title: Metropolis (comics)

text: The 2003 DC Comics/Marvel Comics crossover mini-series "JLA/Avengers" depicts the city as along the multi-state Interstate 95, which is the main highway on the East Coast of the United States, and portrays the corresponding location in the Marvel Universe as forests and fields, explaining that Marvel's Earth and DC's Earth have different surface areas to account for their different geography (no Metropolis on Marvel's Earth, no Latveria on DC's Earth, and so on).


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: On the television series "", the second part of the episode titled "Little Girl Lost" depicts Darkseid's minion using a machine hidden in or around Metropolis to attempt to pull a comet into the earth. The beam from that machine is depicted originating from the area of the mid-western United States where Kansas is located. In the second part of the episode "Last Son of Krypton" when Lois is introduced to Clark Kent, she is told he is from Smallville, she replies "Smallville? Never heard of it", prompting Clark Kent to ask her if she had ever been to Kansas. Lois replies "God No!" while turning her head in a sign of visible disgust.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Frank Miller has said that "Metropolis is New York in the daytime; Gotham City is New York at night." Gotham City is home to Batman, whose activities are more often nocturnal, while Metropolis is home to Superman, who usually operates during the day. In terms of atmosphere, "Batman" writer and editor Dennis O'Neil has said that, figuratively, "Batman's Gotham City is Manhattan below 14th Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November, and Metropolis is Manhattan between 14th and 110th Streets on the brightest, sunniest July day of the year". New York City has been more recently used as a locale in the DC Universe, like the Marvel Universe, in which it exists as a separate city from Metropolis and Gotham City. The Justice Society of America, for example, is based in New York, as were the Teen Titans.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis is frequently depicted as being within driving distance of Gotham City, home of Batman. This happens, for example, in the three-issue 1990 mini-series of "World's Finest Comics" by Dave Gibbons, Steve Rude, and Karl Kesel. The distance between the two cities has varied greatly over the years, ranging from being hundreds of miles apart to Gotham and Metropolis being twin cities on opposite sides of Delaware Bay, with Metropolis in Delaware and Gotham City being in New Jersey.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In Bronze Age stories that depicted Metropolis and Gotham City as twin cities, the Metro-Narrows Bridge was said to be the main route connecting Metropolis to Gotham City. Stated as being the longest suspension bridge in the world, the Metro-Narrows Bridge is likely based on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which stretches between Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In "The World's Greatest Superheroes" newspaper comic strip, a 1978 Sunday strip shows a map of the east coast of the United States; the map places Metropolis in Delaware and Gotham City across Delaware Bay in New Jersey, with the Metro-Narrows Bridge linking the two cities. A similar map appeared in "The New Adventures of Superboy" #22 (October 1981), with Smallville shown within driving distance of both cities (in post-Crisis comics, Smallville was officially relocated to Kansas). 1990's "The Atlas of the DC Universe" also places Metropolis in Delaware and Gotham City in New Jersey.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: However, the exact location of the two cities has varied. A map of the United States in the Secret Files & Origins Guide to the DC Universe 2000 depicts Metropolis and Gotham City (alongside Blüdhaven) as being somewhere in the tri-state area.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In the TV series "", when Lois finds out about Superman's secret identity and yells at Clark about how he's been hiding his secretly being Superman, he responds, "A little louder, Lois. I don't think they could hear you in Gotham City." In the TV series "Smallville", Linda Lake, a columnist for the "Daily Planet", once boasted that she could see Gotham City from her new office. In "", Bruce Wayne is shown taking his private jet aircraft to Metropolis, indicating that the two cities have at least some distance between them.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In the 2016 film "", director Zack Snyder confirmed that Metropolis and Gotham City would be portrayed as geographically situated right next to each other, on the opposite sides of a bay, similar to Jersey City and Manhattan.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: A Native American tribe sold Metropolis Island to the first European settlers in 1644, similar to the history of New York City, in which Native Americans sold Manhattan Island to Dutch settlers in 1626.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Over the years, Metropolis' features have greatly changed in the comics; however, Metropolis is always presented as being a global city. It is often referred to as "The Big Apricot" just as New York City is nicknamed "The Big Apple". It is commonly portrayed as having an Art Deco style of architecture, much like New York City. The skyline and many of the notable landmarks in Metropolis are based on real-life landmarks in New York City. Frank Miller has said that "Metropolis is New York in the daytime; Gotham City is New York at night."


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis' features became more defined and more obviously based on New York following both 1985's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" miniseries and John Byrne's subsequent revamping of Superman, including the late 1980s comic special "The World of Metropolis".


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: According to "Action Comics" #143 (April 1950), the Statue of Liberty is said to stand in "Metropolis Harbor", while the real-life Statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor. However, most stories indicate the Statue of Liberty is actually in New York City, which also exists in the DC Universe as a separate city from Metropolis.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: The map of Metropolis designed for Mayfair Games' first edition of the "DC Heroes Role-Playing Game" resembled that of Manhattan.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis is made up of six boroughs, the largest being New Troy. Each of the boroughs has its own distinct character and feel, which resemble and mimic New York City's boroughs.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: New Troy is the largest borough in Metropolis. Resembling Manhattan, New Troy is a skyscraper island bustling with commerce and business. The concrete and steel canyons of the city rise to dizzying heights. "1930s architecture stretched like a rubber band" as cited in the "Art of Superman Returns" book.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: The "Daily Planet" Building is the most recognizable landmark in the Metropolis skyline, much like the Empire State Building for New York City. Located in "Planet Square", it is particularly known for the "Daily Planet" globe atop the building. Other prominent skyscrapers include the Emperor Building (a reference to the Empire State Building), the Newstime Building (home of the national "Newstime" magazine, a reference to and combination of "Newsweek" and "Time") which is secretly owned for several years by Lord Satanus posing as "Colin Thornton", and the Twin Towered LexCorp Tower, (a reference to the former twin towers of the World Trade Center), headquarters for Lex Luthor's company.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Famous streets in New Troy include Fifth Avenue, Bessolo Boulevard, and Topaz Lane. The latter two are Metropolis' versions of Broadway in New York City. Bessolo Boulevard's name is derived from "Adventures of Superman" lead actor George Reeves' legal name before entering films. Other Metropolis boulevards in the New Troy borough are similarly named for other actors from that series and from its radio predecessor of the same name, such as Coates, Larson, and Collyer.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Centennial Park (sometimes labeled as Metropolis Park) is Metropolis' largest city park and is based on real life Central Park of New York City. Its most noteworthy feature is a statue of Superman with an American bald eagle erected after his apparent death fighting Doomsday. A statue of Superboy Conner Kent was built next to it after the events of "Infinite Crisis".


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In northwestern New Troy is the impoverished and crime-infested neighborhood of Suicide Slum, best known for the 1940s adventures of the Guardian and his street urchin companions the Newsboy Legion and in more contemporary times with Gangbuster. Although the northwestern location is similar to the relationship of Harlem to midtown Manhattan, the neighborhood bears more physical and cultural resemblance to Manhattan's Lower East Side. The Ace o' Clubs is a bar owned by Bibbo Bibbowski in Suicide Slum.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In 1990s and 2000s stories, the married Clark Kent and Lois Lane live in an apartment in New Troy, at 1938 Sullivan Lane, which is a tribute to the year Superman first appeared. The apartment was a wedding gift to the couple by Bruce Wayne, who owned the building. Clark Kent's traditional address of 344 Clinton Street, Apartment 3D, was usually described as being located in midtown Metropolis.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: New Troy is separated from the suburban boroughs by the West River and Hobb's River, based on New York's East River and Hudson River, respectively.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Other boroughs and suburban areas, almost all of which are based on real places in New York City, include Queensland Park (a reference to Queens), Hell's Gate (a reference to Hell Gate Bridge), St. Martin's Island (a reference to Staten Island), Park Ridge (a reference to Park Slope), Metrodale, and Highville.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In the Silver Age and Bronze Age comics, a major Metropolis landmark is the Superman Museum. The Superman Museum features various exhibits dedicated to Metropolis' favorite superhero, similar to the Flash Museum in Central City. The Museum's exhibits were responsible for the origin of the Composite Superman. Members of the criminal organization the 100 at one point secretly used the Superman Museum as their base of operations, which was discovered by the superhero Black Lightning and his nemesis the Whale. Superman, under the effects of hypnosis, once went on a rampage and wrecked several pieces at the museum. The Superman Museum, like the Flash Museum, is also usually shown as existing well into the Legion of Super-Heroes' era, as shown in various stories and the 2000s television series "Legion of Super Heroes".


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: The central branch of S.T.A.R. Labs, a major scientific research institution, is also located in Metropolis.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis University, Clark Kent's alma mater, is located in the city of Metropolis; Clark graduated with a degree in journalism. The college has a floating aquarium anchored just offshore called the "Ark".


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: LexCorp, founded by Lex Luthor, endeavors into all aspects of technology, communication, medical science, technical science, architectural engineering, future technology, and more.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Steelworks is the laboratory of Dr. John Henry Irons and in post-Crisis, it came to rival LexCorp as its reach expanded into many different industries. John Henry renamed Steelworks Ironworks to further himself from his superhero life as Steel.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: The Metropolis Police Department headed by Commissioner David Corporon possesses a Special Crimes Unit dedicated to defending the city against superhuman menaces in case Superman is absent. The unit is headed by Maggie Sawyer and Dan Turpin, both of whom maintain frequent contact with the Man of Steel. Another of Superman's police contacts over the years has been Inspector William Henderson, who is currently the Metropolis police commissioner. The police unit is featured in a 1994–1995 limited series, "Metropolis SCU". At some point during the missing year following Infinite Crisis, the division of the Metropolis Police Department dedicated to superhuman crime was renamed the Science Police, seemingly a reference to the similarly named group in the Legion of Super-Heroes' 31st Century.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Stryker's Island Penitentiary (based on New York's Riker's Island) is the name of Metropolis' largest prison facility, as well as the name of the island on which it sits; it is located in Metropolis' West River south of New Troy (the real-life Riker's Island sits in the East River, connected by a foot and vehicle bridge to the nearby borough of Queens, although the island itself and its jail complex are technically and officially part of The Bronx).


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Post-Crisis, Fireman Farrell is shown to be a member of the Metropolis fire department. As of "Batman & Superman: World's Finest" #4 (July 1999), Farrell is now a captain in the Metropolis FD.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis' premier newspaper is the "Daily Planet", one of the most renowned news organizations in the DC Universe. The city is also home to the national "Newstime" magazine, where Clark Kent held the position of editor during the Eradicator story arc until he was fired by his superior, Collin Thornton, in "The Adventures of Superman" #465, for his increasingly strange behavior due to the Eradicator (including firing of some employees).


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Other major media located in Metropolis include WGBS-TV, flagship station of the Galaxy Broadcasting System (GBS) television network, both subsidiaries of media conglomerate Galaxy Communications. Popular shows included "The Midnight Show Starring Johnny Nevada" (a fictional version of NBC's "The Tonight Show", with Johnny Nevada being an analogue of Johnny Carson).


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Between the early 1970s and mid-1980s, both Clark Kent and Lois Lane worked for WGBS after Galaxy Communications purchased the "Daily Planet" in a 1971 storyline, with Clark as the anchorman for the WGBS evening news. He was eventually joined by Lana Lang as a co-anchor. After John Byrne's revamp of Superman's origins, though, Clark and Lois were reverted to working at the "Daily Planet" once again. Galaxy Broadcasting and WGBS-TV still exist post-Crisis, however, and are usually used in any story where a television station or network is needed or shown. Post-"Crisis", Clark, Lois and Lana never worked for the station. During the 1990s however, both Jimmy Olsen and Cat Grant did work there.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: The people of Metropolis are depicted as a diverse group of large city-dwellers within the comics. They live in one of the world's largest, wealthiest, and most important cities.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: As befitting any world city, Metropolis is represented by teams in all major-league sports. Like New York City, it is home to two teams in baseball and football. Of the two baseball teams, the Metropolis Monarchs are Clark Kent's favorite, while the other team, the Metropolis Meteors, is mentioned in "52" as having a rivalry with the St. Louis Cardinals.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In American football, Metropolis is home to the Metropolis Metros and the Metropolis Meteors. The latter football team (sharing the same name as the above baseball team) once featured Steve Lombard as its star quarterback. On the TV show "Smallville", there is a football team called the Metropolis Sharks.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: The city is also home to the Metropolis Generals basketball team, who play in Shuster Sports Arena, presumably named for Superman co-creator Joe Shuster.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Several sports stadiums have been mentioned over the years. One such stadium is Metropolis Stadium, which was built in 1940. (Pre-Crisis, Metropolis Stadium had an Earth-Two counterpart, which was named "Sportsman's Stadium".) This was perhaps influenced by the real-life Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, for many years the shared home of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis is traditionally depicted as continuing to survive, thrive and expand well into the 30th- and 31st-century timeframes used as the backdrop of the "Legion of Super-Heroes" in all that series' varied incarnations to date.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: During the original incarnation of the series, Metropolis would be depicted as covering anything ranging from the entire Atlantic American coast to a more narrowed jurisdiction – according to one map officially published during Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen's initial partnership on the series, in "Legion of Super-Heroes" (vol. 2) #313 (July 1984) – covering most of Massachusetts, all of Rhode Island and Connecticut, New York State from Long Island's eastern tip up into the Catskills, and a large portion of northern New Jersey. In one imaginary "Superman" tale published in 1976 and partly set in then-futuristic 2001, "Metropolis" is the name of the new megalopolis of the Eastern seaboard corridor, comprising the cities of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York and Boston and all the territory in between ("Superman" #300, June 1976).


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Whatever version was used, it was generally viewed as given that the original city, as well as Gotham City, were considered within Legion-era Metropolis' boundaries, from the mid-1960s until the events of "Zero Hour".


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: The first post-"Infinite Crisis" version of the series as published in the "three-boot" edition has described Metropolis as having expanded over the intervening millennium up the "entire Atlantic seaboard" of North America in one issue (reminiscent of New York's future expansion in Isaac Asimov's "The Caves of Steel" and in Poul Anderson's "The Corridors of Time", and to an extent "Mega-City One" of the "Judge Dredd" comics). In "", it is revealed that this version of Metropolis belongs to the newly restored Earth-Prime's 31st Century.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In "Adventure Comics" (vol. 2) #12, Metropolis during the Legion's first year is described by Brainiac 5 as having a population of "78 million sentient inhabitants in the urban zone before you reach the greenbelt".


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In 1978's "Superman" and its sequels, Metropolis is shown as taking the place of New York City. The original movie series made no attempt to hide this similarity, as prominent New York landmarks are seen throughout the movies, including the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center, the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, the United Nations Headquarters, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Terminal, and the "New York Daily News" offices. (However, in "", in the scene involving a runaway train in the Metropolis "Metro City Transit" subway system, an advertising poster on the subway station wall soliciting public donations for the then-ongoing Statue of Liberty restoration effort urges the donations be sent to "The Lady, P.O. Box 1986, New York 10018" - implying that Metropolis and New York are, in fact, two separate places.) In "Superman III", some Calgary, Alberta landmarks can be seen, including the Calgary Tower and the St. Louis Hotel, as parts of the film were filmed there.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis is briefly mentioned in the movie "Batman Forever". When Dick Grayson (played by Chris O'Donnell) plans to find Two-Face, Bruce Wayne mentioned the circus is halfway to Metropolis.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: "Superman Returns" director Bryan Singer intended his version of Metropolis to be a stylistic cross between 1930s New York and current New York. The many shots of Superman flying high above the city establish that although Metropolis has a rectangular park reminiscent of Central Park, the city overall has a slightly different shape from New York City. Several New York City landmarks, such as the American International Building, Battery Park, the MetLife Building, the Woolworth Building, World Financial Center, 7 World Trade Center, and the Brooklyn Bridge, were clearly shown, as was the street grid of lower Manhattan, with a fictional bridge inserted north of Battery Park City and a fictional pier in the middle of Battery Park. The map of Metropolis shown in this article, however, tries to make the city's form as different as possible from New York City's, given the scenery shown.) Photographs of some automobiles used in filming show license plates bearing the phrase "New York State" along the bottom, although the featured vehicles (including Lois Lane's car) are shown in the film to have license plates reading "The First State" Lex Luthor's map onscreen portrays the city as directly in the location of New York City. Senior production designer Guy Dyas said in "The Art of Superman Returns" (Chronicle Books, 2006): "We wiped out, I think, half of New Jersey to put in Metropolis." The map showed Metropolis clearly being in place for New York City but in New York State. Long Island was not shown. Midtown Manhattan was only shown twice, both in brief high aerial shots of the city at night. The first had the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building obstructed by clouds while the GE Building was visible. The second, all three buildings would appear but very briefly. License Plates show the Daily Planet Building as the main symbol for Metropolis. With no World Trade Center due to the September 11, 2001 attacks (which took place during Superman's five-year departure from Earth), the real life Empire State Building, or in this case the Emperor Building as named in the comics, would be the tallest in Metropolis.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In past "Superman" movies, Metropolis was suggested to be New York City itself. Landmarks like the World Trade Center and Statue of Liberty were seen on film. In "Superman Returns", Metropolis is New York City with minor changes. The movie focused primarily on Lower Manhattan with Midtown Manhattan only shown twice in the distance. 17 State Street, which is a recognizable glass tower at the tip of the island was replaced by an older looking tower and the tops of the two World Financial Center Towers were removed. A small cluster of tall Art-Deco Towers along with the "Daily Planet" building were added to the skyline near the Civic Center. The LexCorp Tower never appeared in the movie; comics suggest LexCorp had a Twin Towered Headquarters, which suggests that if they still existed, the World Trade Center North and South towers were the LexCorp Towers, but being 2006, unlike the older "Superman" movies, the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, did not appear, being that the setting is after the September 11, 2001 attacks. It is implied that 9/11 happened shortly after Superman's five-year departure from Earth, as in 2006, five years ago it was 2001 where the world was in no major wars until the events of 9/11. Despite this, one aerial shot showed several small buildings over the site, probably suggesting that they never existed, yet a quick scene showed footage of the War on Terror on television news. Parts of "Superman Returns" was filmed in Sydney, Australia, and some minor landmarks in Sydney can be identified such as "Martin Place", when Superman catches the car. License plates on cars that state the first state may also refer to NSW license plates.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis appears extensively the DC Extended Universe, first appearing in "Man of Steel" and later "" and "Justice League". Areas of Vancouver, downtown Chicago and Detroit have been used as filming locations for the city, with several fictional buildings being added. Much of Metropolis is destroyed during the fight between Superman and General Zod in the first film's climax. It also appears to be a federal district similar to Washington, DC, with a ZIP code of 33866. Director Zack Snyder confirmed that Metropolis and Gotham City are portrayed as being in close geographical proximity to each other but are separated by Delaware Bay. In "Justice League" it is revealed there is a tunnel connecting the two, constructed as part of the abandoned 'Metropolis Project' in 1929 to connect the two cities. There are multiple islands located in the bay also, with one of them being named Braxton Island. During Super Bowl 50, an advertisement for Turkish Airlines showcased a rebuilt Metropolis, with Lex Luthor (played by one of the film's stars, Jesse Eisenberg) declaring the city open for business again. A "Gotham City" version of the ad, starring Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne and sharing an identical theme, also aired during the game.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis also appears in most of the DC Comics animated films in which Superman makes an appearance, namely "", "", "", "", "All-Star Superman", "", "", "Superman vs The Elite" and "". Additionally, it is mentioned in some of them, such as in "." In the live action/animated hybrid film "", there was a scene where Superman prevents a runaway train in Metropolis from crashing into an orphanage.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis appears in several video games, including "Superman", "", , "Superman Returns", "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe", where it is shown partially in ruins following the Justice League's fight with Darkseid, and it appears in "DC Universe Online".


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In "", an inmate states that he would prefer moving to Metropolis to living in fear of the Batman while in Gotham City. In the game's sequel, "", Batman and Talia al Ghul mention having a date there at some point prior to the game. Hugo Strange considers replicating the Arkham City project in Metropolis. "Metropolis" is also the password to open the monorail. In "", some thugs will discuss how "the only thing that can make this worse is if that freak from Metropolis flew in here."


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: The city appears in the game "", in two different forms- a Prime Earth version, in which the Joker attempts and fails to destroy the city with an atomic bomb, and an alternate universe Earth version, which occurs as a result of the Joker succeeding in his plot, which also involved the death of Lois Lane and Superman's unborn son. The alternate universe, or "Regime" Metropolis is used as a playable fighting stage. Here, it has been rebuilt into a more dystopian city, which is where the "prime" Batman and Joker end up when they are accidentally transported there. The Prime Earth version, however, is not a playable stage in the game, and is only shown as a cameo in the game's story mode. One notable feature in each version of Metropolis is a statue depicting Superman with a globe. In the Prime universe, the statue depicts Superman standing below the globe, carrying it above his head, symbolizing that he follows the world's rules. On the other hand, in the Regime universe, the statue depicts Superman standing above the globe with his arms folded, symbolizing that the world follows his rules, as he has become a tyrant following the destruction of the original Metropolis and the deaths of Lois Lane and their unborn son. Metropolis is the only stage in the game to have three sections: the city streets, the top of the Daily Planet, and a museum featuring past superhero costumes and weapons.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In "", there's a billboard located on Burnley with name of cities, including Metropolis. "Lego Dimensions" depicts the city as having been taken over by Sauron from "The Lord of the Rings" franchise, with him setting up the Dark Tower and Eye of Sauron in the middle of the city. With Superman being sucked into an alternate dimension, Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldstyle oppose Sauron. The city is once again a playable stage in "Injustice 2". The two sections consist of Memorial Station (which contains statues of Superman and his downfall and Lex Luthor's opposition) and the Ace O' Clubs bar. In the story mode, Metropolis is one of the cities Superman fails to restore on Brainiac's ship.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: In "Lego DC Super Villains", part of the open world is Metropolis. LexCorp Tower, The Daily Planet, and S.T.A.R. Labs are featured.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: Metropolis appears in the "" dark ride designed and created by Sally Corporation for Warner Bros. Movie World in Gold Coast, Australia. The city also appears in the "" dark ride created by Sally Corporation and is located at several Six Flags theme parks. A section of Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi is themed after Metropolis, with major landmarks serving as entrances to attractions such as the Daily Planet for a Superman attraction, the Hall of Justice for a Justice League ride, and the Metropolis Observatory for a Green Lantern attraction. Patrons can also eat at a restaurant themed after Big Belly Burger.


title: Metropolis (comics)

text: The real town of Metropolis, Illinois, has been proclaimed the "hometown of Superman" by the Illinois State Legislature, and the town celebrates its "local hero". Among the ways it celebrates the character include a large Superman statue in the city, a Superman museum, an annual Superman festival, and its local newspaper "The Metropolis Planet", a name inspired by the major newspaper in fictional Metropolis, "The Daily Planet". A version of the town has appeared in the comics itself, as a city whose citizens idolize the hero who lives in their 'sister' city.


title: Danger triangle of the face

text: The danger triangle of the face consists of the area from the corners of the mouth to the bridge of the nose, including the nose and maxilla. Due to the special nature of the blood supply to the human nose and surrounding area, it is possible, albeit extremely unlikely, for retrograde infection from the nasal area to spread to the brain, causing cavernous sinus thrombosis, meningitis or brain abscess.


title: Danger triangle of the face

text: This is possible because of venous communication (via the ophthalmic veins) between the facial vein and the cavernous sinus. The cavernous sinus lies within the cranial cavity, between layers of the meninges and is a major conduit of venous drainage from the brain. Despite this relatively plausible anatomical argument, only severe facial infections (e.g., nasal abscess) can lead to a deeper central nervous system infectious complication.


title: Danger triangle of the face

text: It was discovered that venous valves are present in the ophthalmic and facial veins. Thus, it is not the absence of venous valves but rather the existence of communications between the facial vein and cavernous sinus and the direction of blood flow that is important in the spread of infection from the face. Most people, but not all, have valves in these particular veins of the face.


title: Danger triangle of the face

text: The relationship between this area and a risk of cavernous sinus thrombosis was described as early as 1852. In 1937, a study found that 61% of the cases of cavernous sinus thrombosis were the result of furuncles on the upper part of the face. While the disorder has become extremely uncommon with the development of antibiotics, it still carries a very small chance to develop a high risk of death and needs to be treated aggressively with antibiotics and blood thinners.


title: Danger triangle of the face

text: If the cavernous sinus is infected, it can cause the blood within the sinus to clot resulting in a cavernous sinus thrombosis. This affects the structures that are going through it or surround it. Inside the cavernous sinus, constriction of the following cranial nerves (CN) can be found: CN III (oculomotor nerve), CN IV (trochlear nerve), CN VI (abducens nerve), CN V (trigeminal nerve), specifically V1 (ophthalmic nerve) and V2 (maxillary nerve) branches. Failure of each of the nerves listed above will manifest in loss of function of the specific muscle, gland or a parasympathetic innervations (from CN III). In addition, it is possible that inflammation of the cavernous sinus will result in compression of the optic chiasm (resulting in vision problems) and/or the pituitary gland.


title: Danger triangle of the face

text: Failure of CN III will result in loss of function of the following muscles: medial rectus, superior rectus, inferior rectus, and inferior oblique as well as muscles that are responsible for opening the eyelid: levator palpebrae superioris muscle and the superior tarsal muscle (Müller's muscle). CN III damage also results in loss of parasympathetic innervation of the eye (loss of pupillary constriction and lens accommodation).


title: College World Series

text: The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Baseball Championship tournament—featuring 64 teams in the first round—which determines the NCAA Division I college baseball champion. The eight participating teams are split into two, four-team, double-elimination brackets, with the winners of each bracket playing in a best-of-three championship series.


title: College World Series

text: The first edition of the College World Series was held in 1947 at Hyames Field in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The tournament was held there again in 1948, but was moved to Lawrence Stadium in Wichita, Kansas for the 1949 tournament. Since 1950, the College World Series (CWS) has been held in Omaha, Nebraska. It was held at Rosenblatt Stadium from 1950 through 2010; starting in 2011, it has been held at Charles Schwab Field Omaha (formerly TD Ameritrade Park Omaha). The name "College World Series" is derived from that of the Major League Baseball World Series championship; it is currently an MLB trademark licensed to the NCAA.


title: College World Series

text: The event's official name was changed to "Men's College World Series" no later than 2008. The most recent hosting agreement between the NCAA and the city of Omaha and related entities, signed in that year, states, "The official name of the [championship] shall be the "NCAA Men's College World Series"". However, as of October 2021, the CWS logo still appeared on the NCAA's official D-I baseball tournament bracket, and on the front page of the NCAA's official CWS website, without the word "Men's". The NCAA has since added "Men's" to the event's logo, and both the NCAA and College World Series of Omaha, Inc. (CWS Omaha), the nonprofit group that organizes the event, now consistently use the phrase "Men's College World Series" to describe it.


title: College World Series

text: On March 13, 2020, it was announced that the 2020 College World Series was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first time in the event's history it had been canceled.


title: College World Series

text: On June 10, 2008, the NCAA and CWS Omaha announced a new 25-year contract extension, keeping the MCWS in Omaha through 2035. A memorandum of understanding had been reached by all parties on April 30.


title: College World Series

text: The currently binding contract began in 2011, the same year the tournament moved from Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium to the venue now known as Charles Schwab Field Omaha, a new ballpark across from CHI Health Center Omaha.


title: College World Series

text: The College World Series Most Outstanding Player award is presented to the best player at each College World Series finals (first awarded in 1949).


title: College World Series

text: An All-Tournament Team consisting of the best players of the tournament has also been announced for each tournament since 1958.


title: Weight class

text: Weight classes are divisions of competition used to match competitors against others of their own size. Weight classes are used in a variety of sports, especially combat sports (such as boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling). Alternatives to formal weight classes include catch weight and openweight.


title: Weight class

text: The existence of weight divisions gives rise to the practice of weight cutting. To be the largest individual in a weight division is perceived as advantageous; therefore some athletes will work to lose weight through dieting and dehydration prior to weigh-ins to qualify for a lower weight class.


title: Aju Varghese

text: Aju Kurian Varghese (born 11 January 1985) better known as Aju Varghese is an Indian actor and producer who appears in Malayalam cinema. He made his debut in 2010 in "Malarvadi Arts Club", directed by his college classmate Vineeth Sreenivasan. In a career spanning over a decade, he has acted in more than 125 Malayalam films. He owns a production company named Funtastic Films along with actor Dhyan Sreenivasan and producer Visakh Subramaniam.


title: Aju Varghese

text: Aju Varghese was born to Varghese P. K. and Celiene Susan in Thiruvalla in India. He has a younger sister Anju. Aju is married to Augustina since 24 February 2014. They have twins: a girl named Juana and a boy named Evan born on 28 October 2014. They later had a second set of twins - Jake and Luke - on 30th Sep 2016.


title: Aju Varghese

text: Aju attended Rajagiri High School, Kalamasserry and later Bhavans Adarsha Vidhyalaya, Ernakulam. He did his Bachelor's in Electronics and Communication Engineering from KCG College of Technology, Chennai. He worked in HSBC in Human Resources, Chennai. It was during that time he was called by Vineeth Sreenivasan, his college friend, to play one of the lead roles in his directorial debut "Malarvadi Arts Club", and later in "Thattathin Marayathu". In the meantime, he was part of "Sevenes" (2011) by veteran director Joshiy and "Mayamohini". Since then, he has acted in notable films, such as "Thattathin Marayathu", "Oru Vadakkan Selfie", "Kili Poyi", "Zachariyayude Garbhinikal", "Ohm Shanthi Oshaana", "Punyalan Agarbattis", "Vellimoonga", "Ormayundo Ee Mukham", "Kunjiramayanam", "Su.. Su... Sudhi Vathmeekam", "Two Countries", "Adi Kapyare Kootamani", "Oppam", "Kodathi Samaksham Balan Vakeel" and "Love Action Drama"


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including comedies and Spaghetti Westerns, he garnered an international cult following for his giallo and horror films.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: His most notable films include the "Gates of Hell" trilogy—"City of the Living Dead" (1980), "The Beyond" (1981), and "The House by the Cemetery" (1981)—as well as "Massacre Time" (1966), "One on Top of the Other" (1969), "Beatrice Cenci" (1969), "A Lizard in a Woman's Skin" (1971), "Don't Torture a Duckling" (1972), "White Fang" (1973), "Four of the Apocalypse" (1975), "Sette note in nero" (1977), "Zombi 2" (1979), "Contraband" (1980), "The New York Ripper" (1982), "Murder Rock" (1984), and "A Cat in the Brain" (1990). Although a number of films over the years were said to have been "co-produced" by Fulci, he was just allowing them to use his name to promote the films (with the exception of "City of the Living Dead", which he did actively attempt to obtain some funding for).


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Owing to his brand of expressive visuals and unconventional storytelling, Lucio Fulci has been called "The Poet of the Macabre" by genre critics and scholars, originally a reference to Edgar Allan Poe, whose work he freely adapted in "The Black Cat" (1981). The high level of graphic violence present in many of his films, especially "Zombi 2", "The Beyond", "Contraband" and "The New York Ripper", has also earned him the nickname "The Godfather of Gore", which he shares with Herschell Gordon Lewis.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Lucio Fulci was born in Trastevere, Rome, on 17 June 1927. His mother Lucia was from a poor but reputable Sicilian, politically anti-fascist family from Messina, Sicily. She had earlier eloped to Rome with a lover who later left her to raise their child (Lucio) alone. Lucio was raised Roman Catholic by his mother and a female housekeeper. He attended the Naval College in Venice, and near the end of World War II, completed his studies back in Rome at the Giulio Cesare State Classical School. He was interested in art, music, film, football, and had a love for sailing.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: His mother encouraged him to be a lawyer, but he wound up going to medical school instead. After studying medicine for a time, he dropped out before completing his training, deciding there was more money to be made in the filmmaking industry He worked initially as an art critic, writing for Gazzetta delle Arti and Il Messaggero, and also joined the critical art group il Gruppo Arte Sociale.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: His interest in the arts led him to apply to the film school in Rome named Centro Sperimentale where he apprenticed, after which he worked first as a director of documentaries, then an assistant director of motion pictures, then a screenwriter working mainly in the Italian comedy field in the early 1950s. The famed Italian director Steno took Fulci under his wing and allowed him to assist in the making of a number of comedies starring Totò. He also directed a number of comedies starring the actors Franco and Ciccio.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Fulci moved into directing giallo thrillers with "Una sull'altra" (1969), "A Lizard in a Woman's Skin" (1971) and "Sette note in nero" ("The Psychic", 1977), as well as Spaghetti Westerns such as "Four of the Apocalypse" (1975) and "Silver Saddle" (1978), all of which were commercially successful and controversial in their depictions of graphic violence. Some of the special effects in "A Lizard in a Woman's Skin" involving mutilated dogs in a vivisection room were so realistic that Fulci was charged with animal cruelty; the charges were dropped when he produced the artificial canine puppets that were utilized in the film (created by special effects maestro Carlo Rambaldi).


title: Lucio Fulci

text: His first film to gain significant notoriety in his native country, "Don't Torture a Duckling" (1972), combined scathing social commentary with the director's trademark graphic violence. Fulci had a Catholic upbringing and always referred to himself as a Catholic. Despite this, some of his movies ("Beatrice Cenci", "Don't Torture a Duckling", "City of the Living Dead", etc.) have been viewed as having very anti-Catholic sentiment.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: In 1979, he achieved his international breakthrough with "Zombi 2", a violent zombie film that was marketed in European territories as a sequel to George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead"/"Zombi" (1978) without permission from Fulci nor Romero.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Several of Fulci's movies released in America were edited by the film distributor to ensure an R rating, such as "The Beyond", which was originally released on video in severely edited form as "Seven Doors of Death". Others were released Unrated in order to avoid an X-rating (as with "Zombi 2" and "House by the Cemetery") which would have restricted the films' target audiences to adults. The unrated films often played worldwide in drive-ins and grindhouses where they developed a cult following. Many of Fulci's horror films tend to contain "injury to the eye" sequences, in which a character's eyeball is either pierced or pulled out of its socket, usually in lingering, close-up detail.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Fulci travelled to the Philippines and spent six weeks shooting the film "Zombi 3". Two opposing views were given for Fulci leaving the film, the first being an illness that left him unable to film and the second being that he was having disputes with producers. After completing filming, he would later state "(I) didn't finish making "Zombie 3", but the reason wasn't anything to do with illness [...] there were arguments and so, I finished off an hour and a quarter of the film". Fulci stated that he couldn't get the script changed, which he deemed to be "dreadful", and modified it with his daughter. Claudio Fragasso stated that Fulci simplified his screenplay and shot a seventy-minute film which shocked producer Franco Gaudenzi.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: By the second half of the 1980s, the Italian film industry was struggling with less theatrical distribution of films and productions being made to sell to foreign markets for television and home video. In some films, such as Gianni Martucci's "The Red Monks", Fulci is credited as a "special effects supervisor" despite not showing up to set or preparing any special effects for the film. According to Martucci, Fulci "agreed to "present" the movie" as distributors required "a "heavy" name for the sales abroad. By then Fulci had become a name, let's say exportable. He was already very ill, and I met him to talk to him about the project" While Fulci's health did get better, Martucci stated that "at that time he couldn't even speak, devoured as he was by cirrhosis."


title: Lucio Fulci

text: A series was developed titled "I maestri del thriller" was developed with the aim of television and home video markets, which was originally going to be a set of ten films but only eight were made. Fulci was invited by cinematographer Silvano Tessicini to the series as the director had just moved from Rome to Castelnuovo di Porto and was experiencing health problems after returning from the production of "Zombi 3". Tessicini lived in the nearby Morlupo and on visiting him stated that Fulci "was not well, and had a huge belly", a consequence of the liver disease that affected Fulci during the filming of "Zombi 3". Fulci was initially hired on the film as a supervisor but submitted the idea to director his own film, "Touch of Death". When one of the directors walked away from the series, Fulci was invited to begin filming "Sodoma's Ghost". It was filmed under the title "Ghost Light" and began shooting on 30 May 1988 with filming taking four weeks. Mario Bianchi was recruited by production supervisor Silvano Zignani to film some second unit scenes. According to Bianchi, "Fulci didn't leave the set he finished the film" while also stating "I wouldn't say I shot half the film, but almost" while Michele De Angelis stated that Bianchi was only on set for a couple of days. Three days after filming "Sodoma's Ghost", Fulci began work on "Touch of Death" which began filming on 22 June 1988. Another film in the series was "Hansel e Gretel", which was originally set for Giovanni Simonelli to direct but after three weeks of filming only about 50 minutes of the film had been completed and large parts of the story were not filmed. Several weeks later Fulci was asked to supervise an additional week's shooting. According to the assistant director of the film Michele de Angelis,"Lucio shot everything. Simonelli stayed by his side, just watching..." Along with Fulci, Andrea Bianchi was reportedly recruited to work on the film as well. Fulci was credited in another film in the series: as a supervisor in the film "Bloody Psycho" by Leandro Lucchetti. Fulci did not discuss the film with the director and did not show up at the set of the film. Fulci would later use the gory footage of the titles in the series used in his film "A Cat in the Brain". Fulci added new scenes where he played himself, a horror director who visits a psychiatrist who he does not realize is a serial killer. The films in the "I maestri del thriller" series were later released on VHS and DVD as "Lucio Fulci presenta" by the Forumla Home Video label.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Fulci would also develop films for television as part of the series "Le case maledette" set up by producer Luciano Martino. The films were shot outside Rome with a schedule of four weeks each, with "The House of Clocks" filmed between 31 January and 25 February 1989. Immediately after finishing work on the film, Fulci started work on "The Sweet House of Horrors" which finished filming in March. The series was not shown in Italy and was released on VHS in 2000 and later shown on Italian satellite TV in 2006.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: In the last decade of his life, Fulci suffered from emotional and physical health problems, reflected by a marked decline in the quality of his work. Fulci also continued to suffer during the late 1980s from recurring problems with diabetes and his liver. He hid the severity of his illness from his friends and associates so that he would not be deemed unemployable. His wife's suicide in 1969 had always weighed heavily on him (his wife Marina had killed herself with a gas oven after learning she had inoperable cancer). People who knew Fulci well spoke of a third daughter he once had who he said was killed in a car accident in the 1970s, but this story was never confirmed, and the daughter's name (if in fact she existed) was never revealed by any of his biographers. Fulci biographer Stephen Thrower wrote "...the suicide of his wife in 1969 was followed not long after by the death of a daughter in a road accident." Dario Argento is quoted in one book as saying of Fulci "His life was terrible. His wife committed suicide, and his daughter was paralyzed because of an accident."


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Fulci and Argento met in 1994 at the Rome Fanta Festival and surprisingly agreed to collaborate on a horror film called "Wax Mask", a loose remake of the 1953 Vincent Price horror classic "House of Wax". Argento claimed he had heard about Fulci's miserable circumstances at the time and wanted to offer him a chance at a comeback. It is said that Argento was shocked at how thin and sickly Fulci appeared at their 1994 meeting, and said he felt very sorry for him.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Fulci collaborated with writer Daniele Stroppa to create a screenplay for Argento, whose insistence on increasing the violence and gore quotient was, unusually, opposed by Fulci. (Stroppa had co-written two of Fulci's earlier films, "The House of Clocks" and "Voices from Beyond"). Fulci was slated to also direct the film, but he died before filming could begin, due to a series of delays caused by Argento's involvement with his own project, "The Stendhal Syndrome", at the time. "Wax Mask" was eventually directed by former special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti. The screenplay was entirely reworked by Stivaletti after Fulci's death, so the finished film contains significant changes to Fulci's original screenplay. Argento also hired Fulci's daughter Antonella to serve as an assistant art director on the film.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Fulci died alone, in his sleep, in his apartment in Rome at around 2 pm on 13 March 1996 of a hyperglycemic diabetic coma, aged 68. Toward the end of his life, he had lost his house and was forced to move into a cramped apartment. Since Fulci had been so despondent in his later years, some believed that he may have intentionally allowed himself to die by not taking his glucose-controlling medication, but this is controversial. Dario Argento paid for Fulci's funeral arrangements. He was initially buried in Cimitero Flaminio, though his remains were later moved to Cimitero Laurentino.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Fulci's films had remained generally ignored or dismissed for many years by the mainstream critics, who regarded his work as exploitation. However, genre fans appreciated his films as being stylish exercises in extreme gore. At least one of his films, "The Beyond", has "amassed a large and dedicated following". In 1998, "The Beyond" was re-released to theaters by Quentin Tarantino, who has often cited the film, and Fulci himself, as a major source of inspiration. Fulci's earlier, lesser-known giallo "Don't Torture a Duckling" (1972) received some critical acclaim as well. Fulci regarded two of his films, "Don't Torture a Duckling" and "Beatrice Cenci", as his best all-around work, and considered both "Zombi 2" and "The Beyond" as the two films that forever catapulted him to cult film stardom. His daughter Camilla served as an assistant director on his last five films (from 1989 to 1991) and has gone on to become an assistant director in the Italian film industry.


title: Lucio Fulci

text: Fulci made an appearance at the January 1996 Fangoria horror convention in New York City, two months before his death. Walking on crutches with a bandaged foot, he told attendees that he had had no idea his films were so popular outside of his native Italy, as hordes of starstruck gore fans braved blizzard conditions that weekend to meet him.


title: MBC Group

text: MBC Group (), is a Saudi media conglomerate based in the Middle East and North Africa region. Launched in London in 1991, the company moved to its headquarters to Dubai in 2002 then moved to Riyadh in 2022.


title: MBC Group

text: MBC Group operates over 17 free-to-air satellite TV channels, and a video on demand service (Shahid). MBC was the first broadcaster to provide a satellite-based free-to-air 24-hour television broadcasting network across the Arab world. The Group's current chairman is Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim. Sam Barnett returned as MBC Group CEO in December 2020 after a one-year departure. MBC's television arm, MBC TV, broadcasts via Eutelsat, Arabsat and Nilesat satellites. MBC has more than 1,800 staff.


title: MBC Group

text: In recent years MBC has been hit with major rounds of financial cuts, leading to 150 layoffs and major production cuts. These cuts were driven in part due to advertising not covering production costs and the failure to acquire exclusive rights to the Saudi league. As of 2011 MBC reported 165 million viewers.


title: MBC Group

text: All MBC channels are free-to-air except for the HD channels and MBC Plus Variety. They are available on OSN, STC TV & STC TV Home IPTV and my-HD satellite service. They are all Pay-TV service providers in the Middle East.


title: MBC Group

text: Launched in 1991 as the first independent pan-Arab channel, MBC 1 is the first free-to-air private satellite channel.


title: MBC Group

text: The first free-to-air movie channel in the Arab world, MBC 2 offers a 24-hour non-stop stream of Hollywood movies, from blockbusters to classics and international films. This channel is censored to not show violence and pornography, including deep kiss, fetishism, eroticas, and nudity—all forms have been cut.


title: MBC Group

text: MBC 3 is a children's entertainment channel which delivers a programming mix of children's education and entertainment for Arab kids aged between three and thirteen. MBC3 also airs a locally produced reality show for kids, "Eish Safari", which recruits young Arab kids and sets them on a month-long trip of mental and physical challenges. Recently, the channel produced a new game show called "Graduate in a Day", similar in concept to "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" for children and their parents.


title: MBC Group

text: MBC 4 is aimed primarily at Middle Eastern women and offers a broad mixture of US and UK shows, comedy and drama series, as well as gameshows, magazines, plus news and current affairs programming from the US networks ABC and CBS. in addition to Turkish, Pakistani and Mexican dramas dubbed into Arabic. The Arab world's first exclusive tailored channel for women, MBC 4 broadcasts Western entertainment, airs prime time shows such as "Oprah", "Dr. Oz", "The Doctors Show", "House", "The Office", "American Idol", "America’s Got Talent" and "So You Think You Can Dance". Today, the channel is geared towards through acquisitions. Airs shows for teen such as "Even Stevens" and "Full House" offer a broad mixture of shows such as "Supernanny", "Rachael Ray", American & British comedy and drama series, news and current affairs programming from the US networks "ABC" & "CBS" plus gameshows "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune" and magazines like "The Insider" & "Inside Edition". One of the channel's most popular programmes is the talk show "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and soap operas such as "Days of Our Lives" as well as a film for each weekend. Some cartoons are shown with Arabic subtitles while others all live action shows are subtitled. Shahid is the largest premium VOD service in the world outside of China, the US, and India.


title: MBC Group

text: A channel dedicated to family entertainment which was launched on 21 September 2019. Targeting Maghrébines countries generally, and Moroccan viewers specifically.


title: MBC Group

text: A channel that targets young Arab males. It delivers Western series, movies, action reality shows as well as Japanese anime and sports programs. Some of its prime time shows include "The Mentalist", "The Vampire Diaries", "Fringe", "Supernatural", "V", WWE and "True Blood". The channel recently which is a weekly "magazine" format show about cars, similar to "Top Gear", which they also broadcast the British and American versions of the BBC's Top Gear.


title: MBC Group

text: One of the latest additions to the Group, which was officially launched on 27 November 2010. It is a family channel, with 24/7 Arabic drama series. The launch coincides with the Group's 20th anniversary, and marks our 10th channel launch. The channel runs a variety of different dramas: Egyptian, Syrian, Bedouin, Gulf And Kuwaiti dramas that are 1st runs and exclusive runs. MBC Drama is distinguished by the two additional repeats throughout the day, offering its viewers the choice of time, based on their various lifestyles and viewership trends. Do not confuse this channel with MBC's subscription-based channel MBC+ Drama.


title: MBC Group

text: The MBC Group's second 24-hour movie channel which caters to a younger audience. The channel airs Western, comedy, action, romance and drama movies as well as classic.


title: MBC Group

text: MBC launched MBC Bollywood on 26 October 2013. MBC Bollywood is MBC Group's 14th channel, and it is aimed to air 24 hours of hindi cinema, either subtitled in Arabic, targeting South Asian audiences, and Arab Bollywood enthusiasts.


title: MBC Group

text: This channel was launched on 9 July 2008 and provides Persian language contents. The channel is dedicated to Iranian viewers and screens films and programs around the world.


title: MBC Group

text: MBC launched MBC Masr on 9 November 2012, and it is a division of MBC studios situated in Egypt and targeting Egyptian viewers.


title: MBC Group

text: This channel was the two hours time-shifted service, but now it's a second channel for Egypt and has a different content.


title: MBC Group

text: These radio stations are the MBC Group's Arabic radio stations in Saudi that broadcast music, talk shows, competitions and local coverage of events and news. MBC FM plays local and Gulf music while Panorama FM delivers contemporary Arabic and Western tunes.


title: MBC Group

text: A 24-hour music channel that targets the Arab youth, mainly in Eastern Arabia. The channel offers music videos, concerts, music & lifestyle programs as well as series.


title: MBC Group

text: One of the Arabic entertainment web portals in the region with a mix of sports, entertainment, movies and music content, along with its user interactivity and social networking features.


title: MBC Group

text: The first free "video on demand" service in the Arab region, with the biggest streaming library of Arabic content. Shahid is the largest premium VOD service in the world outside of China, the US, and India. Shahid offers a catalogue of MBC's own shows, as well as dubbed or subtitled foreign content. In January 2020, it was announced Shahid partnered with Disney and Fox to bring more than 3,000 hours of content, including Star Wars, Marvel, and such Disney classics as Frozen. The Service also announced 9 Arabic originals.


title: MBC Group

text: MBC Hope was launched in June 2013 to handle the consumer social relationship elements of MBC. This initiative launched campaigns such as "Syrians without an address" and "Stars on board". In 2017 MBC Hope was expanded to Egypt, with a goal to support female entrepreneurs.


title: MBC Group

text: It is a 24-hour entertainment channel that airs Western variety content. The channel is now exclusively on Arabsat, My-HD platform.


title: MBC Group

text: In 2017 a number of owners and board members of MBC were summoned to Riyadh where they were arrested, accused of corruption, and locked in the Ritz-Carlton. These moves came following years of the Saudi Crown Prince attempting to purchase the media company. After 83 days the company's chief owner Waleed al-Ibrahim was released. A "senior MBC executive" was cited by Arabian Business stating that Waleed al-Ibrahim was found innocent of any wrongdoing.


title: MBC Group

text: In 2007 MBC began airing its first Turkish soap opera dubbed into another language. Over the next few years these programs became a major success for MBC, with over 85 million viewing the finale of "Gümüş". In 2018, MBC moved to remove all Turkish programming from their channels, no official reason were given.


title: MBC Group

text: In 2019, MBC Masr came under scrutiny for its use of blackface in comedy programming. Popular Egyptian comedian Shaimaa Seif has done a number of programs on MBC using blackface and stereotypes for humor.


title: MBC Group

text: Some have raised concern of the amount of American advertisements on MBC channels, with some studies suggesting over 50% of advertising time is devoted towards American products such as those from Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg's, and PepsiCo. These critics state that this leads to cultural imperialism and erodes at the native cultures of areas in the Middle East and North Africa. In a study focused on Algerian consumer preferences, it was found that these consumers were drawn to American advertisements and products advertised on MBC. This in turn led Algerian companies to mimic the advertising style and aesthetic of American companies.


title: MBC Group

text: In 2010, MBC Max provided the ability to watch English movies with Arabic voices, along with watching English movies (English voices) with or without Arabic subtitles.


title: MBC Group

text: In July 2011, MBC launched 7 of its channels in HD which includes MBC 1, MBC 2, MBC 3, MBC 4, MBC Action, MBC Max, and MBC Drama. These HD versions of these channels are encrypted using Conax while SD are FTA.


title: MBC Group

text: In 2017 Snapchat expanded its "Discover" feature to provide content from regional providers including MBC.


title: MBC Group

text: On 17 September 2013, the Anti-Defamation League criticized the network for using a clip of the 2009 film "Inglourious Basterds" in which the Adolf Hitler character was speaking to other Nazis, with the subtitles replaced with advertisements for the network. The League said "The use of such imagery contributes to the trivialization of and desensitization to the unparalleled horrors of the Holocaust."


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: Wakfu: The Animated Series is an anime-influenced French animated television series produced by Ankama Animation, based on the video game "Wakfu". The first season of 26 episodes began airing on 30 October 2008, and new episodes would continue to air into January 2010 on France 3. The show is animated with Adobe Flash software; all the production is done in France except the special episodes "Noximilien l'Horloger" and "Ogrest, la Légende", both produced in Japan. The series is directed by Anthony "Tot" Roux, and character design is directed by Xavier "Xa" Houssin and Kim "Tcho" Etinoff.


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: A spin-off called "Mini-Wakfu", which features humorous shorts with characters depicted in chibi style has aired since September 2009. The special episode "Noximilien l'Horloger", the origin story of the main antagonist, Nox, was produced in Japan and features a radically different art style made by the same team of animators who worked on "Kaiba" and "Kemonozume". The episode was directed by Eunyoung Choi with Masaaki Yuasa on character design. A successful Kickstarter campaign to produce an English-language dub of the series was launched in January 2014. There were two prior English dub attempts. The first two episodes were shown for the first time in English during the 2009 London MCM Expo; this dub pilot is believed to have been recorded in France by expats, many of whom previously worked on the English version of Code Lyoko. A second English dub pilot recorded by Ocean Studios was shown at Anime Expo in 2011.


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: The third season of the series premiered in France on September 2, 2017. Season 3 premiered on Netflix worldwide on April 6, 2018. The release was originally planned for April 1, but was delayed to avoid conflicts with the Easter holiday weekend and the respective holiday event in the Wakfu game.


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: On May 7, 2020, Ankama announced that season 4, intended as the final chapter of the story, is currently in development and a Kickstarter campaign to fund its production was launched on June 8, 2020.


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: They are a humanoid species who are close to all things Mother Nature, and are most noticeable for being barefoot, green hair, dark skin, and wearing clothes made out of leaves. The males have their hair covering their entire heads. They are all connected to the Tree of Life.


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: The Shushus are a species of demons that appear to have originated from an mysterious purgatory-like dimension, they have magical powers that can possess inside of people & inanimate objects


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: Later in the OVA once the portal was closed, Goultard stayed to face Rushu for six years, but in the end of episode 2 of the 2014 OVA series, Rushu was finished intro a skin rug under Goultard's feet.


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: The main antagonists of season 3. A secret Guild where all the members are demigods or children of Dragons, thus they are semi-immortal. Their stated goal is to replace their parents and become the new gods of the World of Twelve, believing that the gods don't care about them and that the world has become horribly corrupt under their rule. They threw down the gauntlet against the Brotherhood of Tofu in Season 3 because their leader, Oropo, desires both the Percedal family children and Ruel to join their new pantheon. Furthermore, he has an unspecified need for Yugo's help as well in his plan. To that end, he is using the weaknesses and doubts in the characters to try to bring them to his side. However, later episodes reveal that not everyone in The Siblings fully trusts their leader and some begin to move on their own.


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: "Wafku" has received generally positive reviews. Writing for Common Sense Media, reviewer Emily Ashby gave an overall positive review, praising the plot and graphics, but warned parents of elements potentially unsuitable for younger kids. The show has a rating of 8.1 on IMDb. Writing for thereviewgeek.com, Greg Wheeler praised the plot and characters but opined that the show has a slightly overlong runtime.


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: Netflix acquired the right to the show and started showing it on its streaming, according to "Variety" Ted Sarandos, Netflix's CCO, said "Animation has a very strong history in France and French animators are among the best and most innovative in the world." Sarandos added that Netflix expected "to further strengthen our relationship with Ankama and other French animation studios." The series started airing on Netflix in September 2014. The dub for Season 3 uses an entirely new voice cast based in Los Angeles.


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: On January 20, 2014, Ankama launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce an English-language dub of the series for release on region-free Blu-ray Disc in English speaking territories. The campaign had a target of $80,000 Canadian Dollars to dub the first season, with stretch goals to produce dubs of the second season and various original video animation episodes. The campaign's goal to dub Season 1 was met on January 21, 2014, and the campaign's goal to dub Season 2 was met on January 30, 2014.


title: Wakfu (TV series)

text: On June 8, 2020, Ankama launched yet another Kickstarter campaign for the production of the fourth and final season of the series, with an initial target of €100,000; the target was reached within an hour after the campaign was started.


title: Nayarit

text: Nayarit (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit (), is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.


title: Nayarit

text: It is bordered by the states of Sinaloa to the northwest, Durango to the north, Zacatecas to the northeast and Jalisco to the south. To the west, Nayarit has a significant share of coastline on the Pacific Ocean, including the islands of Marías and Marietas. The beaches of San Blas and the so-called "Riviera Nayarit" are popular with tourists.


title: Nayarit

text: Besides tourism, the economy of the state is based mainly on agriculture and fishing. It is also one of two states where the tarantula species "Brachypelma klaasi" is found, the other being Jalisco.


title: Nayarit

text: Home to Uto-Aztecan indigenous peoples such as the Huichol and Cora, the region was exposed to the "conquistadores", Hernán Cortés and Nuño de Guzmán, in the 16th century. Spanish governance was made difficult by indigenous rebellions and by the inhospitable terrain of the Sierra del Nayar. The last independent Cora communities were subjugated in 1722.


title: Nayarit

text: The state's name recalls the Cora people's label for themselves: "Náayerite", commemorating Nayar, a resistance leader.


title: Nayarit

text: Radiocarbon dating estimate Aztatlán colonization of the western Mexican coast – including parts of Sinaloa, Nayarit and Jalisco – as occurring as early as 900 AD, with some evidence suggesting it might have been as early as 520 AD. Encountered on the western coast by the Spanish invaders in 1500, the cultures were descended from these original Aztatlán settlements and other Classic-stage cultures who had merged with them.


title: Nayarit

text: Hernán Cortés was the first known European to enter into the area now known as Nayarit, which he claimed for Spain as part of Nueva Galicia. Under Nuño de Guzmán, Spaniards took the region with considerable brutality, causing the indigenous inhabitants to revolt, in what was later referred to as the Mixtón War. After almost two centuries of resistance, the last independent Cora communities were incorporated into Spanish administration by force in 1722. Then followed intense missionary efforts by Jesuits to convert the indigenous.


title: Nayarit

text: In the colonial period, the port of San Blas was one of the most important trade ports on the American Pacific coast. Galleons transporting goods from Manila, the Philippines arrived here before the rise of the port of Acapulco. Today, the town still boasts colonial architecture from its heyday, such as the "aduana" (customs office), the "contaduría" (accounting offices) and the fortress that protected the port against pirates.


title: Nayarit

text: In Nayarit, the struggle for independence from Spain was initiated by the priest José María Mercado, who conquered Tepic and San Blas before being defeated and executed by Spanish royalists. In 1824, in the first constitution of the Mexican Republic, Nayarit was a part of Jalisco. In the mid-1800s Comanche Indians, from Texas and Oklahoma, attacked Tepic causing widespread destruction. During the second half of the 19th century, Nayarit was one of the most turbulent territories in Mexico. The population was in open revolt, demanding access to land.


title: Nayarit

text: Nayarit was one of the last territories admitted as a state of the Mexican federation, which occurred on May 1, 1917.


title: Nayarit

text: Nayarit covers , making it one of the smaller states in Mexico. Nayarit is located between latitude lines 23°05' north and 20°36' south and longitude lines 103°43' east and 105°46' west. Its terrain is broken up by the western ends of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. Its highest mountains are: San Juan, Sanguangüey, El Ceboruco, Cumbre de Pajaritos and Picachos. Nayarit has two volcanoes, Ceboruco and Sangangüey. In the northeast are broad, tropical plains watered by the Río Grande de Santiago, a continuation of the Lerma River. The main state rivers are the Río Grande de Santiago, San Pedro Mezquital, Acaponeta, Ameca, and Las Cañas. The Río Grande de Santiago is the largest river in Nayarit. The Santiago and its tributaries are of major importance for agricultural irrigation. The Ameca and the Las Cañas lie on the border between Nayarit and the states of Jalisco and Sinaloa, respectively. Notable lagoons in Nayarit include Santa María del Oro, San Pedro Lagunillas and Agua Brava.


title: Nayarit

text: Nayarit – as with all states of Mexico – is geographically divided into municipalities "(municipios)", creating twenty municipalities in Nayarit:


title: Nayarit

text: Nayarit's natural vegetation varies with altitude. The coastal lowlands and river valleys were originally covered with tropical dry forest, with many trees that lose their leaves during the dry season. The Sinaloan dry forests cover the northern coastal lowlands and extend up the valleys of the San Pedro Mezquital River and Río Grande de Santiago and its tributaries. The Jalisco dry forests ecoregion covers coastal Nayarit south of San Blas and the Islas Marías.


title: Nayarit

text: The Marismas Nacionales–San Blas mangroves, a network of coastal lagoons and tidal mangrove forests, extend along the state's northern coast and into adjacent Sinaloa. The mangroves are home to abundant wildlife, including migratory and resident waterbirds.


title: Nayarit

text: The mountains are home to pine–oak forests, which vary with elevation. Oak forests and woodlands grow at lower elevations, interspersed with smaller areas of humid cloud forest in areas of higher rainfall. Higher elevations are home to forests of pine and oak, with forests of pine and other conifers at the highest elevations.


title: Nayarit

text: Nayarit contains hundreds of miles of rain forest in the sierra. Its wildlife includes hundreds of bird species including the lilac-crowned amazon ("Amazona finschi") and Mexican woodnymph ("Thalurania ridgwayi"). There are also 119 registered species of mammals, including white-tailed deer ("Odocoileus virginianus"), collared peccary ("Dicotyles tajacu"), caymans, armadillos and wild felines such as jaguarundi ("Puma yagouarundi") and ocelot ("Felis pardalis") and many more. Unfortunately, most of the rain forest has been exploited, especially around the region of Santa María del Oro. The conservation and protection of the rain forest and wildlife of Nayarit is an issue of crucial importance.


title: Nayarit

text: Nayarit is Mexico's twenty-ninth most populous state. According to the census of 2020, the state had a population of 1,235,456 and its population density was 39/km.


title: Nayarit

text: Nayarit is the home to four indigenous groups: the Wixaritari (Huichol), the Naayeri (Cora), the Odam (Tepehuan) and the Nahuatl-speaking Mexicaneros. The indigenous groups mostly inhabit the Nayar highlands, but are also frequently encountered in Tepic and on the Pacific coast, where they have also established colonies. They are known for their crafts and artwork which they sell. About five percent of the state population speaks an indigenous language.


title: Nayarit

text: Nayarit is predominantly an agricultural state, and produces a large variety of crops such as beans, sorghum, sugar cane, maize, tobacco, rice, chiles, peanuts, melons, tomatoes, coffee, mangoes, bananas, and avocados. In addition to these crops, livestock and fishing are also central to the local economy. Approximately six percent of the land in Nayarit is pasture land, with the most common livestock being cattle, horses, pigs, goats, and sheep. Nayarit has 289 kilometers of coastline, which provides an abundance of fish and shellfish, including bass, snapper, sharks, and oysters. There are over 75 cooperatives related to the fishing industry alone in Nayarit. Much of the food produced in Nayarit is exported to the larger urban areas surrounding Mexico City and Guadalajara, and much of the agricultural labor is performed by migrant laborers. Although mining exists in Nayarit, it is mostly of non-metallic substances such as limestone or kaolin.


title: Nayarit

text: Beginning in the late 90's, Nayarit has become known as a producer of specialty Arabica coffee, regarded for its fine taste and high density beans grown in the volcanic soils of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Nayarit coffee is exported all over the world, including to the UK and Australia via the Grupo Terruño Nayarita farmers cooperative.


title: Nayarit

text: In recent years, Nayarit has worked to build its tourism sector, marketing the "Riviera Nayarit" as a safe, beautiful destination served by Puerto Vallarta International Airport. Popular resort towns include Bucerías, Punta de Mita, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, San Blas, Santiago Ixcuintla, Sayulita and Tecuala. However, some residents in these and other towns are concerned that the growth in the tourism industry might have harmful impacts on the community. Timeshare scams with links to the local Nayarit Mafia are quite common.


title: Nayarit

text: Newspapers of Nayarit include: "El Periódico en que Nayarit Opina Día a Día", "El Semanario que refleja qué hay en Nayarit", "Matutino Gráfico", "Meridiano de Nayarit", and "Realidades."


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hani Saleh Hasan Hanjour (, ; August 30, 1972September 11, 2001) was the lead hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, crashing the plane into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour first went to the United States in 1991, enrolling at the University of Arizona, where he studied English for a few months before returning to Saudi Arabia early the next year. He returned to the United States in 1996, studying English in California before he began taking flying lessons in Florida and then Arizona. He received his commercial pilot certificate in 1999, and went back to his native Saudi Arabia to find a job as a commercial pilot. Hanjour applied to civil aviation school in Jeddah, but was turned down. Hanjour left his family in late 1999, telling them that he would be traveling to the United Arab Emirates to find work. According to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden or Mohammed Atef identified Hanjour at an Afghanistan training camp as a trained pilot and selected him to participate in the September 11 attacks.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour arrived back in the United States in December 2000. He joined up with Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego, and they immediately left for Arizona, where Hanjour took refresher pilot training. In April 2001, they relocated to Falls Church, Virginia, and then Paterson, New Jersey, in late May where Hanjour took additional flight training.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour returned to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area on September 2, 2001, checking into a motel in Laurel, Maryland. On September 11, Hanjour boarded American Airlines Flight 77, took control of the aircraft after his team of hijackers helped subdue the pilots, passengers, and crew, and flew the plane into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks. The crash killed all 64 passengers on board the aircraft and 125 people in the Pentagon.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: While in Florida and Arizona, Hanjour befriended and trained with Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, a fellow Saudi who emigrated to Manawatū-Whanganui in 2006 to train as a pilot. He was deported from his Palmerston North home after his links to Hanjour were exposed.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour was one of seven children, born to a food-supply businessman in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia. During his youth, Hanjour wanted to drop out of school to become a flight attendant, although his brother Abdulrahman discouraged this route, and tried to help him focus on his studies.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: According to his eldest brother, Hanjour traveled to Afghanistan in the late 1980s as a teenager to participate in the conflict against the Soviet Union. The Soviets had already withdrawn by the time he arrived in the country and he instead worked for a relief agency.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour first came to the United States in 1991 to study English at the University of Arizona's Center for English as a Second Language. Hanjour's eldest brother Abdulrahman helped him apply to the eight-week program, and found a room in Tucson, Arizona, for Hanjour near the Islamic Center of Tucson. Hanjour arrived for the English language program on October 3, 1991, and stayed until early February 1992, when he returned to Saudi Arabia. Hanjour shared a three-bedroom home on the corner of 4th Avenue and 4th Street owned and managed by a father-son team, who made a living renovating and renting rooms to international students and devoting their energies to spreading a born-again Christian influence; Bob, the oldest son, lived in this house and rented the room directly to Hanjour. Hanjour was a model housemate; he was extremely respectful of others, apolitical in his points of view, enjoyed his Turkish coffee, and appeared as a nonchalant happy-go-lucky teenager with very weak English-speaking skills. Hanjour claimed that he was interested in being an airplane mechanic and claimed that such a position was considered highly in Saudi Arabia. Hanjour participated in morning, noon, and evening prayers at the local mosque. As early as Hanjour moved into this house, he was under the constant watch of two "uncles" who would pick him up for the weekends so that he would spend time with them within their circle, thereby minimizing his contact with his American housemates and friends from the university. In December 1991 Hanjour informed Bob that he missed Saudi Arabia and would be leaving the United States due to homesickness. Hanjour was the only hijacker to visit the United States prior to any intentions for a large-scale attack and he was not part of the Hamburg cell in Germany.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Over the next five years, Hanjour remained in Saudi Arabia, helping the family manage a lemon and date farm near Ta'if. His family often reminded Hanjour that he was getting past the age where he ought to get married and start a family, but Hanjour insisted he wanted to settle down more. While in Saudi Arabia, Hanjour applied for a job with Saudi Arabian Airlines, but was turned down due to poor grades. The airline told Hanjour they would consider him if he obtained a commercial pilot's license in the United States.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: In April 1996, Hanjour returned to the United States, staying with family friends, Susan and Adnan Khalil, in Miramar, Florida, for a month before heading to Oakland, California, to study English and attend flight school. Hanjour was admitted to the Sierra Academy of Aeronautics, but before beginning flight training, the academy arranged for Hanjour to take intensive English courses at ESL Language Center in Oakland. The flight school also arranged for Hanjour to stay with a host family, with whom he moved in on May 20, 1996. Hanjour completed the English program in August, and in early September 1996, he attended a single day of ground school courses at the Sierra Academy of Aeronautics before withdrawing, citing financial worries about the $35,000 cost.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour left Oakland in September and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, paying $4,800 for lessons at CRM Flight Cockpit Resource Management in Scottsdale. Receiving poor marks, Hanjour dropped out of flight school, and returned to Saudi Arabia at the end of November 1996.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour re-entered the United States on November 15, 1997, taking additional English courses in Florida, then returning to Phoenix, where he shared an apartment with Bandar al-Hazmi.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: After arriving in Florida on November 1997, Hanjour met a man Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, a mutual friend through Bandar al-Hazmi. Al-Hamzi had suggested that Ali train to be a pilot in Florida. Hanjour and Ali subsequently trained together both in Florida and Arizona, and became friends. Ali was a leader at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Phoenix where, the FBI says, he "reportedly gave extremist speeches at the mosque". This, however, was disputed by a mosque staff member, who told the New Zealand Herald in June 2006 that Ali "was never a leader for the mosque and he never gave speeches at the mosque". The "9/11 Commission Report" reported Abdullah attended the same Phoenix flight school as Hanjour and records show the pair used a flight simulator together on June 23, 2001. Ali later emigrated to New Zealand, where he settled in Auckland and then in Palmerston North to train as a pilot. He was identified as a friend and colleague of Hanjour in July 2006, less than six months after he first arrived in New Zealand. Immigration Minister David Cunliffe said that Ali "was directly associated with persons responsible for the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001".


title: Hani Hanjour

text: In December, he resumed training at CRM Flight Cockpit Resource Management for a few weeks, before pursuing training at Arizona Aviation. Bandar al-Hazmi and Hanjour stayed in Arizona, continued taking flight lessons at Arizona Aviation throughout 1998 and early 1999. After moving out of Bandar's place in March, Hanjour lived in several apartments in Tempe, Mesa and Phoenix.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: In February, financial records showed that Hanjour had taken a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to flight training at Arizona Aviation, Hanjour enrolled in flight simulator classes at the Sawyer School of Aviation where he made only three or four visits. Lotfi Raissi would begin taking lessons at the same school a month after Hanjour quit, part of what piqued the FBI's interest in Raissi.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: An FBI informant named Aukai Collins claims he told the FBI about Hanjour's activities during 1998, giving them Hanjour's name and phone number, and warning them that more and more foreign-born Muslims seem to be taking flying lessons. The FBI admits it paid Collins to monitor the Islamic and Arab communities in Phoenix at the time, but denies Collins told them anything about Hanjour.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour gained his FAA commercial pilot certificate in April 1999, getting a "satisfactory" rating from the examiner. Hanjour's bank records indicate that he travelled to Ontario, Canada, in March 1999 for an unknown reason.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: He traveled to Saudi Arabia to get a job working with Saudi Arabian Airlines as a commercial pilot but was rejected by a civil aviation school in Jeddah. His brother, Yasser, relayed that Hanjour, frustrated, "turned his attention toward religious texts and cassette tapes of militant Islamic preachers." He told his family in late 1999 he was heading to the United Arab Emirates to find work. However, it is likely that he headed to Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: In May 2000, a third person accompanied Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar to Sorbi's Flying Club where he waited on the ground as they took a flight lesson. It has been theorized this may have been Hanjour.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: In September Hanjour again sent his $110 registration to the ELS Language Center, which leased space on Holy Names College campus in Oakland, California, to continue his English studies. He also applied for another U.S. student visa. Although he was accepted, after the attacks, it would be reported that his visa application was 'suspicious'. Granted an F-1 student visa in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, September 2000, he failed to reveal that he had previously traveled to the U.S. He never turned up for classes at the ELS Language Center, and when the school contacted its Saudi representative, he reported that he could not find Hanjour either.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: On December 5, Hanjour opened a CitiBank account in Deira, Dubai. On December 8, Hanjour was recorded flying into the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and is thought to have met with Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego shortly thereafter.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour came back to San Diego in December 2000, frequently visiting Abdussattar Shaikh's house, which was shared with Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid Almihdhar. During this time Hanjour may have visited the San Diego Zoo in February, as a security guard recalls having to page his name to reclaim a lost briefcase containing cash and Arabic documents and later recognized his photograph. Shortly afterwards, the three hijackers moved out of Shaikh's house to Falls Church, Virginia.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: The ELS Language Center at Oakland University said Hanjour reached a level of proficiency sufficient to "survive very well in the English language". However, in January 2001, Arizona JetTech flight school managers reported him to the FAA at least five times because his English was inadequate for the commercial pilot certificate he had already obtained. It took him five hours to complete an oral exam meant to last just two hours, said Peggy Chevrette. Hanjour failed UA English classes with a 0.26 GPA and a JetTech manager said "He could not fly at all." The certificate was a requirement for him to join the Saudi Arabian pilot's academy. His FAA certificate had become invalid late in 1999 when he failed to take a mandatory medical examination. In February, Hanjour began advanced simulator training in Mesa, Arizona.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: He and Hazmi moved out of Mesa at the end of March, and they were in Falls Church, Virginia, by April 4. Falls Church was the location of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Anwar Al-Awlaki was the recently appointed new Imam whom Hazmi had met with in San Diego.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: At the mosque, Hanjour and Hazmi soon met Eyad Alrababah, a Jordanian who later pleaded guilty to document fraud and was deported. They had told him that they were looking for an apartment to rent, and he found a friend who rented them an apartment in Alexandria where they stayed. On April 4, 2001, Hanjour asked to forward his utility deposits to 3159 Row Street, Falls Church, Virginia, which was the same address as the mosque.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: When police raided the Hamburg apartment of Ramzi bin al-Shibh (the "20th hijacker") while investigating the 9/11 attacks, Awlaki's telephone number was found among bin al-Shibh's personal contact information.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: On May 2, 2001, two new roommates joined them in Virginia: Majed Moqed and Ahmed al-Ghamdi, both of whom had just flown into the United States from the Middle East.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Alrababah later suggested they all go together to look at apartments in Fairfield, Connecticut. On May 8, Alrababah, Hanjour, Hazmi, Moqed and Ghamdi traveled to Fairfield to look for housing. While there, they also called several local flight schools. They then travelled briefly to Paterson to look at that area as well. Rababah has contended that, after this trip, he never saw any of the men again.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Sometime at the end of May 2001, Hanjour rented a one-bedroom apartment in Paterson, New Jersey. He lived there with at least one roommate and was visited by several other hijackers, including Mohamed Atta. During his time in New Jersey, he and Hazmi rented three different cars including a sedan in June that Hanjour cosigned with the alias "Hani Saleh Hassan". He later made his last phone call to his family back in Saudi Arabia, during which he claimed to be phoning from a payphone in the United Arab Emirates, where he was supposedly still working.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour, along with at least five other future hijackers, is thought to have traveled to Las Vegas several times in mid-2001, where they reportedly drank alcohol, gambled, and visited lap dancing clubs.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: On July 20, Hanjour flew to the Montgomery County Airpark in Maryland from New Jersey on a practice flight with fellow hijacker Nawaf Alhazmi.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: On August 1, Hanjour and Almihdhar returned to Falls Church to obtain fraudulent documentation at a 7-Eleven convenience store where an illegal side business operated for such a service. There they met Luis Martinez-Flores, himself also an illegal immigrant, who agreed to help them for a $100 fee. They drove together to a DMV office at a mall in nearby Springfield, Virginia, where Martinez-Flores gave them a false address in Falls Church to use, and signed legal forms attesting that they lived there. Hanjour and Almihdhar were then granted state identity cards. (Martinez-Flores was later sentenced to 21 months in prison for aiding them, and giving false testimony to police). On that same day, Hanjour was stopped by police for driving a Toyota Corolla in a zone in Arlington, Virginia, for which he paid a $70 fine.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Employees at Advance Travel Service in Totowa, New Jersey later claimed that Moqed and Hanjour had both purchased tickets there. They claimed that Hanjour spoke very little English, and Moqed did most of the speaking. Hanjour requested a seat in the front row of the airplane. Their credit card failed to authorize, and after being told the agency did not accept personal checks, the pair left to withdraw cash. They returned shortly afterwards and paid the $1,842.25 total in cash.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: Hanjour began making cross-country flights in August to test security, and tried to rent a plane from Freeway Airport in Maryland; though he was declined after exhibiting difficulty controlling and landing a single-engine Cessna 172. He moved out of his New Jersey apartment on September 1, and was photographed four days later using an ATM with fellow hijacker Majed Moqed in Laurel, Maryland, where all five Flight 77 hijackers had purchased a 1-week membership in a local Gold's Gym. There, Hanjour claimed that his first name translated as "warrior" when a gym employee asked if there was an English translation of their Arabic names. ("Hani" actually translates as "contented.")


title: Hani Hanjour

text: On September 10, 2001, Hanjour, Mihdhar, and Hazmi checked into the Marriott Residence Inn in Herndon, Virginia where Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen, a prominent Saudi government official, was staying. No evidence was ever uncovered that they had met, or knew of each other's presence.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: At 7:35 a.m. on September 11, 2001, Hanjour arrived at the passenger security checkpoint at Washington Dulles International Airport, west of Washington, D.C., en route to board American Airlines Flight 77. Some earlier reports stated he may not have had a ticket or appeared on any manifest, however he was documented by the 9/11 Commission as having been assigned to seat 1B in first class, and reported to have bought a single first-class ticket from Advance Travel Service in Totowa. In the security tape footage released in 2004, Hanjour appears to walk through the metal detector without setting it off.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: The flight was scheduled to depart at 8:10, but ended up departing 10 minutes late from Gate D26 at Dulles. The last normal radio communications from the aircraft to air traffic control occurred at 08:50:51. At 08:54, Flight 77 began to deviate from its normal, assigned flight path and turned south, and then hijackers set the flight's autopilot heading for Washington, D.C. Passenger Barbara Olson called her husband, United States Solicitor General Ted Olson, and reported that the plane had been hijacked and that the assailants had box cutters and knives. Using the flight intercom, Hanjour announced the flight was hijacked. As Flight 77 was 5 miles (8.0 km) west-southwest of the Pentagon, it made a 330-degree turn. At the end of the turn, it was descending through 2,200 feet (670 m), pointed toward the Pentagon and downtown Washington. Hanjour advanced the throttles to maximum power and dove towards the Pentagon at a speed of over . At 09:37:46, Hanjour crashed the Boeing 757 into the west façade of the Pentagon, killing all 64 aboard along with 125 on the ground in the Pentagon. While level above the ground and seconds from the crash, the airplane's wings knocked over light poles and its right engine smashed into a power generator, creating a smoke trail seconds before smashing into the Pentagon. In the recovery process at the Pentagon, remains of all five Flight 77 hijackers were identified through a process of elimination, as not matching any DNA samples for the victims, and put into custody of the FBI.


title: Hani Hanjour

text: After the September 11 attacks, Hanjour's family in Saudi Arabia vehemently stated that they could not, and would not, believe he had been involved as one of the hijacker pilots, and also stated that he had phoned them just eight hours prior to the hijackings and his voice did not sound strange or unusual at all.


title: Soma Saito

text: Saito was born on April 22, 1991 in Shōwa, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. He is the eldest of three siblings, with two younger sisters. He started wanting to become a voice actor in high school, inspired by Akira Ishida's role as Koyemshi in "Bokurano". Prior to that, he wanted to become a musician or a novel writer.


title: Soma Saito

text: Saito joined the second 81 Produce’s Audition in 2008. In that audition, a total of 1,035 people participated with only 33 going to the final audition to decide who would win and stay training under the talent agency. He won the audition for the male category and started taking voice acting classes at "81 ACTOR'S STUDIO" afterwards, while still attending high school.


title: Soma Saito

text: In 2009, Saito won the "Judges' Special Prize" in the recitation competition at the 33rd . Veteran voice actor Nobuyo Ōyama was one of the judges present at that time.