title: National Enquirer

text: In June 2017, "Morning Joe" hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough stated that senior officials in the Trump administration had tried to blackmail the two of them using the "National Enquirer". According to them, the tabloid threatened to publish a smear article on the couple unless the two personally called Trump and begged him to have the story spiked. They refused, and the title (which did not have direct contact with Scarborough or Brzezinski) published the story. The Trump administration also denied the story; Scarborough claims he has saved phone correspondence to the contrary.


title: National Enquirer

text: In February 2019, Jeff Bezos alleged that the "National Enquirer" had threatened to publish private messages and photographs belonging to Bezos and his girlfriend, Lauren Sánchez, if Bezos did not stop "The Washington Post", which he owns, from pursuing journalistic inquiries into how the publication obtained those messages and photographs. Bezos also said that in 2018, the year in which Saudi Arabian officials reportedly murdered "Washington Post" reporter Jamal Khashoggi, the "National Enquirer" had published a glossy magazine, "The New Kingdom", promoting Saudi Arabia.


title: National Enquirer

text: In 1981, actress Carol Burnett won a judgment against the "National Enquirer" after it claimed she had been seen drunk in public at a restaurant with Henry Kissinger in attendance. The fact that both of her parents suffered from alcoholism made this a particularly sensitive issue to Burnett. The former longtime chief editor Iain Calder in his book "The Untold Story," asserted that afterwards, while under his leadership, the publication worked hard to check the reliability of its facts and its sources.


title: National Enquirer

text: The "National Enquirer" additionally scooped other media outlets during the O. J. Simpson murder trial: when a distinctive footprint from a Bruno Magli shoe was found at the crime scene, Simpson vehemently denied owning such a shoe. The title, however, published two photos showing Simpson wearing Bruno Magli shoes.


title: National Enquirer

text: Controversy over false content arose again for the "National Enquirer" when a 2002 article alleged that male members of the family of kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart were involved in what the article termed a "gay sex ring." Subsequently, two reporters from the "Salt Lake Tribune" were fired after it was learned that they had been paid $20,000 for the story, which they had fabricated. The title threatened to sue the "Salt Lake Tribune" for making false and defamatory statements about the publication after an editorial had disclaimed the "Tribune"'s involvement. The salacious details of the Smart story were retracted by the publication, and a rare apology was issued to the Smart family. One of the fired reporters acknowledged that his behavior was unethical, but expressed surprise that the story had been taken seriously, stating, "When I dealt with the "National Enquirer", I never dreamed that I was accepting money for 'information'."


title: National Enquirer

text: The "National Enquirer" settled a libel lawsuit with the wife of Gary Condit out of court in 2003 and lost a suit brought by actress Kate Hudson in 2006.


title: National Enquirer

text: In 2006, the "National Enquirer" was the first newspaper to reveal that O. J. Simpson had written a book, "If I Did It". The story was immediately denied by Simpson's lawyer, but was confirmed by release of the book one month later.


title: National Enquirer

text: In early March 2007, the paper blocked access to its website for British and Irish readers because a story about the actress Cameron Diaz that they had published in 2005 and for which she received an apology had appeared on the site. The apology concerned a story it had run in 2005 entitled "Cameron Caught Cheating" which turned out to be false – an accompanying picture was just an innocent goodbye hug to a friend, not evidence of an affair. Although only 279 British web addresses had looked at the story, it was deemed to have therefore been published in the United Kingdom. British libel laws are more plaintiff-friendly and it is not necessary to prove actual malice for the plaintiff to win.


title: National Enquirer

text: Also in March 2007, Tucker Chapman, son of Duane "Dog" Chapman, sold a tape to the "National Enquirer" of his father disparaging his black girlfriend with the use of the word "nigger" in which the tabloid paid Tucker an undisclosed amount. The A&E Network canceled Chapman's show, "Dog the Bounty Hunter", pending an investigation. On February 21, 2008, A&E Network stated they would resume production of "Dog the Bounty Hunter", and on May 14, 2008, announced it would return to TV on June 25, 2008.


title: National Enquirer

text: On January 19, 2010, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced that the "National Enquirer" is eligible for consideration for the Pulitzer Prize in the categories of Investigative Journalism and National News Reporting. This change is primarily due to the "Enquirer"'s breaking the story of John Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter.


title: National Enquirer

text: In February 2012, the "National Enquirer" published a photo of Whitney Houston in an open casket on its front page. The previous week, it had posted an article showing her having collapsed from a cocaine and alcohol binge during her world tour and claiming that she only had five years to live.


title: National Enquirer

text: In 1999 AMI was bought by a group fronted by publishing executive David J. Pecker. Funding was diverted from the "National Enquirer", once considered to be the company's principal publication, to "Star" magazine. Editor Steve Coz, who guided the paper through the Simpson case, was fired and replaced by David Perel, who had been the Editor in charge of breaking numerous stories on the Simpson coverage.


title: National Enquirer

text: The "National Enquirer"s circulation for a time fell below 1 million (from over 6 million at its height). AMI brought in around 20 British journalists in early 2005, headed by editor Paul Field, a former executive at the British tabloid "The Sun", and relocated the editorial offices to New York for an April 2005 relaunch. The move failed badly and Field and virtually all the British journalists were sacked after a year. The company reappointed David Perel and announced the "National Enquirer" offices would return to Boca Raton, Florida in May 2006. Circulation numbers then climbed to over 1 million readers again, and according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations reached over 1 million. Perel later moved on to oversee the relaunch of the gossip website Radar Online, and was replaced as editor-in-chief by Tony Frost. In 2014, the publication moved back to New York and Frost was replaced by Dylan Howard. Howard and the National Enquirer parted ways when his contract, which expired March 31, 2020, was not renewed.


title: National Enquirer

text: On April 10, 2019, the "National Enquirer" was said to be up for sale and likely to be sold within days. Chatham Asset Management owner Anthony Melchiorre, whose company acquired control of 80 percent of AMI's stock, expressed disapproval of the Enquirer's style of journalism. This confirmed on April 18, 2019, when it was announced that AMI had agreed sell the "National Enquirer", and also two other AMI tabloid publications "Globe" and "National Examiner", to Hudson Group. As of October 2020, the sale had never taken place.


title: National Enquirer

text: According to reporting in "The Washington Post", executives at the "National Enquirer" sent articles and cover images pertaining to Donald Trump or his electoral opponents to Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer, prior to their publication. The "Post" reported that this practice has continued since Trump became President of the United States. American Media Inc. denied sharing material prior to publication. Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed American Media Inc as part of their investigations into Michael Cohen for possible violation of campaign finance laws.


title: National Enquirer

text: According to reporting by the Associated Press, during the 2016 United States presidential election, stories that supported Donald Trump or attacked his rivals bypassed the newspaper's standard fact checking process.


title: National Enquirer

text: Donald Trump reportedly suggested stories to David Pecker—sometimes via Hope Hicks and sometimes personally—including a negative story about Republican primary opponent Ben Carson.


title: National Enquirer

text: The "National Enquirer" issued a formal apology in the September 2017 edition of their magazine for false statements, defaming Judy Sheindlin of the courtroom series "Judge Judy" as having cheated on her husband and suffering from Alzheimer's disease along with brain damage. In addition, they apologized to her daughter Nicole Sheindlin for defaming her as having a jail record.


title: National Enquirer

text: The "National Enquirer" has publicly admitted to participating in the practice of "Catch and Kill" regarding the case of Karen McDougal, a person claiming to have had an affair with President Trump. The Federal Election Commission fined the newspaper $187,000 in the case because it coordinated with the Trump campaign and paid McDougal $150,000 to benefit the campaign, making it effectively a campaign contribution.


title: National Enquirer

text: Stormy Daniels has also claimed the title was involved in the "Catch and Kill" of her affair with Donald Trump as well. The prosecution of Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen has also involved the purported use of "catch and kill" practices by the title.


title: National Enquirer

text: On August 30, 1999, a television spin-off of the supermarket tabloid was entitled "National Enquirer TV" and was produced by MGM Television. The series was renamed National Enquirer's Uncovered in season 2 and was cancelled on July 6, 2001.


title: National Enquirer

text: During the 1980s, the tabloid's slogan in radio and TV ads was "Enquiring minds want to know." The phrase is also used by Willow Rosenberg in the US TV drama series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". In the song "Midnight Star" from his album ""Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D", "Weird Al" Yankovic uses the phrase during the song's outro. In 1987, the publisher of the "National Enquirer" trademarked the phrase, which uses the alternative (and more commonly British) spelling of "inquiring".


title: National Enquirer

text: The origin and history of the newspaper and Generoso Pope Jr.'s life are the main subjects of a 2014 documentary, directed by Ric Burns and called "Enquiring Minds: The Untold Story of the Man Behind the National Enquirer".


title: René Lacoste

text: Jean René Lacoste was a French tennis player and businessman. He was nicknamed "the Crocodile" because of how he dealt with his opponents; he is also known worldwide as the creator of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929, and eventually founded the brand and its logo in 1933.


title: René Lacoste

text: Lacoste was one of The Four Musketeers with Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, and Henri Cochet, French tennis stars who dominated the game in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He won seven Grand Slam singles titles at the French, American, and British championships and was an eminent baseline player and tactician of the pre-war period. As a member of the French team, Lacoste won the Davis Cup in 1927 and 1928. Lacoste was the World No. 1 player for both 1926 and 1927. He also won a bronze medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics.


title: René Lacoste

text: Lacoste started playing tennis at age 15 when he accompanied his father on a trip to England. His first participation in a Grand Slam tournament was the 1922 Wimbledon Championships in which he lost in the first round to Pat O'Hara Wood. The following year, 1923, he reached the fourth round at Wimbledon to be narrowly defeated by Cecil Campbell, and he competed for the first time in the U.S. Championships.


title: René Lacoste

text: His breakthrough came in 1925 when he won the singles title at the French Championships and at Wimbledon, in both cases after a victory in the final against compatriot Jean Borotra. The following year, 1926, Lacoste lost his French title after a straight-sets defeat in the final to Henri Cochet. He did not compete at Wimbledon that year, but in September he won the U.S. National Championships title against Borotra. He was ranked No. 1 for 1926 by A. Wallis Myers, tennis correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, Bill Tilden, Suzanne Lenglen and Stanley Doust ("Daily Mail").


title: René Lacoste

text: In 1927, dubbed " 'The finest year in tennis history' " by E. Digby Baltzell, Lacoste was part of the French team that captured the Davis Cup from the United States, ending the latter's 6-year title run. The final was played at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia and Lacoste won both his singles matches against Bill Johnston and Bill Tilden. He played Tilden in two Grand Slam tournament finals that year and won both of them. At the French Championships he was victorious in five sets; at the U.S. National Championships he defended his title and denied Tilden his seventh U.S. title by winning in straight sets, although he survived setpoints in the first and third set and was down a break in the second. At Wimbledon, Lacoste lost a five-set semifinal to Borotra. He was ranked No. 1 by A. Wallis Myers, Émile Deve, U.S. ranking committee president, Marcel Berger, ('), Jean Samazeuilh (') and Henri Cochet.


title: René Lacoste

text: In 1928 Lacoste lost his French title after a four-set loss in the final against Cochet. He took revenge by beating Cochet in the final of the Wimbledon Championships after having defeated Tilden in a five-set semifinal. The Challenge Round of the 1928 Davis Cup against the United States was played at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris on 27–29 July. The stadium was specifically constructed to host France's first defense of the Davis Cup. Lacoste lost the first rubber in a five-set match to Tilden but France won the remaining rubbers to defeat the challengers 4–1 and retain the cup. Lacoste did not participate in the 1928 U.S. Championships.


title: René Lacoste

text: Between 1923 and 1928 Lacoste played 51 Davis Cup matches for France in 26 ties and compiled a record of 32–8 in singles and 8–3 in doubles.


title: René Lacoste

text: The only major championship Lacoste played in 1929 was the French and he won his seventh, and last, Grand Slam singles title after a tight five-set final against Jean Borotra. Failing health, including respiratory disease, led to his withdrawal from competitive tennis in 1929. He would make a brief comeback at the 1932 French Championships, where he defeated reigning Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood in the third round, but lost in the fourth to Harry Lee. He was the non-playing captain of the French Davis Cup team in 1932 and 1933.


title: René Lacoste

text: The Four Musketeers were inducted simultaneously into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1976. In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Lacoste in his list of the 21 greatest players of all time.


title: René Lacoste

text: There are numerous explanations of why Lacoste was originally nicknamed "The Crocodile." A 2006 New York Times obituary about Lacoste's son, Bernard, provides an apparently authoritative one. In the 1920s, supposedly, Lacoste made a bet with his team captain about whether he would win a certain match. The stakes were a suitcase he had seen in a Boston store; it was made of alligator skin. Following his victory, the American press dubbed him "The Alligator." Later, René Lacoste's friend Robert George embroidered a crocodile onto a blazer that Lacoste wore for his matches.


title: René Lacoste

text: Lacoste was primarily a baseline player who relied on control, accuracy, and deeply-placed groundstrokes to put pressure on his opponents. In addition he possessed an excellent passing shot and backhand slice. Nicknamed the 'Tennis Machine' for his methodical game and ability to avoid errors, he was known as a devoted and hard-working player, rather than a player with a great amount of natural talent. His style was a complete contrast to that of his fellow Musketeer Henri Cochet. Lacoste was a studious tactician who meticulously analysed his opponents and kept detailed notes on their strengths and weaknesses.


title: René Lacoste

text: In 1933, Lacoste founded "La Société Chemise Lacoste" with André Gillier. The company produced the tennis shirt, also known as a "polo shirt," which Lacoste often wore when he was playing; this had a crocodile (often thought to be an alligator) embroidered on the chest. In 1963, Lacoste's son Bernard took over the management of the company.


title: René Lacoste

text: In 1961, Lacoste created an innovation in racket technology by unveiling and patenting the first tubular steel tennis racket. At that time, wood rackets were the norm; the new version's strings were attached to the frame by a series of wires, which wrapped around the racket head. The steel-tube racket was stiffer, and imparted a greater force to the ball during a stroke. It was marketed in Europe under the Lacoste brand, but in the United States it was marketed by Wilson Sporting Goods. Pierre Darmon debuted the racket at Wimbledon in 1963, but it achieved critical acclaim and huge popularity as the Wilson T-2000, used by American tennis greats Billie Jean King and Jimmy Connors.


title: René Lacoste

text: When Lacoste died, the French Advertising agency Publicis, which had been managing his company's account for decades, published a print ad with the Lacoste logo and the English words ""See you later...,"" reinforcing the idea that the animal was perhaps an alligator.


title: René Lacoste

text: Rene Lacoste was born to Jeanne-Marie Magdeleine Larrieu-Let and Jean-Jules Lacoste. His maternal family is from Monein, in SW France, the genealogy dating back to the 1700s.


title: René Lacoste

text: On 30 June 1930 he married golfing champion Simone de la Chaume. Their daughter Catherine Lacoste was a champion golfer and president of the Golf Club Chantaco, founded by her mother, at a few kilometres from Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The history of Mesopotamia ranges from the earliest human occupation in the Paleolithic period up to Late antiquity. This history is pieced together from evidence retrieved from archaeological excavations and, after the introduction of writing in the late 4th millennium BC, an increasing amount of historical sources. While in the Paleolithic and early Neolithic periods only parts of Upper Mesopotamia were occupied, the southern alluvium was settled during the late Neolithic period. Mesopotamia has been home to many of the oldest major civilizations, entering history from the Early Bronze Age, for which reason it is often called a cradle of civilization.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Mesopotamia ( "Mesopotamíā; , or , )" means "Between the Rivers". The oldest known occurrence of the name Mesopotamia dates to the 4th century BC, when it was used to designate the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers. The name Mesopotamia itself was presumably translated from the term already current in the area-probably in Aramaic and apparently was understood to mean the land lying "between the (Euphrates and Tigris) rivers" in modern-day Iraq.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Later and in the broader sense, the historical region included not only the area of present-day Iraq, but also parts of present-day Iran, Syria and Turkey. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the western part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is usually made between Upper or Northern Mesopotamia and Lower or Southern Mesopotamia.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Upper Mesopotamia is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad. Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf. In modern scientific usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation. It is usually used to designate the area until the Arab Muslim conquests in the 7th century AD, with Arabic names like Syria, Jezirah and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Two types of chronologies can be distinguished: a relative chronology and an absolute chronology. The former establishes the order of phases, periods, cultures and reigns, whereas the latter establishes their absolute age expressed in years. In archaeology, relative chronologies are established by carefully excavating archaeological sites and reconstructing their stratigraphy – the order in which layers were deposited. In general, newer remains are deposited on top of older material. Absolute chronologies are established by dating remains, or the layers in which they are found, through absolute dating methods. These methods include radiocarbon dating and the written record that can provide year names or calendar dates.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: By combining absolute and relative dating methods, a chronological framework has been built for Mesopotamia that still incorporates many uncertainties but that also continues to be refined. In this framework, many prehistorical and early historical periods have been defined on the basis of material culture that is thought to be representative for each period. These periods are often named after the site at which the material was recognized for the first time, as is for example the case for the Halaf, Ubaid and Jemdet Nasr periods. When historical documents become widely available, periods tend to be named after the dominant dynasty or state; examples of this are the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods. While reigns of kings can be securely dated for the 1st millennium BC, there is an increasingly large error margin toward the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The chronology for much of the third and second millennia BC is subject to much debate. Based on different estimates for the length of periods for which still very few historical documents are available, so-called Ultra-long, Long, Middle, Short and Ultra-short Chronologies have been proposed by various scholars, varying by as much as 150 years in their dating of specific periods. Despite problems with the Middle Chronology, this chronological framework continues to be used by many recent handbooks on the archaeology and history of the ancient Near East. A study from 2001 published high-resolution radiocarbon dates from Turkey supporting dates for the 2nd millennium BC that are very close to those proposed by the Middle Chronology.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The early Neolithic human occupation of Mesopotamia is, like the previous Epipaleolithic period, confined to the foothill zones of the Taurus and Zagros Mountains and the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period (10,000–8,700 BC) saw the introduction of agriculture, while the oldest evidence for animal domestication dates to the transition from the PPNA to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB, 8700–6800 BC) at the end of the 9th millennium BC. This transition has been documented at sites like Abu Hureyra and Mureybet, which continued to be occupied from the Natufian well into the PPNB. The so-far earliest monumental sculptures and circular stone buildings from Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey date to the PPNA/Early PPNB and represent, according to the excavator, the communal efforts of a large community of hunter-gatherers.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Fertile Crescent was inhabited by several distinct, flourishing cultures between the end of the last ice age (c. 10,000 BC) and the beginning of history. One of the oldest known Neolithic sites in Mesopotamia is Jarmo, settled around 7000 BC and broadly contemporary with Jericho (in the Levant) and Çatalhöyük (in Anatolia). It as well as other early Neolithic sites, such as Samarra and Tell Halaf were in northern Mesopotamia; later settlements in southern Mesopotamia required complicated irrigation methods. The first of these was Eridu, settled during the Ubaid period culture by farmers who brought with them the Samarran culture from the north.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Pottery was decorated with abstract geometric patterns and ornaments, especially in the Halaf culture, also known for its clay fertility figurines, painted with lines. Clay was all around and the main material; often modelled figures were painted with black decoration. Carefully crafted and dyed pots, especially jugs and bowls, were traded. As dyes, iron oxide containing clays were diluted in different degrees or various minerals were mixed to produce different colours.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Hassuna culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture in northern Mesopotamia dating to the early sixth millennium BC. It is named after the type site of Tell Hassuna in Iraq. Other sites where Hassuna material has been found include Tell Shemshara.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Samarra culture is a Chalcolithic archaeological culture in northern Mesopotamia that is roughly dated to 5500–4800 BCE. It partially overlaps with the Hassuna and early Ubaid.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Ubaid period (c. 6500–3800 BC) is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-'Ubaid in Southern Mesopotamia, where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially by Henry Hall and later by Leonard Woolley.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: In South Mesopotamia the period is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium. In the south it has a very long duration between about 6500 and 3800 BC when it is replaced by the Uruk period.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: In North Mesopotamia the period runs only between about 5300 and 4300 BC. It is preceded by the Halaf period and the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period and succeeded by the Late Chalcolithic period. The new period is named Northern Ubaid to distinguish it from the proper Ubaid in southern Mesopotamia, and two explanations were presented for the transformation. The first maintain an invasion and a replacement of the Halafians by the Ubaidians; however, there is no hiatus between the Halaf and northern Ubaid that excludes the invasion theory. The most plausible theory is a Halafian adoption of the Ubaid culture.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: This was followed by the Uruk period. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was followed by the Sumerian civilization. The late Uruk period (34th to 32nd centuries) saw the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script and corresponds to the Early Bronze Age; it may also be called the "Protoliterate period".


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Jemdet Nasr period, named after the type-site Jemdet Nasr, is generally dated to 3100–2900 BC. It was first distinguished on the basis of distinctive painted monochrome and polychrome pottery with geometric and figurative designs. The cuneiform writing system that had been developed during the preceding Uruk period was further refined. While the language in which these tablets were written cannot be identified with certainty for this period, it is thought to be Sumerian. The texts deal with administrative matters like the rationing of foodstuffs or lists of objects or animals. Settlements during this period were highly organized around a central building that controlled all aspects of society. The economy focused on local agricultural production and sheep-and-goat pastoralism. The homogeneity of the Jemdet Nasr period across a large area of southern Mesopotamia indicates intensive contacts and trade between settlements. This is strengthened by the find of a sealing at Jemdet Nasr that lists a number of cities that can be identified, including Ur, Uruk and Larsa.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The entire Early Dynastic period is generally dated to 2900–2350 BC according to the Middle Chronology, or 2800–2230 BC according to the Short Chronology. The Sumerians were firmly established in Mesopotamia by the middle of the 4th millennium BC, in the archaeological Uruk period, although scholars dispute when they arrived. It is hard to tell where the Sumerians might have come from because the Sumerian language is a language isolate, unrelated to any other known language. Their mythology includes many references to the area of Mesopotamia but little clue regarding their place of origin, perhaps indicating that they had been there for a long time. The Sumerian language is identifiable from its initially logographic script which arose last half of the 4th millennium BC.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: By the 3rd millennium BC, these urban centers had developed into increasingly complex societies. Irrigation and other means of exploiting food sources were being used to amass large surpluses. Huge building projects were being undertaken by rulers, and political organization was becoming ever more sophisticated. Throughout the millennium, the various city-states Kish, Uruk, Ur and Lagash vied for power and gained hegemony at various times. Nippur and Girsu were important religious centers, as was Eridu at this point. This was also the time of Gilgamesh, a semi-historical king of Uruk, and the subject of the famous "Epic of Gilgamesh". By 2600 BC, the logographic script had developed into a decipherable cuneiform syllabic script.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The chronology of this era is particularly uncertain due to difficulties in our understanding of the text, our understanding of the material culture of the Early Dynastic period and a general lack of radiocarbon dates for sites in Iraq. Also, the multitude of city-states makes for a confusing situation, as each has its own history. In the past, the "Sumerian King List" was considered to be an important historical source, but recent scholarship has dismissed the utility of this text up to the point that it should not be used at all for the reconstruction of Early Dynastic political history.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Enshakushanna of Uruk conquered all of Sumer, Akkad, and Hamazi, followed by Eannatum of Lagash who also conquered Sumer. His methods were force and intimidation (see the Stele of the Vultures), and soon after his death, the cities rebelled and the empire again fell apart. Some time later, Lugal-Anne-Mundu of Adab created the first, if short-lived, empire to extend west of Mesopotamia, at least according to historical accounts dated centuries later. The last native Sumerian to rule over most of Sumer before Sargon of Akkad established supremacy was Lugal-Zage-Si.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate), but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century AD.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Akkadian period is generally dated to 2350–2170 BC according to the Middle Chronology, or 2230–2050 BC according to the Short Chronology. Around 2334 BC, Sargon became ruler of Akkad in northern Mesopotamia. He proceeded to conquer an area stretching from the Persian Gulf into modern-day Syria. The Akkadians were a Semitic people and the Akkadian language came into widespread use as the lingua franca during this period, but literacy remained in the Sumerian language. The Akkadians further developed the Sumerian irrigation system with the incorporation of large weirs and diversion dams into the design to facilitate the reservoirs and canals required to transport water vast distances. The dynasty continued until around c. 2154 BC, and reached its zenith under Naram-Sin, who began the trend for rulers to claim divinity for themselves.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Akkadian Empire lost power after the reign of Naram-Sin, and eventually was invaded by the Guti from the Zagros Mountains. For half a century the Guti controlled Mesopotamia, especially the south, but they left few inscriptions, so they are not well understood. The Guti hold loosened on southern Mesopotamia, where the second dynasty of Lagash came into prominence. Its most famous ruler was Gudea, who left many statues of himself in temples across Sumer.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Eventually the Guti were overthrown by Utu-hengal of Uruk, and the various city-states again vied for power. Power over the area finally went to the city-state of Ur, when Ur-Nammu founded the Ur III Empire (2112–2004 BC) and conquered the Sumerian region. Under his son Shulgi, state control over industry reached a level never again seen in the region. Shulgi may have devised the Code of Ur-Nammu, one of the earliest known law codes (three centuries before the more famous Code of Hammurabi). Around 2000 BC, the power of Ur waned, and the Amorites came to occupy much of the area, although it was Sumer's long-standing rivals to the east, the Elamites, who finally overthrew Ur. In the north, Assyria remained free of Amorite control until the very end of the 19th century BC. This marked the end of city-states ruling empires in Mesopotamia, and the end of Sumerian dominance, but the succeeding rulers adopted much of Sumerian civilization as their own.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria, little is positively known. The Assyrian King List mentions rulers going back to the 23rd and 22nd century BC. The earliest king named Tudiya, who was a contemporary of Ibrium of Ebla, appears to have lived in the mid-23rd century BC, according to the king list. Tudiya concluded a treaty with Ibrium for the use of a trading post in the Levant officially controlled by Ebla. Apart from this reference to trading activity, nothing further has yet been discovered about Tudiya. He was succeeded by Adamu and then a further thirteen rulers about all of whom nothing is yet known. These early kings from the 23rd to late 21st centuries BC, who are recorded as "kings who lived in tents" were likely to have been semi nomadic pastoralist rulers, nominally independent but subject to the Akkadian Empire, who dominated the region and at some point during this period became fully urbanised and founded the "city state" of Ashur. A king named Ushpia (c. 2030 BC) is credited with dedicating temples to Ashur in the home city of the god. In around 1975 BC Puzur-Ashur I founded a new dynasty, and his successors such as Shalim-ahum, Ilushuma (1945–1906 BC), Erishum I (1905–1867 BC), Ikunum (1867–1860 BC), Sargon I, Naram-Sin and Puzur-Ashur II left inscriptions regarding the building of temples to Ashur, Adad and Ishtar in Assyria. Ilushuma in particular appears to have been a powerful king and the dominant ruler in the region, who made many raids into southern Mesopotamia between 1945 BC and 1906 BC, attacking the independent Sumero-Akkadian city states of the region such as Isin, and founding colonies in Asia Minor. This was to become a pattern throughout the history of ancient Mesopotamia with the future rivalry between Assyria and Babylonia. However, Babylonia did not exist at this time, but was founded in 1894 BC by an Amorite prince named Sumuabum during the reign of Erishum I.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The next two centuries or so, called the Isin-Larsa period, saw southern Mesopotamia dominated by the Amorite cities of Isin and Larsa, as the two cities vied for dominance. This period also marked a growth in power in the north of Mesopotamia. An Assyrian king named Ilushuma (1945–1906 BC) became a dominant figure in Mesopotamia, raiding the southern city states and founding colonies in Asia Minor. Eshnunna and Mari, two Amorite ruled states also became important in the north.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Babylonia was founded as an independent state by an Amorite chieftain named Sumuabum in 1894 BC. For over a century after its founding, it was a minor and relatively weak state, overshadowed by older and more powerful states such as Isin, Larsa, Assyria and Elam. However, Hammurabi (1792 BC to 1750 BC), the Amorite ruler of Babylon, turned Babylon into a major power and eventually conquered Mesopotamia and beyond. He is famous for his law code and conquests, but he is also famous due to the large amount of records that exist from the period of his reign. After the death of Hammurabi, the first Babylonian dynasty lasted for another century and a half, but his empire quickly unravelled, and Babylon once more became a small state. The Amorite dynasty ended in 1595 BC, when Babylonia fell to the Hittite king Mursilis, after which the Kassites took control.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Unlike the south of Mesopotamia, the native Akkadian kings of Assyria repelled Amorite advances during the 20th and 19th centuries BC. However this changed in 1813 BC when an Amorite king named Shamshi-Adad I usurped the throne of Assyria. Although claiming descendency from the native Assyrian king Ushpia, he was regarded as an interloper. Shamshi-Adad I created a regional empire in Assyria, maintaining and expanding the established colonies in Asia Minor and Syria. His son Ishme-Dagan I continued this process, however his successors were eventually conquered by Hammurabi, a fellow Amorite from Babylon. The three Amorite kings succeeding Ishme-Dagan were vassals of Hammurabi, but after his death, a native Akkadian vice regent Puzur-Sin overthrew the Amorites of Babylon and a period of civil war with multiple claimants to the throne ensued, ending with the succession of king Adasi c. 1720 BC.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Middle Assyrian period begins c. 1720 BC with the ejection of Amorites and Babylonians from Assyria by a king called Adasi. The nation remained relatively strong and stable, peace was made with the Kassite rulers of Babylonia, and Assyria was free from Hittite, Hurrian, Gutian, Elamite and Mitanni threat. However a period of Mitanni domination occurred from the mid-15th to early 14th centuries BC. This was ended by Eriba-Adad I (1392 BC - 1366), and his successor Ashur-uballit I completely overthrew the Mitanni Empire and founded a powerful Assyrian Empire that came to dominate Mesopotamia and much of the ancient Near East (including Babylonia, Asia Minor, Iran, the Levant and parts of the Caucasus and Arabia), with Assyrian armies campaigning from the Mediterranean Sea to the Caspian, and from the Caucasus to Arabia. The empire endured until 1076 BC with the death of Tiglath-Pileser I. During this period Assyria became a major power, overthrowing the Mitanni Empire, annexing swathes of Hittite, Hurrian and Amorite land, sacking and dominating Babylon, Canaan/Phoenicia and becoming a rival to Egypt.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Although the Hittites overthrew Babylon, another people, the Kassites, took it as their capital (c. 1650–1155 BC (short chronology)). They have the distinction of being the longest lasting dynasty in Babylon, reigning for over four centuries. They left few records, so this period is unfortunately obscure. They are of unknown origin; what little we have of their language suggests it is a language isolate. Although Babylonia maintained its independence through this period, it was not a power in the Near East, and mostly sat out the large wars fought over the Levant between Egypt, the Hittite Empire, and Mitanni (see below), as well as independent peoples in the region. Assyria participated in these wars toward the end of the period, overthrowing the Mitanni Empire and besting the Hittites and Phrygians, but the Kassites in Babylon did not. They did, however, fight against their longstanding rival to the east, Elam (related by some linguists to the Dravidian languages in modern India). Babylonia found itself under Assyrian and Elamite domination for much of the later Kassite period. In the end, the Elamites conquered Babylon, bringing this period to an end.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Hurrians were a people who settled in northwestern Mesopotamia and southeast Anatolia in 1600 BC. By 1450 BC they established a medium-sized empire under a Mitanni ruling class, and temporarily made tributary vassals out of kings in the west, making them a major threat for the Pharaoh in Egypt until their overthrow by Assyria. The Hurrian language is related to the later Urartian, but there is no conclusive evidence these two languages are related to any others.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: By 1300 BC the Hurrians had been reduced to their homelands in Asia Minor after their power was broken by the Assyrians and Hittites, and held the status of vassals to the "Hatti", the Hittites, a western Indo-European people (belonging to the linguistic "centum" group) who dominated most of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) at this time from their capital of Hattusa. The Hittites came into conflict with the Assyrians from the mid-14th to the 13th centuries BC, losing territory to the Assyrian kings of the period. However they endured until being finally swept aside by the Phrygians, who conquered their homelands in Asia Minor. The Phrygians were prevented from moving south into Mesopotamia by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I. The Hittites fragmented into a number of small Neo-Hittite states, which endured in the region for many centuries.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: Records from the 12th and 11th centuries BC are sparse in Babylonia, which had been overrun with new Semitic settlers, namely the Arameans, Chaldeans and Sutu. Assyria however, remained a compact and strong nation, which continued to provide much written record. The 10th century BC is even worse for Babylonia, with very few inscriptions. Mesopotamia was not alone in this obscurity: the Hittite Empire fell at the beginning of this period and very few records are known from Egypt and Elam. This was a time of invasion and upheaval by many new people throughout the Near East, North Africa, The Caucasus, Mediterranean and Balkan regions.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Neo-Assyrian Empire is usually considered to have begun with the accession of Adad-nirari II, in 911 BC, lasting until the fall of Nineveh at the hands of the Babylonians, Medes, Scythians and Cimmerians in 612 BC. The empire was the largest and most powerful the world had yet seen. At its height Assyria conquered the 25th Dynasty Egypt (and expelled its Nubian/Kushite dynasty) as well as Babylonia, Chaldea, Elam, Media, Persia, Urartu, Phoenicia, Aramea/Syria, Phrygia, the Neo-Hittites, Hurrians, northern Arabia, Gutium, Israel, Judah, Moab, Edom, Corduene, Cilicia, Mannea and parts of Ancient Greece (such as Cyprus), and defeated and/or exacted tribute from Scythia, Cimmeria, Lydia, Nubia, Ethiopia and others.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire was a period of Mesopotamian history which began in 620 BC and ended in 539 BC. During the preceding three centuries, Babylonia had been ruled by their fellow Akkadian speakers and northern neighbours, Assyria. The Assyrians had managed to maintain Babylonian loyalty through the Neo-Assyrian period, whether through granting of increased privileges, or militarily, but that finally changed after 627 BC with the death of the last strong Assyrian ruler, Ashurbanipal, and Babylonia rebelled under Nabopolassar a Chaldean chieftain the following year. In alliance with king Cyaxares of the Medes, and with the help of the Scythians and Cimmerians the city of Nineveh was sacked in 612 BC, Assyria fell by 605 BC and the seat of empire was transferred to Babylonia for the first time since Hammurabi.


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: After the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, the Assyrian empire descended into a series of bitter civil wars, allowing its former vassals to free themselves. Cyaxares reorganized and modernized the Median Army, then joined with King Nabopolassar of Babylon. These allies, together with the Scythians, overthrew the Assyrian Empire and destroyed Nineveh in 612 BC. After the final victory at Carchemish in 605 BC the Medes and Babylonians ruled Assyria. Babylon and Media fell under Persian rule in the 6th century BC (Cyrus the Great).


title: History of Mesopotamia

text: For two centuries of Achaemenid rule both Assyria and Babylonia flourished, Achaemenid Assyria in particular becoming a major source of manpower for the army and a breadbasket for the economy. Mesopotamian Aramaic remained the "lingua franca" of the Achaemenid Empire, much as it had done in Assyrian times. Mesopotamia fell to Alexander the Great in 330 BC, and remained under Hellenistic rule for another two centuries, with Seleucia as capital from 305 BC. In the 1st century BC, Mesopotamia was in constant turmoil as the Seleucid Empire was weakened by Parthia on one hand and the Mithridatic Wars on the other. The Parthian Empire lasted for five centuries, into the 3rd century AD, when it was succeeded by the Sassanids. After constant wars between Romans and first Parthians, later Sassanids; the western part of Mesopotamia was passed to the Roman Empire. Christianity as well as Mandeism entered Mesopotamia from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, and flourished, particularly in Assyria (Assuristan in Sassanid Persian), which became the center of the Assyrian Church of the East and a flourishing Syriac Christian tradition which remains to this day. A number of Neo-Assyrian kingdoms arose, in particular Adiabene. The Sassanid Empire and Byzantine Mesopotamia finally fell to the Rashidun army under Khalid ibn al-Walid in the 630s. After the Arab-Islamic conquest of the mid-7th century AD, Mesopotamia saw an influx of non native Arabs and later also Turkic peoples. The city of Assur was still occupied until the 14th century, and Assyrians possibly still formed the majority in northern Mesopotamia until the Middle Ages. Assyrians retain Eastern Rite Christianity whereas the Mandaeans retain their ancient gnostic religion and Mesopotamian Aramaic as a mother tongue and written script to this day. Among these peoples, the giving of traditional Mesopotamian names is still common.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Tecmo developed "Ninja Gaiden" for five years, targeting a western audience. The game's violence created difficulties obtaining content ratings, and it was censored in some regions. Making use of the Xbox's internet connectivity, Tecmo promoted "Ninja Gaiden" with a series of international online contests; record-breaking numbers of players competed for places in the live final held at the 2004 Tokyo Game Show.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden" was critically acclaimed and sold 362,441 copies in North America in the first month of release; however, Japanese sales were poor. Team Ninja released two packs of downloadable content, which were also incorporated into a reworked version, "Ninja Gaiden Black" (2005). In 2007, "Ninja Gaiden" was ported to PlayStation 3 as "Ninja Gaiden Sigma", with extra content and graphical improvements; this was released on the portable PlayStation Vita as "Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus". "Ninja Gaiden" was followed by "Ninja Gaiden II" (2008) and "Ninja Gaiden 3" (2012).


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden Sigma" was released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One as part of the "Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection" on June 10, 2021.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden" develops its narrative thread through the actions of its player-controlled protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa. Viewed from a third person over-the-shoulder perspective, in typical action-adventure fashion Ryu starts the game with basic, low-level abilities and weapons that can be upgraded as he progresses, by discovering or buying items. In keeping with his ninja persona, his character can interact with the game environment to perform acrobatic feats, such as running along and jumping off walls, swinging from pole to pole, or running across water. The game world is made up of several distinct regions, most of which are connected via the city of Tairon, which functions as a hub. Access to these regions are obtained by fighting enemies, finding keys, or solving puzzles, inspired by the mechanics of "The Legend of Zelda" video games. Dragon busts scattered throughout the regions provide the means to save player progress, permitting gameplay to be resumed at a later time.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Ryu's movements are directed using the console gamepad. The game's control system, which comprises the left thumbstick, two attack buttons, and a block button, was described as fluid and responsive, and "Ninja Gaiden" was regarded as having one of the deeper combat engines among Xbox games at the time, comparing well to the action-adventures "God of War" and "Devil May Cry". Eric Williams, the designer of the "God of War" combat engine, explained that "Ninja Gaiden" prohibits players from stopping or changing attacks in mid-stroke. In contrast, "God of War" allows players to do so, and "Devil May Cry" grants this freedom to certain attacks. Williams said that, compared to those two games, the combat system in "Ninja Gaiden" was harder to master; however, it lets players fight their computer controlled foes on equal terms.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden" features a large selection of weapons for Ryu to wield, each with advantages and disadvantages that affect the way the player approaches combat. These include one-handed swords, such as the Dragon Sword and Kitetsu, which grant quick attacks, and a move called the "Flying Swallow", which allows Ryu to leap and slash through enemies. In addition these light weapons allow Ryu to smash foes into the ground and perform his signature Izuna Drop—a spinning piledriver. Heavy weapons, such as the Dabilahro and the Unlabored Flawlessness, are slow but cause more damage to opponents. With flails and staves, the player can string together long sequences of attacks. To engage distant foes Ryu can throw shuriken and shoot arrows. In addition to using standard melee techniques, Ryu can employ essences—colored globes of energy that are released on the death of enemies and absorbed into Ryu's body when he comes into proximity with them. Essences have an important role in general gameplay, acting to heal Ryu, restore his magic, or increase his cash. However, in combat the player can cause Ryu to deliberately draw in essences, which can then be used to unleash powerful attacks known as Ultimate Techniques that allow Ryu to damage enemies without taking damage himself. These techniques deal heavy damage and make Ryu immune to injury for a short time.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden" also provides Ryu with magical spells in the form of ninpo spells. When activated by the player, these make Ryu cast fireballs, ice storms, or bolts of lightning. Functioning in a similar manner to the bombs or grenades of shooter action games, these spells allow Ryu to inflict heavy damage on enemies while potentially avoiding damage himself. But, dissatisfied with their programmed visual effects, the game's director Tomonobu Itagaki wanted to deter players from using ninpo. He therefore tweaked the game to award bonus points when players cleared stages without employing magic. For Ryu's defense, the player has two options. First, Ryu can stand still and attempt to block attacks. However, certain enemies can break his guard—either through particularly strong attacks or by grappling him. The second option is to make Ryu dodge, by rolling away from the attack in a maneuver called "reverse wind".


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Inspired by the 1980s "Ninja Gaiden" series for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the 2004 version was originally set in a re-imagined game world based on another Team Ninja creation, the "Dead or Alive" ("DOA") series of fighting games. However, interviews with Tomonobu Itagaki indicate that the Xbox games are prequels to the NES series and that both possibly share a single continuity.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden" is set in the game world of the "Dead or Alive" series. Located mainly in Japan and the fictional Western Asian nation of the Vigoor Empire, the game draws on Heian period structures for its Japanese locales—a ninja fortress and village set in the mountains. In contrast the Vigoor Empire, with its capital city of Tairon, is a blend of architectural types from around the world. European-style buildings display Arabic lettering, and the monastery in Tairon exhibits Gothic influences with a vaulted hall, pointed arches, and large stained glass windows. A hidden underground level features statues with the heads of cats, walls covered with carvings, hieroglyphics, Aztec pyramid and a labyrinth. This mix of styles was the result of Itagaki's refusal to constrain the game's creative process.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Ryu Hayabusa, the "super ninja", is the protagonist of "Ninja Gaiden", and the primary player-controllable character in the game. Itagaki believed that creating extra player characters might distract his team from focusing on Ryu's development, despite this, Rachel is a playable character in the Sigma version of the game. Ryu has a long history with Tecmo; he was the star of the 1990s "Ninja Gaiden" series, and has been part of the "DOA" roster since 1996. His roles in these games played a part in his popularity among fans and the video game industry. "Ninja Gaiden" provides a backstory to Ryu's appearance and character as seen in the "Dead or Alive" series, being set two years before the first "DOA" game.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Rachel is the leading female character, and tragic heroine of the game. She and her twin sister, Alma, are afflicted with a blood curse that turns humans into fiends. Believing that there is no cure for their condition, Rachel seeks to kill Alma to redeem her sister's soul. The relationship between the sisters and the Greater Fiend Doku, who cursed them, serves as a plot device to drive the game forward, with Rachel occasionally needing to be rescued by Ryu. Although not a player-controlled character in "Ninja Gaiden", in a few sections of the "Ninja Gaiden Sigma" remake she is controllable. Two other characters assist the player in the game. Ayane, a young female ninja and one of the "DOA" regular cast members, acts as a guide throughout "Ninja Gaiden" by supplying advice and objectives to the player. Muramasa, a bladesmith, has shops scattered throughout the game world where players can purchase useful items and upgrades for Ryu's weapons. Muramasa also gives quests and relates back-stories and other crucial information; for example, he tells Ryu how he can obtain the item required to upgrade his Dragon Sword to its full potential. Players have the option to customize the appearance of player characters, with selectable costumes for Ryu and hairstyles for Rachel.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Most of the enemies are fiends—humans changed into monsters by their blood curse. Three Greater Fiends lead their lesser brethren against Ryu, playing major roles in the game's plot: Alma, Rachel's sister, whose story forms a significant part of the game; Doku, Ryu's main antagonist, whose raid on Hayabusa village and theft of the Dark Dragon Blade comprise the main plot thread; and Marbus, lord of the fiend underworld who is responsible for the final set of challenges Ryu faces in the realm of the fiends before encountering the Vigoor Emperor.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden"'s story spans 16 chapters, each beginning and ending with a cutscene. At the start of the game, the player takes control of Ryu as he infiltrates the Shadow clan fortress. Ryu is there to visit his uncle, the clan leader Murai. During their chat, Ayane delivers news of a raid on the Hayabusa village. Fighting his way back to his village, Ryu encounters Doku, who has killed the Hayabusa shrine maiden Kureha and has taken the Dark Dragon Blade. Ryu is cut down by Doku with the stolen Blade, but he is brought back to life as a "soldier of revenge" by a falcon, the spiritual animal of the Hayabusa clan.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Seeking vengeance for Kureha's death, Ryu learns from Murai that the raiders were from Vigoor, so he stows away on an airship bound for the empire. Fighting his way through the streets of its capital city, Tairon, Ryu faces several bosses including the three Greater Fiends. He defeats Alma in a battle that wrecks the city, but leaves her to Rachel's mercy. Conversely, Rachel cannot bring herself to kill her sister, and instead is taken by Doku, who prepares to sacrifice her in a ritual to enhance Alma's power. With Alma's help Ryu rescues Rachel and destroys Doku's spirit, but with his dying breath Doku casts the blood curse on Ryu. The only way for Ryu to lift the curse is to kill the emperor, so he storms the palace, defeating Marbus who bars his way to the emperor's personal realm. Two successive boss fights must be completed to destroy the Emperor and reclaim the Dark Dragon Blade—once this is accomplished his realm starts to destruct. Ryu must then be maneuvered up a series of ledges to escape, but in the process he loses his grip on the Dark Dragon Blade.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: The fallen Blade lands at the feet of a figure, the Dark Disciple, who has been shadowing Ryu throughout the game. Taking the Blade, the Disciple reveals himself to be the clan leader Murai. He admits that the raid on Hayabusa village was part of his plan to restore the Blade's evil power, using souls harvested by Ryu. Drawing on the Blade, Murai transforms himself, setting the stage for the final boss fight. Ryu defeats Murai and shatters the Blade with the True Dragon Sword. Victorious, Ryu turns himself into a falcon and flies to the Hayabusa village. In the game's final scene he places the Dragon Eye, used to enhance his sword, on Kureha's tombstone and disappears into the night. The story of "Ninja Gaiden" is continued in the sequels "", "Ninja Gaiden II" and "Ninja Gaiden 3".


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: In 1999, Team Ninja started work on the "Next-Generation Ninja Gaiden Project". The first stage of development was to create the game on the Sega NAOMI arcade system board. They then planned to move the project to the Dreamcast console for further development and release, but this was abandoned when Sega announced the end of Dreamcast product line in 2001. At this point, Tecmo decided to release "Ninja Gaiden" as a launch game for the Sony PlayStation 2 in the United States. Itagaki, however, had other plans; the Team Ninja Leader was impressed with the software development kits for the Xbox and pushed for his team to develop for the Microsoft console. The company kept silent on this change in direction, and surprised both the games industry and fans when they announced at E3 2002 that "Ninja Gaiden" would be released exclusively on the Xbox gaming console. Most fans who voted on Tecmo's poll wanted the game on the Nintendo GameCube.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden" was Team Ninja's first action game. Its initial concept had nothing in common with the original "Ninja Gaiden" series that was released for the NES. However, for retail reasons Tecmo wanted to retain a link with the previous games, which had many adherents in the West, so Itagaki was asked to rethink his ideas to target the foreign market. Analysing the earlier games, he concluded that their violence appealed to players, and included gory content, such as beheadings, in the Xbox game to retain that spirit. He also aimed to make his new game hard but alluring; it would challenge players on their reflexes rather than on their memories of layouts and timings. His team made a point of designing smoothly-flowing gameplay with high-quality animations that reacted quickly to the player's input. Itagaki paid homage to the earlier "Ninja Gaiden" series by including updated versions of foes and special attacks. Team Ninja based their 3D computer models, from the pistols of the henchman upwards, on real world material. Character models were taken from studies of human anatomy, and the team hired martial artists in order to digitally capture their movement. Rather than import the motion captures directly into the game, however, the animators used them as templates to give a sense of realism to the game characters' exaggerated movements. Itagaki found it more interesting to design nonhuman creatures than human enemies.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: In 2004, Tecmo released a demo disc of "Ninja Gaiden" in Japan, bundled with the February 26 issue of "Famitsu Xbox" magazine. The demo let players try the first chapter of the game on two difficulty settings with a few fully upgraded weapons and ninpos. On March 2, 2004, a year later than originally planned, Tecmo released "Ninja Gaiden" in the United States.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: As released, "Ninja Gaiden" contained bloody acts of violence, decapitations and grotesque monsters. The North American games rating body, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), rated it as a "Mature" game, which prohibits sale to anyone under the age of 17 in several states. The depiction of beheadings, though, attracts stricter ratings in other parts of the world. In Germany, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) deemed these excessive, and refused to rate the game at all. Since this had the potential to place "Ninja Gaiden" in Germany's "List of Media Harmful to Young People", which would have meant that shops could neither advertise the game nor sell it unless by request to customers of 18 years or older, Tecmo censored the European PAL version to obtain a USK rating. A year later, Tecmo managed to obtain a USK 18+ rating for the uncensored release of "Ninja Gaiden Black".


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) rated "Ninja Gaiden" and "Black", on their release, as 18+ games. At the time, CERO ratings acted as guidelines for consumers. However, on March 1, 2006, the Japanese rating system changed. A scale from A to D was introduced, with an additional Z rating for games with large amounts of gore and sexual content. The Z rating is legally enforced, it being illegal to sell such games to anyone under the age of 18. As a result, Tecmo removed the human beheadings in "Sigma" to obtain a D rating for the East Asian market. However, CERO reclassified the two previous games as D, despite them also depicting human decapitations.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Team Ninja kept working on the "Ninja Gaiden" project after its release, with the aim of pushing the action genre and their first such game as far as they could. To this end, they released downloadable expansions, known as Hurricane Packs, free of charge. Itagaki said that since the packs were born out of his team's interest, they did not care to charge players for their efforts. The two packs were available over Xbox Live in the third quarter of 2004.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Team Ninja later compiled both expansion packs, and added new features, to create "Ninja Gaiden Black". This game, which Itagaki viewed as the final version of "Ninja Gaiden", went on sale on September 20, 2005. A few years later, Team Ninja upgraded the graphics of the game and ported it to the (PS3). This version was released as "Ninja Gaiden Sigma" on June 14, 2007. "Black" became an Xbox Original game on February 11, 2008.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: The Master Ninja Tournaments were a series of three online contests held by Microsoft and Tecmo in 2004. They took place over Xbox Live, and were open to participants in Europe, Japan, and North America. Winner selection was based on the scores achieved through playing "Ninja Gaiden" or its Hurricane Packs. Players had 14 to 24 days to complete the required games and submit their scores to an online scoreboard.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: The first two tournaments formed regional qualification stages for a live "Ninja Gaiden" Master Tournament World Championship, held on September 25 at the TGS 2004. Competition for places was intense, with both tournaments breaking records for online participation in Xbox Live events. Six of the highest scoring players from Europe and North America won bokkens bearing Itagaki's signature, and five regional winners were selected to proceed to the final. Here, the finalists simultaneously played a custom game drawn from Hurricane Pack 2 while commentators called out the action. They had 15 minutes to complete the game and post the highest score; the winner emerged only in the last 20 seconds, when Yasunori Otsuka cleared the game and outscored his rivals. At the award ceremony, the finalists received their prize plaques from Itagaki.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: The tournaments were not without controversy. Players complained about Microsoft's tardiness in posting the official rules for the first playoff, and it was believed that the top posted score was not achievable by fair means. Officials, however, stated that the score was possible, and allowed the results to stand. In the second playoff, Microsoft initially named the runner up as the North American finalist, after disqualifying the winner for no publicly stated reason, but eventually had to send the second runner up to Tokyo when the first was unable to produce a passport in time.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Master Ninja Tournament 3 started on September 27 and lasted 26 days. Rankings were decided by scores obtained while playing Hurricane Pack 2, and the prizes were Tecmo apparel and Team Ninja games. This marked the end of official tournaments for "Ninja Gaiden", although Microsoft have retained the ranking boards for players to upload their scores.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Tecmo has built up a line of merchandise around the "Ninja Gaiden" name. Its online shop carries apparel and accessories such as caps, wristbands, T-shirts, key holders, and mugs. Most of the merchandise is based on that associated with the various "Ninja Gaiden" game launches or given as prizes in the Master Ninja Tournaments. Tecmo also published the original soundtrack of the game under their record label Wake Up on March 20, 2004. Kotobukiya, a figurine maker, includes 1/6 scale plastic figurines of "Ninja Gaiden" characters in their range of products. As of 2007, they have produced figures of Ryu, Ayane, Kureha and Rachel.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Tecmo published two additional versions of "Ninja Gaiden": "Ninja Gaiden Black" for Xbox and "Ninja Gaiden Sigma" for PlayStation 3. Essentially the same game as the original, they tell the same story of Ryu and the Dark Dragon Blade, but include additional content and updated game mechanics. Although Itagaki deemed "Black" to be the final version of "Ninja Gaiden", Tecmo subsequently ported the game to the "PlayStation" "3" as "Sigma".


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: In addition to the narrative Story Mode, "Black" and "Sigma" introduced a gameplay variation called Mission Mode. Focused on action rather than character development, this provides combat-based missions set mainly in small areas, where the player's goal is to "destroy all enemies". In both Story and Mission modes, game scoring is based on the player's speed in clearing encounters, the number of kills achieved, the number of unused ninpo spells remaining at the end, and the amount of cash collected. Players can compare their scores on online ranking boards.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Tecmo announced at E3 2005 that Team Ninja was working on "Ninja Gaiden Black", and later exhibited a working version of the game at the TGS 2005. "Black" is a reworked compilation of the original "Ninja Gaiden" and the two Hurricane Packs. The game features new foes, such as exploding bats and doppelgänger fiends who can imitate Ryu. It contains more costumes than the original, and swaps "Ninja Gaiden's" unlockable NES games for an arcade version.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: One key feature of this version is its two new difficulty settings—the easy Ninja Dog and the very hard Master Ninja. Itagaki added Ninja Dog after receiving complaints of "Ninja Gaiden" being too hard in its default incarnation, although he believed that, with persistence, any player was capable of completing the game. Hence he ensured that those players selecting Ninja Dog would be subjected to gentle mockery by the game—players on this difficulty setting receive colored ribbons as accessories, and Ayane treats Ryu as an inferior. In compensation, Itagaki made the other difficulty settings harder than in "Ninja Gaiden". Another feature of "Black" is its Mission Mode, which comprises 50 combat missions, one of which is adapted from the custom game designed for the Ninja Gaiden Master Tournament World Championship final. The last five missions are based on those in Hurricane Pack 2 and form a linked series known as "Eternal Legend". While most of the improvements made in the Hurricane Packs carried forward through this game, including the camera system tweaks and new boss battles, the Intercept maneuver, introduced in Hurricane Pack 1, was not included in "Black", adding to its increased challenge.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden Black" was also available through Xbox's Game Pass for Xbox One S and Xbox One X, but was removed in September 2019. "Ninja Gaiden Black" is also enhanced for the Xbox One X console, which improves the game's resolution to 4K UHD-levels.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: In 2006, Tecmo and Sony announced the development of "Ninja Gaiden Sigma" for the PlayStation 3. Eidos obtained the European publishing rights for this game. Itagaki had no direct role in "Sigma" and judged it a flawed game, although he acknowledged that "Sigma" gave PlayStation owners a taste of "Ninja Gaiden".


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: The gameplay for "Sigma" is very similar to the original version, albeit with some modifications made to the game. Like the original version, the player's movements and combat system are directed using the console gamepad, which comprises the left thumbstick, two attack buttons, and a block button. The game features a large selection of weapons for Ryu to wield each with advantages and disadvantages that affect the way the player approaches combat. A new addition to Ryu's arsenal is a pair of dual-wield swords, Dragon's Claw and Tiger's Fang. It also provides Ryu with magical spells in the form of "ninpo", which allows him to inflict heavy damage on enemies while potentially avoiding damage himself. By shaking the Sixaxis controller, players are able to increase the power of their ninpo spells. Rachel, a non-playable character in the 2004 game, became playable in three new chapters, featuring the new bosses, Gamov and Alterator. Some of the design elements of the old levels was also changed and several new enemy types were introduced.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: In addition to the narrative Story Mode, "Sigma" included a gameplay variation called Mission Mode. Focused on action rather than character development, this provides combat-based missions set mainly in small areas. In both Story and Mission modes, game scoring is based on the player's speed in clearing encounters, the number of kills achieved, the number of unused ninpos remaining at the end, and the amount of cash collected. Players can compare their scores on online ranking boards. In addition, players have the option to customize the appearance of player characters, with selectable costumes for Ryu and hairstyles for Rachel.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: The more powerful hardware of the PlayStation 3 gave Team Ninja the opportunity to overhaul the game graphics to use larger and more detailed textures. Changes were made to the game world, with a few new areas and several additional save points and shops, and alterations to the game engine let players shoot arrows in mid-air, fight on water surfaces, and play as Rachel in some chapters and missions.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: In July 2007, Tecmo released a demo and a new game mode, Survival Mode, for "Sigma" over the PlayStation Network. The demo limits players to the first chapter of the game, but lets them play as Rachel in a separate mission. Survival Mode comprises missions in which players keep fighting until they have either killed all their opponents, or their character has been defeated.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus" is a port of "Ninja Gaiden Sigma" for the PlayStation Vita released in North America and Europe on February 22, 2012. Like "Ninja Gaiden Black"s "Ninja Dog" mode, "Sigma Plus" features an easier difficulty called "Hero" mode, making it more accessible to casual gamers. It also takes advantage of the additional features that the Vita offers, including gyroscopic first-person aiming (by tilting the PlayStation Vita, the player can adjust the camera angle in first-person viewing modes), back touchpad controls (tapping symbols using the rear touchpad will allow Ryu to boost the power of his Ninpo), touch screen controls (players can go into first-person mode by tapping the touch screen). In addition, "Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus" offers new sets of accessories that Ryu and Rachel can equip.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden" was released to critical acclaim. Greg Kasavin of GameSpot called it "one of the best most challenging action adventure games ever made", and his publication named it the best Xbox game of February 2004. IGN's Erik Brudvig said that it "sets a new standard for third-person action games in terms of length, depth, speed, and gore", while "Electronic Gaming Monthly" ("EGM") called it "an unmissable instant classic", and declared that "no Xbox should go without ["Ninja"] "Gaiden"." Critics also regarded it to be one of the most difficult games released prior to 2007. The game received a runner-up position in GameSpot's 2004 "Best Action Adventure Game" category across all platforms.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Its enhanced version, "Ninja Gaiden Black", also impressed reviewers. GameSpot noted that it had the best visual and audio presentation on the Xbox, and praised its new Mission Mode for "[distilling] the game down to its purest essentials." IGN called its release "a rare and welcome day", which brought their "excitement levels back to the first time [they] played the game."


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: From a technical point of view, critics regarded "Ninja Gaiden" and "Black" as the best of the available Xbox software at the time; the console hardware had been pushed to its limits without showing significant drops in performance. GameSpot's Kasavin was impressed with their "first-rate presentation" and said that no other games at that time came close in visuals and audio. According to IGN, the games could "make [them] momentarily forget about the next generation of consoles". Both "Ninja Gaiden" and "Black" were top-sellers, which led to them being compatible with the Xbox 360 for all regions on the new platform's release. "Ninja Gaiden" attracted criticism for the way on-screen action is framed by the game's camera. The default camera system centers the action on Ryu and his surroundings, but reviewers were frustrated by occasions when the camera locked on to part of the scenery, thus losing track of Ryu. Tecmo attempted to address this with the introduction of manual camera controls in the Hurricane Packs, and most critics judged that either the camera frame was usually acceptable, or that "Ninja Gaiden" was a good enough game that its flaws could be overlooked.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Consumers purchased 1.5 million copies of "Ninja Gaiden" and "Black" by August 2007, with the bulk of these sales going to North America and Europe. According to the NPD Group, in its first month "Ninja Gaiden" sold 362,441 copies in the United States. By August 2006, "Ninja Gaiden" had sold 550,000 copies and earned $27 million in that country. Between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 100th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube consoles in the United States. Combined sales of "Ninja Gaiden" and "Black" reached 800,000 units in the United States by August 2006. These sales figures reflect Tecmo's decision to target the non-Japanese market. Japanese gamers were not particularly excited—according to Itagaki, only 60,000 copies of "Ninja Gaiden" were sold in Japan in the four months following its release. The critical and commercial success of "Ninja Gaiden" have led CNET and GameSpot Asia to induct the game into their halls of fame.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: The "Ninja Gaiden" games gained a reputation throughout the gaming community for their difficulty and attention to detail. Although they appealed to gamers who, like Pro-G's Struan Robertson, wanted a "bloody hard, but also bloody good" challenge, it was feared that casual gamers would find the learning curve daunting. IGN warned that gamers with lesser skills might not "get as much out of this game as others due to [its] incredible difficulty", and "Edge" commented that "Tecmo's refusal to extend any kind of handhold to less dedicated players is simply a failure of design, not a badge of hardcore honour", and "it's impossible to believe they couldn't have found a way to increase the accessibility of the game without undermining the gloriously intractable nature of the challenges it contains." "EGM" found the challenge to be "rewarding" as it "motivates you to actually get better at the game." Clive Thompson focused on "Ninja Gaiden" in his "Slate" article examining the motivation for playing difficult games. He contends that extreme levels of challenge can be initially very frustrating and may cause a game to be abandoned in disgust. However, where a game also rewards a player's perseverance by teaching the skills required to overcome its challenges, that player will have the motivation to finish the game. "Ninja Gaiden", in his opinion, strikes the correct balance between challenge and reward; completion brings "a sort of exhausted exhilaration, like finally reaching the end of "War and Peace"." In 2012, CraveOnline included it on their list of five "badass ninja games", calling it "the pinnacle of action gaming at the time, holding onto that crown for an entire year until "God of War" released in 2005" and "a true video game classic, and maybe the best ninja game of all time." That same year, G4tv ranked it as the 83rd top video game of all time, also calling it "the best ninja game ever made and one of the all around hardest."


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: "Ninja Gaiden Sigma" sold 46,307 units in the first week of its release in Japan, making it the third highest selling game during that period. According to the NPD Group, in its first month "Sigma" sold 63,637 copies in the United States. "Next Generation" reported that as of April 2008, 470,000 copies of "Sigma" have been sold in Europe and North America. Tecmo announced that they have sold 500,000 units worldwide.


title: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

text: Like "Ninja Gaiden" and "Ninja Gaiden Black", "Ninja Gaiden Sigma" has received positive reviews, currently holding an average score of 87% at GameRankings and 88/100 at Metacritic, based on 58 and 46 reviews respectively. Critics varied in their views on the technical aspects of "Ninja Gaiden Sigma". Although the gaming site 1UP.com called the updated graphics "a gorgeous reworking of the modern ninja classic," Pro-G said that they were average by next-generation standards and showed occasional "tearing, jagged edges, and mismatched collision between bloodstains and walls."


title: Forever, Michael

text: Forever, Michael is the fourth studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released by Motown Records on January 16, 1975. The album is credited as having songs with funk and soul material. Eddie Holland, Brian Holland, Hal Davis, Freddie Perren, and Sam Brown III served as producers on "Forever, Michael". It is the final album before Jackson's solo breakthrough with his next album, "Off the Wall" (1979).


title: Forever, Michael

text: Except for the peak position of number 101 on the "Billboard" Top LPs & Tape chart and number 10 on the "Billboard" Top Soul Albums chart, both in the United States, "Forever, Michael" failed to chart in other countries. Unlike Jackson's previous studio albums, the album was not commercially successful worldwide. However, "Forever, Michael" was generally well received by contemporary music critics. As part of promotion for the album, three singles were released from "Forever, Michael", all of which were moderate commercial successes on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and other music charts worldwide.


title: Forever, Michael

text: In 1981, Motown released a compilation album of the same name, One Day in Your Life, named after the third track off of Forever, Michael, and released One Day in Your Life as a single, which went to number one in the United Kingdom, becoming the sixth best-selling single of 1981 in the country. Songs from the album were reissued in 2009 after Jackson's death in June of the same year as part of the 3-disc compilation album entitled, "".


title: Forever, Michael

text: The album was Jackson's fourth as a solo artist and would end up being his final album released with Motown before he and his brothers, the Jackson 5 (save for Jermaine, who would remain with Motown until 1983) left for CBS Records after the release of their tenth album, "Moving Violation". This album displayed a change in musical style for the 16-year-old, who adopted a smoother soul sound that he would continue to develop on his later solo albums for Epic Records, the label he would record on for the rest of his life. The album is also credited as having songs with funk elements.


title: Forever, Michael

text: Most of the tracks were recorded in 1974, and the album was originally set to be released that year. But because of demand from the Jackson 5's huge hit "Dancing Machine", production on Jackson's album was delayed until the hype from that song died down. In 1975, Motown launched a joint promotional campaign with "Forever, Michael" and "Moving Violation".


title: Forever, Michael

text: The album helped return Jackson to the top 40, aided by the singles "We're Almost There" and "Just a Little Bit of You", both written by the Holland Brothers (Eddie and Brian) of Holland–Dozier–Holland.


title: Forever, Michael

text: In 1981, Motown released compilation album of the same name, to capitalize off the success of Jackson's "Off the Wall" on Epic. The single went to number one in the UK, becoming the 6th best-selling single of 1981 in that country.


title: Forever, Michael

text: This is the only Jackson studio album that does not share a name with one of the songs on the album (not counting the posthumous 2010 album "Michael").


title: Forever, Michael

text: Although his voice was already showing signs of changing on his previous album "Music & Me" two years earlier, this was also the first album to feature Jackson as a tenor rather than a boy soprano.


title: Forever, Michael

text: The compact disc version of the album removes the white border around the photograph of Jackson from the album cover, and instead makes the image larger so that the background cannot be seen. Furthermore, the "Forever, Michael" text is changed to more simple text which lists both "Michael Jackson" and "Forever, Michael" in a different font.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Malaysia face significant challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. There are no LGBT rights in Malaysia, with sodomy a crime in the country, with laws strictly enforced. Muslims may also be additionally convicted in a court under sharia law with the possibility of a judicially sanctioned capital punishment for homosexuality. Extrajudicial murders of LGBT people have also occurred in the country.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In 2015, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that "Discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people is pervasive in Malaysia." Over the years, there has also been cases of violence against individuals in Malaysia based on their sexual orientation, and are tolerated by the government. Conversion therapy is practiced regularly in the country and is openly promoted by politicians and religious leaders.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: Social attitudes towards the LGBT community in the country are largely shaped by Islam, the official state religion of Malaysia, although a significant proportion of Malaysians of other religions such as Christians also holds strong homophobic views.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: Malaysia retains its criminal ban on sodomy (including oral sex involving the penis), which was enacted in 1871 when it was under British colonial rule (British Malaya). It is broadly defined to include both heterosexual and homosexual acts, with possible punishments including fines, caning, and prison sentences of up to twenty years. A subsection of the Criminal Code also provides additional punishment for men convicted of "gross indecency with another male person". In addition to the secular law, Muslim citizens may also be charged in special Islamic courts.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: There has been some public discussion about reforming the law so as to exempt private, non-commercial sexual acts between consenting adults. Some members of the major opposition party have expressed support for such a reform, most notably Latheefa Koya, but this is not the official position of the party. No political party or elected member of the Parliament has formally proposed such a reform.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In 1994, the government banned anyone who is homosexual, bisexual or transsexual from appearing in state-controlled media.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In 1995, the Religious Affairs Minister of the state of Selangor praised the Islamic Badar vigilante groups, who had organised in 1994, to assist in the arrest of 7,000 individuals for engaging in "unIslamic" activities such as homosexuality.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In 2005, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) chief Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor stated that the Navy would never accept homosexuals.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In 2010, the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia announced it would only allow depiction of homosexual characters as long as the characters "repent" or die.In 2017, Malaysia tried to censor "Beauty and the Beast" over some gay moments but eventually relented and let the movie be shown. The censorship board also had no objections to the screening of "Power Rangers" even with a lesbian scene in the movie.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In May 2017, the LGBT pride march organised by Taylor's University planned in June was cancelled due to Islamist pressure. The event was condemned by pro-Islamist blogs because it was disrespectful to do in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In September 2018, two women were convicted for attempting to have lesbian sex in a car parked in public area, and were fined 3,300 Malaysian ringgit and caned six times before an audience in a courtroom in Terengganu state. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad denounced the punishment, saying it "did not reflect the justice or compassion of Islam".


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In May 2019, a gay bar in the capital Kuala Lumpur was raided by police and religious enforcement officials, while a transgender woman was beaten up by a group of assailants in Seremban, near Kuala Lumpur. The minister in charge of Islamic affairs also came under fire from activists and other ruling party lawmakers, after he ordered the removal of portraits of two LGBT activists from an art exhibition.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In November 2019, a court found five men guilty for "attempting" gay sex, under section 28 of Selangor's Sharia law, and sentenced them to fines, imprisonment and six strokes of the cane each. The five men were arrested during a 2018 raid on a private residence in Selangor, in which a total of 11 men were arrested.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In February 2021, a court declared that any state laws within Malaysia can not be in conflict or override with clear federal laws banning gay sex.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In 2011, "Seksualiti Merdeka" (Independent Sexuality), an annual sexuality rights event, was centered around the theme of “Queer without Fear”. Publicity for the event featured videos of several Malaysian citizens proclaiming their queer identity, calling for the equality of LGBT rights. After publicizing the event, the Royal Malaysia Police released a statement banning the event, based on the premises of risking disturbance of public order and impeding on religious freedom. In 2014, Section 27 A(1)(C) of the Police Act, which was used to ban the event, was superseded by the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 (PAA). This resulted in the ban on the event being lifted.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In April 2015, Nisha Ayub, a transgender woman and activist, aided three Muslim transwomen in challenging the Sharia legislation outlawing males cross-dressing as females in the state of Negeri Sembilan through the JFS organisation. While the case was won in the Court of Appeal, the Federal Court later repealed the decision in October 2015.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In May 2020, a man filed a challenge in the Federal Court against Islamic laws banning "intercourse against the order of nature" in Selangor state. On 25 February 2021, the Federal Court unanimously declared that the Selangor state law provision which made unnatural sex a Sharia offence was invalid as it contradicted the Federal Constitution and that such offences fall under Parliament's jurisdiction. The summary of the judgement was read out by Chief Justice, Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: Based on the Adoption Act 1952 ("Adoption Act") and the Registration of Adoption Act 1952 ("ROAA"), there is no restrictions for a single person to adopt regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: Human Rights Watch reports that state-level Sharia (Islamic) laws prohibit cross-dressing, and transgender people "face arbitrary arrest, physical and sexual assault, imprisonment, discriminatory denial of health care and employment, and other abuses."


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: Transgender individuals have often been arrested by police officers under the civil laws governing "public indecency", and if they are Muslim, can be further charged by religious officers under Sharia Laws for "impersonating" women. A 2014 Human Rights Watch report alleged that transgender people are subjected to "assault, extortion, and violations of their privacy rights" by police, and humiliation, physical and sexual assault by Religious Department officials.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In 1998, 45 Muslim transvestites were charged and convicted in court for dressing as women, and 23 more transgender persons faced similar fines and imprisonment in 1999.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: It has been estimated that a large number of transgender persons are forced to work on the streets as commercial sex workers to earn a living.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In November 2014, three transgender women from the state of Negeri Sembilan arrested for cross-dressing via Sharia law successfully appealed for review of the judicial law at the Court of Appeal for appropriate clothing of people with gender dysphoria. Due to the lack of a mention of gender dysphoria and the lack of medical evidence for a state legal adviser's claim that transgender people were insane, the court unanimously declared the anti-cross-dressing Sharia law as void and violating the constitutional right of "freedom of expression, movement and the right to live in dignity and equality". On 8 October 2015, the Federal Court of Malaysia overturned the ruling on procedural grounds. The Court found that the three women should have obtained judicial permission of a Federal Court judge when they commenced their constitutional challenge. Although a High Court judge had granted permission in November 2011, the Federal Court ruled that it had done so erroneously.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In August 2016, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered the National Registration Department (NRD) to update a trans man’s information on his identity card to better reflect his gender identity and chosen name. The judge argued that "the plaintiff has a precious constitutional right to life under Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution, and the concept of life under Article 5 must necessarily encompass the plaintiff’s right to live with dignity as a male and be legally accorded judicial recognition as a male." The NRD subsequently appealed the ruling.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: Homosexuals and bisexuals are prohibited from donating blood by the National Blood Centre of Malaysia. This policy seems to be gender neutral, since it doesn't explicitly mention the gender that is prohibited from donating blood.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: A 2013 Pew Research Center opinion survey showed that only 9% of the Malaysian population believe homosexuality should be accepted by society, while 86% believe it should not. Malaysia was one of the countries in Asia polled with the least acceptance of homosexuality.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: There is no legal protection for LGBT individuals. A few MPs from the previous ruling coalition, Pakatan Harapan, have voiced support for LGBT rights, as has Marina Mahathir the daughter of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad who called for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientations in 1998 and 1999. Parti Sosialis Malaysia is the only political party to openly support and defend the rights of LGBT people alongside other minority rights. A contrasting political force is the "People's Anti-Homosexual Voluntary Movement", created in 1998 to lobby for stricter criminal laws against homosexuality. It is a member of the former ruling party United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In March 2019, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Mohammadin Ketapi denied the existence of LGBT people in Malaysia, telling German reporters in the 2019 ITB Berlin tourism trade fair: "I don't think we have anything like that in our country." However, he later posted a statement on Twitter saying that his statement referred to the non-existence of specific LGBT-focused tourist campaigns in the country. When a Women's Day march was held in Kuala Lumpur on the same month, it was condemned by government officials and the political parties of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) as the march involved LGBT rights among its demands.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In April 2019, Malaysian authorities were accused for intimidating gay rights activist Numan Afifi by questioning him in the police station about a speech he made in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva in March 2019. The speech pointed out that Malaysia rejected the recommendations of a coalition of twelve Malaysian LGBT organizations on gender identity and sexual orientation.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In May 2019, George Clooney warned Malaysia and Indonesia against legislating a law allowing them to impose death penalty for homosexuality, as Brunei has legislated. The response of the Deputy Foreign Minister, Marzuki Yahya pointed out that Malaysia does not kill gay people, and will not resort to killing sexual minorities. He also said that though such lifestyles deviate from Islam, the government would not impose such a punishment on the group.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: During a lecture to students in a university in Bangkok, Thailand, in October 2018, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad stated that Malaysia would not "copy" Western nations' approach towards LGBT rights, indicating that these countries were exhibiting a disregard for the institutions of the traditional family and marriage, as the value system in Malaysia is good. In June 2019, he reiterated his stance, speaking at the Cambridge Union, he said that Malaysia cannot accept same-sex marriage or LGBT rights, saying “I don’t understand gay marriage. In Malaysia there are some things we cannot accept, even though it is seen as human rights in Western countries,” adding that same-sex marriage is a “regressive way of thinking” and that marriage was about having children and he claimed that the institution of marriage has almost been discarded.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In 2001, in his previous term as Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad stated that the country will deport any visiting foreign cabinet ministers or diplomats who are gay. Mahathir also warned gay ministers in foreign countries not to bring along their partners while visiting the nation. Mahathir's daughter, Marina Mahathir, however has called for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation.


title: LGBT rights in Malaysia

text: In 1998, Anwar Ibrahim was charged with corruption and sodomy. In 2000, he was sentenced to nine years for engaging in sodomy with his 19-year-old male chauffeur and his former male speech writer. Despite national and international protests, he was not released until he had served out four years of his sentence, until 2004, when the Federal Court of Malaysia acquitted him of all charges.