title: Ethan Couch

text: Couch, having dropped his fight to avoid being deported from Mexico, was flown back to the United States on January 28, 2016, and was held in custody before appearing at a hearing on February 19 regarding his original juvenile probation case being transferred to the adult court system. The case was transferred to the adult court system on February 19, 2016, and the court stated that Couch will remain on probation until 2024. On April 13, 2016, state District Judge Wayne Salvant sentenced Couch to four consecutive terms of 180 days in jail (720 days in total) - one for each of the 2013 car crash victims - in light of him fleeing to Mexico.


title: Ethan Couch

text: Couch was released from jail on April 2, 2018. Upon his release, he was required to wear an ankle monitor and an alcohol detection patch and to submit to drug testing and conform to a 9 p.m. curfew. He is permitted to drive and has a video-equipped interlock ignition device installed in his vehicle, which will prevent him from starting his car without passing a breathalyzer test, according to Mike Simonds of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office.


title: Ethan Couch

text: The non-profit organization Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) criticized Couch's release as a "grave injustice", vowing to keep a close eye on his case:


title: Ethan Couch

text: On March 18, 2019, a Tarrant County judge allowed Couch to remove the GPS ankle monitor, but the other conditions of his probation were not lifted. The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office said they were not notified about the decision. Couch was re-arrested on January 2, 2020, accused of violating his probation. Couch was booked into the Tarrant County Jail. According to court documents Couch tested positive for THC in a mandatory drug screening that was part of his probation. Couch was released one day later, on January 3, 2020, because authorities could not determine if the positive test result for THC came from illegal marijuana or CBD oil.


title: Ziaire Williams

text: Ziaire Williams (born September 12, 2001) is an American professional basketball player for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Stanford Cardinal.


title: Ziaire Williams

text: Williams was born in Lancaster, California as the only child of Ziaire Williams and Marquita Fields-Williams. He began playing basketball at age five and was training under the guidance of his father by age eight.


title: Ziaire Williams

text: For his first three years of high school, Williams attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles. In his freshman season, he averaged 13.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Williams missed much of his sophomore season with an injury but saw success in the summer with his club team BTI Select. On January 14, 2019, as a junior, he was named "Los Angeles Daily News" boys athlete of the week following two consecutive games with at least 34 points. In his junior season, Williams averaged 27 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists per game. He earned All-Mission League first team and "USA Today" All-USA California second team honors.


title: Ziaire Williams

text: On July 18, 2019, Williams transferred to Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, Los Angeles for his senior year. He joined the team with fellow five-star recruit BJ Boston, as well as Bronny James and Zaire Wade, the respective sons of basketball players LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Williams was not eligible to play until December 29, due to CIF Southern Section (CIF-SS) transfer rules, and missed more than 10 games. In his season debut, he scored 28 points in an 85–81 overtime loss to Rancho Christian School. On March 11, 2020, Williams scored 17 points and made a buzzer-beater in a 63–61 comeback win over Etiwanda High School. As a senior, he averaged 15 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, helping Sierra Canyon win the CIF-SS Open Division title. He was named player of the year by the "Los Angeles Times". Williams was selected to play in the McDonald's All-American Game, Jordan Brand Classic and Nike Hoop Summit, but all three games were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Ziaire Williams

text: Williams was a consensus five-star recruit and the number one small forward in the 2020 recruiting class. On April 12, 2020, he announced his commitment to Stanford over Arizona, USC, North Carolina and UCLA. Williams became Stanford's highest-ranked recruit in the modern recruiting era and the program's first five-star recruit since Reid Travis in 2014.


title: Ziaire Williams

text: In his collegiate debut for Stanford on November 30, 2020, Williams scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds in an 82–64 win against Alabama. On January 7, 2021, he recorded 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, the first triple-double by a Stanford player since 2007, in a 91–75 victory over Washington. As a freshman, Williams averaged 10.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game, shooting 37.4 percent from the field. On March 31, he declared for the 2021 NBA draft, forgoing his remaining college eligibility.


title: Ziaire Williams

text: On July 29, 2021, Williams was selected with the tenth overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft by the New Orleans Pelicans, then traded to the Memphis Grizzlies. After missing 14 consecutive games due to an ankle injury and a stint in the NBA’s Covid-19 protocols, Williams got his first career start on January 6, 2022, scoring 14 points and recording 2 steals in a 118-88 win over the Pistons. On February 2, Williams set a career-high with 21 points scored in a 120-108 win over the New York Knicks. He then tied that record on February 24th, in a 119-114 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.<ref>


title: MV Doña Paz

text: MV "Doña Paz was a Japanese built and Philippine-registered passenger ferry that sank after colliding with the oil tanker "Vector" on December 20, 1987. Built by Onomichi Zosen of Hiroshima, Japan, the ship was launched on April 25, 1963 as the Himeyuri Maru, with a passenger capacity of 608. In October 1975, the "Himeyuri Maru" was bought by Sulpicio Lines and renamed the Don Sulpicio". After a fire on board in June 1979, the ship was refurbished and renamed "Doña Paz".


title: MV Doña Paz

text: Traveling from Leyte island to the Philippine capital of Manila, the vessel was seriously overcrowded, with at least 2,000 passengers not listed on the manifest. It has also been claimed that the ship did not have a radio and that the life-jackets were locked away. However, official blame was directed at the tanker "Vector", that collided with the "Doña Paz," which was found to be unseaworthy and operating without a license, a lookout, or a qualified master. With an estimated death toll of 4,385 people and only 26 survivors, it remains the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: "Doña Paz" was built in 1963 by Onomichi Zosen of Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan. It was originally named the "Himeyuri Maru". During the time she travelled Japanese waters, she had a passenger capacity of 608. In October 1975, she was sold to Sulpicio Lines, a Filipino operator of a fleet of passenger ferries, and was renamed "Don Sulpicio,". She served the Manila to Cebu sector as her primary route"." The vessel became one of the company's two flagship vessels, the other one being the "Doña Ana" (later renamed "Doña Marilyn").


title: MV Doña Paz

text: On June 5, 1979, the vessel was gutted by fire on her usual Manila-Cebu journey. All 1,164 aboard were rescued but the vessel was beached and declared a constructive total loss. The wreck was repurchased from the underwriters by Sulpicio Lines, and repaired. Structural changes were made and she returned to service under the new name "Doña Paz".


title: MV Doña Paz

text: As the M/V Philippine Princess had already become the flagship of Sulpicio Lines serving the Manila-Cebu sector, the "Doña Paz" was reassigned to serve the Manila → Tacloban route, with the return trip having a stop in Catbalogan. Sulpicio Lines operated the "Doña Paz" on this route, making voyages twice a week, until the time of her sinking.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: On December 20, 1987, at 06:30, Philippine Standard Time, "Doña Paz" departed from Tacloban, Leyte, for Manila, with a stopover at Catbalogan, Samar. Commanded by Captain Eusebio Nazareno, the vessel was due in Manila at 04:00 the next day. It was reported that it last made radio contact at about 20:00. However, subsequent reports indicated that "Doña Paz" did not have a radio.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: At about 22:30, the ferry was at Dumali Point, along the Tablas Strait, near Marinduque. A survivor later said that the weather at sea that night was clear, but the sea was choppy. While most of the passengers slept, "Doña Paz" collided with MT "Vector", an oil tanker en route from Bataan to Masbate. "Vector" was carrying or 1041 tonnes (1148 US tons) of gasoline and other petroleum products owned by Caltex Philippines.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: Upon collision, "Vector"s cargo ignited and caused a fire on the ship that spread onto "Doña Paz". Survivors recalled sensing the crash and an explosion, causing panic on the vessel. One of them, Paquito Osabel, recounted that the flames spread rapidly throughout the ship, and that the sea all around the ship itself was on fire.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: Another survivor, Philippine Constabulary corporal Luthgardo Niedo, claimed that the lights aboard had gone out minutes after the collision, that there were not any life vests to be found on "Doña Paz", and that the crewmen were running around in panic with the other passengers, and none of the crew gave any orders or made any attempt to organize the passengers. It was later said that the life jacket lockers had been locked up.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: The survivors were forced to jump off the ship and swim among charred bodies in flaming waters around the ship, with some using suitcases as makeshift flotation devices. "Doña Paz" sank within two hours of the collision. "Vector" sank within four hours. Both ships sank in about of water in the Tablas Strait.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: Officers and the captain of a passing inter-island ship, MS "Don Claudio", witnessed the explosion of the two ships and, after an hour, found the survivors of "Doña Paz". The officers of "Don Claudio" threw a net for the survivors to climb onto. Only 26 survivors were retrieved from the water: 24 of them were passengers from "Doña Paz", while the other 2 were crewmen from "Vector"s 13-man crew.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: A 25th survivor from "Doña Paz", Valeriana Duma, was not originally accounted for by officials. She later revealed herself through the GMA Network program "Wish Ko Lang!" in 2012. At 14, she was the second youngest passenger of "Doña Paz" to survive. Often forgotten, one of the originally known survivors of the "Doña Paz" was a four-year-old boy, who has never been named. He was the youngest survivor.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: None of the crew of "Doña Paz" survived. Most of the survivors sustained burns from jumping into the flaming waters. Doctors and nurses aboard the rescue vessel tended to their injuries. It reportedly took eight hours before Philippine maritime authorities learned of the accident, and another eight hours to initiate search-and-rescue operations.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: According to the initial investigation conducted by the Philippine Coast Guard, only one apprentice member of the crew of "Doña Paz" was monitoring the ship's bridge when the accident occurred. Other officers were either drinking beer or watching television in the crew's recreation quarters. The ship's captain was watching a movie on his Betamax machine in his cabin. A similar testimony was given by one of the survivors, Luthgardo Niedo, wherein he stated that a fellow constabulary soldier informed him of "an ongoing party with laughter and loud music" on the ship's bridge with the captain as one of the attendees.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: Survivors claimed that it was possible that "Doña Paz" may have carried as many as 4,000 passengers. The signs that they considered were that they saw passengers sleeping along corridors, on the boat decks, and on bunks with three or four people on them.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: In the initial announcement made by Sulpicio Lines, the official passenger manifest of "Doña Paz" recorded 1,493 passengers and 59 crew members aboard. According to Sulpicio Lines, the ferry was able to carry 1,424 passengers. A revised manifest released on December 23, 1987, showed 1,583 passengers and 58 crew members on "Doña Paz", with 675 persons boarding the ferry in Tacloban, and 908 coming aboard in Catbalogan. However, an anonymous official of Sulpicio Lines told UPI that, since it was the Christmas season, tickets were usually purchased illegally aboard the ship at a cheaper rate, and those passengers were not listed on the manifest. The same official added that holders of complimentary tickets and non-paying children younger than the age of four were not listed on the manifest.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: Of the 21 bodies that had been recovered and identified as passengers on the ship five days after the accident, only one of the fatalities was listed on the official manifest. Of the 26 passengers who survived, only five were listed on the manifest.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: On December 28, 1987, Representative Raul Daza of Northern Samar claimed that at least 2,000 passengers aboard "Doña Paz" were not on the ship's manifest. He based that number on a list of names furnished by relatives and friends of missing people believed aboard the ferry, the names having been compiled by radio and television stations in Tacloban. The names of these 2,000+ missing passengers were published in pages 29 to 31 of the December 29, 1987, edition of the "Philippine Daily Inquirer". At least 79 public school teachers perished in the collision.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: During February 1988 the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation stated, on the basis of interviews with relatives, that there were at least 3,099 passengers and 59 crew on board, giving 3,134 on-board fatalities. During January 1999 a presidential task force report estimated, on the basis of court records and more than 4,100 settlement claims, that there were 4,342 passengers. Subtracting the 26 surviving passengers, and adding 58 crew, gives 4,374 on-board fatalities. Adding the 11 dead from the "Vector" crew, the total becomes 4,385, almost 3 times the design load.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: President Corazon Aquino described the accident as "a national tragedy of harrowing proportions...[the Filipino people's] sadness is all the more painful because the tragedy struck with the approach of Christmas". Pope John Paul II, Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita and Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom conveyed their official messages of condolence. Given the estimated death toll, "Time" magazine and others have termed the sinking of "Doña Paz" "the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster of the 20th century".


title: MV Doña Paz

text: Sulpicio Lines announced three days after the accident that "Doña Paz" was insured for (US$ in dollars), and it was willing to indemnify the survivors the amount of (US$ in dollars) for each victim. Days later, hundreds of the victims' kin staged a mass rally at Rizal Park, demanding that the ship owners likewise indemnify the families of those not listed on the manifest, as well as to give a full accounting of the missing.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: Nonetheless, the Board of Marine Inquiry eventually exculpated Sulpicio Lines of fault in the accident. Subsequent inquiries revealed that "Vector" was operating without a license, lookout or properly qualified master. During 1999 the Supreme Court of the Philippines ruled that it was the owners of "Vector" who were liable to indemnify the victims of the collision.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: Some of the claims pursued against either Sulpicio Lines or the owners of "Vector", such as those filed by the Cañezal family (who lost two members) and the Macasas family (who lost three members) were adjudicated by the Supreme Court, which found that even the families of victims whose names did not appear on the official manifest were entitled to indemnity. Caltex Philippines, which had chartered "Vector", was likewise cleared of financial liability.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: A memorial honoring the victims of "Doña Paz" is at the Pieta Park in Catbalogan. Located at adjacent to St. Bartholomew Church and Saint Mary's College of Catbalogan, the park now serves as a public space for families and friends of the victims.


title: MV Doña Paz

text: The wreck of "Doña Paz" was located in April 2019 by the RV "Petrel", with video footage later released on December 19. It lies upright at a depth of 500 meters (1640 ft.). The wreck of the "Vector" was found lying 2200 meters (7218 ft.) away in the same state. Both wrecks are in good condition.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: Benjamin Isaac Hoffman (born December 13, 1974), is an American comedian, actor, writer, and musician. Hoffman is well known by his country musician alter ego Wheeler Walker, Jr., as whom he has released four albums of country music rife with profanity and sexually-explicit lyrics.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: His first album as Wheeler Walker, Jr., "Redneck Shit", debuted in 2016 at number nine on the "Billboard" Hot Country Albums chart and number one on the "Billboard" Top Comedy Albums chart, making it the first album in over a decade to debut in the top ten on both those charts simultaneously. Despite no FM radio play, Hoffman found success with streaming and social media.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: Reception to Hoffman's music has been mixed, largely due to the raunchiness of his lyrics and themes. Some have called the Wheeler Walker, Jr. character an "experiment in free speech" and "a platform to speak out against censorship and bias in the music industry". Hoffman has been vocal about his use of the character as a means to express his displeasure with the modern state of the country music industry, particularly the rise of the bro-country subgenre.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: Hoffman was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He is the older brother of Scissor Sisters bassist Babydaddy (Scott Hoffman). Hoffman is Jewish and attended Tulane University.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: Hoffman created and hosted "The Ben Show", which premiered on Comedy Central on February 28, 2013. The show was broadcast for one season.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: He was a writer and correspondent for the "Sports Show with Norm Macdonald", and has written for the "MTV Video Music Awards", "Archer", and "The Late Late Show with James Corden". He has appeared in acting roles on "Arrested Development", "New Girl" and "Drunk History" and has produced content for and appeared on "InfoMania".


title: Ben Hoffman

text: In 2018, Hoffman created the Netflix adult animation comedy series "Hoops". In addition to writing, he provided voice talent and was also an executive producer alongside Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Seth Cohen, and Jake Johnson. The show was cancelled after the completion of one season.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: Hoffman debuted an early version of the satirical country music artist Wheeler Walker, Jr. character on a skit for "The Ben Show" in 2013 where he performed his song "Eatin' Pussy, Kickin' Ass".


title: Ben Hoffman

text: He recorded and released his first album, "Redneck Shit", on February 12, 2016 via Thirty Tigers and Pepper Hill Records. The album was produced by Dave Cobb out of Nashville and originally premiered via stream on the pornographic website PornHub. It debuted at number nine on the "Billboard" Top Country Albums chart, number one on the "Billboard" Top Comedy Albums chart, and number 127 on the US "Billboard" 200. It was the first album to debut in both the top ten of the comedy and country charts. It sold 5,900 copies in its first week.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: "Rolling Stone" called it "Unfathomably obscene and undeniably offensive, the debut album from Nashville never-was Wheeler Walker Jr. is also goddamn funny. But "Redneck Shit" is far from just an X-rated novelty record."


title: Ben Hoffman

text: The Wheeler Walker, Jr. persona has been compared to other artists such as Chinga Chavin, Andy Kaufman, and David Allan Coe. The character's fictional biography outlines his history as an unsigned Nashville talent too crude for mainstream radio due to his desire to revamp the classic outlaw country style by playing songs that would have "gotten him yanked off the Grand Ol' Opry broadcast in a matter of seconds", although he finally found success with the rise of uncensored satellite radio and the internet.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: On April 16, 2016, Hoffman appeared as the character on the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast episode #786. He has been a guest on a number of other podcasts including "Your Mom's House" with Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky, "The Church of What's Happening Now" with Joey Diaz, and "Bertcast" with Bert Kreischer. He also appeared and performed live on "The Howard Stern Wrap Up Show" on May 25, 2017.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: His second album, "Ol' Wheeler", was released on June 2, 2017 and debuted at number 10 on the "Billboard" Top Country Albums chart, with 7,800 copies sold in its first week. It also debuted at number one on the "Billboard" Top Comedy Albums chart where it remained for three consecutive weeks, and peaked at number five on the "Billboard" Country chart. Prior to the album's release, crowd funding music site PledgeMusic removed the album's pre-sales and refunded fans due to obscenity complaints. Upset, Hoffman claimed censorship and angry fans responded by trolling a page promoting the band 311. The album was originally going to include a duet with Grammy Award-winning artist Maren Morris on the song "Fuckin' Around", but it was pulled by Sony Music Nashville. Hoffman had previously performed alongside Morris and Jake Owen at a party following the 50th Annual Country Music Association Awards in 2016. The duet was instead recorded with Nikki Lane, credited as "Kacey Walker".


title: Ben Hoffman

text: Hoffman toured throughout the United States from 2016 through 2018. During the summer of 2018, he toured with Kid Rock and Brantley Gilbert in the Red Blooded Rock n Roll Redneck Extravaganza Tour. He also performed his song "Sit On My Face" alongside Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson at Hinterland Music Festival in 2018. Hoffman, outfitted as Wheeler, presented an award to Childers at the "Americana Music Honors & Awards" that same year. Hoffman concluded his tour on December 8, 2018 with a final concert at The Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: His third album, "WW III", was released on November 30, 2018. The album topped the Comedy chart and also sat at number one on the iTunes Country chart. He released first greatest hits compilation entitled "" on May 1, 2020. It features material from his three studio albums along with two new tracks, "Drunk as Fuck" and "Go Big or Go Home".


title: Ben Hoffman

text: On March 8, 2022, Hoffman, outfitted in the Wheeler Walker, Jr. persona, was removed by security from the Country Music Hall of Fame property in Nashville after protesting the Florida Georgia Line exhibit. He held a picket sign reading "FGL does not belong here", citing a belief that the duo's music is pop and not country.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: On April 14, 2022, Hoffman commenced his 2022 Comeback Tour when he headlined the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, his first live performance since 2018. He promoted the concert by joking about his desire to get "cancelled". The concert sold out, and broke records for alcohol and merchandise sales at the venue.


title: Ben Hoffman

text: On April 15, 2022, he released his fourth album, "Sex, Drugs & Country Music". It debuted at number one on the iTunes chart and number two on the Comedy albums chart.


title: UFC 278

text: UFC 278: Usman vs. Edwards 2 was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that took place on August 20, 2022, at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.


title: UFC 278

text: A UFC Welterweight Championship bout between current champion (also welterweight winner) Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards headlined the event. The pairing previously met at in December 2015 where Usman defeated Edwards by unanimous decision.


title: UFC 278

text: A middleweight bout between former Strikeforce and UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold and former title challenger Paulo Costa was expected to take place at UFC 277. However, the bout was postponed to this event due to unknown reasons.


title: UFC 278

text: A flyweight bout between Victor Altamirano and Jake Hadley was scheduled for this event. However, after Hadley pulled out of the bout due to injury he was replaced by Daniel Lacerda.


title: UFC 278

text: A women's flyweight bout between Miranda Maverick and Shanna Young was scheduled for the event. However, the bout was cancelled on the day of the weigh-ins as Young was hospitalized due to weight cut issues. They were rescheduled for UFC Fight Night 214.


title: UFC 278

text: The following fighters received Crypto.com "Fan Bonus of the Night" awards paid in bitcoin of US$30,000 for first place, US$20,000 for second place, and US$10,000 for third place.


title: UFC 278

text: The following is the reported payout to the fighters as reported to the Utah Athletic Commission. It is important to note the amounts do not include sponsor money, discretionary bonuses, viewership points or additional earnings. The total disclosed payout for the event was $2,542,000.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: Pazuzu is a fictional character who is the main antagonist in "The Exorcist" horror novels and film series, created by William Peter Blatty. Blatty derived the character from Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, where the mythic Pazuzu was considered the king of the demons of the wind, and the son of the god Hanbi. In "The Exorcist", Pazuzu appears as a demon who possesses Regan MacNeil.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: Pazuzu is often depicted as a combination of animal and human parts with his right hand pointing upwards and his left hand downwards. He has the body of a man, the head of a lion or dog, eagle-like taloned feet, two pairs of wings, a scorpion's tail, and a serpentine penis.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: Pazuzu first appeared in William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist" in 1971. The novel is about a 12-year-old girl, Regan MacNeil, possessed by a demon. The demon is later revealed to be Pazuzu; though never explicitly stated to be the demon, two references were made about his statue, which was uncovered in the prologue by Father Lankester Merrin in northern Iraq. After Regan's mother worries about her daughter being possessed, Merrin and Karras arrive at her house and perform an exorcism on Regan and successfully force the demon out of Regan's body. In their struggle to free Regan from the thrall of Pazuzu, both priests perish.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: Pazuzu returns in "Legion", wanting to take revenge for being thrown out of Regan's body. He does this by driving the Gemini Killer's soul into Father Damien Karras's dead body. Although not directly identified as Pazuzu, the Gemini Killer refers to "others" who would see his work continue. In the end of the novel, the Gemini Killer leaves the body of Father Karras following the death of the killer's father, the driving force behind the Gemini Killer's crimes.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: Two years after the novel was published, "The Exorcist" was released in theaters as a motion picture. In the beginning of the film, Father Merrin finds a ruined statue of the demon during an archaeological dig in Iraq. The majority of the film deals with Regan's demonic possession by a being she initially refers to as "Captain Howdy". During the attempted exorcism of Regan, the statue of Pazuzu that Merrin found at the beginning of the film briefly appears. The demon is ultimately exorcised from Regan's body after Merrin dies of a heart attack, and Father Damien Karras sacrifices himself by luring the demon into his body and then hurling himself through a window and down the now famous flight of stairs leading down to M Street NW, in Georgetown.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: In "", Pazuzu is named as the demon and returns to haunt Regan. There are flashbacks of Merrin battling the demon in Regan and also flashbacks of Merrin's exorcism of Pazuzu from a boy named Kokumo in Africa many years earlier. In the end of the film, Regan and Father Lamont, who has been trying to help her, but has become possessed by Pazuzu, return to Georgetown. After a struggle, he declines Pazuzu's offer of power and Regan banishes Pazuzu, appearing in the form of locusts.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: "The Exorcist III" takes place 15 years after the original film. The film was adapted by Blatty from his novel "Legion". Lieutenant Kinderman, who was also in the original film, has been on a murder case about mysterious deaths committed by an anonymous person. It is later found out that Pazuzu convinced the Gemini Killer, who died at the same time as Father Karras, to inhabit his body as punishment for saving Regan. However, as result of his suicide, his brain was severely damaged, which demons/spirits need when they possess a body. The Gemini Killer spent years stimulating his brain so he would be of use, and then began committing murders by possessing the bodies of the other inhabitants of the hospital where Karras had been staying. In the end of the movie after a turbulent exorcism is done, Karras regains control of the body and asks Kinderman to kill him, which he does by shooting him in the head, keeping him from being possessed again.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: In "" and "", Pazuzu is shown in his first encounter with Father Merrin in Africa in the duel that "nearly kills Merrin", referenced in the very first movie. Although the plot of both of these versions center around Merrin's African exorcism many years earlier, they take a sharp departure from the original scenes in "Exorcist II: The Heretic" where Merrin exorcises a young boy named Kokumo on a mountaintop. No effort was made to keep the stories consistent beyond that central idea.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: In "The Exorcist" television series, which is presented as a sequel to the original film, Pazuzu continues its pursuit of Regan and possesses her daughter Casey. After nearly killing Casey, the demon is able to possess Regan again and is almost able to take complete control of her mind. However, with the aid of the priest Father Tomas and her family, Regan fights back against Pazuzu, regaining control of her mind, just as Father Tomas exorcises the demon from her body.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: William Peter Blatty's creations of Pazuzu and "The Exorcist" were based on a heavily reported series of 1949 events in St. Louis, Missouri concerning the possession of a 14-year-old known as "Robbie Mannheim" (or sometimes "Roland Doe"). Blatty, who was a student at Georgetown University, read about the story in Washington, D.C. newspapers and created "The Exorcist" twenty years later.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: Texas State religious studies professor Joseph Laycock believes that Blatty may have drawn his portrayal of Pazuzu from religion scholar Paul Carus's 1900 book "The History of the Devil". It has an illustration of the statue of Pazuzu, the "demon of the southwest wind" in Chaldean tradition, which also has a loop through its head similar to the one Father Merrin finds on the amulet. Laycock speculates that Blatty may have acknowledged this source by giving his protagonist the similar-sounding name Karras and putting in his backstory that he had once written a paper on the Black Mass.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: In the first film, Linda Blair played Regan. Mercedes McCambridge provided the majority of Pazuzu's dialogue, most notably in all the scenes with Fathers Karras and Merrin. In earlier scenes, Pazuzu's voice is provided by Linda Blair herself in some scenes, and Ron Faber in others. The face of Pazuzu is provided by Eileen Dietz, who also plays Regan during the vomiting, levitation and masturbation scenes.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: Pazuzu is mostly manifested by a swarm of locusts in "Exorcist II: The Heretic", though is also shown possessing the young Regan and a young boy named Kokumo during flashback sequences. While the stand-in for the young Regan is uncredited, the possessed Kokumo was played by Joey Green, and all of Pazuzu's dialogue in the film is provided by Karen Knapp.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: "The Exorcist III" is the only film in which Pazuzu does not have a physical manifestation, though it still does have a few lines of dialogue, which are voiced by Colleen Dewhurst.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: In "Exorcist: The Beginning" and "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist", the victims possessed by Pazuzu are played by Izabella Scorupco and Billy Crawford respectively, and the voices of Pazuzu are Rupert Degas in the former film and Mary Beth Hurt in the latter.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: In "The Exorcist" television series, Pazuzu in its natural form is portrayed by Robert Emmet Lunney. Its victims are an older Regan, portrayed by Geena Davis, and Regan's daughter Casey, portrayed by Hannah Kasulka.


title: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

text: The demon mask used in the movie "Onibaba" (1964) inspired William Friedkin to use a similar design for the makeup in the shots. In these shots, the demon is played by actress Eileen Dietz, who underwent makeup tests for the "possessed Regan", wore one of the alternate make-ups in her role as the demon.


title: Suntory

text: Suntory was started by , who first opened his store in Osaka on February 1, 1899, to sell imported wines. In 1907, the store began selling a fortified wine called Akadama Port Wine (Akadama literally meaning "red ball," a euphemism for the sun). The store became the Kotobukiya company in 1921 to further expand its business and in 1923, Torii built Japan's first malt whisky distillery Yamazaki Distillery. Production began in December 1924 and five years later Suntory Whisky Shirofuda (White Label), the first single malt whisky made in Japan, was sold.


title: Suntory

text: Due to shortages during World War II, Kotobukiya was forced to halt its development of new products, but in 1946 it re-released Torys Whisky, which sold well in post-war Japan. In 1961, Kotobukiya launched the "Drink Torys and Go to Hawaii" campaign. At the time, a trip abroad was considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In 1963, Kotobukiya changed its name to "Suntory", taken from the name of the whisky it produces, which itself was derived from the English "Sun" (referencing "akadama") + Tory, the anglicized version of Torii's name. In the same year, Musashino Beer Factory began its production of the Suntory Beer. In 1997, the company became Japan's sole bottler, distributor, and licensee of Pepsi products.


title: Suntory

text: On July 14, 2009, Kirin announced that it was negotiating with Suntory on a merger. On February 8, 2010, it was announced that negotiations between the two were terminated.


title: Suntory

text: In 2009, Suntory acquired Orangina, the orange soft drink for 300 billion yen, and Frucor energy drinks for 600 million euros. On July 2, 2013 the company debuted on the Tokyo stock exchange and raised almost US$4 billion in the process.


title: Suntory

text: In September 2013, Suntory purchased the drinks division of GlaxoSmithKline. This included the brands Lucozade and Ribena, however, the deal did not include Horlicks.


title: Suntory

text: In January 2014, Suntory announced an agreement to buy the largest U.S. bourbon producer, Beam Inc. (producers of Jim Beam) for US$16 billion. This deal would make Suntory the world's third largest spirits maker. The acquisition was completed in April 2014, when it was announced that Beam would be renamed Beam Suntory.


title: Suntory

text: In 2018, Suntory sold most of Cerebos Pacific assets, including Australian and New Zealand food business to Kraft Heinz for A$290 million. This transaction excludes Cerebos Pacific's health supplements and fresh coffee business which later integrated into Suntory Beverage & Food Asia Pte. Ltd. and Suntory Coffee Australia respectively.


title: Suntory

text: From the early 1990s, Suntory has collaborated extensively with Melbourne biotechnology firm Florigene to genetically engineer the world's first true blue rose, a symbol often associated with the impossible or unattainable. In 1991, the team won the intense global race to isolate the gene responsible for blue flowers, and has since developed a range of genetically modified flowers expressing colors in the blue spectrum, as well as a number of other breakthroughs extending the vase life of cut flowers.


title: Suntory

text: In 2003, Suntory acquired a 98.5% equity holding in Florigene. Prior to this, Florigene had been a subsidiary of global agrochemicals giant Nufarm since 1999. In July 2004, Suntory and Florigene scientists announced to the world the development of the first roses containing blue pigment, an important step toward the creation of a truly blue colored rose.


title: Suntory

text: In July 2011, Suntory Beverage and Food Limited together with PT GarudaFood from Tudung Group in Indonesia have agreed to make a new firm to produce non-alcoholic drink with 51 percent and 49 percent shares respectively. It will produce Suntory Oolong Tea, Boss and Orangina.


title: Suntory

text: In April 2019 Suntory partnered with Drinkripples, an Israeli-based company. As part of the collaboration Suntory will use Drinkripples' Ripple Maker machines to print branded and viral content on top of Suntory beer in Suntory certified locations and factories throughout Japan.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Pollution of the Ganges, the largest river in India, poses significant threats to human health and the larger environment. The river, which is severely polluted with human waste and industrial contaminants, provides water to about 40% of India's population across 11 states, serving an estimated population of 500 million people, which is more than any other river in the world.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Today, the Ganges is considered to be the fifth-most polluted river in the world. Raghubir Singh, an Indian photographer, has noted that no one in India spoke of the Ganges as being polluted until the late 1970s. However, pollution had been an old and continuous process in the river by the time people were finally acknowledging it. Stretches of over were essentially ecologically dead zones.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: A number of initiatives were undertaken to clean the river, but failed to deliver significant results. After getting elected, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed to work on cleaning the river and controlling pollution. Subsequently, the "Namami Ganga" project was announced by the government in the June 2014 budget. An estimated Rs 3,000 crores (US$460 million) had been spent by July 2016 in various efforts to clean up the river.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The main causes of water pollution in the Ganges river are the disposal of human sewage and animal waste, increasing population density, and disposal of industrial waste into the river.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The river flows through 100 cities with populations over 100,000; 97 cities with population between 50,000 to 100,000, and about 48 towns. A large proportion of the sewage water with higher organic load in the Ganges is from this population through domestic water usage.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Because of the establishment of a large number of industrial cities on the bank of the Ganges like Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi and Patna, countless tanneries, chemical plants, textile mills, distilleries, slaughterhouses, and hospitals prosper and grow along with this and actively play a role in polluting the Ganges by dumping untreated waste into it. One coal-based power plant on the banks of the Pandu River, a Ganges tributary near the city of Kanpur, burns 600,000 tons of coal each year and produces 210,000 tons of fly ash. The ash is dumped into ponds from which a slurry is filtered, mixed with domestic wastewater, and then released into the Pandu River. Fly ash contains toxic heavy metals such as lead and copper. The amount of parts per million of copper released in the Pandu before it even reaches the Ganga is a thousand times higher than in uncontaminated water.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Industrial effluents are about 12% of the total volume of effluent reaching the Ganges. Although a relatively low proportion, they are a cause for major concern because they are often toxic and non-biodegradable. Plastic and industrial waste, such as wastewater from the factories that sit on the banks of the Ganga, is another cause of pollution. The most worrying problem facing the river is its increasing lack of water. Water for irrigation is being removed faster than the rainy season can replenish it.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: During festival seasons, over 70 million people bathe in the Ganges to cleanse themselves of their past sins. Some materials like food, waste or leaves are left in the Ganges, which are also responsible for its pollution.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Traditional beliefs hold that being cremated on its banks and floating down the Ganges will cleanse the sins of those who die and carry them directly to salvation. In Varanasi alone, an estimated forty thousand bodies are cremated every year and are deposited into the Ganga. Because many families cannot afford the high cost of sufficient quantities of cremation wood, many of the bodies deposited into the Ganges are only half-burnt.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Built in 1854 during the British colonization of India, the Haridwar dam has led to decay of the Ganges by greatly diminishing the flow of the river. The Farakka Barrage was built originally to divert fresh water into the Hooghly River but has since caused an increase of salinity in the downstream of the Ganges, having a damaging effect on the ground water and soil along the river. The barrage has caused major tension between Bangladesh and India. Bangladesh is actively considering to construct Ganges Barrage Project for mitigating the salinity problem. The government of India has planned about 300 dams on the Ganges and its tributaries in the near future despite a government-commissioned green panel report that has recommended scrapping 34 of the dams citing environmental concerns.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Three more barrages across the Ganges main river are existing at Bijnor, Narora and Kanpur. The barrages at Bijnor and Narora divert all the water including baseflows during dry season to the canals for irrigating vast area up to Allahabad city. Most of the water available at the upstream of the Kanpur barrage is used during dry season for the drinking water needs of cities. Downstream of Kanpur barrage, adequate water is not available from the barrage to dilute the polluted water reaching the main river during the dry seasons of year.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: There are number of pumping stations located on the banks (right and left) of the Ganges downstream of Kanpur barrage serving the irrigation requirements of huge area. These large pump houses are located at Rukunpur , Kanjauli Kachhar , Hakanipur Kalan , Bhosawali , Shekpur , Chochakpur , Lamui , Chausa , etc. (Refer to Google Earth maps.) These lift irrigation schemes are pumping out most of the base flows available in the main river down stream of Kanpur city.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: To make the Ganges live/flowing and dilute the polluted water inflows from habitations and industries, at least 5000 cusecs flow is required from Narora to Farakka as minimum environmental flow during the eight months dry season. This is possible by constructing storage reservoirs of capacity 100 Tmcft across the Ganges tributaries located up stream of Narora city and reserving the stored water only for minimum environmental flows. In addition, a series of cascading barrage cum bridges are to be constructed across the river from Kanpur to Allahabad to increase the surface area of impounded polluted water in the river so that it serves as vast natural oxidation ponds. The accumulated sediments/sludge would get washed away during the annual monsoon floods. Already, a number of barrages are planned between Farakka and Allahabad to make the 1620 km length of the river navigable from Haldia to Allahabad under National Waterway 1 project which can be extended up the Kanpur.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: A 2006 measurement of pollution in the Ganges revealed that river water monitoring over the previous 12 years had demonstrated fecal coliform counts up to 100,000,000 MPN (most probable number) per 100 mL and biological oxygen demand levels averaging over 40 mg/L in the most polluted part of the river in Varanasi. The overall rate of water-borne/enteric disease incidence, including acute gastrointestinal disease, was estimated to be about 66%.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: A systematic classification done by Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board's (UEPPCB) on river waters into the categories "A": safe for drinking, "B": safe for bathing, "C": safe for agriculture, and "D": excessive pollution, put the Ganges in D. Coliform bacteria levels in the Ganges have also been tested to be at 5,500, a level too high to be safe for agricultural use let alone drinking and bathing.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The leather industry in Kanpur which employs around 50,000 people in more than 400 tanneries uses chemicals such as toxic chromium compounds. Effectively, chromium levels have not decreased in the Ganges even after a common treatment plant was established in 1995. It now stands at more than 70 times the recommended maximum level.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: A study conducted by the National Cancer Registry Program (NCRP) under the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2012, suggested that "those living along its banks in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal are more prone to cancer than anywhere else in the country".


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: In 2020, a study showed that the level of cleaniless has significantly improved in the recent years in terms of toxic heavy metals. This study was supported by Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF).


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The results of mercury analysis in various specimens collected along the basin indicated that some fish muscles tended to accumulate high levels of mercury. Of it, approximately 50–84% was organic mercury. A strong positive correlation between mercury levels in muscle with food habit and fish length was found.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The Ganges river dolphin is one of few species of fresh water dolphins in the world. Listed as an endangered species, their population is believed to be less than 2000. Hydroelectric and irrigation dams along the Ganges that prevents the dolphins from travelling up and down river is the main reason for their reducing population.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The Ganges softshell turtle ("Nilssonia gangetica") is found in the Ganges, Indus, and Mahanadi river systems of Pakistan, northern India, Bangladesh, and southern Nepal. This turtle inhabits deep rivers, streams, large canals, lakes and ponds, with a bed of mud or sand. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, freshwater turtle species are vulnerable. Due to their long lifespan and high trophic level in the aquatic food web, turtles are vulnerable to heavy metals pollution, a major kind of pollution in the Ganges.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Some of the dams being constructed along the Ganges basin will submerge substantial areas of nearby forest. For example, the Kotli-Bhel dam at Devprayag will submerge 1200 hectares of forest, wiping out the forest area and eventually the wildlife.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: An analysis of the Ganges water in 2006 and 2007 showed significant associations between water-borne/enteric disease and the use of the river for bathing, laundry, washing, eating, cleaning utensils, and brushing teeth. Water in the Ganges has been correlated to contracting dysentery, cholera, hepatitis, as well as severe diarrhoea which continues to be one of the leading causes of death of children in India.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: During the summer and monsoon, hospital wards teem with children who need treatment for waterborne diseases - but according to S.C. Singh, a paediatrician at Varanasi Shiv Prasad Gupta Hospital, their parents rarely mention that they have been swimming in the river. They don't appear to have made the connection, he says.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Ganga Mahasabha is an Indian organization dedicated to the Ganges, founded by Madan Mohan Malaviya in 1905.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: After a long struggle, British India agreed on 5 November 1914 that the uninterrupted flow of the Ganges is the rudimentary right of Hindus. The day is known as a 'Aviral Ganga Samjhauta Divas' (Uninterrupted Ganga flow agreement day) in the history of India and the agreement came into existence on 19 December 1916 which is known as Agreement of 1916. The sanctity of the agreement is not preserved by the state and central governments of India after independence though it is legally valid. More and more river water is diverted for irrigation use converting the river into a polluted sewer.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was launched by Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, in June 1986 with covering 25 Class I towns (6 in Uttar Pradesh, 4 in Bihar and 15 in West Bengal); Rs 862.59 crore were spent. Its main objective was to improve the water quality by the interception, diversion, and treatment of domestic sewage and to prevent toxic and industrial chemical wastes from identified polluting units from entering the river. The other objectives of the GAP are as follows:


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Notwithstanding some delay in the completion of the first phase of the GAP, it has generated considerable interest and set the scene for evolving a national approach towards replicating this program for the other polluted rivers of the country. The Government of India proposed to extend this model with suitable modifications to the national level through a National River Action Plan (NRAP). The NRAP mainly draws upon the lessons learned and the experience gained from the GAP besides seeking the views of the State Governments and the other concerned Departments/Agencies. Under the NRCP scheme, the CPCB had conducted river basin studies and had identified 19 gross polluted stretches and 14 less polluted stretches along 19 rivers, which include 11 stretches situated along 7 rivers of M.P. It was much more effective as compared to the previously launched programs.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Phase II covered 59 towns in five states. More than Rs 5.053 Billion were spent. Rivers such as Yamuna, Gomti, Damodar, Mahananda had separate action plans.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: NGRBA was established by the Central Government of India, on 20 February 2009 under Section 3 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. It declared the Ganges as the "National River" of India. The chair includes the Prime Minister of India and chief ministers of states through which the Ganges flows. In 2011, the World Bank approved $1 billion in funding for the National Ganges River Basin Authority.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: In 2010, it was announced that "the Indian government has embarked on a $4 billion campaign to ensure that by 2020 no untreated municipal sewage or industrial runoff enters the 1,560-mile river." A World Bank spokesman described the plan in 2011, saying:


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Earlier efforts to clean the Ganges concentrated on a few highly polluting towns and centres and addressed 'end-of-the-pipe' wastewater treatment there; Mission Clean Ganga builds on lessons from the past, and will look at the entire Gangetic basin while planning and prioritising investment instead of the earlier town-centric approach.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Lobby group Sankat Mochan Foundation (SMF) "is working with GO2 Water Inc., a Berkeley, California, wastewater-technology company" to design a new Sewage treatment system for Varanasi.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The Supreme Court of India has been working on the closure and relocation of many of the industrial plants like Tulsi along the Ganges. In 2010 the government declared the stretch of river between Gaumukh and Uttarkashi an Eco-sensitive zone.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: In the budget tabled in Parliament on 10 July 2014, the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced an integrated Ganges development project titled 'Namami Gange' (meaning 'Obeisance to the Ganges river') and allocated 2,037 crore for this purpose. The objectives were effective abatement of pollution, conservation, and rejuvenation of the Ganges. Under the project, 8 states are covered. Ministry of Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation proposes to make 1,674 gram panchayats by the Ganges open defecation-free by 2022, at a cost of Rs 1,700 cr (central share). An estimated Rs 2,958 Crores (US$460 million) have been spent till July 2016 in various efforts in cleaning up of the river.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: As a part of the program, government of India ordered the shut down of 48 industrial units around the Ganges.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The program has a budget outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore for the next five years. This is a significant five-fold increase over the expenditure in the past 30 years (Government of India incurred an overall expenditure of approximately Rs. 4000 crore on this task since 1985). The centre will now take over 100% funding of various activities/ projects under this program. Taking a leaf from the unsatisfactory results of the earlier Ganga Action Plans, the centre now plans to provide for operation and maintenance of the assets for a minimum 10-year period, and adopt a PPP/SPV approach for pollution hotspots.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: In an attempt to bolster enforcement the centre also plans to establish a four-battalion Ganga Eco-Task Force. The program emphasises on improved co-ordination mechanisms between various ministries/agencies of central and state governments. Major infrastructure investments which fall under the original mandate of other ministries viz. Urban Development (UD), Drinking Water & Sanitation (DWS), Environment Forests & Climate Change (EF&CC) etc., will be undertaken in addition.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: 'Namami Gange' will focus on pollution abatement interventions namely interception, diversion and treatment of waste water flowing through the open drains through bio-remediation / appropriate in-situ treatment / use of innovative technologies / sewage treatment plants (STPs) / effluent treatment plant (ETPs); rehabilitation and augmentation of existing STPs and immediate short term measures for arresting pollution at exit points on river front to prevent inflow of sewage etc.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Significantly the approach is underpinned by socio-economic benefits that the program is expected to deliver in terms of job creation, improved livelihoods and health benefits to the vast population that is dependent on the river.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Its implementation has been divided into entry-level activities (for immediate visible impact), medium-term activities (to be implemented within five years of time frame) and long-term activities (to be implemented within ten years).


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Ganga Manthan was a national conference held to discuss issues and possible solutions for cleaning the river.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The conference aimed to take feedback from stakeholders and prepare a road map for rejuvenating the Ganges. The event was organised by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) on 7 July 2014 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Nepal has constructed many barrages (excluding joint projects with India) or pump houses to divert the lean season river flows for irrigation purpose. These water diversion projects are located near , , , , , , , , , etc. India being lower riparian state has right to claim share out of the river water flows from Nepal similar to India entered into river water sharing agreement with Bangladesh recognising it as lower riparian state. Till now there is no bilateral agreement between India and Nepal adhering to equitable sharing of river waters during the lean season. When Nepal releases water into India during the lean flow period, it would help in cleaning / diluting the polluted waters of downstream Ganges river up to Farakka barrage.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: For restoring the minimum environmental flows, it is difficult to identify nearly 100 Tmcft storage reservoirs in the hilly region of Ganges basin in India as the river is flowing through steep valleys. Already big storage reservoirs like Tehri and Ramganga are constructed at feasible locations. However the water of Manasarovar Lake located in China can be diverted to the upstream of Kanpur barrage (117 m msl) via Girijapur Barrage (129 m msl) located at across the Ghaghara/Karnali river which is a tributary of Ganges river flowing from Tibet/China and Nepal.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Manasarovar Lake's surface area is , and its maximum depth is . It holds more than 100 tmcft water in its top 13 metres depth. At present it is overflowing into nearby Lake Rakshastal which is a landlocked saltwater endorheic lake. The annual water inflows from the catchment area of Manasarovar lake located at above msl, can be diverted by gravity to the Karnali River basin of China through a 15-kilometre long tunnel.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The diverted water available continuously can be used in China for hydroelectric power generation where the head drop available is in excess of 800 metres over a 40 km long stretch. This would be a joint project of China, Nepal and India for controlling river water pollution and making the Ganges river live and flowing throughout the year. With the diversion of Manasarovar lake water to Ganges basin, Lake Rakshastal would turn into a soda lake with further increase in water salinity which is useful in abstracting the water-soluble chemicals on a commercial scale.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The fresh water inflows into Manasarovar lake can be augmented further substantially by gravity diversion of the inflows available from the major catchment area of Rakshastal lake to Manasarovar lake by constructing an earth dam isolating northern tip of Rakshastal lake where it is fed by its substantial catchment area and also connected to the Manasarovar lake.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: A fresh water coastal reservoir with massive storage capacity can be established on the shallow sea area adjoining West Bengal, Odisha and Bangladesh coast by constructing sea dikes / bunds/ causeway up to the depth of 20 metres. Water can be pumped from this artificial fresh water lagoon throughout the year with abundant hydro, wind and solar power resources of India to many river basins in India for meeting needs of agriculture, maintaining environmental flows, salt export requirements, etc. Nearly 360 billion cubic metres (bcm) storage capacity fresh water coastal reservoir/lagoon can be located on the sea area which stretches from coast of south eastern Bangladesh (near ) to the mouth of Brahmani River (near ). The dike would be envisaged with gated barrages to pass to the sea the excess flood waters (total mean annual flow 1200 bcm) received from the Ganges, Brahmaputra, etc. rivers for limiting the maximum reservoir level (FRL) to nearly 2.0 m above MSL (below local high tide level).


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: From this coastal reservoir, water is pumped to the Brahmani river basin for further transfer to basins of Damodar River, Subarnarekha River, Brahmani River, Mahanadi River in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal states. The Hasdeo Bango reservoir (near ) would receive the Ganges water via Hirakud reservoir and further pumped into the Narmada, Sone, Tapti, Yamuna, Chambal, Ghaggar, Ganges, etc. river basins for using in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Delhi states. See Google earth maps for more geographical information. Further, water can be pumped into the Bagh reservoir and Upper Indravati reservoir located in Godavari River basin to transfer Ganges water into Godavari and Krishna river basins.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The advantage of this scheme is that Ganges and Bramhaputra river waters can be stored on Bay of Bengal sea area and nearly 1050 bcm water is transferred throughout the year to other river basins including Ganges basin at optimum pumping head.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Nearly 1000 million tons (500 million cubic metres) of sediment annually from Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers is settling in the sea coast of Bangladesh and India, and the sea area is shallow (up to 20 m depth) for 60 km wide on average. Bangladesh, plagued with high population density, can reclaim nearly 7,500 km (5% of its total land) area of sea by excavating/dredging sediment from the fresh water lagoon bed without any effect on the water storage of the coastal reservoir.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The presence of the protective sea dike makes sub sea soil dredging easier and economical through protection from rough sea waves. This reclaimed area from the sea can be utilised for locating a megacity to cater to the modern needs of Bangladesh. This coastal dike would protect the Bangladesh from the wave and tidal activity during the frequent cyclones preventing human and property losses drastically and also from sea level rise due to global warming. Thus Bangladesh would also benefit immensely with this coastal reservoir project.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The sea dike top level at 8 m above the mean sea level and 50 m wide at the top surface, would be nearly 600 km long connecting Indian mainland to South east of Bangladesh forming transnational high way and rail route from the Indian subcontinent to East Asia up to Singapore and China. Also this dike can be used as access way connecting deep sea ports located close to this dike. The proposed dike would be similar to the land reclamation of North Sea area called Delta Works in Netherlands. The experience of the Saemangeum Seawall already constructed in South Korea which is 33 km long and with 36 metres average depth, can be utilised for this project which is a lesser challenging project. Locks arrangement (similar to Panama canal) would be provided for the movement of ships from the open sea to harbours located in Bangladesh and India.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The off shore earth dam extending up to +8 m msl height, is in the form of two parallel dikes separated by 1000 metres gap. The main purpose of the twin dikes is to prevent any sea water seepage into coastal reservoir as its water level is below the sea level. The water level between the dikes is always maintained 2 to 3 m above the sea level by pumping fresh water from the coastal reservoir into the 1000 m gap between the dikes. The higher level water barrier between the two dikes fully eliminate any sea water seepage in to the coastal reservoir by establishing fresh water seepage to the sea. The 600 km long, 1000 m gap between the two dikes is also used as deep water mega harbor for shipping, ship breaking, ship building, etc. For shipping purpose, the breakwater outer dike facing the sea is envisaged with few locks fitted with twin gates for access to the open sea. The top surface of inner dike would serve as access to the main land from the mega harbor with rail and road links. The coastal reservoir whose full reservoir water level (FRL) is at 0.0 m msl, would also reduce drastically the cyclone damage and flooding in adjacent coastal areas.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The cost of the total project including coastal reservoir, contour canals, water pumping stations, solar/wind/hydro power plants, canal drop hydro power stations, main canals, tunnels, aqueducts, barrages and distribution canals is estimated nearly 125 trillion (lakh crores INR) at year 2021 prices. The irrigation potential of the project alone is 300 million acres with water supply throughout the year. It is a gigantic multi purpose project where cleaning of many major rivers of India by providing adequate base flows and minimum environmental flows (not Ganges river alone) from the water pollution is one of its purpose.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The Union Cabinet gave its approval for setting up of Clean Ganga Fund in September 2014 with the aim of using the collection for various activities under the Namami Gange programme for cleaning the Ganges.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is the implementation wing of National Ganga Council which was set up in October 2016 under the River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities order 2016. The order dissolved National Ganga River Basin Authority. The aim is to clean the Ganges and its tributaries in a comprehensive manner. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is the present Union Cabinet Minister in Ministry of Jal Shakti.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: Under National Mission for Clean Ganga, Namami Gange Programme was launched in 2014. This is a Flagship program under Union Government. A budget of 20,000 crore was given with the twin objective of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga. Unlike previous projects for cleaning Ganga, Namami Gange is most comprehensive river conservation program.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: In early 2011, a Hindu monk named Swami Nigamananda Saraswati fasted to death, protesting against pollutive river bed quarrying of the Ganges happening in the district of Haridwar, Uttarakhand. Following his death in June 2011, his ashram leader Swami Shivananda fasted for 11 days starting on 25 November 2011, taking his movement forward. On 5 December 2011, the Government of Uttarakhand released an order to ban river bed mining in the Bhogpur and Bishanpur ghats. According to administration officials, quarrying in the Ganges would now be studied by a special committee which would assess its environmental impacts on the river and its nearby areas.


title: Pollution of the Ganges

text: G. D. Agrawal was an environment activist and patron of Ganga Mahasabha, an organisation founded by Madan Mohan Malviya in 1905, demanding removal of dams on Ganges. Because of support from other social activists like Anna Hazare, the then-Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh agreed to Agrawal's demands. Accordingly, he called for a National River Ganga Basin Authority (NRGBA) meeting and urged the authorities to utilise the ₹26 billion (US$520M) sanctioned "for creating sewer networks, sewage treatment plants, sewage pumping stations, electric crematoria, community toilets and development of river fronts". Agrawal died on 11 October 2018, after being on an indefinite fast since 22 June 2018, demanding the government act on its promises to clean and save the Ganges.


title: Barista

text: A barista (; ; from the Italian/Spanish for "bartender") is a person, usually a coffeehouse employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks.


title: Barista

text: The word "barista" comes from Italian where it means a male or female "bartender" who typically works behind a counter, serving hot drinks (such as espresso), cold alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and snacks. Prieto (2021) shows that the word "barista" has been documented since 1916 in both Spanish and Italian. The native plural in English and Spanish is "baristas", while in Italian the plural is "baristi" for masculine (literally meaning "barmen", "bartenders") or "bariste" for feminine (literally meaning "barmaids").


title: Barista

text: While the title is not regulated, most coffee shops use the title to describe the preparer of coffee and operator of an espresso machine.


title: Barista

text: Baristas generally operate a commercial espresso machine, and their role is preparing and pulling the shot; the degree to which this is automated or done manually varies significantly, ranging from push-button operation to an involved manual process. Espresso is a notoriously finicky beverage, and good manual espresso making is considered a skilled task. Further, preparation of other beverages, particularly milk-based drinks such as cappuccinos and lattes, but also non-espresso coffee such as drip or press pot, requires additional work and skill for effective frothing, pouring and most often latte art. In Starbucks, over the counter employees are referred to as "baristas", although the preparation process is fully automated.


title: Barista

text: The barista usually has been trained to operate the machine and to prepare the coffee based on the guidelines of the roaster or shop owner, while more experienced baristas may have discretion to vary preparation or experiment.


title: Barista

text: To make the coffee well, there is a series of steps needing attention, including grinding the beans, extracting the coffee, frothing the milk and pouring.


title: Barista

text: Beyond the preparation of espresso and other beverages and general customer service, skilled baristas acquire knowledge of the entire process of coffee to effectively prepare a desired cup of coffee, including maintenance and programming of the machine, grinding methods, roasting, and coffee plant cultivation, similar to how a sommelier is familiar with the entire process of wine making and consumption. A barista can acquire these skills by attending training classes, but they are more commonly learned on the job.


title: Barista

text: There are a lot of myths and misinformation about coffee varieties. Every type of coffee holds many different characteristics when it comes to flavor, acidity, caffeine content, and more. A frequent misconception about coffee is that the darker the roast, the more caffeine, or the “stronger” it is. This, however, is not at all true. Although every variety of coffee has different levels of caffeine; if you were to roast one single variety as a light roast, a medium roast, and a dark roast, the lighter roast will always have more caffeine. This is because as the coffee beans get exposed to more heat and higher temperatures, more caffeine molecules burn off or combust and therefore deteriorate. Although it is often not a substantial difference, lightly roasted coffee generally contains more caffeine. Another misconception about light roast coffee is that it does not have as bold of a flavor. This could not be further from the truth, many light roast coffees can have very bold, in-depth, and unique flavor profiles, as do medium or dark roasts. Each coffee variety can be roasted to any temperature but will taste best in a specific range. Some coffee varieties taste best as a lighter roast, some taste best as a medium, and some taste best as dark as they can get. There are also many ranges between light and medium, and medium and dark, that coffee specialists can dial into and procure perfect, delicious results with.


title: Barista

text: Formal barista competitions originated in Norway, and one such is the World Barista Championships, held annually at varied international locations. Baristas worldwide compete, though they must first compete in a competition held in their own country to qualify to enter in the WBC, such as the United States Barista Championship.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: The 2004–05 FA Premier League (known as the FA Barclays Premiership for sponsorship reasons) began on 14 August 2004 and ended on 15 May 2005. Arsenal were the defending champions after going unbeaten the previous season. Chelsea won the title with a then record 95 points, which was previously set by Manchester United in the 1993–94 season, and later surpassed by Manchester City in the 2017–18 season (100), securing the title with a 2–0 win at the Reebok Stadium against Bolton Wanderers. Chelsea also broke a number of other records during their campaign, most notably breaking the record of most games won in a single Premier League campaign, securing 29 wins in the league in home and away matches, which was later surpassed by themselves in the 2016–17 season.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: Arsenal were the favourites to defend their title after finishing the previous season unbeaten, but they also faced competition in the form of regular challengers Manchester United and Chelsea, the latter under the new management of Portuguese José Mourinho, who had just won the UEFA Champions League with Porto. Liverpool also had a new manager in Spaniard Rafael Benítez, who had just won La Liga and the UEFA Cup with Valencia and were expected to challenge for the title too. Another managerial change at a club aiming for the top was at Tottenham Hotspur, who appointed Jacques Santini, who had just led France to the quarter-finals of the 2004 European Championship.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: At the other end of the table, amongst those tipped for relegation were Norwich City, Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion, having all just been promoted from the First Division (which was rebranded this season as the Championship). Everton, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth were also tipped to struggle, the first three finishing just outside the relegation places the previous season and Portsmouth being in their second season.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: Arsenal's record-breaking unbeaten streak of 49 games was ended on 24 October 2004, when Manchester United beat them 2–0 at Old Trafford.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: For the first time since the advent of the Premier League in 1992, no team was mathematically relegated before the final day of the season. In each of the last three weekends of the season, the team that was bottom of the table at the start of the weekend finished it outside the drop zone. The final round of the season started on 15 May with West Bromwich Albion at the bottom, Southampton and Crystal Palace one point ahead and Norwich City a further point ahead, in the last safe spot.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: West Brom, who had been bottom of the table and eight points from safety on Christmas Day, did their part by defeating Portsmouth at home 2–0. Norwich, the only side to have their fate completely in their own hands, lost 6–0 at Fulham and went down. Southampton lost 2–1 at home to Manchester United and were relegated after 27 years in the top flight and did not return to the top flight for 7 years. Palace, away to Charlton Athletic, were leading 2–1 after 71 minutes, but with eight minutes to go, Charlton's Jonathan Fortune equalised to relegate Palace, who did not return for 8 years, where they finally avoided relegation for the first time in the Premier League era. Thus, West Brom stayed up, becoming the first club in Premier League history to avoid relegation after being bottom of the table at Christmas.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: At the end of the 90 minutes in all four matches, cameras focused on West Brom's home ground, The Hawthorns, as confirmation of other results began to filter through. Once the realisation dawned on the players and fans that survival had been achieved, a mass pitch invasion was sparked, with huge celebrations. The Portsmouth fans joined in the celebrations as, through losing, they had "helped" relegate arch-rivals Southampton.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the First Division. The promoted teams were Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace, returning to the top flight after an absence of nine, one and six years respectively. They replaced Leicester City, Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, who had been relegated to the Championship. Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers were relegated after a season's presence while Leeds United ended their top flight spell of fourteen years.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: Arsenal and French striker Thierry Henry won the Premier League Golden Boot award for the third time in his career with 25 goals.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Čech won the Premier League Golden Glove, for 25 clean sheets, in his debut season as he set a remarkable record of 10 consecutive clean sheets, as Chelsea won the title.


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: José Mourinho was awarded the Premier League Manager of the Season award after he led Chelsea to their first Premier League title, second Top division title in their history. During his first season at the club, Chelsea won the Premier League title (their first league title in 50 years) and the League Cup. The season was also notable for the number of records set during the season: Fewest goals against in a Premier League season (15), most clean sheets kept in a season (25), most wins in a season (29), most consecutive away wins (9) and the most points in a season (95).


title: 2004–05 FA Premier League

text: The Premier League Fair Play Award is merit given to the team who has been the most sporting and best behaved team. Arsenal won the award for the second year in a row, ahead of Tottenham. The least sporting side for 2004–05 was Blackburn Rovers, who achieved a significantly lower fair play score than any other side.


title: Abhimanyu Mishra

text: Abhimanyu Mishra (born February 5, 2009) is an Indian-American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he became the youngest player ever to qualify for the grandmaster title on June 30, 2021, at the age of 12 years 4 months and 25 days, beating Sergey Karjakin's record which had stood since 2002.


title: Abhimanyu Mishra

text: He broke the United States Chess Federation record for youngest Expert by earning a 2000 USCF rating at the age of 7 years, 6 months, and 22 days, breaking the record of Awonder Liang. He then broke the US Chess record for youngest National Master by earning a 2200 USCF rating at the age of 9 years, 2 months, and 17 days, breaking the record of Liran Zhou. He holds the world record for the youngest International Master, a title which he earned in November 2019 at the age of 10 years, 9 months, and 20 days, breaking the record of Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. FIDE awarded him the title in February 2020.


title: Abhimanyu Mishra

text: In March 2021, Mishra tied for first place with GM Vladimir Belous in the Charlotte Chess Center's Spring 2021 GM Norm Invitational held in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., with a score of 5.5/9 and crossed 2400 FIDE for the first time on an official rating list but failed to achieve a GM norm.


title: Abhimanyu Mishra

text: To become a grandmaster, a player must score three GM norms (each norm is scored by achieving a performance rating of over 2600 in a tournament) and exceed a rating of 2500. In April 2021, Mishra tied for first place at the Vezérképző GM tournament in Budapest, Hungary, with a score of 7.0/9 and performance rating of 2603, earning his first GM norm. In May 2021, Mishra earned clear first place at the First Saturday GM tournament in Budapest, Hungary, with a score of 8.0/9 and performance rating of 2739, having clinched his second GM norm with one round to spare and exceeding the norm by a full point. In June 2021, Mishra earned clear first place at the Vezérképző GM Mix tournament in Budapest, Hungary, with a score of 7.0/9 and a performance rating of 2619; giving him his third GM norm. As his rating had also crossed 2500, this third norm made Mishra the youngest Grandmaster in chess history, breaking the record of Sergey Karjakin by over 2 months.


title: Abhimanyu Mishra

text: Mishra received congratulations from many players, including former record holder Karjakin and World Champion Magnus Carlsen. A "New York Times" article cited concerns from Nigel Short and Bruce Pandolfini about the methods used to achieve the feat, alleging that the GM qualification structure encourages "norm" tournaments that narrowly qualify as prestigious enough to count as a GM norm, but no tougher, to make a strong performance from the candidate easier to achieve, noting that the average rating of Mishra's opponents' was noticeably lower in Hungary than in Charlotte, North Carolina. World Championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi suggested that some changes could be made to the qualification process. In 2022 FIDE updated the rules regarding titled norms, imposing that at least one norm be obtained at a Swiss tournament with at least 40 participants of an average rating of 2000 and above.


title: Abhimanyu Mishra

text: Mishra won the St. Louis 2022 Spring Chess Classic B with a score of 7/9 and a tournament performance rating of 2739.


title: Irish republicanism

text: Irish republicanism () is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate.


title: Irish republicanism

text: The development of nationalist and democratic sentiment throughout Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, distilled into the contemporary ideology known as republican radicalism, was reflected in Ireland in the emergence of republicanism, in opposition to British rule. Discrimination against Catholics and Protestant nonconformists, attempts by the British administration to suppress Irish culture, and the belief that Ireland was economically disadvantaged as a result of the Acts of Union were among the specific factors leading to such opposition. The Society of United Irishmen, formed in 1791 and led primarily by liberal Protestants, launched the 1798 Rebellion with the help of troops sent by Revolutionary France, but the uprising failed. A second rising in 1803 led by Irish patriot Robert Emmet was quickly put down on 23 July 1803. The Young Ireland movement, formed in the 1830s, broke with Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association because it believed that armed struggle was legitimate. Some members of Young Ireland staged an abortive rising in 1848. Its leaders were transported to Van Diemen's Land. Some of these escaped to the United States, where they linked up with other Irish exiles to form the Fenian Brotherhood. Together with the Irish Republican Brotherhood, founded in Ireland by James Stephens and others in 1858, they made up a movement commonly known as "Fenians" which was dedicated to the overthrow of British imperial rule in Ireland. They staged another rising, the Fenian Rising, in 1867, and a dynamite campaign in England in the 1880s.


title: Irish republicanism

text: In the early 20th century IRB members, in particular Tom Clarke and Seán MacDermott, began planning another rising. The Easter Rising took place from 24 to 30 April 1916, when members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army seized the centre of Dublin, proclaimed a republic and held off British forces for almost a week. The rebels were at first viewed as extremists and the Irish public generally favoured Home Rule, but the execution of the Rising's leaders (including Clarke, MacDermott, Patrick Pearse and James Connolly) led to a surge of support for republicanism in Ireland. In 1917 the Sinn Féin party stated as its aim the "securing the international recognition of Ireland as an independent Irish Republic", and in the general election of 1918 Sinn Féin won 73 of the 105 Irish seats in the British House of Commons. The elected members did not take their seats but instead set up the First Dáil, in line with the still continued practice today of abstentionism. Between 1919 and 1921 the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who were loyal to the Dáil, fought the British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), a predominantly Roman Catholic force, in the Irish War of Independence. Talks between the British and Irish in late 1921 led to a treaty by which the British conceded, not a 32-county Irish Republic, but a 26-county Irish Free State with Dominion status. This led to the Irish Civil War, in which the republicans were defeated by their former comrades.


title: Irish republicanism

text: The Free State became an independent constitutional monarchy following the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster 1931; changed its name to /Ireland and arguably became a Republic with the passage of the Constitution of Ireland in 1937. In 1939–40, the IRA carried out a sabotage/bombing campaign in England (the S-Plan) to try to force British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. The final figures resulting from the S-Plan are cited as 300 explosions, ten deaths and 96 injuries. Ireland formally described itself as a republic with the passage of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948. That same year (1948), the republican movement took the decision to focus on Northern Ireland thereafter. The Border Campaign, which lasted from 1956 to 1962, involved bombings and attacks on Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks and border infrastructure. The failure of this campaign led the republican leadership to concentrate on political action and to move to the left. The Border Campaign cost the lives of eight IRA men, four republican supporters and six RUC members. In addition, 32 RUC members were wounded.


title: Irish republicanism

text: Following the outbreak of The Troubles in 1968–9, the movement split between Officials (leftists) and Provisionals (traditionalists) at the beginning of 1970. Both sides were initially involved in an armed campaign against the British state, but the Officials gradually moved into mainstream politics after the Official IRA ceasefire of 1972; the associated "Official Sinn Féin" eventually renamed itself the Workers' Party. The Provisional IRA, except during brief ceasefires in 1972 and 1975, kept up a campaign of violence for nearly thirty years, directed against security forces and civilian targets (especially businesses). While the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) represented the nationalists of Northern Ireland in initiatives such as the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement, republicans took no part in these, believing that a withdrawal of British troops and a commitment to a united Ireland was a necessary precondition of any settlement. This began to change with a landmark speech by Danny Morrison in 1981, advocating what became known as the Armalite and ballot box strategy. Under the leadership of Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin began to focus on the search for a political settlement. When the party voted in 1986 to take seats in legislative bodies within Ireland, there was a walk-out of die-hard republicans, who set up Republican Sinn Féin and the Continuity IRA. Following the Hume–Adams dialogue, Sinn Féin took part in the Northern Ireland peace process which led to the IRA ceasefires of 1994 and 1997 and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. After elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, republicans sat in government in Northern Ireland for the first time when Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brún were elected to the Northern Ireland Executive. However, another split occurred in 1997, with dissident republicans setting up the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the Real IRA. Today, Irish republicanism is divided between those who support the institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement and the later St Andrews Agreement, and those who oppose them. The latter are often referred to as dissident republicans.


title: Irish republicanism

text: Following the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century, Ireland, or parts of it, had experienced alternating degrees of rule from England. While some of the native Gaelic population attempted to resist this occupation, a single, unified political goal did not exist amongst the independent lordships that existed throughout the island. The Tudor conquest of Ireland took place in the 16th century. This included the Plantations of Ireland, in which the lands held by Gaelic Irish clans and Hiberno-Norman dynasties were confiscated and given to Protestant settlers ("Planters") from England and Scotland. The Plantation of Ulster began in 1609, and the province was heavily colonised with English and Scottish settlers.


title: Irish republicanism

text: Campaigns against English presence on the island had occurred prior to the emergence of the Irish republican ideology. In the 1590s and early 1600s, resistance was led by Hugh O'Neill (see the Nine Years' War). The Irish chieftains were ultimately defeated, leading to their exile (the 'Flight of the Earls') and the aforementioned Plantation of Ulster in 1609.


title: Irish republicanism

text: In Europe, prior to the 18th and 19th centuries, republics were in a minority and monarchy was the norm, with few long-lasting republics of note at time, such as the fully-fledged Dutch Republic and the Republic of Venice, as well as the Old Swiss Confederacy and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which had republican aspects. However, as noted by Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, the first ever document proposing a republic of Ireland independent from connections to England dates from 1627. Summaries of these plans are held in the "Archives générales du Royaume" in Belgium and were made familiar to Irish historians by the work of Fr. Brendan Jennings, a Franciscan historian, with his work "Wild Geese in Spanish Flanders, 1582-1700" (1964).


title: Irish republicanism

text: This early republican spirit was not ecumenical and was formed by exiled Irish Catholic Gaels with the support of Habsburg Spain as part of the Irish military diaspora who had fled into Spanish service in the aftermath of the Flight of the Earls during the Thirty Years' War. This was in the context of the break-down of the Spanish match and the onset of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1625–1630. Proposals were made at Madrid, with the involvement of Archbishop Florence Conry and Owen Roe O'Neill, for the Irish Regiment in the Spanish Netherlands then in the service of the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, to invade and reconquer the English-controlled Kingdom of Ireland and set up an Irish government loosely aligned with the Habsburg Empire.


title: Irish republicanism

text: One of the main problems was that within the leadership of the Hispano-Irish diaspora, there were rivalries and factionalism between two primary contenders, Shane O'Neill and Hugh O'Donnell, over who should be the overall leader and thus have rights to an Irish throne if the project was a success. A third option was to resolve the conflict between the two factions before an invasion by making them family, with a marriage proposed between Hugh O'Donnell's sister Mary Stuart O'Donnell and Shane O'Neill, but this broke down. Ministers in Madrid, to Philip IV of Spain, instead drew up proposals on 27 December 1627 for a "Kingdom and Republic of Ireland" and that "the earls should be called Captains General of the said Republic and one could exercise his office on land and the other at sea." These proposals were approved by Philip IV and forwarded to Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia in Brussels. As the Anglo-Spanish War became more tepid, the plans were never put into practice.


title: Irish republicanism

text: A decade later, the Irish Rebellion of 1641 began. This consisted of a coalition between the Irish Gaels and the Old English (descendants of the English/Norman settlers who settled during the Norman Invasion) rebelling against the English rulers. While some ideas from the 1627 proposals were carried on, the attempt to rally both Gaels and Old English to the banner, mean't trying to find common ground and one of these concessions was support for the Stuart monarchy under Charles I of England whom the Old English were strongly attached to. The motto of the Confederation would thus become "Pro Deo, pro Rege et Patria, Hibernia unanimis" ("Irishmen United for God, King and Country"), with any idea of a republic ditched. Beginning as a "coup d'état" with the aim of restoring lost lands in the north of Ireland and defending Catholic religious and property rights, (which had been suppressed by the Puritan Parliament of England) it evolved into the Irish Confederate Wars. In the summer of 1642, the Catholic upper classes formed the Catholic Confederation, which essentially became the "de facto" government of Ireland for a brief period until 1649, when the forces of the English Parliament carried out the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and the old Catholic landowners were permanently dispossessed of their lands. The most explicit Irish separatist viewpoint from the period, found in "Disputatio Apologetica", written in Lisbon in 1645 by Fr. Conor O'Mahony, a Jesuit priest from Munster, argued instead for a Gaelic monarchy to be set up in an explicitly Catholic Ireland, with no mention of a republic.


title: Irish republicanism

text: Irish republicanism has its origins in the ideals of the American and French revolutions in the late 18th century. In Ireland these ideals were taken up by the United Irishmen, founded in 1791. Originally they sought reform of the Irish parliament, such as an end to sectarian discrimination against Dissenters and Catholics, which was enshrined in the Penal Laws. Eventually they became a more radical revolutionary group advocating a full Irish republic free from British control.


title: Irish republicanism

text: At this stage, the movement was led primarily by liberal Protestants, particularly Presbyterians from the province of Ulster. The founding members of the United Irishmen were mainly Southern Irish Protestant aristocrats. The key founders included Wolfe Tone, Thomas Russell, Henry Joy McCracken, James Napper Tandy, and Samuel Neilson. By 1797, the Society of United Irishmen had around 100,000 members. Crossing the religious divide in Ireland, it had a mixed membership of Catholics, Presbyterians, and even Anglicans from the Protestant Ascendancy. It also attracted support and membership from Catholic agrarian resistance groups, such as the Defenders organisation, who were eventually incorporated into the Society.


title: Irish republicanism

text: The Irish Rebellion of 1798 began on 23 May, with the first clashes taking place in County Kildare on 24 May, before spreading throughout Leinster, as well as County Antrim and other areas of the country. French soldiers landed in Killala on 22 August and participated in the fighting on the rebels' side. Even though they had considerable success against British forces in County Wexford, rebel forces were eventually defeated. Key figures in the organisation were arrested and executed.


title: Irish republicanism

text: Though the Rebellion of 1798 was eventually crushed, small republican guerrilla campaigns against the British Army continued for a short time afterward in the Wicklow Mountains under the leadership of Michael Dwyer and Joseph Holt, involving attacks on small parties of yeomen. These activities were perceived by some to be merely "the dying echoes of an old convulsion", but others feared further large-scale uprisings, due to the United Irishmen continuing to attract large numbers of Catholics in rural areas of the country and arms raids being carried out on a nightly basis. It was also feared that rebels would again seek military aid from French troops, and another rising was expected take place by 10 April.


title: Irish republicanism

text: This perceived threat of further rebellion resulted in the Parliamentary Union between the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After some uncertainty, the Irish Parliament voted to abolish itself in the Acts of Union 1800, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, by a vote of 158 to 115. A number of tactics were used to achieve this end. Lord Castlereagh and Charles Cornwallis were known to use bribery extensively. In all, a total of sixteen Irish borough-owners were granted British peerages. A further twenty-eight new Irish peerages were created, while twenty existing Irish peerages increased in rank.


title: Irish republicanism

text: Furthermore, the government of Great Britain sought to replace Irish politicians in the Irish parliament with pro-Union politicians, and rewards were granted to those that vacated their seats, with the result being that in the eighteen months prior to the decision in 1800, one-fifth of the Irish House of Commons changed its representation due to these activities and other factors such as death. It was also promised by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger that he would bring about Catholic emancipation, though after the Acts of Union were successfully voted through, King George III saw that this pledge was never realised, and as such Catholics were not granted the rights that had been promised prior to the Acts.


title: Irish republicanism

text: A second attempt at forming an independent Irish republic occurred under Robert Emmet in 1803. Emmet had previously been expelled from Trinity College, Dublin for his political views. Like those who had led the 1798 rebellion, Emmet was a member of the United Irishmen, as was his brother Thomas Addis Emmet, who had been imprisoned for membership in the organisation.