title: Islamic banking and finance

text: A study of the practice of boards of financial institutions setting the pay and employment of SSB members found this arrangement "compromise(s) the independence of the SSB".


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Another study found Islamic financial institutions do "not have practices which ensure transparency in the role and functions of the SSBs".


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: A number of scholarly supporters (such as Taqi Usmani, D.M. Qureshi, Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Harris Irfan) and skeptics of Islamic banking (Muhammad Akram Khan, Muhammad O. Farooq, Feisal Khan, Mahmoud El-Gama, Timur Kuran) have complained of its similarity to conventional banking.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Taqi Usmani argues that the industry has "totally" neglected the "basic philosophy", undermining its own "raison d'être"; so that non-Muslims and the Muslim "masses" have now gotten the impression that Islamic banking is "nothing but a matter of twisting documents ..."


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: This has happened first by the sidelining risk-sharing finance in favor of "murabaha" and other fixed-markup financing of purchases, and further by distorting the rules of that fixed-markup "murabaha" (see also Ignoring required commodities below) to effectively provide conventional cash interest loans with "profit rates" that follow conventional interest rates, the "net result" being "not materially different from interest based transactions". (Another violation is the use of "ijarah" (leasing) without the "lessor either assuming "the liability for his ownership" or offering "any usufruct to the lessee".)


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: In March 2009, Usmani, (as chairman of the board of scholars of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, or AAOIFI), declared that 85% of Sukuk, or Islamic bonds, were "un-Islamic".


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Following Islamic principles, "Islamic banks were supposed to adopt new financing policies and to explore new channels of investments" to encourage development and raise the standard of living of "small scale traders", but Taqi Usmani complains "very few Islamic banks and financial institutions have paid attention to this aspect".


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Islamic scholar Mohammad Hashim Kamali, laments the focus on short-term financing by Islamic banks. This financing being "largely concerned with the financing of goods already produced, and not with the creation or increase of production capital or with facilities like factories and plants, infrastructure etc." Islamic bonds, also known as sukuk, have emerged as a new financial instrument to fund ethical transactions such as the project for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation. To support the growth is Islamic financing, governments must establish measures to create a level playing field with regards to liquid secondary markets and equal regulation and taxes that match conventional banking.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: While profit-loss-sharing modes (or at least "mudarabah"), were originally envisioned as "the basis of a riba-free banking" – with fixed-return financial models only filling in as supplements – a number of studies, (of banks in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Malaysia, and of large Islamic banks in general) have shown fixed-return products now far exceed profit-loss-sharing modes in assets under management.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Explanations (offered by two authors, Humayon A. Dar and J.R. Presley), for why PLS instruments – namely "mudaraba" and "musharaka" financing – have declined to almost negligible proportions include:


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Aside from disadvantages to lenders, one critic of Islamic banking, Feisal Khan, argues that widespread use of PLS could have severe harm to economies by preventing central banks from expanding credit – buying bonds, commercial paper, etc. – to prevent liquidity crisises that arise from time to time in modern economies.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: In addition to ignoring profit and loss sharing in favor of "murâbaḥah", the industry has been accused of not properly following shariah regulations of "murabahah" (mentioned above), by not buying and selling the commodities/inventory that are "a key condition" of shariah-compliance (done when the bank wants to borrow cash rather than to finance a purchase, and though they are an added cost and serve no other function). In 2008 Arabianbusiness.com complained that there are sometimes "no commodities at all, merely cash-flows between banks, brokers and borrowers". Often the commodity is completely irrelevant to the borrower's business and not even enough of the relevant commodities "in existence" in the world "to account for all the transactions taking place". Two other researchers report that for many years multibillion-dollar 'synthetic' "murabaha" transactions in London took place, where "many doubt the banks truly assume possession, even constructively, of inventory".


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: The original Islamic banking proponents called for "keeping distinct accounts for various types of deposits so that return can be assigned to each type". "In practice", according to critic Muhammad Akram Khan, "Islamic financial institutions pool all types of deposits".


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Critics complain that the compliance with sharia regulations by banks often is nothing more than the taking of the word of the bank or borrower that they have followed compliance rules, with no effective auditing to see if this is true. One observer (L. Al Nasser) complains that "Shariah authorities demonstrate excessive confidence in their subjects when it comes to dealing with parities in the industry", and Shariah audits are needed "to bring about transparency and ensure" that the institutions "deliver what they have committed to their customers". Furthermore, when external Shariah audits are carried out, "many of these auditors frequently complain about the amount of violations that they witness and cannot discuss" because the records they have examined "have been tampered with".


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Although Islamic banking forbids interest, its "profit rates" often are benchmarked to interest rates. Islamic banker Harris Irfan states "there is no question" that benchmarks such as LIBOR "continue to be a necessary metric" for Islamic banks, and that the "overwhelming majority of scholars have come to accept this, however imperfect a solution this may seem", but Muhammad Akram Khan writes that following the conventional banking benchmark LIBOR "defeats the very purpose for which the Islamic financial products were designed and offered" in the first place,


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: In addition skeptics have complained that the rates of return on accounts in Islamic banks are suspiciously close to those of conventional banks, when (in theory) their different mechanisms should lead to different numbers. A 2014 study in Turkey found the long-term relationship between term-deposit rates at three of four "participation banks" (i.e. Islamic Banks) "significantly cointegrated" with those of the conventional banks.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: According to skeptics this nearness suggests a manipulation of returns by Islamic banks, to reassure customers of their financial competitiveness and stability.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Islamic banking and finance has lacked a way to earn a return on funds "parked" for the short term, waiting to be invested, which puts those banks a disadvantage to conventional banks.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Banks/financial institutions must balance liquidity – the ability to convert assets into cash or a cash equivalent quickly in an emergency when their depositors need them without


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: incurring large losses – with a competitive rate of return on funds. Conventional banks are able to borrow and lend by using the interbank lending market – borrowing to meet liquidity requirements and investing for any duration including very short periods, and thereby optimize their earnings. Calculating the return for any period of time is straightforward – multiplying the loans length by the interest rate.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: and Sudan have started to develop an Islamic money market, and have been "issuing securitized papers on the basis of "musharaka", "mudaraba" and "ijara"", at least as of 2013, the "lack of an appropriate and efficient secondary market" has meant the relative volume of these securities is "much smaller" than on the conventional capital market.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Regarding non-PLS, "debt-based contracts", one study found that "the business model of Islamic banking is changing over the time and moving in a direction where it is acquiring more liquidity risk."


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: To deal with the problem of earning no return on funds held for the sake of liquidity or because of a lack of investment opportunity, many Islamic financial institutions (such as Islamic Development Bank and the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt) have "been explicitly and openly earning interest on their excess funds, often invested in safer, debt-like or debt instruments overseas". Rather than forbidding this, "Shariah-experts have provided the necessary fatwa of Shari'ah-compliance based on the rules of necessities ("darurah")".


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Scholars in Islamic finance and banking have invoked necessity to permit exceptional relaxations of rules. They have issued fatwas


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: (opinions) allowing Islamic banks to deposit funds in interest-bearing accounts. though they require the interest be used for "religiously meritorious purposes".


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Recently, scholars have engaged with questions around leading and managing Islamic banks. This field conceptualizes Islamic banks as hybrid organizations that combine business and religious pursuits with distinct challenges for leadership to bring together diverse beliefs, values, and views.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Behavioural economists typically argue that stock prices can be substantially influenced by the mood of investors. For instance, researchers have found stocks prices to be positively af fected by positive events such as sunshine and upcoming holidays (Kim and Park, 1994). Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, which is the religious practice of fasting from dawn to sunset during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Several studies, such as (Białkowski et al. (2012), Al-Hajieh et al. (2011) and Al-Khazali (2014), have found stocks in Muslim countries to yield higher returns during Ramadan compared to the rest of the year. Their results were explained by the fact that Ramadan encourages Muslims optimism which has a positive effect on stock price.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: The four schools ("Madhhab") of Sunni fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) apply "Islamic teachings to business and finance in different ways", and have not come closer to agreement. Furthermore, shari'a boards sometimes change their minds, reversing earlier decisions."


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Differences between boards as to what constitutes Sharia-compliance may raise "doubts in the minds of clients" over whether a given bank is truly Sharia-compliant, and should be given their business.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: While in conventional finance late payments/delinquent loans are discouraged by interest continuing to accumulate, according to Ibrahim Warde,


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Islamic banks face a serious problem with late payments, not to speak of outright defaults, since some people take advantage of every dilatory legal and religious device ... In most Islamic countries, various forms of penalties and late fees have been established, only to be outlawed or considered unenforceable. Late fees in particular have been assimilated to riba. As a result, 'debtors know that they can pay Islamic banks last since doing so involves no cost'


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Inflation is also a problem for financing where Islamic banks have not imitated conventional banking and are truly lending without interest or any other charges. Whether and how to compensate lenders for the erosion of the value of the funds from inflation, has also been called a problem "vexing" Islamic scholars, since finance for businesses will not be forthcoming if a lender loses money by lending. Suggestions include indexing loans (opposed by many scholars as a type of "riba" and encouraging inflation), denominating loans "in terms of a commodity" such as gold, and further research to find an answer.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Islamic banking and finance customers, are almost all, if not entirely, Muslims. But the majority of financial institutions that offer Islamic banking services are Western financial institutions, not owned by Muslims. Supporters of Islamic banking have cited this interest of western banks in Islamic banking as evidence of the strong demand for Islamic banking and thus an "achievement of the movement".


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: However, critics complain these banks lack a deep faith-based commitment to Islamic banking which means


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Proponents (such as Zeti Akhtar Aziz, the head of the central bank of Malaysia) have argued that Islamic financial institutions are more stable than conventional banks because they forbid speculation and the two main types (in theory) of Islamic banking accounts – "current account" and "mudarabah" accounts – carry less risk to the bank.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: This of course means that while the bank may be more stable, the depositors/"partners" of Islamic profit and loss sharing accounts (Islamic banks often use the term "partner" instead of "customer" or "depositor") are exposed to risks they would not be subject to in conventional banks.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: In these institutions, investment-account holders neither have the protection of being creditors of the Islamic financial institution, nor do they have the protection of being equity holders with representation on those institutions' boards of directors. This introduces a host of other well-documented risk factors for the institution ...


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: On the other hand, Habib Ahmed —writing in 2009 shortly after the financial crisis – argues that the practices of Islamic finance have gradually moved closer to conventional finance exposing them to the same dangers of instability.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: When the practice of Islamic finance and the environment under which it operates are examined, one can identify trends that are similar to the ones that caused the current crisis... In the recent past, the Gulf region has witnesses its own episodes of speculation in their stock and real estate markets. Finally, the Islamic financial industry has witnessed rapid growth with innovations of complex "Shari'ah" compliant financial products. Risks in these new Islamic financial products are complex, as the instruments have multiple types of risks ...


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: In any event, a few Islamic banks have failed over the decades. In 1988 the Islamic investment house, Ar-Ryan collapsed causing thousands of small investors to lose their savings (they were later reimbursed for their losses by an anonymous Gulf state donor) and dealing a blow to Islamic finance at the time.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: In 1998 the management of Bank al Taqwa's failed. with its annual report reporting a "loss of over 23 per cent of principal to both mudaraba depositors and shareholders". (It was later revealed that management had violated banking rules "invested in one single project more than 60 per cent bank's assets.")


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: The Ihlas Finance House in Turkey closed in 2001 due to "liquidity problems and financial distress". Faisal Islamic Bank had difficulties and closed its operations in the UK for regulatory reasons.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: According to the Economist magazine, "Dubai's debt crisis in 2009 showed that "sukuk" [Islamic bonds] can help to inflate debt to unsustainable levels."


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: During the global financial crisis Islamic banks "on average, showed stronger resilience" than conventional banks, but "faced larger losses" when the crisis hit "the real economy," according to a 2010 IMF survey.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: At the beginning of the "Great Recession" of 2007–9, Islamic banks were "unscathed", leading to one Islamic banking supporter to write that the collapse of leading Wall Street institutions, particularly Lehman Brothers, "should encourage economists world-wide to focus on Islamic banking and finance as an alternative model." However gradually the effect of the financial downturn moved to the real sector, affecting Islamic banking. According to Ibrahim Warde, 'this showed that Islamic finance was not all a panaceas, and that a faith-based system is not automatically immune to the vagaries of the Financial system.'


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Concentrated ownership is another danger to the stability of Islamic banking and finance. Munawar Iqbal and Philip Molyneux write that only


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: "three or four families own a large percentage of the industry. ... This concentration of ownership could result in substantial financial instability and possible collapse of the industry if anything happens to those families, or the next generation of these families change their priorities. Similarly, the experience of country-wide experiments has also been mostly on the initiatives of rulers not elected through popular votes."


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Harris Irafan warns that the "macroeconomic exposures" of Islamic banks constitute a "ticking time bomb" of a "billions of dollars" in "unhedged currencies and rates". The difficulty, complexity and expense of hedging these in the correct Islamic manner is such that as of 2015, the Islamic Development Bank "was hemorrhaging cash as if it were funding a war. It simply couldn't swap dollars for euros or vice versa on an ongoing basis without resorting to the conventional markets." Regional Islamic banks in the Middle East and Malaysia did not have "specialized personnel trained to understand and negotiate Sharia-compliant treasury swaps" and were not willing to hire the consultants who did.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Studies of Islamic banking customer in Malaysia and Pakistan found customer satisfaction was connected to service quality.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: A study of Islamic banking customers in Bangladesh found "most customers" between 25 and 35 years, "highly educated" and having a "durable relationship" with the bank, more knowledgeable about account than financing products.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: In series of interviews conducted in 2008 and 2010 with Pakistani banking professionals (conventional and Islamic bankers, Shariah banking advisors, finance-using businessmen, and management consultants), economist Feisal Khan noted many Islamic bankers expressed "cynicism" over the difference or lack thereof between conventional and Islamic bank products, the lack of requirements for external Shariah-compliance audits of Islamic banks in Pakistan, shariah boards lack of awareness of their banks' failure to follow shariah compliant practices in or their power to stop these practices. However this did not deter patronage of the banks by the pious (one of whom explained that if his Islamic bank was not truly shariah compliant, 'The sin is on their head now, not on mine! What I could do, I've done.')


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: The Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME) have majority non-Muslim customers that receive a fixed percentage of profits, rather than an interest rate. However, critics say that sharia deposits and products are too similar to interest-rate related products, in contrast to the share of profits earned. Other explanations for the rise of non-Muslim customers in Islamic banking have been pointed towards ethical reasons in negative screening of investments like tobacco, alcohol, and arms.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: One estimate of customer preference (given by a Pakistani banker) in the Pakistani banking industry, was that about 10% of customers were "strictly conventional banking clients", 20% were strictly Shariah-compliant banking clients, and 70% would prefer Shariah-compliant banking but would use conventional banking if "there was a significant pricing difference". A survey of Islamic and conventional banking customers found (unsurprisingly) Islamic banking customers were more observant (having attended hajj, observing salat, growing a beard, etc.), but also had higher savings account balances than conventional bank customers, were older, better educated, had traveled more overseas, and tended to have a second account at a conventional bank. Another study, using "official data" reported to State Bank of Pakistan, found that for lenders who had taken out both Islamic (Murabaha) financing and conventional loans, the default rate was more than twice as high on the conventional loans. Borrowers were "less likely to default during Ramadan and in big cities if the share of votes to religious-political parties increases, suggesting that religion – either through individual piousness or network effects – may play a role in determining loan default."


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Muhammad El-Gamal argues that because Islamic financial products imitate conventional financial products but operate in accordance with the rules of shariah, different products will require additional jurist and lawyer fees, "multiple sales, special-purpose vehicles, and documentations of title". In addition there will be costs associated with "the peculiar structure that Islamic banks use for late payment penalties". Consequently, their financing tends to cost more than, and/or accounts pay less return than conventional products.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: El-Gama also argues that another source of inefficiency/greater expense in Islamic banking and a reason its replications of conventional finance are "always one step behind" new financial products in the conventional industry, is the industry's dependence on "classical "nominate contracts" ("murabahah" credit sales, "ijara" leases, etc.). These contracts follow classical texts and were created in a time when financial markets were very limited. They are not equipped to "disentangle various risks" that "modern" financial markets and institutions (such as "money markets, capital markets, options markets, etc.") are designed to. On the other hand, making their contracts/products more efficient, will alienate the pious customer base that wants contracts/products to follow classical forms.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: In one important part of the finance market – home buying – Islamic finance has not been able to compete with conventional finance in at least some countries (the UK as of 2002, and the US and Canada as of 2009). According to Humayon Dar, the monthly payments, for a shariah compliant "Lease Contract" used by Islamic Investment Banking Unit of Ahli United Bank Kuwait in Britain "are much higher" than equivalent conventional mortgages.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: In Canada the cost of Islamic home finance was 100 to 300 basis points higher than conventional home finance, and in the U.S. 40 to 100 basis points higher, according to Hans Visser. (Visser credits the higher cost of Islamic "ijara" financing to its higher risk weighting compared to conventional mortgages under Basel I and Basel II international standard of minimum capital requirements for banks.)


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: According to M. O. Farooq, "common explanations offered by" the Islamic finance movement for the Islamic banking industry shortcomings are that


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: While the veracity of the second explanation can not be verified before a complete Islamic society is established, Feisal Khan points in regard to the first defense that it has been over twenty years (1993) since one critic (Timur Kuran) first highlighted the industry problems (the basic similarity of Islamic banking in practice to the conventional, the marginalizing of the equity-based, risk-sharing modes and embrace of short-term products and debt-like instruments), and since a supporter (Ausaf Ahmad) defended the industry as early in its transition from conventional banking.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Seventeen years later, Ibrahim Warde, an Islamic finance proponent, lamented that "rather than disappearing, murabaha and comparable sale-based products grew significantly and today they constitute the bulk of the activity of most Islamic Banks..."


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Most critics of the Islamic banking industry call for further orthodoxy and a redoubling of effort and stricter enforcement of sharia. Some (M. O. Farooq and M. A. Khan), have blamed the industry problems on its condemnation of any and all interest on loans as forbidden "riba", and the impracticality of attempting to enforce this prohibition.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: Critic Feisal Khan argues that in many ways Islamic finance has not lived up to its defining characteristics. Risk-sharing is lacking because profit and loss sharing modes are so infrequently used. Underlying material transactions are also missing in such transactions as ""tawarruq", commodity "murabahas", Malaysian Islamic private debt securities, and Islamic short-sales". Exploitation is involved when high fees are charged for "doing nothing more substantial than mimicking conventional banking /finance products". Haram activities are not avoided when banks (following the customary practice) simply take the word of clients/financees/borrowers that they will not use funds for un-Islamic activities.


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: International Monetary Fund (IMF) has highlighted the risk of Islamic banking and finance's lack of common understanding of money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF) and resultant noncompliance such as with Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) recommendations. Some of these ML/TF risks related to Islamic finance are similar to conventional financing, but there are unknown and large number of unknown risks and issues. These risks are caused by the complexity of Islamic finance products as well as the nature of the relationship between the Islamic banks and stakeholders. Since there is limited experience and capability within Islamic banking and finance system for the risk mitigation and compliance with the global ML/TF standards, the risks are magnified. These risks become critical in case of vulnerable, non-compliant or rogue nations and organisations. "The FATF standards are implemented without any form of tailoring to the specificities of Islamic finance. The FATF, the Islamic finance standard-setters, and the national regulators should seek a greater understanding of the specific ML/TF risks that may arise in Islamic finance and develop an appropriate response.""


title: Islamic banking and finance

text: According to Alex P. Schmid writing in 2004, a network of Islamic banks has "proved to be an ideal instrument for money manipulation" to channel funds to terrorist organizations. One reason being that the banks are used for zakat donations and "the code of practice of Islamic banks requires the destruction of all documents as soon as the zakat money transfer has taken place." Thus, zakat charitable donations may end up financing "the purchase of arms and the sponsorship of terror attacks", as well as food for the needy, and educational and job training programs.


title: Chris Norman

text: Christopher Ward Norman (born 25 October 1950) is an English soft rock singer. Norman was the original lead singer of the English rock band Smokie, (1964–1986), who found success in Europe in the 1970s. "Stumblin' In", a 1978 duet with Suzi Quatro, was a big US hit.


title: Chris Norman

text: With the advent of rock and roll, Norman acquired his first guitar at the age of seven. His early musical influences were Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Lonnie Donegan.


title: Chris Norman

text: In these early years, Norman's parents moved around the country a lot, which resulted in him going to nine different schools, and living in various locations around England, such as Redcar, Luton, Kimpton, and Nottingham. By 1962, however, the family had moved back to Norman's mother's home city of Bradford. Approaching his twelfth birthday, Norman started at St. Bede's Grammar School, where he was to meet Alan Silson and Terry Uttley, future members of Smokie.


title: Chris Norman

text: As teenagers, influenced by the new era of groups such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and then folk singer, Bob Dylan, Norman and Silson began meeting up and spent nearly all their spare time learning new songs on their guitars. They managed to persuade Uttley to join them and, along with a drummer friend called Ron Kelly, they formed their first band. The Yen, Essence, and Long Side Down were just some of a variety of names they called themselves before settling on "The Elizabethans". When Ron Kelly left the group in 1973, an old friend called Pete Spencer was asked to take over on the drums, and the group, which was to become Smokie, was complete.


title: Chris Norman

text: Between 1974 and the early 1980s, Smokie enjoyed success touring all over the world, but the strain and pressure of constantly being away from home and family was beginning to tell on Norman. By the early 1980s he decided to spend more time writing and working in the studio. Norman and Spencer now worked together on songs for other artists including hits for Kevin Keegan ("Head Over Heels in Love", a No. 31 UK hit), and the England football team song "This Time (We'll Get It Right)". He also worked with Agnetha Fältskog (on her solo album), Racey (co-writer of "Baby It's You"), Donovan (backing vocals on "Donovan"), and Heavy Metal Kids.


title: Chris Norman

text: In 1978, Norman recorded a duet with Suzi Quatro, "Stumblin' In", which made No. 4 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and sold over one million copies.


title: Chris Norman

text: Norman's solo career took off in 1986 with the song, "Midnight Lady", which was a hit throughout Europe holding the number one spot in Germany for six weeks (where it sold 900,000 copies). Further success followed by the songs "Some Hearts Are Diamonds", "No Arms Can Ever Hold You", "Broken Heroes", "Fearless Hearts", "Sarah" and "Baby I Miss You". In 1994, Norman was honoured by CMT Europe as their 'International Video Star of the Year'.


title: Chris Norman

text: In 2004, he took part in the "Comeback Show" on the German TV station ProSieben and he performed "Stumblin' In" as a duet with C. C. Catch. In the final episode of the show, he was joined by Smokie for the final song.


title: Parietal lobe

text: The parietal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The parietal lobe is positioned above the temporal lobe and behind the frontal lobe and central sulcus.


title: Parietal lobe

text: The parietal lobe integrates sensory information among various modalities, including spatial sense and navigation (proprioception), the main sensory receptive area for the sense of touch in the somatosensory cortex which is just posterior to the central sulcus in the postcentral gyrus, and the dorsal stream of the visual system. The major sensory inputs from the skin (touch, temperature, and pain receptors), relay through the thalamus to the parietal lobe.


title: Parietal lobe

text: Several areas of the parietal lobe are important in language processing. The somatosensory cortex can be illustrated as a distorted figure – the cortical homunculus (Latin: "little man") in which the body parts are rendered according to how much of the somatosensory cortex is devoted to them. The superior parietal lobule and inferior parietal lobule are the primary areas of body or spatial awareness. A lesion commonly in the right superior or inferior parietal lobule leads to hemineglect.


title: Parietal lobe

text: The parietal lobe is defined by three anatomical boundaries: The central sulcus separates the parietal lobe from the frontal lobe; the parieto-occipital sulcus separates the parietal and occipital lobes; the lateral sulcus (sylvian fissure) is the most lateral boundary, separating it from the temporal lobe; and the longitudinal fissure divides the two hemispheres. Within each hemisphere, the somatosensory cortex represents the skin area on the contralateral surface of the body.


title: Parietal lobe

text: Immediately posterior to the central sulcus, and the most anterior part of the parietal lobe, is the postcentral gyrus (Brodmann area 3), the primary somatosensory cortical area. Separating this from the posterior parietal cortex is the postcentral sulcus.


title: Parietal lobe

text: The posterior parietal cortex can be subdivided into the superior parietal lobule (Brodmann areas 5 + 7) and the inferior parietal lobule (39 + 40), separated by the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). The intraparietal sulcus and adjacent gyri are essential in guidance of limb and eye movement, and—based on cytoarchitectural and functional differences—is further divided into medial (MIP), lateral (LIP), ventral (VIP), and anterior (AIP) areas.


title: Parietal lobe

text: The parietal lobe plays important roles in integrating sensory information from various parts of the body, knowledge of numbers and their relations, and in the manipulation of objects. Its function also includes processing information relating to the sense of touch. Portions of the parietal lobe are involved with visuospatial processing. Although multisensory in nature, the posterior parietal cortex is often referred to by vision scientists as the dorsal stream of vision (as opposed to the ventral stream in the temporal lobe). This dorsal stream has been called both the "where" stream (as in spatial vision) and the "how" stream (as in vision for action). The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) receives somatosensory and visual input, which then, through motor signals, controls movement of the arm, hand, and eyes.


title: Parietal lobe

text: Various studies in the 1990s found that different regions of the posterior parietal cortex in macaques represent different parts of space.


title: Parietal lobe

text: More recent fMRI studies have shown that humans have similar functional regions in and around the intraparietal sulcus and parietal-occipital junction. The human "parietal eye fields" and "parietal reach region", equivalent to LIP and MIP in the monkey, also appear to be organized in gaze-centered coordinates so that their goal-related activity is "remapped" when the eyes move.


title: Parietal lobe

text: Emerging evidence has linked processing in the inferior parietal lobe to declarative memory. Bilateral damage to this brain region does not cause amnesia however the strength of memory is diminished, details of complex events become harder to retrieve, and subjective confidence in memory is very low. This has been interpreted as reflecting either deficits in internal attention, deficits in subjective memory states, or problems with the computation that allows evidence to accumulate, thus allowing decisions to be made about internal representations.


title: Parietal lobe

text: Damage to this lobe in the right hemisphere results in the loss of imagery, visualization of spatial relationships and neglect of left-side space and left side of the body. Even drawings may be neglected on the left side. Damage to this lobe in the left hemisphere will result in problems in mathematics, long reading, writing, and understanding symbols. The parietal association cortex enables individuals to read, write, and solve mathematical problems. The sensory inputs from the right side of the body go to the left side of the brain and vice versa.


title: Parietal lobe

text: The syndrome of hemispatial neglect is usually associated with large deficits of attention of the non-dominant hemisphere. Optic ataxia is associated with difficulties reaching toward objects in the visual field opposite to the side of the parietal damage. Some aspects of optic ataxia have been explained in terms of the functional organization described above.


title: Parietal lobe

text: Apraxia is a disorder of motor control which can be referred neither to "elemental" motor deficits nor to general cognitive impairment. The concept of apraxia was shaped by Hugo Liepmann about a hundred years ago. Apraxia is predominantly a symptom of left brain damage, but some symptoms of apraxia can also occur after right brain damage.


title: Parietal lobe

text: Amorphosynthesis is a loss of perception on one side of the body caused by a lesion in the parietal lobe. Usually, left-sided lesions cause agnosia, a full-body loss of perception, while right-sided lesions cause lack of recognition of the person's left side and extrapersonal space. The term amorphosynthesis was coined by D. Denny-Brown to describe patients he studied in the 1950s.


title: Parietal lobe

text: Can also result in sensory impairment where one of the affected person's senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste and spatial awareness) is no longer normal.


title: Crysis

text: Crysis is a first-person shooter video game series created by Crytek. The series revolves around a group of military protagonists with "nanosuits", technologically advanced suits of armor that give them enhanced physical strength, speed, defense, and cloaking abilities. The protagonists face off against hostile North Korean soldiers, heavily armed mercenaries, and a race of technologically advanced aliens known as the Ceph, who arrived on Earth millions of years ago and have recently been awakened. The series consists of three main installments, a standalone spinoff of the first game with a separate multiplayer title, and a compilation. A fourth game, under the working title of "Crysis 4", was announced by Crytek on January 26, 2022.


title: Crysis

text: Characters in "Crysis" use nanosuits, advanced powered exoskeletons developed by the U.S. military that grants them special abilities through dedicated "modes", as well as the ability to switch between them at will. Nanosuit's "armor mode" enhances the suit's ability to withstand bullet and shrapnel impacts, "strength mode" greatly enhances the wearer's physical strength, to the point of being able to punch cars through the air; and "speed mode" allows the wearer to run and act extremely fast. Lastly, "cloak mode" activates the suit's optical cloaking device that makes the wearer near-invisible.


title: Crysis

text: The first two games, "Crysis" and "Crysis Warhead", take place in 2020 on the fictional Lingshan Islands, off the Philippines. The protagonists of both games both belong to the fictitious "Raptor Team", a United States Army Delta Force unit that is sent to the island to investigate aggressive behavior by North Korea. The player uses various weapons, including traditional projectile weapons like handguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles (all of which can be modified with scopes and attachments in real-time), as well as explosives and the nanosuit's natural abilities. Multiplayer gameplay modes introduce fictional futuristic weapons based on the ice technology introduced by the alien antagonists who are later found to reside on the island. In single-player, Raptor Team faces off against both the North Korean military and these alien foes.


title: Crysis

text: "Crysis 2", the sequel to the original game, takes place in 2023 in New York City. The protagonist is a new character, a U.S. Marine named Alcatraz. The nanosuit in the game (dubbed "Nanosuit 2") is a streamlined version of the original, without separate "strength" and "speed" modes, rather performing context-sensitive acts of enhanced strength or agility, but retaining the separate "armor" and "cloak" modes.


title: Crysis

text: After Helena Rosenthal sends a distress signal saying the North Koreans are invading the seemingly unimportant island on which her team is working, the US government dispatches Raptor Team, a group of nanosuit-clad soldiers. After arriving on the island, however, Raptor Team's ranks are thinned by mysterious flying creatures, eventually leaving only Nomad, Psycho, and Prophet, who is subsequently kidnapped by the organisms later called the Ceph. Nomad rescues Helena but is eventually trapped in the alien ship after it unleashes an "ice sphere" on the island, freezing a great deal of the island. Nomad escapes the island with Helena and an oddly-behaving Prophet, and returns to the US carrier fleet, where he finds Psycho. Prophet returns to the island, which is subsequently nuked in the attempt to kill the aliens. However, they only grow stronger from the energy. The aliens launch a massive attack on the carrier fleet, successfully destroying it. Nomad, Psycho, and Helena escape and receive a distress signal from the still-alive Prophet, and decide to return to the island.


title: Crysis

text: During Psycho's own mission, he was sent to retrieve a captured alien from Colonel Lee and the Koreans. After numerous setbacks and the assistance of his friend O'Neill, Psycho successfully defeats Lee, obtains the alien, and brings it back to the carrier fleet. At this point, the story continues in the original title.


title: Crysis

text: A sequel set 3 years after the original game, "Crysis 2" takes place in New York City in 2023, which is infected by an unknown virus. The player controls Alcatraz, a U.S. Marine who is found almost dead by Prophet, and given the upgraded Nanosuit 2 before Prophet commits suicide. He is tasked by Prophet to rescue a scientist named Nathan Gould. At first, Alcatraz has to face Crynet's CELL agents, a mercenary force who is hired by the U.S. Department of Defense to police the chaotic Manhattan, still thinking that Alcatraz is Prophet who is infected by the virus. After discovering Ceph capsules and Catalyst, the Ceph take over as the main antagonists for the rest of the game. Alcatraz and Gould team up with Tara Strickland, an undercover CIA lieutenant, and Jacob Hargreave, the original creator of the nanosuit. Alcatraz eventually enters the Ceph core spire and wipes out all the Ceph in New York. Now facing death again, he meets a memory pattern of Prophet, whose DNA is merged into Alcatraz's. The game closes with Alcatraz being contacted by Karl Rasch, a nanosuit scientist, and vowing to continue the war against the Ceph.


title: Crysis

text: As with its predecessor, "Crysis 3" again takes place in New York. Set in 2047, the game sees Prophet return to the now nanodome-encased New York City, on a mission of revenge against CELL, having uncovered the truth behind their motives for building the quarantined nanodomes.


title: Crysis

text: With "Crysis 3" being the end of the "Crysis" trilogy, Crytek teased that the series would have a "radical future". Yerli confirmed that the next installment would not be called "Crysis 4", as he considered such a title "misleading". On June 12, 2012, it was revealed that Crytek would focus only on free-to-play titles following the release of "Crysis 3".


title: Crysis

text: A remastered version of the original "Crysis" was announced on April 16, 2020, and is the first game in the series to be self-published by Crytek. The Nintendo Switch version was released first, on July 23, 2020. The PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC versions were initially supposed to launch on the same date, but were delayed to September 18, 2020.


title: Crysis

text: On June 1, 2021 Crytek has announced that, following "Crysis Remastered", both "Crysis 2" and "Crysis 3" were similarly updated and will be released as part of "Crysis Remastered Trilogy". The bundle launched on October 15, 2021, on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. Each game is also available for purchase individually.


title: Crysis

text: In January 2022, Crytek announced the 4th installment of the franchise on their social network platforms. The game is in its early stages of development and no storyline has been announced.


title: Crysis

text: Peter Watts authored a novelization of "Crysis 2", "Crysis: Legion," which was released in March 2011.


title: Crysis

text: A tie-in novel, "Crysis: Escalation", by Gavin G. Smith is meant to bridge the events of "Crysis 2" and "Crysis 3".


title: Crysis

text: The novel covers Alcatraz and his ultimate fate after being assimilated with Prophet. After briefly taking control of his body and using it to visit his relatives for the last time, Alcatraz is persuaded by Prophet to give up his body for him which Alcatraz reluctantly agrees.


title: Crysis

text: A turn-based strategy board game based on the "Crysis" mythos, subtitled "Analogue Edition", is being developed by Frame6. A Kickstarter campaign was held, but eventually cancelled following a decision over the funding and marketing.


title: Crysis

text: "Crysis" is a 6-issue series intended to bridge the gap between the storylines of "Crysis" and "Crysis 2". The story focuses on the adventures of Prophet, Nomad, Psycho, and Helena Rosenthal after they return to Lingshan and explains their fates, and reveals much of Prophet's backstory. The comics were released as a single graphic novel on January 31, 2012.


title: Crysis

text: "Crysis" was awarded a 98% in the "PC Gamer" U.S. Holiday 2007 issue, making it one of the highest rated games in "PC Gamer", tying with "Half-Life 2" and "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri". The UK edition of the magazine awarded the game 92%, describing the game as "A spectacular and beautiful sci-fi epic." GameSpot awarded "Crysis" a score of 9.5 out of 10, describing it as "easily one of the greatest shooters ever made." GameSpy gave it a 4.5 out of 5 stating that the suit powers were fun but also criticizing the multiplayer portion of the game for not having a team deathmatch. X-Play gave it a 3 out of 5 on its "Holiday Buyer's Guide" special episode, praising the graphics and physics, but criticized the steep hardware requirements as well as stating that the game is overhyped with average gameplay. "GamePro" honored "Crysis" with a score of 4.75 out of 5, saying it was "a great step forward for PC gaming", but criticized the steep hardware requirements. IGN awarded it a 9.4 out of 10, hailing it as "one of the more entertaining ballistic showdowns in quite some time."


title: Crysis

text: Commonly asked of nearly any electronic around the time of its release, even those that could not in any conceivable way run the program, was the phrase "But can it run Crysis?", referring to its very high system requirements. The phrase has continued in modern usage, as a snowclone, with any other high-end (or ironically low-end) game title replacing Crysis.


title: Crysis

text: "Crysis Warhead", developed by Crytek Budapest, received largely positive reviews. Most reviewers praised the improvements over the original "Crysis" in areas like AI and gameplay pacing, citing the original game's criticism that battles were few and far between. The new protagonist, Psycho, was also received better than the original's less developed Nomad. The revamped multiplayer mode, "Crysis Wars", was also praised for adding a team deathmatch mode, the lack of which most reviewers criticized in the original game. Criticism of the game by reviewers includes the short story mode and a lack of new features over the original game. Some continued to cite the game's high system requirements as unacceptable even a year after the original game, which has the same requirements. Indeed, some reviewers did not see any significant performance improvement with "Warhead" compared with "Crysis", stating that only high-end GPUs could handle the game comfortably at decent frame rates.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf (; born 15 January 1981) is a Senegalese former professional footballer. Throughout his career, Diouf played as a winger or a forward.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Having started his professional football career in France with Sochaux, Rennes and Lens, Diouf finalised a move to Premier League side Liverpool prior to the 2002 FIFA World Cup for Senegal and went on to have a memorable tournament. He has also played in England's top flight for Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers before a stint in the Scottish Premier League with Rangers. In 2011, he joined Football League Championship side Doncaster Rovers but was released at the end of the 2011–12 season following the club's relegation. He then moved to Leeds United where he spent two seasons. During his nine-year international career, he scored 21 goals in 69 caps, and also garnered considerable notoriety for a series of controversial incidents.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Diouf started his career in France with Sochaux-Montbéliard. He made his debut appearance in a 2–1 win against Bastia on 12 November 1998, before moving to Rennes for the 1999–2000 season. He moved to Lens the following season, spending two years at the Pas-de-Calais.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: In early June 2002 he was reportedly linked with the English club Liverpool who had also just signed his club and international compatriot Salif Diao. The news initially broke following his Man of The Match performance in the opening FIFA World Cup 2002 1-0 group game vs France, who were the defending World and European Champions and one of the favourites to win the 2002 tournament. Lens initially denied that the signing had been made, but it was finally confirmed on 2 June with an estimated price tag of £10m. His continued impressive performances in the World Cup for Senegal, where they reached the quarter finals, led to much excitement prior to his arrival in England. Diouf was the striker that manager Gérard Houllier hoped would take the Premier League title from Arsenal, after Liverpool had finished in second place the previous season.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Diouf won praises for his early games for Liverpool including his first game at Anfield where he scored two goals, his first for the club, in a 3–0 win against Southampton on 24 August 2002. He started the 2003 Football League Cup Final as Liverpool defeated Manchester United.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Liverpool fans had to wait until March 2003 for Diouf's next goal for Liverpool. That occurred in a 2–0 win against Bolton Wanderers, in a game where he scored once and provided the assist for the second. The next game saw Diouf play in a UEFA Cup match against Celtic at Parkhead which finished 1–1. The game marked a watershed in his career when, in the 87th minute, he spat at a Celtic fan, causing crowd disturbances and Diouf to be interviewed by the police. He received a two match ban and was fined two weeks wages with Liverpool making a donation of £60,000 to a Glasgow charity of Celtic's choice.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Diouf failed to score for the remainder of the 2002–03 season or at all in the 2003–04 season which saw him pick up 13 yellow and one red card which came on 7 January 2004 when he was sent-off in a 1–0 away win against Chelsea for fouling Adrian Mutu. By then he had become unpopular due to both his attitude and his lack of goals. Jamie Carragher later said of him ""He has one of the worst strike rates of any forward in Liverpool history. He's the only no. 9 ever to go through a whole season without scoring, in fact he's probably the only no. 9 of any club to do that. He was always the last one to get picked in training"." At the beginning of the 2004–05 season he was loaned to Bolton Wanderers. At the end of the season-long loan — and after scoring a mere six goals in 80 appearances with only three in the league — Diouf left Liverpool signing permanently for Bolton in the summer of 2005.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Bolton Wanderers bought Diouf from Liverpool for an undisclosed fee at the start of the 2005–06 season, after they had loaned the player for the 2004–05 season. On 15 September 2005, Diouf scored Bolton's first ever goal in a European competition against Lokomotiv Plovdiv in a UEFA Cup match at the Reebok Stadium. Bolton went on to win the game 2–1. He was largely successful at Bolton and became a fans' favourite due to his flair and direct running. Diouf confirmed in an interview with the BBC that he would be leaving Bolton at the end of the 2007–08 season and that his goal against Sunderland on 3 May marked his last appearance at the Reebok Stadium.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Diouf signed for Sunderland on 28 July 2008, after Bolton agreed to a transfer fee of £2.63m. He signed a four-year contract at the Stadium of Light after undergoing a medical. Diouf said that he was happy to join Sunderland. Then-manager Roy Keane stated he was happy that Diouf had joined Sunderland saying: "El Hadji has always been the kind of player opposition teams and supporters hate. That's why we're delighted to now have him in our squad." Diouf made a promising start for Sunderland but failed to score in any of his sixteen appearances.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Diouf signed for Blackburn Rovers for a £2 million fee on 30 January 2009, signing a three-and-half-year deal after just six months at the Stadium of Light, rejoining former Bolton manager Sam Allardyce at the club. He was given the number 18 shirt and scored his first goal for the club against Fulham at Craven Cottage on 11 March 2009 in a 2–1 win. During the summer transfer window, Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce revealed that Diouf was acquired for £1 million. Diouf scored his first home goal for Rovers at Ewood Park in the club's 3–1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers on 12 September 2009. On 2 January 2010, he was sent off in a 3–1 defeat to Aston Villa in the third round of the FA Cup. On 21 March 2010, Diouf scored the equalising goal against Chelsea in a 1–1 draw at Ewood Park which opened up the 2010 title race. He started the next two Premier League games against Birmingham and Burnley; he then made his fortieth appearance for the club at Fratton Park playing against bottom-of-the-league side Portsmouth in a 0–0 draw on 3 April. By the end of the 2009–10 season, he had made 27 appearances, scoring three goals.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 20 August 2011, Blackburn manager Steve Kean confirmed that Diouf was not in his first-team plans, and that he expected him to leave before the end of the 2011–12 transfer window. On 31 August 2011, Blackburn terminated Diouf's contract by mutual consent. He had fallen out with manager Kean after returning late for pre-season training.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On the last day of the 2011 January transfer window, Diouf joined Scottish Premier League champions Rangers on loan until the end of the 2010–11 season. He made his debut on 2 February, coming on as a 20th-minute substitute for injured teammate Lee McCulloch during a 1–0 win over Hearts at Ibrox. He made his first start for Rangers four days later in a 2–2 draw with Celtic in the Scottish Cup. Diouf scored his first goal for Rangers on 24 February in a 2–2 draw against Sporting CP in the Europa League, netting the opening goal of the game with a header in the 20th minute. He then scored his second goal for Rangers on 13 March in a Scottish Premier League match with Kilmarnock, again scoring the first goal as Rangers won 2–1. In March 2011 Diouf was part of the Rangers team that won the Scottish League Cup after a 2–1 win over rivals Celtic. Diouf also collected an SPL winners medal as Rangers performed a comeback from two points behind Celtic to win the league by one point.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: In October 2011, Diouf was handed a trial by West Ham United and their manager, Sam Allardyce, his manager at both Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers. On 28 October it was announced that Diouf would not be joining the club because of a lack of fitness and his bad reputation. Allardyce later confirmed that the depth of feeling amongst fans was taken into account in his decision not to sign the player.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 31 October 2011, Diouf signed for Doncaster Rovers on a three-month contract. He scored his first two goals for Doncaster against Ipswich at Portman Road on 5 November 2011, earning Man of the Match honours and a 3–2 victory. He took the captain's armband in a goalless draw against Watford but a training injury meant he was unable to play the following games. On 2 February 2012, Diouf signed a six-month deal with the view to an extra year.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: After Doncaster were relegated from The Championship, On 25 April 2012, Diouf was believed to have held talks with Leeds United with a view to signing him at the end of his Doncaster contract. Diouf claimed on 26 April he was very keen on moving to Leeds despite Leeds manager, Neil Warnock, having previously described him as "lower than a sewer rat" for an incident involving Jamie Mackie.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 19 July 2012, it was announced that Diouf would not face charges for assault after being arrested following an incident in a Manchester nightclub in April.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 9 August 2012, Diouf joined Leeds United on trial and started training with the first team. Diouf was confirmed to have signed a non-contract deal with Leeds United on 11 August. Diouf appeared as a substitute in the second half for Leeds against Shrewsbury Town in the League Cup on 11 August.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Diouf made his league début for Leeds as a first-half substitute in their 1–0 victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers. He made his first start for Leeds in their 2–1 victory over Peterborough United on 25 August.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 1 September, Diouf scored his first goal for Leeds in a 3–3 draw against his former club Blackburn Rovers. After the match it was announced that Diouf had signed a permanent contract at Leeds until January 2013. Diouf revealed that he had turned down more lucrative offers from elsewhere to become 'a legend' at Leeds by helping them reach the Premier League. Diouf put in an impressive performance for Leeds' 2–1 victory against Premiership side Everton on 25 September. After the match, manager Neil Warnock described Diouf as his 'matador' and that Diouf had made promises to stay at the club beyond his initial six-month contract.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Diouf scored a brace against Bristol City to help earn Leeds a 3–2 victory on 29 September. Diouf was named captain against his old side Bolton Wanderers in a 2–2 draw on 2 October. Diouf scored his fourth goal of the season on 30 October in a 3–0 League Cup win against Premier League side Southampton F.C. to help Leeds advance to the quarter-finals of the competition. Diouf scored his milestone 5th goal of the season with a penalty to help earn Leeds a 2–2 draw against Brighton on 2 November.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 14 December 2012, Diouf signed a new 18-month deal at the club taking him until the end of the 2013–14 season. He scored his 7th goal of the season against Brighton on 27 April, but received his first red card as a Leeds player for celebrating it with a rude 'gesture' towards the Brighton fans.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: In May 2013, after Guinea club AS Kaloum claimed to have signed Diouf, Leeds United and Diouf strenuously dismissed the claim as 'complete rubbish,' stating that Diouf would be playing for Leeds in the 2013–14 season. Diouf was ruled out of the entire 2013–14 pre-season due to a shin infection.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 15 August 2013, the "Yorkshire Evening Post" reported that Diouf had been made available for transfer.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: In December 2013, it was revealed that Diouf had missed several Leeds fixtures and training sessions due to unspecified 'personal problems', and in order to attend the funerals of former mentor and Senegal coach Bruno Metsu and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Diouf made his first start for Leeds in several months on 28 January in a 1-1 draw against Ipswich Town. It was to be his final game for the club. On 16 May 2014, Diouf was released.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: In November 2014, Diouf signed a one-year contract with Malaysian side Sabah FA of the Malaysia Premier League, and was named team captain. However, Diouf soon found himself embroiled in controversy with his new club after comparing it unfavourably with rival club Johor Darul Takzim II F.C. during an interview with Johor TV. Diouf was reported to have said that "he is willing to build a JDT academy on his own land in Senegal and JDT will get the monetary returns from the proceed of selling players to European countries. He also said that he is willing to play for JDT without any money because of his love for the state of Johor as well as being impressed by the vision and mission of the club". Diouf said this was due to the lack of vision and mission by Sabah Football Association (SAFA). Deeming this behaviour "unprofessional," Sabah stripped Diouf of the captaincy in July 2015.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Diouf's international career started in April 2000 against Benin. He has earned 69 international caps and scored 21 goals for his country. He played for Senegal in their 2002 FIFA World Cup campaign and was elected to the World Cup All-Star team, after leading Senegal to the quarter-finals and victories over France (1–0) and Sweden (2–1). Senegal eventually lost 1–0 in extra time to Turkey. He was also part of the Senegal team who were the runners-up in the 2002 African Cup of Nations, but was one of the players who missed a penalty during the shootout in the final as they lost to Cameroon. Diouf was banned from international football for four matches in 2004 for a verbal assault on referee Ali Bujsaim.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé in conjunction with FIFA's centenary celebrations. In October 2007, Diouf retired from international football, stating he had been frustrated by organisational problems with the side. However, Senegal coach Henryk Kasperczak announced later in the month that he would name Diouf in the next squad.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: In 2011 Diouf was banned for five years from playing for the Senegal national side, after reacting angrily to claims that he had failed to attend a disciplinary hearing. In September 2012, The Senegal Football Federation confirmed that Diouf's five-year ban had been decreased and that he was available to play for the Senegal national side again. After becoming available for the Senegal national side, in October 2012 Diouf was left out of the squad to face Côte d'Ivoire in an African Cup of Nations qualifier, Diouf proclaimed that he felt he was left out of the squad because the Senegal federation were 'scared' of him.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Diouf's professional career has at times been overshadowed by controversy. During his time at Sochaux, he was involved in a succession of minor transgressions. This resulted in the move to Rennes, where he was convicted for driving without a licence, and was involved in a car crash. Taking into account his age and evident remorse, the French courts sentenced Diouf to community service.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: Several times during his early Premier League career, Diouf was accused of spitting at fans and opposition players. In 2002, he was accused of spitting at West Ham United fans while warming up as a substitute for Liverpool during a game at Anfield. An investigation by Merseyside Police found no evidence that an offence had been committed, but that Diouf had spat on the ground. On 13 March 2003, while playing for Liverpool, he was involved in an incident when he spat at Celtic fans during a televised UEFA Cup quarter-final. His club fined him two weeks' wages, UEFA gave him a two-match ban, and Diouf was charged with assault. Although Diouf initially pleaded not guilty, he later changed his plea to guilty, and was fined £5,000.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: In November 2004 while on loan to Bolton, Diouf was charged by the police for spitting at an 11-year-old Middlesbrough fan during a 1–1 draw. Then, on 27 November 2004, Diouf spat in the face of Portsmouth player Arjan de Zeeuw. Bolton fined him two weeks' wages and the FA banned him for three games after he pleaded guilty to a charge of improper conduct. Bolton manager Sam Allardyce later revealed that he considered sending Diouf to see a sports psychologist.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 20 September 2009, Diouf was questioned by police after allegations that he had made a racial slur to a ball-boy during a match at Everton, telling him to "fuck off, white boy". Diouf defended his actions by saying that the ball-boy had thrown the ball to him "like a bone to a dog" and that Everton fans were racially abusing and throwing bananas at him. Police found no evidence of this.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 8 January 2011, following Blackburn's 1–0 win over Queens Park Rangers in the FA Cup third round, QPR manager Neil Warnock accused Diouf of taunting Jamie Mackie whilst the latter lay on the pitch injured with a broken leg and referred to Diouf as "lower than a sewer rat".


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 14 July 2011, it was reported that Diouf had not joined Blackburn Rovers for a pre-season tour of Austria and that his whereabouts were


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 15 April 2012, Diouf and five other men were arrested following reports of a nightclub brawl in Manchester. One man was seriously injured and Diouf was bailed for a week.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 27 April 2013, Diouf was shown a controversial red card at Elland Road after making offensive gestures towards the Brighton away fans.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: In February 2011, Diouf became embroiled in an argument with Celtic Captain Scott Brown after several on pitch altercations with Brown in the Scottish Cup 5th round, most notable of which resulted in Brown specifically turning to Diouf to celebrate his equalising goal.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: On 2 March 2011, Diouf was one of three Rangers players sent off in the Scottish Cup 5th round replay after an altercation at the touchline with Neil Lennon and dissent to the referee at full-time. Diouf was fined £5,000 in April 2011 and warned over his future conduct by the Scottish Football Association.


title: El Hadji Diouf

text: In 2017, Diouf, was in Dakar working as a government goodwill ambassador and adviser on sport to Senegalese President Macky Sall, and running his own sports newspaper and a gymnasium.


title: Biopsy

text: A biopsy is a medical test commonly performed by a surgeon, interventional radiologist, or an interventional cardiologist. The process involves extraction of sample cells or tissues for examination to determine the presence or extent of a disease. The tissue is then fixed, dehydrated, embedded, sectioned, stained and mounted before it is generally examined under a microscope by a pathologist; it may also be analyzed chemically. When an entire lump or suspicious area is removed, the procedure is called an excisional biopsy. An incisional biopsy or core biopsy samples a portion of the abnormal tissue without attempting to remove the entire lesion or tumor. When a sample of tissue or fluid is removed with a needle in such a way that cells are removed without preserving the histological architecture of the tissue cells, the procedure is called a needle aspiration biopsy. Biopsies are most commonly performed for insight into possible cancerous or inflammatory conditions.


title: Biopsy

text: The Arab physician Abulcasis (1013–1107) developed one of the earliest diagnostic biopsies. He used a needle to puncture a goiter and then characterized the material.


title: Biopsy

text: When cancer is suspected, a variety of biopsy techniques can be applied. An "excisional biopsy" is an attempt to remove an entire lesion. When the specimen is evaluated, in addition to diagnosis, the amount of uninvolved tissue around the lesion, the "surgical margin" of the specimen is examined to see if the disease has spread beyond the area biopsied. "Clear margins" or "negative margins" means that no disease was found at the edges of the biopsy specimen. "Positive margins" means that disease was found, and a wider excision may be needed, depending on the diagnosis.


title: Biopsy

text: When intact removal is not indicated for a variety of reasons, a wedge of tissue may be taken in an "incisional biopsy". In some cases, a sample can be collected by devices that "bite" a sample. A variety of sizes of needle can collect tissue in the lumen ("core biopsy"). Smaller diameter needles collect cells and cell clusters, fine needle aspiration biopsy.


title: Biopsy

text: Pathologic examination of a biopsy can determine whether a lesion is benign or malignant, and can help differentiate between different types of cancer. In contrast to a biopsy that merely samples a lesion, a larger excisional specimen called a resection may come to a pathologist, typically from a surgeon attempting to eradicate a known lesion from a patient. For example, a pathologist would examine a mastectomy specimen, even if a previous nonexcisional breast biopsy had already established the diagnosis of breast cancer. Examination of the full mastectomy specimen would confirm the exact nature of the cancer (subclassification of tumor and histologic "grading") and reveal the extent of its spread (pathologic "staging").


title: Biopsy

text: There are two types of liquid biopsy (which is not really a biopsy as they are blood tests that do not require a biopsy of tissue): circulating tumor cell assays or cell-free circulating tumor DNA tests. These methods provide a non-invasive alternative to repeat invasive biopsies to monitor cancer treatment, test available drugs against the circulating tumor cells, evaluate the mutations in cancer and plan individualized treatments. In addition, because cancer is a heterogeneous genetic disease, and excisional biopsies provide only a snapshot in time of some of the rapid, dynamic genetic changes occurring in tumors, liquid biopsies provide some advantages over tissue biopsy-based genomic testing. In addition, excisional biopsies are invasive, can't be used repeatedly, and are ineffective in understanding the dynamics of tumor progression and metastasis. By detecting, quantifying and characterisation of vital circulating tumor cells or genomic alterations in CTCs and cell-free DNA in blood, liquid biopsy can provide real-time information on the stage of tumor progression, treatment effectiveness, and cancer metastasis risk. This technological development could make it possible to diagnose and manage cancer from repeated blood tests rather than from a traditional biopsy.


title: Biopsy

text: Circulating tumor cell tests are already available but not covered by insurance yet at maintrac and under development by many pharmaceutical companies. Those tests analyze circulating tumor cells (CTCs) Analysis of individual CTCs demonstrated a high level of heterogeneity seen at the single cell level for both protein expression and protein localization and the CTCs reflected both the primary biopsy and the changes seen in the metastatic sites.


title: Biopsy

text: Analysis of cell-free circulating tumor DNA (cfDNA) has an advantage over circulating tumor cells assays in that there is approximately 100 times more cell-free DNA than there is DNA in circulating tumor cells. These tests analyze fragments of tumor-cell DNA that are continuously shed by tumors into the bloodstream. Companies offering cfDNA next generation sequencing testing include Personal Genome Diagnostics and Guardant Health. These tests are moving into widespread use when a tissue biopsy has insufficient material for DNA testing or when it is not safe to do an invasive biopsy procedure, according to a recent report of results on over 15,000 advanced cancer patients sequenced with the Guardant Health test.


title: Biopsy

text: A 2014 study of the blood of 846 patients with 15 different types of cancer in 24 institutions was able to detect the presence of cancer DNA in the body. They found tumor DNA in the blood of more than 80 percent of patients with metastatic cancers and about 47 percent of those with localized tumors. The test does not indicate the tumor site(s) or other information about the tumor. The test did not produce false positives.


title: Biopsy

text: Such tests may also be useful to assess whether malignant cells remain in patients whose tumors have been surgically removed. Up to 30 percent are expected to relapse because some tumor cells remain. Initial studies identified about half the patients who later relapsed, again without false positives.


title: Biopsy

text: Another potential use is to track the specific DNA mutations driving a tumor. Many new cancer medications block specific molecular processes. Such tests could allow easier targeting of therapy to tumor.


title: Biopsy

text: For easily detected and accessed sites, any suspicious lesions may be assessed. Originally, this was skin or superficial masses. X-ray, then later CT, MRI, and ultrasound along with endoscopy extended the range.


title: Biopsy

text: In inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis), frequent biopsies are taken to assess the activity of disease and to assess changes that precede malignancy.


title: Biopsy

text: Biopsy specimens are often taken from part of a lesion when the cause of a disease is uncertain or its extent or exact character is in doubt. Vasculitis, for instance, is usually diagnosed on biopsy.


title: Biopsy

text: After the biopsy is performed, the sample of tissue that was removed from the patient is sent to the pathology laboratory. A pathologist specializes in diagnosing diseases (such as cancer) by examining tissue under a microscope. When the laboratory (see Histology) receives the biopsy sample, the tissue is processed and an extremely thin slice of tissue is removed from the sample and attached to a glass slide. Any remaining tissue is saved for use in later studies, if required.


title: Biopsy

text: The slide with the tissue attached is treated with dyes that stain the tissue, which allows the individual cells in the tissue to be seen more clearly. The slide is then given to the pathologist, who examines the tissue under a microscope, looking for any abnormal findings. The pathologist then prepares a report that lists any abnormal or important findings from the biopsy. This report is sent to the surgeon who originally performed the biopsy on the patient.


title: Amiens

text: Amiens ( ; ; , or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of Amiens was 135,429. A central landmark of the city is Amiens Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in France. Amiens also has one of the largest university hospitals in France, with a capacity of 1,200 beds. The author Jules Verne lived in Amiens from 1871 until his death in 1905, and served on the city council for 15 years. Incumbent French president Emmanuel Macron was born in Amiens.


title: Amiens

text: The town was fought over during both World Wars, suffering significant damage, and was repeatedly occupied by both sides. The 1918 Battle of Amiens was the opening phase of the Hundred Days Offensive which directly led to the Armistice with Germany. The Royal Air Force heavily bombed the town during the Second World War. In the aftermath, the city was rebuilt according to Pierre Dufau's plans with wider streets to ease traffic congestion. These newer structures were primarily built of brick, concrete and white stone with slate roofs. The architect Auguste Perret designed the Gare d'Amiens train station and nearby Tour Perret.


title: Amiens

text: Amiens has an important historical and cultural heritage, on which a significant amount of tourism is based. Apart from the cathedral, there is the , the , the Tour Perret, the Musée de Picardie, the , and the quarters of Saint-Leu and Saint-Maurice. A total of 60 monuments are listed in the inventory of monuments historiques, over 1600 places and monuments listed in the , and 187 objects listed in the inventory of monuments historiques. During December, the town hosts the largest Christmas market in northern France. It is known for a few local foods, including "macarons d'Amiens", almond paste biscuits; "tuiles amienoises", chocolate and orange curved biscuits; "pâté de canard d'Amiens", duck pâté in pastry; "la ficelle Picarde", an oven-baked cheese-topped crêpe; and "flamiche aux poireaux", a puff pastry tart made with leeks and cream.


title: Amiens

text: The first known settlement at this location was Samarobriva ("Somme bridge"), the central settlement of the Ambiani tribe, one of the principal tribes of Gaul. The Romans named the town Ambianum, meaning settlement of the Ambiani people.


title: Amiens

text: Amiens was part of Francia starting from the 5th century. The Normans sacked the city in 859 and again in 882.


title: Amiens

text: In 1113, the city was recognized by King Louis VI of France, and in 1185 it was linked to the Crown of France. In 1597, Spanish soldiers held the city during the six-month Siege of Amiens, before Henry IV regained control. During the 18th and 19th century, the textile tradition of Amiens became famous for its velours. As a result of the French Revolution, the provinces of France were dismantled and the territory was organised into departments. Much of Picardy became the newly created department of Somme with Amiens as the departmental capital. During the industrial revolution, the city walls were demolished, opening up space for large boulevards around the town center. The Henriville neighborhood in the south of the city was developed around this time. In 1848, the first railway arrived in Amiens, linking the city to Boulogne-sur-Mer. During the 1870 Battle of Amiens, the city was occupied by invading Prussian forces.


title: Amiens

text: The town was fought over during both the First and Second World Wars, suffering significant damage and being occupied several times by both sides. The 1918 Battle of Amiens was the opening phase of the Hundred Days Offensive which led directly to the Armistice with Germany that ended the war. It was heavily bombed by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. The city was rebuilt according to Pierre Dufau's plans with a focus on widening the streets to ease traffic congestion. These newer structures were primarily built of brick, concrete and white stone with slate roofs. The architect Auguste Perret designed the Gare d'Amiens train station and nearby Tour Perret.


title: Amiens

text: Amiens, the regional prefecture of Picardy, also functions as the prefecture of the Somme department, one of the three departments (with Oise and Aisne) in the region. Located in the Paris Basin, the city benefits from a privileged geographical position, with close proximity to Paris, Lille, Rouen, London and Brussels. At the crossroads of major European routes of travel (A1, A16 and A29), the city is also at the heart of a major rail star.


title: Amiens

text: As the crow flies, the city is north of Paris, south-west of Lille, north-east of Rouen, east-north-east of Le Havre and north-west of Reims. At the regional level, Amiens is located north of Beauvais, west of Saint-Quentin, from Compiègne and from Laon.


title: Amiens

text: In area, Amiens is the third-largest settlement in the Somme, after Crécy-en-Ponthieu and Hornoy-le-Bourg.


title: Amiens

text: The main stem of the River Somme passes through Amiens and is generally benign, except during exceptional floods that can last up to several weeks (such as in spring 2001). It is also, on its southeastern outskirts, close to Camon and Longueau, the confluence with its main tributary on the left bank (to the south), and the Avre. The Selle enters from the northwest of Amiens, with two arms (including the Haute Selle) passing behind the Unicorn Stadium, the exhibition park, the megacity and horse racing track, then passing the end of the "Promenade de la Hotoie" and the zoo of Amiens, and to the right of the water treatment plant, in front of the island Sainte-Aragone, opposite the cemetery of La Madeleine in Amiens.


title: Amiens

text: The city developed in a natural narrowing of the river at the level of the , due to the advance of the rim of the Picard plateau in Saint-Pierre (ford crossing). The Amiens citadel is built on this limestone butte of the Picard plateau and "Rue Saint-Pierre" is a slightly inclined path to leave the city from the north. At this narrowing, a network of narrow canals led to the construction of bridges and buildings including textile mills in the Middle Ages.


title: Amiens

text: The marshes of the old bed of the river Somme was used to dig peat. Farmers maintained rieux, canals and ditches by cleaning out the silt and used it to append to their vegetable garden plot, the hortillons. Beginning in the 20 th century the descendants of hortillons stopped maintaining the canals and the areas were gradually left to lie fallow or sold to private individuals who created pleasure gardens accessible by boat.


title: Amiens

text: The hydrographic network has always been an important city-operated asset. The river helped shape the identity of the landscape, urban and economic territory. It is around the quarters of Saint-Leu, Saint-Maurice bordering the River Somme and most of the administrative and civil area of the current city center which the city has developed since antiquity.


title: Amiens

text: The Canal de la Somme dates from the beginning of the 19th century and the bridge at the foot of the citadel was built after World War II.


title: Amiens

text: Amiens has the typical oceanic climate of the north of France, with relatively mild winters, cool summers, and rainfall well distributed throughout the year.


title: Amiens

text: Amiens is a hub between the Île de France and the rest of northern France; Normandy and Benelux; and France and Great Britain. Amiens is not directly on principal European road and rail arteries, such as the A1 motorway and the Paris-Lille TGV train line, at present.


title: Amiens

text: However, due to its position halfway between the urban areas of Lille and Paris, Amiens has good conditions for service and accessibility, including motorways (at the junction of the A16 and A29).


title: Amiens

text: Amiens station is served by regional train services to destinations that include Rouen, Calais, Lille, Reims, Compiègne and Paris-Nord. Saint-Roch (Somme) station in the western part of the city is served by local trains towards Rouen and Abbeville. A regular bus route with the TGV Haute-Picardie station also provides access to the Charles-de-Gaulle Airport station. On the horizon of 2025, the Roissy–Picardie Link will put Amiens 55 minutes from Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport and its TGV station.


title: Amiens

text: Since antiquity, Amiens has been a crossroads of important routes. The contemporary city is served by the A16 and A29 autoroutes. The Jules Verne Viaduct, long, crosses the River Somme to the east of the city and allows circumvention of the city by motorway-type roads. The A16 and A29 autoroutes, the RN1 and the RN25 form a bypass-type motorway around the city that the population has called the "Rocade d'Amiens" [ring road of Amiens]. Initially constituting national roads which are downgraded today, mostly as departmental roads, the greater urban area of Amiens is served by:


title: Amiens

text: According to the (PDU) approved 19 December 2013 for the period 2013–2023 parking supply is considered abundant in Amiens. Although important, demand for parking is less than what is available (capacity reserves are still 20% minimum: If the road is sometimes saturated, the occupancy rate of the underground parking remains globally less than 100%).


title: Amiens

text: In 2013, the city counted approximately 70,000 public parking spaces, including 8,400 in the city center and in its immediate vicinity, where 70% of places are paid.


title: Amiens

text: , a residential parking system has been deployed in Saint-Anne ward to cope with congestion in the streets caused by SNCF railway station users. During the campaign for the municipal election of 2008, parking was one of the important topics of debate. A year after the change of majority, the team launched a consultation with the population. From 2011, residential parking was extended to the Gare-La-Vallée and Riolan neighborhoods, then in 2012 to the Noyon neighborhood and the area east of the Riolan sector. In 2014, 2,600 parking spaces were affected by this system which allowed city residents more parking near their homes in order to promote a better rotation of vehicles in the streets and reduce permanent occupation of public space by the cars cluttering the highway.


title: Amiens

text: Amiens was originally served by two tram lines over , opened in 1887. They intersect at "Place Gambetta", one linking , the Church of Saint-Acheul, Cagnard bridge, "Rue de Noyon" and "Rue Jules-Barni"; the other from the Church of Saint-Pierre at the racecourse, by the streets of Saint-Leu, Frédéric-Petit and Colbert. Electrified in 1899, the network grew to seven lines totaling in 1906. From 1932, Longueau was linked to Amiens by a bus service. German bombing in 1940 destroyed most of the city center and hit the Jules-Ferry Road tram , totally destroying the tram fleet. Only the Longueau bus survived. A few old Parisian buses were also used in an extremely reduced service. These buses as well as the surviving bus were then converted to city gas and equipped with tanks on the roof covered by a huge white dome. This service continued until approximately 1946. There were only two urban lines: An east–west line (Saint-Acheul – Montieres) and a northeast–southwest line (Beauville – road to Rouen). It was decided after the war to serve the city by a trolleybus with one route to Longueau. This was only in part realized, serving Saint-Acheul, Rouen, La Madeleine and Saint-Pierre. In 1964, trolleybuses were abandoned and the bus became ubiquitous in Amiens transportation.


title: Amiens

text: The bus network is today managed by the Ametis , whose network covers Amiens Métropole, the agglomeration of Amiens. The establishment of dedicated bus lanes began in 2006. Former Mayor Gilles de Robien had envisioned the creation of a tram, but the choice of dedicated bus lanes had been preferred for reasons of cost and patronage. His successor, Mayor , had been considering the development of a in the metropolitan area. As a result of numerous studies and conferences, elected representatives voted for the creation of a tram at the municipal Council of 15 November 2012. The project had been endorsed by the Communauté d'agglomération Amiens Métropole on 18 December 2012 and the commissioning of a first north–south was scheduled for 2018/2019. Following the , which were a defeat for most municipal and community carriers of the project, the new mayor of Amiens Brigitte Fouré, and by extension the new president of Amiens Métropole Alain Gest, decided to suspend the project at least during the time of their respective mandates, thus applying a campaign promise (the tram was at the heart of debate) and despite a project announcement of trams on tyres (of TVR type). Improvement of public transit would then be only by that of the bus network. Indeed, in December of the same year, the Community Council approved funding for a study (the sixth in 20 years) relating to the establishment of a rapid transit (BHNS), which should enter into service in March 2019, and whose vehicles could be electric.


title: Amiens

text: In 2012, Amiens Métropole had of routes for cyclists. Despite the development of a bicycle plan in 1997 which was planning the development of of equipped cycleways, the network of the territory in terms of paths is still incomplete.


title: Amiens

text: The blueprint of the bicycle facilities of the agglomeration (SDAC) provides, over a period of 10 years (2014–2024), for of cycle routes and equips 490 sites for the parking of bikes. This plan also includes the deployment of parking facilities over the entire territory of the city, close to the facilities frequented by bikers, as well as at traffic lights or even the maintenance of existing facilities.


title: Amiens

text: Connections from these two stations include to Lille via Arras and Douai, to Boulogne via Abbeville, to Paris-Nord via Creil or Compiègne, to Reims via Tergnier, and to Rouen.


title: Amiens

text: Many regional and extra regional links (Normandie, Grand Est and Île-de-France) pass through Amiens, especially by TER Hauts-de-France.


title: Amiens

text: A station located from Amiens, the Haute-Picardie TGV station, allows access to the TGV network. It is served by buses from Amiens. Its isolated character earned it the name of "gare des betteraves", or "gare betteraves", at the time of its construction.


title: Amiens

text: In addition to Amiens – Glisy Aerodrome, bordering the town's eastern edge from the center, there are several airports nearby.


title: Amiens

text: The Somme canal runs through the town to the English Channel. This canal is linked to the Canal du Nord (Paris to Lille metropolitan area).


title: Amiens

text: Amiens comprises a number of neighbourhoods ("quartiers" in French) with their own characteristics, including Saint-Leu, St-Maurice, Henriville, and Saint-Acheul.


title: Amiens

text: St-Leu forms part of Amiens, north of the city center. It has many older wooden and brick houses and several canals. At the foot of the cathedral, traversed by canals, this picturesque area was largely rehabilitated during the 1990s. It extends to the Somme canal, located more to the north, at the foot of the Coteau Saint-Pierre on which the fortress of , called "Citadelle", was built. Historically, it was the poor quarter of the city, where butchers, tanners and dyers gathered.


title: Amiens

text: Amiens University's Faculty of Sciences, present since the 1960s, has been renovated and expanded on occasion. The Faculty of Law and Economics has also been transferred since the mid-1990s from the campus (offset to the south of the city) to its new location at the foot of the cathedral. The open-air parking it replaces was a "gap" in the landscape dating from World War II. Nonetheless, it allowed an unobstructed view of the cathedral. Most of the buildings have been renovated and transformed into housing much of which is for students, many of whom are in the quarter.


title: Amiens

text: The area became the heart of the Amiens people's evenings, with many establishments (bars, restaurants, etc.) on "Place du Don" and "Quai Bélu".


title: Amiens

text: The church is found at "Rue Saint-Leu", located just between the Faculty of Science and Law-Economy (UPJV).


title: Amiens

text: Two theatres were established in the quarter, that of the Chés Cabotans (puppet shows in the Picard language) and the "Maison du Théâtre" at the foot of the Saint-Leu Church. There is also "La Lune des Pirates", a concert hall.


title: Amiens

text: Located to the west of the Citadelle, and east of the , this very old working-class quarter of Amiens acted as an industrial center in the 18th century. It is currently undergoing significant housing renovation and development.


title: Amiens

text: Bordered by the Canal de la Somme, it offers a stopover for leisure boats, which must go through a lock.


title: Amiens

text: The walls of the city's former dye factory are now those of the (ESAD) as well as those of the Faculty of Arts. The École supérieure d'ingénieurs en électronique et électrotechnique (ESIEE) is in the same quarter. As the Citadelle, it will be renovated by the architect Renzo Piano to accommodate the university departments (UFR) of: letters, history and geography, languages, the (ESPE), the House of Languages, the House of Research and the University Library in 2015.


title: Amiens

text: The Henriville neighborhood was mostly built during the 19th century after the demolition of the city wall. It lies at the south of the town center. It has numerous bourgeois houses and townhouses, predominantly in brick, blending architectural styles of the period, including neoclassical, troubadour and neo-Gothic. There are also private mansions, such as the Acloque mansion and the house of Jules Verne.


title: Amiens

text: The Saint-Acheul quarter () existed before Amiens' inception, as people have lived there since prehistoric times. This is where archaeological excavations in the nineteenth century discovered prehistoric tool sets typical of the "Acheulean" prehistorical era, named after this neighborhood (also spelled Acheulian, pronounced ). Civilians can freely visit the archaeological garden there.


title: Amiens

text: Not to be confused with the commune of Saint-Acheul situated to the north, the quarter of Saint-Acheul is the site of a military cemetery from the First World War (1914–1918).


title: Amiens

text: It also contains the Church of Saint-Acheul, and the former normal school of teachers which became the Lycée Robert-de-Luzarches. A number of famous people are buried in the former Saint-Acheul cemetery such as the creator of "Bécassine" J.P. Pinchon, and many resistance fighters. Part of the quarter includes a so-called "English neighborhood," with typical English style houses. At the feet of this area lie the , a marshy area criss-crossed by canals.


title: Amiens

text: These areas experience a lot of social troubles and have regularly been the place for riots. The northern quarters were the scene of violent events in 1994, 1999 and 2000 (clashes between several districts of the city and between the neighbourhoods of Amiens and the districts of Creil), in 2006 and 2008 (in the wake of incidents in the Paris suburbs) and more recently in August 2012 following a conflict between youth and the police. The cost of the latest vandalism to occur in the north of Amiens would amount, according to , to between four and six million euros. These extremely violent riots caused sixteen police officers to be injured.


title: Amiens

text: An extensive programme of redevelopment of these neighborhoods began recently, with demolition of HLM tower blocks and new infrastructure having been built, especially for schools. In 2009, the public transport network of the Amiens agglomeration was significantly modified.


title: Amiens

text: Among this housing, 88.7% were primary residences, 2.1% of secondary residences and 9.2% vacant housing. These dwellings were 35.6% of houses and 63.4% of apartments.


title: Amiens

text: The proportion of principal residences, which were the properties of occupants, was 31.9%, down from 2007 (34.4%). The share of empty rented HLM homes (social housing) was up: 29.8% against 29.4% in 2007, their number increased from 18,268 to 19,431. However, this percentage remains much greater than the rate of 20% required by the (SRU) for cities and agglomerations of more than 50,000 inhabitants.


title: Amiens

text: The identity of the city is strongly marked by the specificity of its housing stock, consisting in a large proportion of detached houses, semi-detached, single or bourgeois: the "amiénoises". These traditional houses in the suburbs, in brick, were intrinsically linked to the expansion of the city during and after the Industrial Revolution.


title: Amiens

text: The "amiénoise simple" includes a window on the ground floor and floors for attic and basement. It is built on a plot of a few metres wide but is very deep, and includes a garden, forming hearts with green islets and sparse areas. The "amiénoise double" has two windows at each level. The "grandes amiénoises" and townhouses rise to at least two floors with large rooms. They can have a gate opening onto a paved courtyard.


title: Amiens

text: The official buildings or mansions regularly use brick façades on a sandstone base, decorated by stone window and door frames.


title: Amiens

text: In historic areas such as the quarter, façades widely use wood, half-timbered or siding, and wattle and daub.


title: Amiens

text: The toponym is derived from the name of the local Gallic people, the Ambiani, which in the 4th century, replaced the old name of the town (the bridge on the Samara – Somme). Amiens then became the episcopal headquarters. In Picard, Amiens is called "Anmyen".


title: Amiens

text: The number of inhabitants is estimated between 100,000 and 149,999, and the number of members of the municipal council is 55.


title: Amiens

text: On 4 April 2014, Brigitte Fouré (IDU ) succeeded (PS). Her list was elected in the second round on 30 March 2014 with 50.39% of the votes.


title: Amiens

text: Amiens is a city marked by a strong judicial tradition, with the historical presence of its Court of Appeal, the , as well as all courts of first and second degree of . The Court of Appeal of Amiens has jurisdiction over the three departments of Picardy, with nine .


title: Amiens

text: The inhabitants of Amiens are called the "Amiénois" and their blason populaire is "Chés maqueux d'gueugues" (the eaters of nuts).


title: Amiens

text: The population of Amiens has risen sharply since the mid-19th century: Its population doubled between 1850 and 1960, from 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants, i.e. a gain of 50,000 people over this period of 110 years, and gaining about 30,000 others since (over 50 years only this time).