title: STMicroelectronics

text: fab in Singapore. The Singapore technical engineers have been trained in Italy and the fab of Ang Mo Kio started to produce its first


title: STMicroelectronics

text: wafers in 1984. Converted up to fab, this is now an important wafer fab of the group. Ang Mo Kio also hosts some design centers. The site currently employs 6000 staff.


title: STMicroelectronics

text: Update-2012: Numonyx JV (with Intel) is acquired by Micron in 2010. As such, AMK8 Fab (200mm HVM Fab) is currently a Micron entity. AMK5 and AMK6 remains to be STM entities.


title: STMicroelectronics

text: Founded in 1979 as a radiofrequency products facility, the Bouskoura site now hosts back-end manufacturing activity, which includes chip testing and packaging.


title: STMicroelectronics

text: The Phoenix, Arizona 8 inch (200 mm) fab, the Carrollton, Texas 6 inch (150 mm) fab, and the Ain Sebaa, Morocco fab are beginning rampdown plans, and are destined to close by 2010.


title: STMicroelectronics

text: The Casablanca, Morocco site consists of two assembly parts (Bouskoura and Aïn Sebaâ) and totals around 4000 employees. It was opened in the 1960s by Thomson.


title: STMicroelectronics

text: The Bristol, United Kingdom site employing well over 300 at its peak (in 2001/2) but was ramped down to approx. 150 employees at close by early 2014.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Gymnasium (and variations of the word) is a term in various European languages for a secondary school that prepares students for higher education at a university. It is comparable to the US English term "preparatory high school". Before the 20th century, the gymnasium system was a widespread feature of educational systems throughout many European countries.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: The word (), from Greek () 'naked' or 'nude', was first used in Ancient Greece, in the sense of a place for both physical and intellectual education of young men. The latter meaning of a place of intellectual education persisted in many European languages (including Albanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Greek, German, Hungarian, the Scandinavian languages, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovak, Slovenian and Russian), whereas in other languages, like English ("gymnasium", "gym") and Spanish ("gimnasio"), the former meaning of a place for physical education was retained.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Because gymnasiums prepare students for university study, they are thus meant for the more academically minded students, who are sifted out between the ages of 10 and 13. In addition to the usual curriculum, students of a "gymnasium" often study Latin and Ancient Greek.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Some gymnasiums provide general education, while others have a specific focus. (This also differs from country to country.) The four traditional branches are:


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Curricula differ from school to school but generally include literature, mathematics, informatics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, art (as well as crafts and design), music, history, philosophy, civics/citizenship, social sciences, and several foreign languages.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Schools concentrate not only on academic subjects, but also on producing well-rounded individuals, so physical education and religion or ethics are compulsory, even in non-denominational schools which are prevalent. For example, the German constitution guarantees the separation of church and state, so although religion or ethics classes are compulsory, students may choose to study a specific religion or none at all.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Today, a number of other areas of specialization exist, such as gymnasiums specializing in economics, technology or domestic sciences. In some countries, there is a notion of , which is equivalent to beginning classes of the full gymnasium, with the rights to continue education in a "gymnasium". Here, the prefix "pro"- is equivalent to "pre"-, indicating that this curriculum precedes normal gymnasium studies.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Central European, Nordic, Benelux and Baltic countries, this meaning for "gymnasium" (that is a secondary school preparing the student for higher education at a university) has been the same at least since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. The term was derived from the classical Greek word "" (), which was originally applied to an exercising ground in ancient Athens. Here teachers gathered and gave instruction between the hours devoted to physical exercises and sports, and thus the term became associated with and came to mean an institution of learning.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: This use of the term did not prevail among the Romans, but was revived during the Renaissance in Italy, and from there passed into the Netherlands and Germany during the 15th century. In 1538, Johannes Sturm founded at Strasbourg the school which became the model of the modern German gymnasium. In 1812, a Prussian regulation ordered all schools with the right to send their students to the university to bear the name of gymnasium. By the 20th century, this practice was followed in almost the entire Austrian-Hungarian, German, and Russian Empires. In the modern era, many countries which have gymnasiums were once part of these three empires.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Albania, a "gymnasium" () education takes three years following a compulsory nine-year elementary education and ending with a final aptitude test called . The final test is standardized at the state level and serves as an entrance qualification for universities.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: These can be either public (state-run, tuition-free) or private (fee-paying). The subjects taught are mathematics, Albanian language, one to three foreign languages, history, geography, computer science, the natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics), history of art, music, philosophy, logic, physical education, and the social sciences (sociology, ethics, psychology, politics and economy).


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: The gymnasium is generally viewed as a destination for the best-performing students and as the type of school that serves primarily to prepare students for university, while other students go to technical/vocational schools. Therefore, gymnasiums often base their admittance criteria on an entrance exam, elementary school grades, or some combination of the two.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Austria the Gymnasium has two stages, from the age of 11 to 14, and from 15 to 18, concluding with Matura. Historically, three types existed. The focuses on Ancient Greek and Latin. The puts its focus on actively spoken languages. The usual combination is English, French, and Latin; sometimes French can be swapped with another foreign language (like Italian, Spanish or Russian). The "Realgymnasium" emphasizes the sciences. In the last few decades, more autonomy has been granted to schools, and various types have been developed, focusing on sports, music, or economics, for example.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Belarus, gymnasium is the highest variant of secondary education, which provides advanced knowledge in various subjects.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: The number of years of instruction at a "gymnasium" is 12, which is different from usual secondary education (11 years). However, it is possible to cover all required credits in 11 years, by taking additional subjects each semester.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Belarus, gymnasium is generally viewed as a destination for the best-performing students and as the type of school that serves primarily to prepare students for university.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, (also spelled "gymnasium") is a type of school that provides secondary education. leads to the exam.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: There are different types of distinguished by the length of study. In the Czech Republic there are eight-year, six-year, and four-year types, and in Slovakia there are eight-year and four-year types, of which the latter is more common. In both countries, there are also bilingual (Czech or Slovak with English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, or Russian; in Slovakia, bilingual are five-year) and private .


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: German gymnasiums are selective schools. They offer the most academically promising youngsters a quality education that is free in all state-run schools (and generally not above €50/month cost in Church-run schools, though there are some expensive private schools). Gymnasiums may expel students who academically under-perform their classmates or behave in a way that is often seen as undesirable and unacceptable.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Historically, the German "" also included in its overall accelerated curriculum post-secondary education at college level and the degree awarded substituted for the bachelor's degree (Baccalaureate) previously awarded by a college or university so that universities in Germany became exclusively graduate schools. In the United States, the German Gymnasium curriculum was used at a number of prestigious universities, such as the University of Michigan, as a model for their undergraduate college programs.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Pupils study subjects such as German, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography, biology, arts, music, physical education, religion, history and civics/citizenship/social sciences and computer science. They are also required to study at least two foreign languages. The usual combinations are English and French or English and Latin, although many schools make it possible to combine English with another language, most often Spanish, Ancient Greek, or Russian. Religious education classes are a part of the curricula of all German schools, yet not compulsory; a student or their parents or guardians can conscientiously object to taking them, in which case the student (along with those whose religion is not being taught in the school) is taught ethics or philosophy. In-state schools, a student who is not baptized into either the Catholic or Protestant faiths is allowed to choose which of these classes to take. The only exception to this is in the state of Berlin, where the subject ethics is mandatory for all students and (Christian) religious studies can only be chosen additionally. A similar situation is found in Brandenburg where the subject life skills, ethics, and religious education ("Lebensgestaltung, Ethik, Religionskunde, LER") is the primary subject but parents/guardians or students older than 13 can choose to replace it with (Christian) religious studies or take both. The intention behind LER is that students should get an objective insight on questions of personal development and ethics as well as on the major world religions.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: For younger students nearly the entire curriculum of a "gymnasium" is compulsory; in higher years additional subjects are available and some of the hitherto compulsory subjects can be dropped, but the choice is not as wide as in other school systems, such as US high schools.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Although some specialist Gymnasiums have English or French as the language of instruction, at most Gymnasiums lessons (apart from foreign language courses) are conducted in Standard German.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: The number of years of instruction at a "gymnasium" differs between the states. It varies between six and seven years in Berlin and Brandenburg (primary school is six years in both as opposed to four years in the rest of Germany) and eight in Bavaria, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg among others. While in Saxony and Thuringia students have never been taught more than eight years in Gymnasium (by default), nearly all states now conduct the ' examinations, which complete the Gymnasium education, after 13 years of primary school and Gymnasium combined. In addition, some states offer a 12-year curriculum leading to the '. These final examinations are now centrally drafted and controlled ("") in all German states except for Rhineland-Palatinate and provide a qualification to attend any German university.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Italy originally the indicated a typology of five-year junior high school (age 11 to 16) and preparing to the three year Classical Lyceum (age 16 to 19), a high school focusing on classical studies and humanities. After the school reform that unified the junior high school system, the term stayed to indicate the first two year of , now five years long. An Italian high school student who enrolls in follows this study path: (gymnasium fourth year, age 14), (gymnasium fifth year, age 15), (lyceum first year, age 16), (lyceum second year, age 17) and (lyceum third year, age 18). Some believe this still has some sense, since the two-year has a differently oriented curriculum from the . students spend the majority of their schooling studying Greek and Latin grammar, laying the bases for the "higher" and more in depth set of studies of the , such as Greek and Latin literature and Philosophy.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In July 1940 the Fascist Minister of National Education Giuseppe Bottai got a bill of law approved that abolished the first three years of the Gymnasium and instituted a unique path of studies for children aged from 12 to 14. The last two years of the Gymnasium kept the previous denomination and the related scholastic curriculum for the following decades.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In the Netherlands, gymnasium is the highest variant of secondary education, offering the academically most promising youngsters (top 5%) a quality education that is in most cases free (and in other cases at low cost). It consists of six years, after 8 years (including kindergarten) of primary school, in which pupils study the same subjects as their German counterparts, with the addition of compulsory Ancient Greek, Latin and (Classical Cultural Education), history of the Ancient Greek and Roman culture and literature. Schools have some freedom in choosing their specific curriculum, with for example Spanish, Philosophy and , a very technical and highly demanding course, being available as final exams. Usually, schools will have all classes mandatory in switching combinations for the first three or so years (with the exception of which is a free choice from the second year onward), after which students will choose their subjects in the directions of Economics and Society, Culture and Society, Nature and Health, Nature and Technology or Technology. The equivalent without classical languages is called , and gives access to the same university studies (although some extra classes are needed when starting a degree in classical languages or theology). All are government-funded. See (in English) for the full article on Dutch "preparatory scientific education".


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Denmark, Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Latvia, Norway and Sweden, gymnasium consists of three years, usually starting at the year the students turn 16 years old after nine or ten years of primary school. In Lithuania the gymnasium usually consists of four years of schooling starting at the age of 15–16, the last year roughly corresponding to the first year of college.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Most gymnasiums in the Nordic countries are free. Universal student grants are also available in certain countries for students over 18.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Denmark (see also Gymnasium (Denmark)), there are four kinds of gymnasiums: STX (Regular Examination Programme), HHX (Higher Business Examination Programme), HTX (Higher Technical Examination Programme) and HF (Higher Preparatory Examination Programme). HF is only two years, instead of the three required for STX, HHX, and HTX. All four type of gymnasiums theoretically gives the same eligibility for university. However, because of the different subjects offered, students may be better qualified in an area of further study. E.g. HHX students have subjects that make them more eligible for studies such as business studies or economics at university, while HTX offer applied science and mathematics that benefit studies in Science or Engineering. There is also EUX, which takes four years and ends with both the STX exam and status as a journeyman of a craft. Compared to the somewhat equivalent A-levels in the UK, Danish gymnasia have more mandatory subjects. The subjects are divided into levels, where A-levels run through all three years, B-levels two years and C-levels one year (apart from PE which exists as a C-level lasting tree years).


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Sweden, there are two different kinds of branches of studies: the first branch focuses on giving a vocational education while the second branch focuses on giving preparation for higher education. While students from both branches can go on to study at a university, students of the vocational branch graduate with a degree within their attended program. There are 18 national programs, 12 vocational and 6 preparatory.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In the Faroe Islands, there are also four kinds of gymnasiums, which are the equivalents of the Danish programmes: (equivalent to STX), (HHX), (HTX) and "HF" (HF). and HF are usually located at the same institutions as can be seen in the name of the institute in Eysturoy: Studentaskúlin og HF-skeiðið í Eysturoy.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Greenland, there is a single kind of gymnasium, Den Gymnasiale Uddannelse (Ilinniarnertuunngorniarneq), that replaced the earlier Greenlandic Secondary Education Programme (GU), the Greenland Higher Commercial Examination Programme (HHX) and the Greenland education to Higher Technical Examination Programme (HTX), which were based on the Danish system. This program allows a more flexible Greenland gymnasium, where students based on a common foundation course can choose between different fields of study that meet the individual student's abilities and interests. The course is offered in Aasiaat, Nuuk, Sisimiut and Qaqortoq, with one in Ilulissat to be opened in 2015, latest in 2016 if approved by .


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Finland, the admissions to gymnasiums are competitive, the accepted people comprising 51% of the age group. The gymnasiums concludes with the matriculation examination, an exam whose grades are the main criteria for university admissions.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Switzerland, gymnasia (, ) are selective schools that provide a three- to six-year (depending on the canton) course of advanced secondary education intended to prepare students to attend university. They conclude with a nationally standardized exam, the or , often shortened to "Matura or "Matur"", which if passed allows students to attend a Swiss university. The gymnasia are operated by the cantons of Switzerland, and accordingly in many cantons they are called (cantonal school).


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia, a "gymnasium" education takes four years following a compulsory eight or nine-year elementary education and ending with a final aptitude test called "Matura". In these countries, the final test is standardized at the state level and can serve as an entrance qualification for universities.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: There are either public (state-run and tuition-free), religious (church-run with secular curriculum and tuition-free) or private (fee-paying) gymnasium schools in these countries.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: The subjects taught are mathematics, the native language, one to three foreign languages, history, geography, informatics (computers), the natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics), history of art, music, philosophy, logic, physical education, and the social sciences (sociology, ethics or religious education, psychology, politics, and economy). Religious studies are optional. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia and North Macedonia, Latin is also a mandatory subject in all gymnasiums, just as Ancient Greek is, with Latin, in a certain type of gymnasiums called Classical Gymnasiums ().


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In all of the countries, the gymnasium (/) is generally viewed as a destination for best-performing students and as the type of school that serves primarily to prepare students for university studies, while other students go to technical/vocational schools. Therefore, gymnasiums often base their admittance criteria on an entrance exam, elementary school grades, or a combination of the two.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: Depending on country, the final degree (if any) is called Abitur, Artium, Diploma, Matura, Maturita or Student and it usually opens the way to professional schools directly. However, these degrees are occasionally not fully accredited internationally, so students wanting to attend a foreign university often have to submit to further exams to be permitted access to them.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In countries like Austria, most university faculties only accept students from secondary schools that last four years (rather than three). This includes all Gymnasium students but only a part of vocational high schools, in effect making Gymnasium the preferred choice for all pupils aiming for university diplomas.


title: Gymnasium (school)

text: In Germany, other types of secondary school are called , and . These are attended by about two thirds of the students and the first two are practically unknown in other parts of the world. A largely corresponds to a British or American comprehensive school. However, it offers the same school-leaving certificates as the other three types—the (school-leaving certificate of a after 9th grade or in Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia after 10th grade), the (also called , school-leaving certificate of a after 10th Grade) and (also called , school-leaving certificate after 12th Grade). Students who graduate from or may continue their schooling at a vocational school until they have full job qualifications. It is also possible to get an after 10th grade that allows the students to continue their education at the of a "gymnasium" and get an . There are two types of vocational school in Germany: the , a part-time vocational school and a part of Germany's dual education system, and the , a full-time vocational school outside the dual education system. Students who graduate from a vocational school and students who graduate with a good grade point average from a can continue their schooling at another type of German secondary school, the , a vocational high school. The school leaving exam of this type of school, the , enables the graduate to start studying at a (polytechnic) and in Hesse also at a university within the state. Students who have graduated from vocational school and have been working in a job for at least three years can go to Berufsoberschule to get either a (meaning they may go to university, but they can only study the subjects belonging to the "branch" (economical, technical, social) they studied in at ) after one year, or the normal (after two years), which gives them complete access to universities.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: The Evil Within 2 is a survival horror video game developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It was released worldwide in October 2017 and is the sequel to 2014's "The Evil Within". The game received generally positive reviews; like its predecessor, it received praise for its visuals, atmosphere and gameplay but received some criticism for its story and characters.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Similar to its predecessor, the game is a survival horror game. Played from a third-person perspective, the player assumes control of detective Sebastian Castellanos, who must descend into the world of Union to rescue his daughter, Lily. There are three difficulty modes, namely Casual, which producer Shinji Mikami recommends, Survival, and Nightmare, the latter setting being recommended for players who enjoyed the difficulty curve in the previous game. In "The Evil Within 2", maps are larger and there are multiple ways for players to advance in a level. The player is also given an item known as "The Communicator", which helps to highlight the objectives, resources and enemies featured in the game's world. It also reveals Resonance points, which provides hints regarding what had happened in the world of Union. Players can explore the map area freely to complete side objectives and scout for resources, which are scarce. Players can engage in direct confrontation with enemies using weapons like guns, or use stealth to prevent themselves from being noticed or sneak behind enemies to kill them silently.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: The game features a crafting system, in which players can gather resources to craft new items such as ammo. Players can craft items at any time in the game, but doing so in a workbench requires fewer crafting materials. A customization system is also present. The Green Gel, introduced in the first game, can be used to customize Sebastian's abilities, which are divided into five different trees: health, stealth, combat, recovery and athleticism. Weapons can be customized using the weapon parts players collected through exploring Union.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Three years after the events of the first game, Sebastian Castellanos (Marqus Bobesich) has left the Krimson City Police Department, haunted by his experiences at the Beacon Mental Hospital. His only child, Lily (Kiara Gamboa), supposedly perished in their house fire, and his wife Myra (Elizabeth Saydah), unwilling to accept her daughter's death, abandoned him. This, coupled with his trauma, results in Sebastian descending into alcoholism. Drowning his sorrows in a bar, Sebastian is approached by former partner and Mobius agent Juli Kidman (Meg Saricks), who reveals that Lily is still alive. Sebastian is brought to a secret Mobius facility against his will, where he meets the head of the facility named the Administrator (Richard Neil). The Administrator explains that Lily is being used as the Core for a new STEM system to simulate an idyllic American town called Union. However, Mobius lost contact with Lily and their agents inside Union, and they have lost control over the simulation. Sebastian reluctantly agrees to help and is plugged into STEM.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Upon entering Union, Sebastian discovers the town has turned into a nightmare realm where all of the inhabitants were either killed or mutated into monsters. In addition, Sebastian witnesses a mysterious photographer with supernatural powers hunting down and murdering Mobius operatives. He manages to find surviving Mobius personnel Liam O'Neal (Jesse LeNoir), Yukiko Hoffman (Ying Hsiao), and Julian Sykes (Hari Williams), who help him in the search for Lily. As Sebastian follows her trail, he learns that she has been kidnapped by the photographer Stefano Valentini (Rafael Goldstein), a serial killer obsessed with photographing people at the moment of their death who managed to infiltrate Union. Stefano reveals that he had originally kidnapped Lily under orders from another party, but decided to keep her for himself to exploit her powers as the Core. Sebastian fights and kills Stefano but before he can rescue Lily, Myra appears and takes Lily away. Sebastian finds himself transported to the interior of a mysterious stronghold-like area, where he is approached by Father Theodore Wallace (Ron Sewer), who attempts to convince Sebastian to join him to seize Lily from Myra since Stefano betrayed him. Sebastian refuses and is banished to a forest outside Union where he meets with Mobius operative Esmeralda Torres (Crash Barrera). Upon reaching her safe house, Torres reveals that she, Kidman, Myra, and Theodore had conspired to break Lily out of STEM and destroy Mobius from within via their chip implants. However, the plan went awry when Theodore became mentally unstable and decided to kidnap Lily for himself.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Seeing Theodore as the most immediate threat, Sebastian goes to confront him, but is forced to kill a brainwashed Liam. Upon reaching Theodore, Sebastian is immediately incapacitated when Theodore uses Sebastian's own lingering guilt against him and he falls unconscious. Sebastian is visited by a vision of Myra, who assures him that what happened to Lily was not his fault and that he should focus on saving her. When he wakes up, he finds out that Esmeralda had sacrificed herself to get him to safety and that Theodore has erected his stronghold in the center of Union. Both Sebastian and Yukiko assault Theodore's stronghold, though Yukiko dies in the process. Sebastian is able to confront and defeat Theodore, only for Myra to arrive and kill Theodore herself while warning Sebastian to stay away from her and Lily.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Sebastian follows Myra, whose desire to protect Lily has made her insane and obsessed with keeping Lily locked in the STEM for her own "safety". Myra lashes out at him, forcing him to shoot her, triggering her transformation into a large being called 'The Matriarch', forcing Sebastian to reluctantly battle her. Sebastian defeats the monster, releasing Myra and knocking her back to her senses. He prepares to take Lily out of STEM, but Myra refuses to follow, explaining that as part of the plan to destroy Mobius, she must take Lily's place as the Core of STEM to transmit the implant-destroying signal. Meanwhile, in the real world, Kidman is ordered by the Administrator to eliminate Sebastian. She disobeys him and helps Sebastian and Lily escape the STEM while Myra enacts her plan, killing the Administrator and all Mobius operatives (except Kidman who has removed the microchip from her brain). Now free from Mobius, Sebastian, Lily, and Kidman leave the facility.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: In a post-credits scene, Sebastian parts ways with Kidman and goes off to live a new life with Lily. Back at the now abandoned Mobius facility, the STEM system mysteriously reactivates itself.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Development for "The Evil Within 2" began in March 2015, after the team at Tango Gameworks wrapped up the development of the downloadable content for the first game. Director Shinji Mikami stepped down and became game producer and supervised the game's development. Mikami said the development period was quite a bit shorter than it had been for its predecessor. The director role was assigned to John Johanas, described by Mikami as a person with "a lot of talent". The story of the game was penned by Syoji Ishimine and Trent Haaga. One of their focuses was to make the game's story easier for players to comprehend and understand, a response to the criticism of the first game where the game's plot gets too complicated by the end. Shifting realities, a feature in the first game, also returns in the sequel but according to Johanas, "there's a bit more logic to when and how it happens". The 2.5:1 aspect ratio featured in the first game was removed due to the mixed response this design choice had received upon its release, even though the team liked it. While the game retains the gore-horror featured dominantly in the original game, the writing team also put effort into creating the game's psychological horror aspect, as the game tells a story that is more personal.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: In August 2016, Pete Hines, an executive from publisher Bethesda Softworks, revealed that "The Evil Within" had sold enough copies to warrant a sequel, though he declined to comment on whether a new game is in development. The game was leaked in March 2017, in which a job description for "Psycho Break 2", the game's Japanese title, was leaked. An advertisement for the game was prematurely posted on Reddit, several hours prior to the game's official announcement at Bethesda's Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017 press conference.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Unlike its predecessor, which ran on id Software's id Tech 5 engine, "The Evil Within 2" runs on the STEM engine, an offshoot of id Tech that was custom developed by Tango Gameworks for the game.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: "The Evil Within 2" received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Ray Porreca's score of 7/10 on "Destructoid" said it was "Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun."


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Mollie L Patterson said on "Electronic Gaming Monthly", "Though I never expected to ever see a sequel to "The Evil Within", we've now gotten one, and I'm rather glad that we did. While "The Evil Within 2" isn't without problems—and I'm not sure it's the kind of game I'll ever want to play through a second time—by the time the final credits rolled, I had legitimately enjoyed the adventure I'd just gone on, and the improvements that Tango Gameworks had tried to bring to the series.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: "Game Informer"s Suriel Vazquez awarded the game a 7.75/10, stating that ""The Evil Within 2" is a solid horror game that expands the scope of the series to extend out of the shadow of a titan in the horror genre, even if it sometimes leans heavily on borrowed ideas. Its progression and difficulty curve create a satisfying loop that repays resourcefulness and strategy, but its set pieces and structure don't build enough on the many ideas they borrow to make them feel new or interesting. The result is a ride that offers some fun thrills in the moment, but I don't think I'll lose too much sleep over these particular nightmares."


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Paul Tamburro of Game Revolution awarded it 3.5 out of 5 stars stating that ""The Evil Within 2" is a worthy sequel that makes a number of bold decisions. For those solely looking for the survival horror thrills of the first game, its spotlight upon combat will likely be a disappointment, as will its introduction of a dull open world. However, there's plenty tucked away in "The Evil Within 2" that will appeal to both fans of the original and new players, with it presenting a mix of Mikami's best ideas and John Johanas' new direction. It's certainly not what I was expecting, but in a good way."


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Alessandro Fillari's 8/10 score on GameSpot stated that "Though there's some occasional technical hiccups that result in some particularly frustrating moments and weird pacing issues, this horror sequel elevates the tense and impactful survival horror experience in ways that feel fresh and exciting. What this cerebral horror game does isn't totally new, but it rarely feels routine, and offers plenty of surprises. Coming in at a lengthy and surprisingly packed 15-hour campaign, the sequel does an admirable job of ratcheting up the tension and scares when it needs to, while also giving you the freedom to explore and proceed how you want. It's a tough thing to balance, but "The Evil Within 2" does it remarkably well, and in a way that leaves a strong and lasting impression after its touching conclusion."


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Lucas Sullivan from GamesRadar gave the game a score of 3.5 out of 5 stars saying that "Though it doesn't outdo its predecessor, "The Evil Within 2" delivers another fun, challenging, tense horror headtrip that should delight fans of the first game."


title: The Evil Within 2

text: Lucy O'Brien of IGN gave the game 8/10, concluding that ""The Evil Within 2" is an intense and exhilarating survival horror experience."


title: The Evil Within 2

text: 80/100 was Joe Donnelly's score on "PC Gamer" and said it was "An intense and thrilling psychological survival horror sequel that improves on its forerunner in almost every way."


title: The Evil Within 2

text: ""The Evil Within 2" represents one of the starkest and most astounding turnarounds from a debut title to its sequel that I've ever witnessed. It's a brilliant horror game, one that understands when to ratchet up tension and when to pull back and let you collect yourself. If the first game was a failed attempt to capture the spirit of Shinji Mikami's classic "Resident Evil 4", the sequel is a successful attempt at something much better: finding a chilling, exhilarating voice of its own," was Philip Kollar's conclusion on "Polygon" with a score of 9/10. The website later ranked the game 21st on their list of the 50 best games of 2017.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: "The Evil Within 2" sold 42,941 copies on PlayStation 4 within its first week on sale in Japan, which placed it at number three on the all-format sales chart.


title: The Evil Within 2

text: The game was nominated for "Best Action Game" in "PC Gamer"s 2017 Game of the Year Awards, for "Best Action-Adventure Game" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards. and for "Game, Franchise Action" at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards.


title: Doctor John (TV series)

text: Doctor John () is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Ji Sung, Lee Se-young, Lee Kyu-hyung, and Hwang Hee. It is based on the Japanese novel "On Hand of God" by Yo Kusakabe and aired on SBS from July 19 to September 7, 2019.


title: Doctor John (TV series)

text: Cha Yo-han (Ji Sung) is a doctor of anesthesiology. He acts strange sometimes, but he is a genius at his work. Kang Shi-young (Lee Se-young) is a resident of anesthesiology who works with Cha Yo-han. She is smart, warm and listens carefully to her patients. People, with mysterious acute or chronic pain come to the hospital. There, Cha Yo-han and Kang Shi-young try to find the causes of their pain and treat them.


title: Doctor John (TV series)

text: According to director Jo Soo-won, the series was in development since 2014, the year when SBS bought the rights to adapt Yo Kusakabe's "On Hand of God" as a TV series.


title: Doctor John (TV series)

text: The first script reading took place in March 2019 at SBS Ilsan Production Center in Tanhyun, South Korea.


title: .50 Beowulf

text: The .50 Beowulf is a 12mm caliber rifle cartridge developed by Bill Alexander of Alexander Arms for use in an AR-15 rifle.


title: .50 Beowulf

text: The cartridge utilizes a rebated rim, sized to match the rim of the 6.5mm Grendel round. The case body is very similar in dimensions to the .500 S&W Magnum revolver cartridge, being slightly longer and fully tapered for automatic feeding in the weapon.


title: .50 Beowulf

text: The round is intended to improve stopping power greatly at short- to medium-range as compared to the standard 5.56×45mm NATO round. One of its advertised uses is at vehicle checkpoints, since the heavy bullet's flight path is not easily deflected by auto glass or standard vehicle body panels.


title: .50 Beowulf

text: With normal bullet weights between , overall cartridge length shorter than that of an AR-15 magazine well, and holding to pressures of 33,000 psi limited by the AR bolt strength system, the .50 Beowulf is best described as a low-velocity, heavy caliber, making its ballistics roughly equivalent to those of early .45-70 Government rounds rather than the higher pressure rounds tolerated by lever-action rifles such as the Marlin Model 1895.


title: .50 Beowulf

text: The .50 Beowulf is a proprietary caliber developed as a specialized cartridge. Alexander Arms and Delta Firearms oversees all aspects of the production of the system and related accessories. Their reluctance to divulge information has been a source of irritation to some writers. Because Alexander Arms holds a trademark on the name .50 Beowulf, a number of other companies produce weapons and ammunition reverse engineered to the same dimensions under the name 12.7x42mm.


title: .50 Beowulf

text: Although much has been written about its tactical uses, the .50 Beowulf is gaining recognition as a sporting cartridge. It is becoming more widely recognized as being usable for a wide variety of North American game, including deer, moose, and black bear.


title: .50 Beowulf

text: The cartridge has its lineage in the .50 Action Express, starting with the L.A.R. Grizzly and in modern times, the Magnum Research Desert Eagle pistol, with significant modification to improve functionality and safety in the AR-15 rifle.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Organized crime in Italy and its criminal organizations have been prevalent in Italy, especially Southern Italy, for centuries and have affected the social and economic life of many Italian regions since at least the 19th century.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: There are six major native mafia-like organizations that are heavily active in Italy. The oldest and currently most powerful of these organizations, having begun to develop between 1500 and 1800, are the Cosa Nostra of Sicily, the 'Ndrangheta from Calabria (who are considered to be among the biggest cocaine smugglers in Europe) and the Camorra based in Campania, also called the Neapolitan Mafia. In addition to these three long-established organizations, there are also three other significantly active organized crime syndicates that were founded in the 20th century: the Stidda of Sicily, and the Sacra Corona Unita and Società foggiana, both from Apulia.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Four other Italian organized crime groups, namely the Banda della Magliana of Rome, the Mala del Brenta of Veneto, and the Banda della Comasina and Turatello Crew, both based in Milan, held considerable influence at the height of their power but are now severely weakened by Italian law enforcement or even considered defunct or inactive.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: One other group, the Basilischi of Basilicata region, is currently active but is considered to have mostly fallen under the influence of the larger and more powerful 'Ndrangheta. Other crime groups include the Casamonica clan, a criminal organization of mostly Sinti ethnicity present in Rome and operating in the area of the Castelli Romani and the Lazio coast. The latest creation of Italian organized crime (IOC), Mafia Capitale (which was partially a successor or continuation of Banda della Magliana, involving many former Banda della Magliana members and associates) was mostly disbanded by the police in 2014.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The best-known Italian organized crime group is the Mafia or Sicilian Mafia (referred to as "Cosa Nostra" by members). As the original group named "Mafia", the Sicilian Mafia is the basis for the current colloquial usage of the term to refer to organized crime groups. It along with the Neapolitan Camorra and the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta are active throughout Italy, having presence also in other countries.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Mafia receipts may reach 9% of Italy's GDP. A 2009 report identified 610 which have a strong Mafia presence, where 13 million Italians live and 14.6% of the Italian GDP is produced. The Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, nowadays probably the most powerful crime syndicate of Italy, accounts alone for 3% of the country's GDP.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: However, at 0.013 per 1,000 people, Italy has only the 47th highest murder rate compared to 61 countries and the 43rd highest number of rapes per 1,000 people compared to 64 countries in the world. These are relatively low figures among developed countries.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Based primarily in Sicily, the Sicilian Mafia formed in the 19th century by clans which sprang out of groups of bandits; these groups gained local power and influence. In Sicily, the word "mafia" tends to mean "manly" and a Mafioso considers himself a "Man of Honour." However, the organization is known as "Cosa Nostra"—Our Thing—or Our Affair. The Sicilian Mafia originally engaged in such lower-level activities as extortion, cattle theft and, upon Sicily becoming part of a democratic Italy, election slugging in addition to other kinds of relatively low-level theft and fraud.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: In the 1950s, Sicily experienced a substantial construction boom. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the Sicilian Mafia gained control of the building contracts and made millions of dollars. It participated in the growing business of large-scale heroin trafficking, both in Italy and Europe and in US-connected trafficking; a famous example of this are the French Connection smuggling with Corsican criminals and the Italian-American Mafia.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Sicilian Mafia has evolved into an international organized crime group. It specializes in heroin trafficking, political corruption, and military arms trafficking and is the most powerful and most active Italian organized crime group in the United States, with estimates of more than 2,500 affiliates located there. The Sicilian Mafia is also known to engage in arson, frauds, counterfeiting, and other racketeering crimes. It is estimated to have 3,500–4,000 core members with 100 clans, with around 50 in the city of Palermo alone.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Cosa Nostra has had influence in 'legitimate' power too, particularly under the corrupt Christian Democratic governments, from between the 1950s to the early 1990s. Its reach included many prominent lawyers, financiers, and professionals; it has also exerted power by bribing or pressuring politicians, judges, and administrators. It has lost influence on the heels of the Maxi-Trials, the campaign by magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and other actions against corrupt politicians and judges; however it retains some influence.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Sicilian Mafia became infamous for aggressive assaults on Italian law enforcement officials during the reign of Salvatore Riina, also known as "Toto Riina". In Sicily the term Excellent Cadavers is used to distinguish the assassination of prominent government officials from the common criminals and ordinary citizens killed by the Mafia. Some of their high ranking victims include police commissioners, mayors, judges, police colonels and generals, and Parliament members.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: On May 23, 1992, the Sicilian Mafia struck Italian law enforcement. At approximately 6pm, Italian Magistrate Giovanni Falcone, his wife, and three police body guards were killed by a massive bomb. Falcone, Director of Prosecutions (roughly, District Attorney) for the court of Palermo and head of the special anti-Mafia investigative squad, had become the organization's most formidable enemy. His team was moving to prepare cases against most of the Mafia leadership. The bomb made a crater 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter in the road Falcone's caravan was traveling on. This became known as the Capaci bombing.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Less than two months later, on July 19, 1992, the Mafia struck Falcone's replacement, Judge Paolo Borsellino, also in Palermo, Sicily. Borsellino and five bodyguards were killed outside the apartment of Borsellino's mother when a car packed with explosives was detonated by remote control as the judge approached the front door of his mother's apartment.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: In 1993, the authorities arrested Salvatore Riina, believed at the time to be the Capo di tutti capi and responsible directly or indirectly for scores (if not hundreds) of killings. Riina's arrest came after years of investigation - which some believe was delayed by Mafia influence within the Carabinieri. Control of the organization then fell to Bernardo Provenzano who had come to reject Riina's strategy of war against the authorities, in favor of an approach of bribery, corruption, and influence-peddling. As a consequence, the rate of Mafia killings fell sharply, but its influence continued in the international drug and slave trades, as well as locally in construction and public contracts in Sicily. Provenzano was himself captured in 2006 after being wanted for 43 years.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: In July, 2013, the Italian police conducted sweeping raids targeting top mafia crime bosses. In Ostia (Rome), a coastal community near the capital, police arrested 51 suspects for alleged crimes connected with Italy's Sicilian Mafia. Allegations included extortion, murder, international drug trafficking, and illegal control of the slot machine market.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: La Stidda (Sicilian for "star") is the name given to the Sicilian organization founded by criminals Giuseppe Croce Benvento and Salvatore Calafato, both of Palma di Montechiaro, in the Agrigento province of Sicily. The Stidda's power bases are centered in the cities of Gela and Favara, Caltanissetta and Agrigento provinces. The organization's groups and activities have flourished in the cities of Agrigento, Catania, Syracuse and Enna in the provinces of the same name, Niscemi and Riesi of Caltanissetta province, and Vittoria of Ragusa province, located mainly on the Southern and Eastern coasts of Sicily. The group also has members and is active in Malta.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Stidda has extended its power and influence into the mainland Italy provinces of Milan, Genoa, and Turin. The members of the organization are called "Stiddari" in the Caltanissetta province, and "Stiddaroli" in the Agrigento province. Stidda members can be identified and sometimes introduced to each other by a tattoo of five greenish marks arranged in a circle, forming a star called "i punti della malavita" or "the points of the criminal life."


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Cosa Nostra wars of the late 1970s and early 1980s brought the Corleonesi Clan and its vicious and ruthless leaders Luciano Leggio, Salvatore "Toto" Riina, and Bernardo Provenzano into power. This caused disorganization and disenchantment inside the traditional Cosa Nostra power base and values system, leaving the growing Stidda organization to counter Cosa Nostra's power, influence, and expansion in Southern and Eastern Sicily. Stidda membership was also reinforced by Cosa Nostra "men of honor," such as those loyal to slain Capo Giuseppe Di Cristina of Riesi who had defected from Cosa Nostra's ranks during to the bloodthirsty reign of the Corleonesi clan.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The organization also enlarged its membership by absorbing local thugs and criminals (picciotti) who operated at the far margins of organized crime. This allowed Stidda to gain more power and credibility in the Italian underworld.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: From 1978 to 1990, former Corleonesi clan leader and aspirant to the Cosa Nostra's "Capo di Tutti Capi" title, Salvatore Riina, waged a war within Cosa Nostra and against the Stidda. The war spread death and terror among mafiosi and the public, leaving over 500 dead in Cosa Nostra and over 1,000 in La Stidda, including Stidda captains Calogero Lauria and Vincenzo Spina.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: With the 1993 capture of Salvatore Riina and the 2006 jailing of Bernardo Provenzano's, a new Pax Mafiosa arose - following a new, less violent and low-key approach to criminal activities. As a result, the Stidda cemented its power, influence and credibility among the longer-established criminal organizations in Italy and around the world, making itself a bonefied underworld player.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The origins of the Camorra are unclear. It may date to the 17th century, however the first official use of "camorra" as a word dates from 1735, when a royal decree authorized the establishment of eight gambling houses in Naples. The Camorra's main businesses are drug trafficking, racketeering, counterfeiting and money laundering. It is also not unusual for Camorra clans to infiltrate the politics of their respective areas.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Camorra also specializes in cigarette smuggling and receives payoffs from other criminal groups for any cigarette traffic through Italy. In the 1970s, the Sicilian Mafia convinced the Camorra to convert their cigarette smuggling routes into drug smuggling routes. Yet not all Camorra leaders agreed, sparking a war between the two factions and resulting in the murder of almost 400 men. Those opposed to drug trafficking lost the war.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Camorra Mafia controls the drug trade in Europe and is organized on a system of specific management principles. In the early 2000s, the Di Lauro clan ran the then-largest open-air market in Europe, based in Secondigliano. The former leader of the clan, Paolo Di Lauro, who designed the system, has been imprisoned since 2005. His organization however earned about €200 million (about US$200 million) annually, solely from the drug trafficking business. The Di Lauro clan war against the Scissionisti di Secondigliano inspired the current Italian television series Gomorrah.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Outside Italy, the Camorra has a strong presence in Spain. There, the organization has established a massive business operation revolving around drug trafficking and money laundering. They are known to reinvest their profits into the creation of hotels, nightclubs, restaurants and companies around the country.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: It is believed that nearly 200 Camorra affiliates reside in the United States. Many came to the US during the Camorra Wars in the 1970s, establishing an extortion practice called the Black Hand and later becoming known as the Brooklyn Camorra. The New York-based Camorra conducts money laundering, extortion, human smuggling, robbery, blackmail, kidnapping, political corruption, and counterfeiting.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Derived from the Greek word "andragathía" (meaning courage or loyalty), the 'Ndrangheta formed in the 1890s in Calabria. The 'Ndrangheta consists of 160 cells and approximately 6,000 members, although worldwide estimates put core membership at around 10,000. The group specializes in political corruption and cocaine trafficking.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The 'Ndrangheta cells are loosely connected family groups based on blood relationships and marriages.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Since the 1950s, the organization's influence has spread towards Northern Italy and worldwide. According to a 2013 "Threat Assessment on Italian Organized Crime" by Europol and the Guardia di Finanza, the 'Ndrangheta is among the richest (in 2008 their income was around 55 billion dollars) and most powerful organized crime groups in the world.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The 'Ndrangheta is also known to engage in cocaine (controlling up to 80% of that flowing through Europe) and heroin trafficking, murder, bombings, counterfeiting, illegal gambling, frauds, thefts, labor racketeering, loan sharking, illegal immigration, and rarely some kidnapping.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Basilischi is a mafia organization founded in 1994 in Potenza. After the maxi-trial in 1999 which caused the capture of many high-ranking members, the group became fractured and fell further under the influence of the more powerful Calabrian-based 'Ndrangheta.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Sacra Corona Unita (SCU), or United Sacred Crown, is a Mafia-like criminal organization from the region of Apulia (in Italian "Puglia") in Southern Italy, and is especially active in the areas of Brindisi and Lecce and not, as people tend to believe, in the region as a whole. The SCU was founded in the late 1970s as the Nuova Grande Camorra Pugliese, based in Foggia, by the Camorra member Raffaele Cutolo, who wanted to expand his operations into Apulia. It has also been suggested that elements of this group originated from the 'Ndrangheta, but it is not known if they were breakaways from it or the result of indirect co-operation with clans of the 'Ndrangheta.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: A few years after the creation of the SCU, following the downfall of Cutolo, the organization began to operate independently from the Camorra under the leadership of Giuseppe Rogoli. Under his leadership the SCU mixed its Apulian interests and opportunities with 'Ndrangheta and Camorra traditions. Originally preying on the region's substantial wine and olive oil industries, the group moved into fraud, gunrunning, and drug trafficking, and made alliances with international criminal organizations such as the Russian and Albanian mafias, the Colombian drug cartels, and some Asian organizations. The Sacra Corona Unita consists of about 50 Clans with approximately 2,000 Core members and specializes in smuggling cigarettes, drugs, arms, and people.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Very few SCU members have been identified in the United States, however there are some links to individuals in Illinois, Florida, and possibly New York. The Sacra Corona Unita is also reported to be involved in money laundering, extortion, and political corruption and collects payoffs from other criminal groups for landing rights on the southeast coast of Italy. This territory is a natural gateway for smuggling to and from post-Communist countries like Croatia, Montenegro, and Albania.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: With the decreasing importance of the Adriatic corridor as a smuggling route (thanks to the normalization of the Balkans area) and a series of successful police and judicial operations against it in recent years, the Sacra Corona Unita has been considered, if not actually defeated, to be reduced to a fraction of its former power, which peaked around the mid-1990s.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Società foggiana - also known as "Mafia Foggiana" ("Foggian mafia") and the "Fifth Mafia" - is an mafia-type criminal organization. They are operating in a large part of the Province of Foggia, including the city of Foggia itself, and have significantly infiltrated other Italian regions. Currently, the group is considered one of the most brutal and bloody of all organized crime groups in Italy. There was about one murder a week, one robbery a day, and an extortion attempt every 48 hours in Foggia province in 2017 and 2018. These were wrongly reported as the work of the Sacra Corona Unita (the fourth mafia) by news media, unaware of the new independent mafia in Foggia province. "But that wasn't the case. We are witnessing what should be called a fifth mafia, independent of the Sacra Corona Unita" according to Giuseppe Volpe, a prosecutor and anti-mafia head of Bari. The Società foggiana is known to have numerous alliances with Balkans criminal groups, in particular with the Albanians.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Sicilian mafiosi controlled much of the mafia activity in the Veneto throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and included most notably: Salvatore "Totuccio" Contorno, Gaetano Fidanzati, Antonino Duca, Salvatore and Gaetano Badalamenti, and Giuseppe Madonia. Veneto underworld figures and bandits started to work for these mafiosi in the 1980s. Sometimes, Felice "Angel Face" Maniero is indicated as the leader of the group.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Banda della Magliana (English translation: Magliana Gang) was an Italian criminal organization based in Rome and active mostly throughout the late 1970s until the early 1990s. The gang's name refers to the neighborhood in Rome, the Magliana, from which most of its members came.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Magliana Gang was involved in criminal activities during the Italian "years of lead" (or "anni di piombo"). The organization was tied to other Italian criminal organizations such as the Cosa Nostra, Camorra and the 'Ndrangheta. Most notably though, it was connected to neo-fascist paramilitary and terrorist organizations, including the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR), the group responsible for the 1980 Bologna massacre.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: In addition to their involvement in traditional organized crime rackets, the Banda della Magliana is also believed to have worked for Italian political figures such as Licio Gelli, a grand-master of the illegal and underground freemason lodge known as Propaganda Due (P2), which was purportedly connected to neo-fascist and far-right militant paramilitary groups.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Mafia Capitale was a mafia-type crime syndicate, or secret society, that originated in the region of Lazio and its capital Rome.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Banda della Comasina (English translation: Comasina Gang) was an organized crime group active mainly in Milan, the Milan metropolitan area, and Lombardia in the 1970s and 1980s, or "anni di piombo". Their name is derived from the Milan neighborhood of Comasina, the founding location of the organization. The group was led by the Milan crime boss Renato Vallanzasca, a powerful figure in the Milanese underworld in the 1970s. The group began as a smaller robbery and kidnapping gang, and continued to specialize in armed robbery, kidnapping, carjacking, and truck hijacking even as they grew in power and expanded into other subtler areas of organized crime. The gang became notorious for brazenly setting up roadblocks and robbing members of the Milan police force. As the Banda della Comasina rose in power, they expanded into other areas of organized crime, such as arms trafficking, illegal gambling, drug trafficking, contract killing, extortion, racketeering, bootlegging, and corruption.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The group's downfall was partially brought about by its brazen disregard for both subtlety and authority, and its continued reliance on kidnapping and armed robbery to make money. The gang's leader, Renato Vallanzasca, repeatedly escaped from police custody and continued to commit robberies and kidnappings of wealthy and powerful people, even while living as fugitive. In 1976, the group committed approximately 70 robberies and multiple kidnappings (many of which were never reported to police), including the kidnapping of a prominent Bergamo businessman. Several of the robberies resulted in the murder of the robbery victims and responding officers, including four policemen, a doctor and a bank employee. That same year, Vallanzasca (still a fugitive at this point) and his gang kidnapped 16-year-old Emanuela Trapani, the daughter of a Milanese businessman, and held her captive for over a month and a half, from December 1976 to January 1977. They only released the girl upon payment of a one billion randsom in Italian currency. Soon after, the gang killed two highway police officers who had stopped a car containing Vallanzasca and his gang members. Two other members of the Banda della Comasina, Carlo Carluccio and Antonio Furiato, were killed in separate gun battles with policemen, in Piazza Vetra in Milan and on the Autostrada A4 motorway respectively.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Vallanzasca was eventually captured, and while in prison, he developed an alliance and friendship with his former rival, Francis Turatello, another recently incarcerated, powerful crime boss in Milan with strong connections to the Sicilian Mafia, Camorra, and Italian-American Gambino crime family (as well as possible ties to the Banda della Magliana and Italian political terrorist groups). As the leader of the so-called Turatello Crew, Francis Turatello was a protégé of the Sicilian Mafia and an important ally in Milan, for both the Sicilian Mafia and Nuova Camorra Organizzata. The Turatello Crew controlled various illegal rackets in the Milan underworld with the backing of the Sicilian Mafia and Camorra, controlling prostitution in Milan and, like the Banda della Comasina, participating in robbery and kidnapping.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Turatello Crew and Banda della Comasina had been in the middle of a gang war with each other when their leaders, Vallanzasca and Turatello, were incarcerated in the same prison, reconciling and bonding there. The newly forged alliance between the two crime groups only increased their influence and power in the Milan underworld, allowing them to control much of Milan's organized crime, even while their leaders remained incarcerated.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: In 1981, Turatello was assassinated in prison by order of Camorra boss Raffaele Cutolo, and the Turatello Crew collapsed while the Banda della Comasina lost an important ally. Soon after Turatello's assassination, Vallanzasca, still imprisoned, organized and participated in a prison revolt in which two pentiti (former gangsters that collaborate with the Italian government) were brutally killed. Despite repeated escape attempts, Vallanzasca remains in prison, serving four consecutive life sentences plus 290 years, and the Banda della Comisina collapsed and disbanded in the early 1980s in his absence.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Italian organized crime groups, in particular the Sicilian mafia and the Camorra, have been involved in heroin trafficking for decades. Two major investigations that targeted their drug trafficking schemes in the 1970s and 80s are known as the French Connection and Pizza Connection Trial. These and other investigations have thoroughly documented their cooperation with other major drug trafficking organizations. Italian crime groups are also involved in illegal gambling, political corruption, extortion, kidnapping, frauds, counterfeiting, infiltration of legitimate businesses, murders, bombings, and weapons trafficking. Industry experts in Italy estimate that their worldwide criminal activity is worth more than US$100 billion annually.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The Italian crime groups (especially the Sicilian Mafia) have also connections with Corsican gangs. These collaboration were mostly important during the French Connection era. During the 1990s, the links between the Corsican mafia and the Sicilian mafia facilitated the establishment of some Sicilian gangsters in the Lavezzi Islands.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Those currently active in the United States are the Sicilian Mafia, Camorra or Campanian Mafia, 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia, and Sacra Corona Unita or "United Sacred Crown". The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) refers to them as "Italian Organized Crime" (IOC). These Italian crime groups frequently collaborate with the Italian-American Mafia, which is itself an offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Outside of Italy, the United States, and Southern France, the Sicilian Mafia and the 'Ndrangheta have also established strongholds in Belgium, Canada (Rizzuto crime family, Musitano crime family, Papalia crime family, Luppino crime family, Cotroni crime family, Commisso 'ndrina, Siderno Group); Australia (Siderno Group, The Carlton Crew, Honoured Society, Barbaro 'ndrina); and Germany (see Duisburg massacre). In particular the 'Ndrangheta and the Camorra consider the UK an area of interest for laundering money, using financial companies and business activities, while having large investments in London.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: Outside Italy, the Camorra is particularly present in Spain, the Netherlands and France. Its presence in the countries is mostly related to drug trafficking and money laundering.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: The 'Ndrangheta has carved out turf and formed close ties with organized crime groups in Latin American countries such as Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina. The Camorra also maintains important drug import routes from South America since the 1980s. And the Sicilian mafia has a presence in Venezuela, with the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan in particular having established a strong settlement.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: There are a small number of similar criminal organizations operating in Italy. They are mostly based outside of Italy, or composed of non-Italians living in Italy, such as the Chinese Triads, Russian, Georgian and Israeli networks, African (notably Nigerian) gangs, and Balkan crime groups including the Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Montenegrin (who ran cigarette smuggling operations with the Sacra Corona Unita) and the Albanian mafia. The Albanian gangs mainly operate in the more affluent Northern parts of Italy.


title: Organized crime in Italy

text: All these organizations focus their ambitions on prostitution and drug trafficking, under the control and with permissions of the Italian organized crime groups.


title: Shelob

text: Shelob is a fictional demon in the form of a giant spider from J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". Her lair lies in Cirith Ungol ("the pass of the spider") leading into Mordor. The creature Gollum deliberately leads the Hobbit protagonist Frodo there in hopes of recovering the One Ring by letting Shelob attack Frodo. The plan is foiled when Samwise Gamgee temporarily blinds Shelob with the Phial of Galadriel, and then severely wounds her with Frodo's Elvish sword, Sting.


title: Shelob

text: Some scholars have stated that Shelob is in the literary tradition of female monsters. Others have interpreted her as symbolising a sexual threat, with multiple sexual allusions. Scholars have noted her opposition to the Elves, and in particular her adversary, Galadriel, whose light helps the hobbits to defeat her darkness.


title: Shelob

text: Shelob is described in "The Two Towers" as an "evil thing in spider-form...[the] last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world", living high in the Ephel Dúath mountains on the borders of Mordor. Although she resided in Mordor and was unrepentantly evil, she was independent of Sauron and his influence. Her exact size is not stated, but she is significantly larger than her descendants, the Great Spiders of Mirkwood, and her hobbit opponents. Unlike ordinary spiders, she uses a sting to inject her venom and paralyse her victims. Her hide is tough enough to resist sword-strokes, and the strings of her webs are likewise resilient to ordinary blades, though the magical Sting manages to cut them. Her main weak point is her eyes, which can be easily harmed or blinded.


title: Shelob

text: She is introduced as both evil and ancient: "But still she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dûr; and she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness". Her descendants include the Giant Spiders of Mirkwood defeated by Bilbo Baggins in "The Hobbit".


title: Shelob

text: Shelob's lair was Torech Ungol, below Cirith Ungol ("Pass of the Spider"), along the path that the Hobbits Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee took into Mordor, where Shelob had encountered Gollum during his previous trip to Mordor, and he apparently worshipped her. The Orcs of the Tower of Cirith Ungol called her "Shelob the Great" and "Her Ladyship", and referred to Gollum as "Her Sneak". Sauron was aware of her existence, but left her alone as a useful guard on the pass, and occasionally fed prisoners to her. In the story, Gollum deliberately led the Hobbits into her lair, planning to recover the One Ring once she had consumed the hobbits. She cornered them; but Frodo used the Phial of Galadriel's light to drive her off, and used Sting to cut the webs blocking the tunnel. Gollum waylaid the pair and tried to strangle Sam, while Shelob paralysed Frodo; but Sam fought off Gollum and then wielded Sting against Shelob. Seeking to crush Sam, she instead impaled herself upon Sting; and, being evil, was nearly blinded by the Phial of Galadriel, containing pure light from the Silmarils; whereupon she fled. Her eventual fate, Tolkien mentions in passing, "this tale does not tell." Thinking Frodo dead, Sam took the Ring from his friend and left his body behind, but discovered by listening to a pair of Orcs that Frodo was alive but senseless, under a minor influence of venom.


title: Shelob

text: As Tolkien admitted in a letter to his son, Shelob "is of course only 'she + lob, "lob" being an archaic English word for spider, influenced by Old English "loppe" or "spider". The word is not related to "cob" nor "cobweb". Old English "attercoppe" (meaning "spider") is derived from "atter" meaning "poison" and "coppe" meaning "head". Tolkien used "attercop" as well as "cob" and "lob" in "The Hobbit", where Bilbo Baggins sings songs taunting the giant spiders in Mirkwood: "Attercop, Attercop, Old Tomnoddy" and "Lazy Lob and Crazy Cob".


title: Shelob

text: The critic Joyce Tally Lionarons writes that Tolkien constructs the Elves and the spiders such as Shelob as polar opposites, the Elves good and bright, the spiders evil and dark. Milbank writes more specifically that the ancient Shelob's adversary is another ancient female character, the elf-queen Galadriel. Galadriel both chooses not to be "" by rejecting Frodo's offer of the One Ring, and gives Frodo her light (the Phial of Galadriel) which enables the hobbits to defeat Shelob.


title: Shelob

text: Patrick Grant, a scholar of Renaissance literature, saw Shelob and Galadriel's character pairing as fitting the opposition of Jungian archetypes. Frodo's anima is the Elf-queen Galadriel, who is opposed by the evil giant female spider Shelob. Frodo's Shadow is the male Hobbit Gollum. All of these, along with oppositions between other characters in the story, create an image of the self.


title: Shelob

text: Chance further compares Shelob with the wizard Saruman, noting that both are "monsters" that live in towers; they have similarly structured books in "Lord of the Rings", one ending in a military attack on Saruman's tower, Orthanc; the other, in the hobbits' venturing into Shelob's lair in Cirith Ungol. Further, she writes, while Saruman has a "perversion of mind", Shelob has a "perversion of body".


title: Shelob

text: Chance stresses Shelob's "gluttony", consisting of an "insatiable appetite"; her laziness, since the Orcs bring her food; and her "lechery" with many bastard offspring. Chance compares Shelob with the guardian of the gateway to Hell, noting that in John Milton's "Paradise Lost", Satan mated with his daughter, Sin, their offspring being Death, constantly lustful for his mother: but Tolkien in one place describes Shelob as Sauron's cat rather than his daughter. The scholar of literature George H. Thomson similarly compares Shelob to Milton's Sin and Death, noting that they "serve neither God nor Satan but look solely to their own interests", as Shelob does; she is "the Death and Chaos that would overcome all".


title: Shelob

text: The Tolkien scholar Carol Leibiger writes that Shelob is presented as a disgusting female monster in the story. The Anglican priest and scholar of religion Alison Milbank adds that Shelob is undeniably sexual: "Tolkien offers a most convincing Freudian "vagina dentata" (toothed vagina) in the ancient and disgustingly gustatory spider Shelob." Milbank states that Shelob symbolises "an ancient maternal power that swallows up masculine identity and autonomy", threatening a "castrating hold [which] is precisely what the sexual fetishist fears, and seeks to control". The Tolkien scholar Jane Chance mentions "Sam's penetration of her belly with his sword", noting that this may be an appropriate and symbolic way of ending her production of "bastards".


title: Shelob

text: The scholar of children's literature Zoë Jaques writes that Shelob is the "embodiment of monstrous maternity"; Sam's battle with Shelob could be interpreted as a "masculine rite of passage" where a smaller, weaker male penetrates and escapes the vast female body and her malicious intent. The Tolkien scholar Brenda Partridge described the hobbits' protracted struggle with Shelob as rife with sexual symbolism. She writes that Tolkien derived Shelob from multiple myths: Sigurd killing Fafnir the dragon; Theseus killing the Minotaur; Ariadne and the spider; and Milton's Sin in "Paradise Lost". The result is to depict the woman as a threat, with implicit overtones of sexuality.


title: Shelob

text: Not all commentators have agreed with the sexual associations detected by scholars such as Partridge. The Tolkien scholar Daniel Timmons wrote in "Mythlore" in 2001: "The obsession of reading the Shelob episode as a sexually violent encounter, rather than as an archetypal struggle between human and monster, likely reveals more about the decadent social attitudes of the critics, rather than those of Tolkien". Timmons accepted the possibility of a "subtext of the fear of female sexual appeal", and agreed that the text might "function in the literary tradition of clashes between man and female monsters, with the attendant sexual innuendos", but called it "disingenuous or perverse" to assert that this was the "main or dominant impression".


title: Shelob

text: In the 1981 BBC Radio adaption of "The Lord of the Rings", Shelob is portrayed by BBC Radiophonic Workshop member Jenny Lee.


title: Shelob

text: In Peter Jackson's film trilogy, Shelob's appearance is delayed until the third movie, "". Her appearance is based on the New Zealand tunnel-web spider, which Jackson hates.


title: Shelob

text: Shelob is a major character in the video game "", where she serves as both the narrator and an ally to player character Talion. In the game, Shelob shape-shifts to assume the form of an attractive woman. Following criticism of this decision, the creative director Michael de Plater explained that Gollum and Shelob were "the unsung heroes of "The Lord of the Rings"": Shelob senses Frodo's weakness and makes a pact with Gollum to hasten him to Mount Doom and destroy the ring. De Plater envisioned Shelob as a dark counterpart to Galadriel, noting how both manipulate lesser beings, but that Shelob is more honest.


title: Shelob

text: The Brazilian spider "Ochyrocera laracna" is named for Shelob, "Laracna" ("The-spider") being her name in Portuguese.


title: Melody Gardot

text: At the age of 19, Gardot was involved in a bicycle accident and sustained a head injury. Music played a critical role in her recovery. She became an advocate of music therapy, visiting hospitals and universities to discuss its benefits. In 2012, she gave her name to a music therapy program in New Jersey.


title: Melody Gardot

text: Gardot was born in New Jersey and was brought up by her grandparents. Her grandmother was a Polish immigrant. Her mother, a photographer, traveled often, so they had few possessions and lived out of suitcases. Gardot studied fashion at the Community College of Philadelphia.


title: Melody Gardot

text: While riding her bicycle in Philadelphia in November 2003, Gardot was struck by an SUV and sustained head, spinal, and pelvic injuries. Confined to a hospital bed for a year, she needed to relearn simple tasks and was left oversensitive to light and sound. Suffering from short- and long-term memory loss, she struggled with her sense of time.


title: Melody Gardot

text: Encouraged by a physician who believed music would help heal her brain, Gardot learned to hum, then to sing into a tape recorder, and eventually to write songs.


title: Melody Gardot

text: For several years, she traveled with a physiotherapist and carried a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator to reduce pain.


title: Melody Gardot

text: Given her oversensitivity to sound, she chose quieter music. On the treadmill, she listened to bossa nova by Stan Getz, specifically "The Girl from Ipanema". Unable to sit comfortably at the piano, she learned to play guitar on her back. During her recovery, she wrote songs that became part of the self-produced EP "". Gardot was reluctant to record her songs at first, stating that they were too private for the public to hear, but relented and allowed her songs to be played on a Philadelphia radio station.


title: Melody Gardot

text: Gardot is a Buddhist, macrobiotic cook, and humanitarian. She speaks fluent French in addition to her native English and considers herself a "citizen of the world".


title: Melody Gardot

text: Gardot started music lessons at the age of nine and began playing piano in Philadelphia bars at the age of 16 on Fridays and Saturdays for four hours a night. She insisted on playing only music she liked, such as The Mamas & the Papas, Duke Ellington, and Radiohead.


title: Melody Gardot

text: During her time in the hospital she learned how to play the guitar and began writing songs, which were made available as downloads on iTunes and released on "" in 2005. She began to play these songs at venues in Philadelphia and was noticed by employees of the radio station WXPN, operated by the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, which helped to start the career of Norah Jones. She was encouraged to send a demo tape to the radio station, and the tape found its way to the Universal Music Group. She released her first album, "Worrisome Heart" (Verve, 2006), then "My One and Only Thrill" (Verve 2009), produced by Larry Klein.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States, such as freedom of expression, due process, the rights to vote (however, not all citizens have the right to vote in all federal elections, for example, those living in Puerto Rico), live and work in the United States, and to receive federal assistance.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: There are two primary sources of citizenship: birthright citizenship, in which persons born within the territorial limits of the United States are presumed to be a citizen, or—providing certain other requirements are met—born abroad to a United States citizen parent, and naturalization, a process in which an eligible legal immigrant applies for citizenship and is accepted. The first of these two pathways to citizenship is specified in the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution which reads:


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: The second is provided for in U.S. law. In Article One of the Constitution, the power to establish a "uniform rule of naturalization" is granted explicitly to Congress.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: United States law permits multiple citizenship. Citizens of other countries who are naturalized as United States citizens may retain their previous citizenship, although they must renounce allegiance to the other country. A United States citizen retains United States citizenship when becoming the citizen of another country, should that country's laws allow it. United States citizenship can be renounced by Americans via a formal procedure at a United States embassy.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: "National citizenship" signifies membership in the country as a whole; "state citizenship", in contrast, signifies a relation between a person and a particular state and has application generally limited to domestic matters. State citizenship may affect (1) tax decisions, (2) eligibility for some state-provided benefits such as higher education, and (3) eligibility for state political posts such as United States senator. At the time of the American Civil War, state citizenship assumed a much increased importance when it was widely deemed to have a prior claim over the citizens' loyalty in the seceding Southern states.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: Civic participation is not required in the United States. There is no requirement to attend town meetings, belong to a political party, or vote in elections. However, a benefit of naturalization is the ability to "participate fully in the civic life of the country". Moreover, to be a citizen means to be vitally important to politics and not ignored. There is disagreement about whether popular lack of involvement in politics is helpful or harmful.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: Vanderbilt professor Dana D. Nelson suggests that most Americans merely vote for president every four years, and sees this pattern as undemocratic. In her book "Bad for Democracy", Nelson argues that declining citizen participation in politics is unhealthy for long term prospects for democracy.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: However, writers such as Robert D. Kaplan in "The Atlantic" see benefits to non-involvement; he wrote "the very indifference of most people allows for a calm and healthy political climate". Kaplan elaborated: "Apathy, after all, often means that the political situation is healthy enough to be ignored. The last thing America needs is more voters—particularly badly educated and alienated ones — with a passion for politics". He argued that civic participation, in itself, is not always a sufficient condition to bring good outcomes, and pointed to authoritarian societies such as Singapore which prospered because it had "relative safety from corruption, from breach of contract, from property expropriation, and from bureaucratic inefficiency".


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: A person who is considered a citizen by more than one nation has "dual citizenship". It is possible for a United States citizen to have dual citizenship; this can be achieved in various ways, such as by birth in the United States to a parent who is a citizen of a foreign country (or in certain circumstances the foreign nationality may be transmitted even by a grandparent) by birth in another country to a parent(s) who is/are a United States citizen/s, or by having parents who are citizens of different countries. Anyone who becomes a naturalized United States citizen is required to renounce any prior "allegiance" to other countries during the naturalization ceremony; however, this renunciation of allegiance renunciation of citizenship to those countries. The United States Department of State confirms on their website that a United States citizen can hold dual nationality: ""A United States citizen may naturalize in a foreign state without any risk to his or her United States citizenship.""


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: The earliest recorded instances of dual citizenship began before the French Revolution when the British captured American ships and forced them back to Europe. The British Crown considered subjects from the United States as British by birth and forced them to fight in the Napoleonic wars.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: Under certain circumstances there are relevant distinctions between dual citizens who hold a "substantial contact" with a country, for example by holding a passport or by residing in the country for a certain period of time, and those who do not. For example, under the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act of 2008, United States citizens in general are subject to an expatriation tax if they give up United States citizenship, but there are exceptions (specifically ) for those who are either under age 18½ upon giving up United States citizenship and have lived in the United States for less than ten years in their lives, or who are dual citizens by birth residing in their other country of citizenship at the time of giving up United States citizenship and have lived in the United States for less than ten out of the past fifteen years. Similarly, the United States considers holders of a foreign passport to have a substantial contact with the country that issued the passport, which may preclude security clearance.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: United States citizens are required by federal law to identify themselves with a United States passport, not with any other foreign passport, when entering or leaving the United States. The Supreme Court case of "Afroyim v. Rusk", declared that a United States citizen did not lose his citizenship by voting in an election in a foreign country, or by acquiring foreign citizenship, if they did not intend to lose United States citizenship. United States citizens who have dual citizenship do not lose their United States citizenship unless they renounce it officially.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: Citizenship began in colonial times as an active relation between men working cooperatively to solve municipal problems and participating actively in democratic decision-making, such as in New England town hall meetings. Men met regularly to discuss local affairs and make decisions. These town meetings were described as the "earliest form of American democracy" which was vital since citizen participation in public affairs helped keep democracy "sturdy", according to Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835. A variety of forces changed this relation during the nation's history. Citizenship became less defined by participation in politics and more defined as a legal relation with accompanying rights and privileges. While the realm of civic participation in the public sphere has shrunk, the citizenship franchise has been expanded to include not just propertied white adult men but black men and adult women.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: The Supreme Court affirmed in "United States v. Wong Kim Ark", , that per the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause an ethnic Chinese person "born" in the United States becomes a citizen. This is distinct from naturalized citizenship; in 1922 the Court held in "Ozawa v. United States", , that a Japanese person, born in Japan but resident in the United States for twenty years, could not be naturalized under the law of the time and in 1923 in "United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind", , that an Indian person could not be naturalized. In the "Ozawa" decision it was noted that "In all of the naturalization acts from 1790 to 1906 the privilege of naturalization was confined to white persons (with the addition in 1870 of those of African nativity and descent)", 1906 being the most recent legislation in question at the time.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: The Equal Nationality Act of 1934 allowed a foreign-born child of a US citizen mother and an alien father, who had entered US territory before age 18 and lived in the United States for five years, to apply for United States citizenship for the first time. It also made the naturalization process quicker for American women's alien husbands. This law equalized expatriation, immigration, naturalization, and repatriation rules between women and men. However, it was not applied retroactively, and was modified by later laws, such as the Nationality Act of 1940.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: United States citizenship is usually acquired by birth when a child is born within the territory of the United States. For the purposes of birthright citizenship, the territory of the United States consists of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Palmyra Atoll. Citizenship, however, was not specified in the original Constitution. In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment specifically defined persons who were either born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction as citizens. All babies born in the United States—except those born to enemy aliens in wartime or the children of foreign diplomats—enjoy United States citizenship under the Supreme Court's long-standing interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment regardless of the citizenship or immigration status of their parents. The amendment states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." There remains dispute as to who is "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States at birth.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: By acts of Congress, every person born in Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands is a United States citizen by birth. Also, every person born in the former Panama Canal Zone whose father or mother (or both) are or were a citizen is a United States citizen by birth.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: Regardless of where they are born, children of United States citizens are United States citizens in most cases. Children born outside the United States with at least one United States citizen parent usually have birthright citizenship by parentage.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: A child of unknown parentage found in the United States while under the age of five is considered a US citizen unless and until it is proven, before that child reaches the age of twenty-two, the child had not been born in the US.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: While persons born in the United States are considered to be citizens and can obtain US passports, children under the age of eighteen are legally considered to be minors and cannot vote, stand for, or hold public office. Upon the person's eighteenth birthday, they are considered to be full citizens, although no official ceremony takes place and no correspondence between the government and the new citizen occurs to acknowledge the relation. Citizenship is assumed to exist, and the relation is assumed to remain viable until death or until it is renounced or dissolved by some other legal process. Secondary schools ideally teach the basics of citizenship and create "informed and responsible citizens" who are "skilled in the arts of effective deliberation and action."


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: Americans who live in foreign countries and become members of other governments have, in some instances, been stripped of citizenship, although there have been court cases where decisions regarding citizenship have been reversed.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. constitution gives Congress the power "To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization". Acts of Congress provide for acquisition of citizenship by persons not born in the U.S.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: The agency in charge of admitting new citizens is the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, commonly abbreviated as USCIS. It is a bureau of the Department of Homeland Security. It offers web-based services. The agency depends on application fees for revenue; in 2009, with a struggling economy, applications were down sharply, and consequently there was much less revenue to upgrade and streamline services. There was speculation that if the administration of president Barack Obama passed immigration reform measures, then the agency could face a "welcome but overwhelming surge of Americans-in-waiting" and longer processing times for citizenship applications. The USCIS has made efforts to digitize records. A USCIS website says the "United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is committed to offering the best possible service to you, our customer" and which says "With our focus on customer service, we offer you a variety of services both before and after you file your case". The website allowed applicants to estimate the length of time required to process specific types of cases, to check application status, and to access a customer guide. The USCIS processes cases in the order they're received.


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: People applying to become United States citizens must satisfy certain requirements. For example, applicants must generally have been permanent residents for five years (three if married to a United States citizen), be of "good moral character" (meaning no felony convictions), be of "sound mind" in the judgment of immigration officials, have a knowledge of the Constitution, and be able to speak and understand English unless they are elderly or disabled. Applicants must also pass a citizenship test. Until recently, a test published by the Immigration and Naturalization Service asked questions such as "How many stars are there in our flag?" and "What is the Constitution?" and "Who is the president of the United States today?" At one point, the Government Printing Office sold flashcards for US$8.50 to help test-takers prepare for the test. In 2006, the government replaced the former trivia test with a ten-question oral test designed to "shun simple historical facts about America that can be recounted in a few words, for more explanation about the principles of American democracy, such as freedom". One reviewer described the new citizenship test as "thoughtful". While some have criticized the new version of the test, officials counter that the new test is a "teachable moment" without making it conceptually more difficult, since the list of possible questions and answers, as before, will be publicly available. Six correct answers constitute a passing grade. The new test probes for signs that immigrants "understand and share American values".


title: Citizenship of the United States

text: According to a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, "citizenship is a very, very valuable commodity". However, one study suggested legal residents eligible for citizenship, but who don't apply, tend to have low incomes (41%), do not speak English well (60%), or have low levels of education (25%). There is strong demand for citizenship based on the number of applications filed. From 1920 to 1940, the number of immigrants to the United States who became citizens numbered about 200,000 each year; there was a spike after World War II, and then the level reduced to about 150,000 per year until resuming to the 200,000 level beginning about 1980. In the mid-1990s to 2009, the levels rose to about 500,000 per year with considerable variation. In 1996, more than one million people became citizens through naturalization. In 1997, there were 1.41 million applications filed; in 2006, 1.38 million. The number of naturalized citizens in the United States rose from 6.5 million in the mid-1990s to 11 million in 2002. By 2003, the pool of immigrants eligible to become naturalized citizens was 8 million, and of these, 2.7 million lived in California. In 2003, the number of new citizens from naturalization was 463,204. In 2007, the number was 702,589. In 2007, 1.38 million people applied for citizenship creating a backlog. In 2008, applications decreased to 525,786.