken in Mashhad is Persian with a variating Mashhadi accent, which can at times, prove itself as a sort of dialect. The Mashhadi Persian dialect is somewhat different from the standard Persian dialect in some of its tones and stresses.


title: Mashhad

text: Today, the Mashhadi dialect is rarely spoken by young people of Mashhad, most of them perceive it as a humiliation. This is thought to be related to the non-positive performance of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).


title: Mashhad

text: Long a center of secular and religious learning, Mashhad has been a center for the Islamic arts and sciences as well as piety and pilgrimage. Mashhad was an educational centre, with a considerable number of Islamic schools (madrasas, the majority of them, however, dating from the later Safavid period. Mashhad Hawza (Persian: حوزه علمیه مشهد) is one of the largest seminaries of traditional Islamic school of higher learning in Mashhad, which was headed by Abbas Vaez-Tabasi (who was Chairman of the Astan Quds Razavi board from 1979) after the revolution and in which Iranian politician and clerics such as Ali Khamenei, Ahmad Alamolhoda, Abolghasem Khazali, Mohammad Reyshahri, Morteza Motahhari, Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, Madmoud Halabi (the founder of Hojjatieh and Mohammad Hadi Abd-e Khodaee learned Islamic studies.


title: Mashhad

text: The number of seminary schools in Mashhad is now thirty nine and there are an estimated 2300 seminarians in the city.


title: Mashhad

text: The Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, named after the great Iranian poet, is located here and is regarded as the third institution in attracting foreign students, mainly from Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Central Asian republics.


title: Mashhad

text: The Madrassa of Ayatollah Al-Khoei, originally built in the seventeenth century and recently replaced with modern facilities, is the city's foremost traditional centre for religious learning. The Razavi University of Islamic Sciences, founded in 1984, stands at the centre of town, within the shrine complex. The prestige of traditional religious education at Mashhad attracts students, known as "Talabeh", or "Mollah" internationally.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad is also home to one of the oldest libraries of the Middle-East called the Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi with a history of over six centuries. There are some six million historical documents in the foundation's central library. A museum is also home to over 70,000 rare manuscripts from various historical eras


title: Mashhad

text: The Astan Quds Razavi Central Museum, which is part of the Astan-e Quds Razavi Complex, contains Islamic art and historical artifacts. In 1976, a new edifice was designed and constructed by the well-known Iranian architect Dariush Borbor to house the museum and the ancient manuscripts.


title: Mashhad

text: In 1569 (977 H), 'Imad al-Din Mas'ud Shirazi, a physician at the Mashhad hospital, wrote the earliest Islamic treatise on syphilis, one influenced by European medical thought. Kashmar rug is a type of Persian rug indigenous to this region.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad active galleries include: Mirak Gallery, Parse Gallery, Rezvan Gallery, Soroush Gallery, and the Narvan Gallery.


title: Mashhad

text: During the recent years, Mashhad has been a clerical base to monitor the affairs and decisions of state. In 2015, Mashhad's clerics publicly criticized the performance of concert in Mashhad, which led to the order of cancellation of concerts in the city by Ali Jannati, the minister of culture, and then his resignation on 19 October 2016.


title: Mashhad

text: There are two influential newspapers in Mashhad, Khorasan (خراسان) and Qods (قدس), which have been considered "conservative newspapers". They are two Mashhad-based daily published by and representing the views of their current and old owners: Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs and Astan Quds Razavi, respectively.


title: Mashhad

text: The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization named Mashhad 2017's "cultural capital of the Muslim world" in Asia on 24 January 2017. Several international events especially entrepreneurs networking event entitled Entrepreneurs Show 2017 was organized by CODE International in collaboration with Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Khorasan Science and Technology Park and city district government of Mashhad.


title: Mashhad

text: Apart from Imam Reza shrine, there are a number of large parks, the tombs of historical celebrities in nearby Tus and Nishapur, the tomb of Nader Shah and Koohsangi park. The Koohestan Park-e-Shadi Complex includes a zoo, where many wild animals are kept and which attracts many visitors to Mashhad. It is also home to the Mashhad Airbase (formerly Imam Reza airbase), jointly a military installation housing Mirage aircraft, and a civilian international airport.


title: Mashhad

text: Some points of interest lie outside the city: the tomb of Khajeh Morad, along the road to Tehran; the tomb of Khajeh Rabi' located north of the city where there are some inscriptions by the renowned Safavid calligrapher Reza Abbasi; and the tomb of Khajeh Abasalt, a distance of from Mashhad along the road to Neishabur. (The three were all disciples of Imam Reza).


title: Mashhad

text: Among the other sights are the tomb of the poet Ferdowsi in Tus, distance, and the summer resorts at Torghabeh, Torogh, Akhlamad, Zoshk, and Shandiz.


title: Mashhad

text: The Shah Public Bath, built during the Safavid era in 1648, is an outstanding example of the architecture of that period. It was recently restored, and is to be turned into a museum.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad is served by the Mashhad International Airport, which handles domestic flights to Iranian cities and international flights, mostly to neighbouring Arab countries. The airport is the country's second busiest after Tehran Mehrabad Airport and above Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport.


title: Mashhad

text: It is connected to 57 destinations and has frequent flights to 30 cities within Iran and 27 destinations in the Central Asia, the Middle East, East Asia and Europe.


title: Mashhad

text: The airport has been under a US$45.7 ml vast expansion project which has been finished by opening a new Haj Terminal with 10,000 m area on 24 May 2010 and followed by opening a new international terminal with 30000 m area with a new parking building, a new custom storage and cargo terminal, new safety and fire fighting buildings and upgrades to taxiways and equipment. Another USD26.5 ml development project for construction of new hangar for aircraft repair facilities and expansion of the west side of the domestic terminal is underway using a BOT contract with the private sector.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad Urban Railway Corporation (MURCO) is constructing metro and light rail system for the city of Mashhad which includes four lines with length. Mashhad Urban Railway Operation Company (MUROC) is responsible for the operation of the lines. The LRT line has been operational since 21 February 2011 with length and 22 stations and is connected to Mashhad International Airport from early 2016. The total length of line 1 is 24 kilometers and has 24 stations. the current headway in peak hours is 4.5 minutes.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad railway station has Local, Regional, InterRegio, InterRegio-Express services. The station is owned by IRI Railways and has daily services from most parts of the country, plus two suburban services. The building was designed by Heydar Ghiai. Mashhad is connected to three major rail lines: Tehran-Mashhad, Mashhad-Bafq (running south), and Mashhad-Sarakhs at the border with Turkmenistan. Some freight trains continue from Sarakhs towards Uzbekistan and to Kazakhstan, but have to change bogies because of the difference in Rail gauge. Cargo and passenger rail services are provided or operated by RAJA Rail Transportation Co., Joopar Co., Fadak Trains Co.


title: Mashhad

text: Road 95 links Mashhad south to Torbat-e Heydarieh and Birjand. Road 44 goes west towards Shahrud and Tehran. Road 22 travels northwest towards Bojnurd. Ashgabat in Turkmenistan is 220 km away and is accessible via Road 22 (AH78).


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad's current members of parliament are described as politicians with fundamentalist conservative tendencies, who are mostly the members of Front of Islamic Revolution Stability, an Iranian principlist political group. They were elected to the Parliament on 26 February 2016.


title: Mashhad

text: Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi and Ahmad Alamolhoda are two members of the Iranian Assembly of Experts from Mashhad. Hashemi Shahroudi is currently First Vice-chairman of the Iranian Assembly of Experts. He was the Head of Iran's Judiciary from 1999 until 2009 who upon accepting his position, appointed Saeed Mortazavi, a well known fundamentalist and controversial figure during President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's reelection, prosecutor general of Iran. He was supported by Mashhad's reformists as the candidate of the Fifth Assembly on 26 February 2016.


title: Mashhad

text: In 2013, an Iranian principlist political group, Front of Islamic Revolution Stability (which is partly made up of former ministers of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi), gained a landslide victory in Mashhad City Council, which on 23 September 2013, elected Seyed Sowlat Mortazavi as mayor, who was former governor of the province of South Khorasan and the city of Birjand. The municipality's budget amounted to 9600 billion Toman in 2015.


title: Mashhad

text: City was host to 2009 Junior World Championships in sitting volleyball where Iran's junior team won Gold.


title: Mashhad

text: Wrestling is one of the most popular sports in this city. Pahlevani and zoorkhaneh rituals have a special place in Mashhad and is one of the most important zoorkhaneh in Iran in Mashhad.


title: Mashhad

text: Mashhad cycling track was introduced in 2011 as the most equipped cycling track in Iran; Car racing track, motorcycle track and motocross track, three skating rinks, ski track and equestrian track in Mashhad are other sports tracks in Mashhad. The first golf course in Iran is located in the Samen complex of Mashhad.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: Jadwiga (; 1373 or 137417 July 1399), also known as Hedwig (), was the first woman to be crowned as monarch of the Kingdom of Poland. She reigned from 16 October 1384 until her death. She was the youngest daughter of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, and his wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia. Jadwiga was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, but she had more close forebears among the Polish Piasts than among the Angevins.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: In 1375, it was planned that when becoming old enough, she would marry William of Austria and she lived in Vienna from 1378 to 1380. Jadwiga's father is thought to have regarded her and William as his favoured successors in Hungary after the 1379 death of her eldest sister, Catherine, since that same year the Polish nobility had pledged their homage to Louis' second daughter, Mary, and Mary's fiancé, Sigismund of Luxembourg. However, Louis died, and in 1382, at her mother's insistence, Mary was crowned "King of Hungary". Sigismund of Luxembourg tried to take control of Poland, but the Polish nobility countered that they would be obedient to a daughter of King Louis only if she settled in Poland.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: Queen Elizabeth then chose Jadwiga to reign in Poland, but did not send her to Kraków to be crowned. During the interregnum, Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia, became a candidate for the Polish throne. The nobility of Greater Poland favored him and proposed that he marry Jadwiga. However, Lesser Poland's nobility opposed him, and they persuaded Queen Elizabeth to send Jadwiga to Poland.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: Jadwiga was crowned king in Poland's capital, Kraków, on 16 October 1384. Her coronation either reflected the Polish nobility's opposition to her intended husband, William, becoming king without further negotiation, or simply, emphasized her status as the monarch. With her mother's consent, Jadwiga's advisors opened negotiations with Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, who was still a pagan, concerning his potential marriage to Jadwiga. Jogaila signed the Union of Krewo, pledging to convert to Catholicism and to promote conversion of his pagan subjects. Meanwhile, William hastened to Kraków, hoping to marry his childhood fiancé, Jadwiga, but in late August 1385 the Polish nobles expelled him.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: Jogaila, who took the Catholic baptismal name Władysław, married Jadwiga on 15 February 1386. Legend says that she had agreed to marry him only after lengthy prayer, seeking divine inspiration. Jogaila, now styled in Polish as, Władysław Jagiełło, was crowned King of Poland on 4 March 1386 as Jadwiga's co-ruler. Jagiełło worked closely with his wife in that role. In any case, her real political power was limited.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: After rebellious nobles of the Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia had murdered her mother in early 1387, Jadwiga marched into the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which had been under Hungarian rule, and persuaded most of the inhabitants to become subjects of the Polish Crown. She mediated between her husband's quarreling kin and between Poland and the Teutonic Order.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: After her sister Mary died in 1395, Jadwiga and Jagiełło laid claim to Hungary against the widowed Sigismund of Luxembourg, but the Hungarian lords failed to support their claim and Sigismund easily retained his Hungarian throne. Jadwiga died four years later due to postpartum complications.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: Jadwiga was born in Buda, the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary. She was the third and youngest daughter of Louis I, King of Hungary and Poland, and his second wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia. Both her grandmothers were Polish princesses, connecting her to the native Piast dynasty of Poland. Historian Oscar Halecki concluded that Jadwiga's "genealogical tree clearly shows that [she] had more Polish blood than any other". She was probably born between 3 October 1373 and 18 February 1374. She was named after her distant ancestor, Saint Hedwig of Silesia, who was especially venerated in the Hungarian royal court at the time of her birth.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: King Louis, who had not fathered any sons, wanted to ensure the right of his daughters to inherit his realms. Therefore, European royals regarded his three daughters as especially attractive brides. Leopold III, Duke of Austria, proposed his eldest son, William, to Jadwiga already on 18 August 1374. The envoys of the Polish nobles acknowledged that one of Louis's daughters would succeed him in Poland after he confirmed and extended their liberties in the Privilege of Koszyce on 17 September 1374. They took an oath of loyalty to Catherine on Louis's demand.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: Louis agreed to give Jadwiga in marriage to William of Austria on 4 March 1375. The children's "sponsalia de futuro", or "provisional marriage", was celebrated at Hainburg on 15 June 1378. The ceremony established the legal framework for the consummation of the marriage without any further ecclesiastical act as soon as they both reached the age of maturity. Duke Leopold agreed that Jadwiga would only receive Treviso, a town that was to be conquered from the Republic of Venice, as dowry from her father. After the ceremony, Jadwiga stayed in Austria for almost two years; she mainly lived in Vienna.


title: Jadwiga of Poland

text: Catherine died in late 1378. Louis persuaded the most influential Polish lords to swear an oath of loyalty to her younger sister, Mary, in September 1379. She was betrothed to Sigismund of Luxemburg, a great-grandson of Casimir the Great, who had been Louis's predecessor on the Polish throne. The "promised marriage" of Jadwiga and William was confirmed at their fathers' meeting in Zólyom (now Zvolen in Slovakia) on 12 February 1380. Hungarian lords also approved the document, implying that Jadwiga and William were regarded as her father's successors in Hungary.