title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: Self-reporting roughly 2.5 million members (with external estimates of roughly 1 million) across 30 dioceses worldwide, a significant proportion of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church's adherents reside in the southern India state of Kerala.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: According to tradition, Christianity first arrived in India with Thomas the Apostle during the 1st century AD, evolving into Saint Thomas Christianity over several centuries. While isolated and generally independent in administration, Indian Christians maintained contact with the Christian hierarchies of Antioch, Persia, and potentially Alexandria. The Saint Thomas Christians had relationships with the Persian Church of the East from at least the 6th century onward. The Indians inherited its East Syriac dialect for liturgical use and gradually became Syriac Christians in ritual and doctrine. They received clerical support from Persian bishops, who traveled to Kerala in merchant ships on the spice route. For much of this period, Saint Thomas Christians were under the leadership of an archdeacon (a native ecclesiastical head with temporal powers, deriving from the Greek "arkhidiākonos").


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: During the 16th century, efforts by the Portuguese "Padroado"–an arm of the Catholic Church–to bring the Saint Thomas Christians under the administration of the Latin Church and attempts to Latinize the Malankara Rite led to the first of several rifts in the community. These divisions intensified following the 1599 Synod of Diamper. Saint Thomas Christians who were opposed to the Portuguese Padroado missionaries took the Coonan Cross Oath on 3 January 1653. The Dutch East India Company expolusion of the Portuguese from much of Malabar enabled the reconciliation of some Saint Thomas Christians and the Catholic Church, with this group eventually evolving into the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church that adopted the Chaldean Catholic Church's East Syriac Rite and Diophysite christology.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: Many Saint Thomas Christian chose to remain independent from the Catholic Church. Patriarch Gregorios Abdal Jaleel, the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, witnessed the 1665 ordination of Thomas as Bishop Thoma I, who forged a renewed relationship with the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and Saint Thomas Christians, which laid the foundation for adopting West Syrian liturgy and practices over the next two centuries. Those who supported the indigenous church leader of Malankara, Thoma I, and adopted West Syrian liturgies and practices and Miaphysite faith evolved into the Malankara Church.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The Arthat Padiyola declared that the administration of Malankara Church was independent and the bishops from Rome, Antioch, and Babylon had no role in the Malankara Church hierarchy, despite continued efforts to integrate the remaining independent Saint Thomas Christians into these patriarchates. In 1807, four gospels of Holy Bible in Syriac were translated to Malayalam by Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban. The Malankara Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kottayam was established in 1815 under the leadership of Pulikottil Ittup Ramban (Mar Dionysius II). The Mavelikara Synod (Padiyola) led by Cheppad Mar Dionysius rejected the suggestions put forward by Anglican missioneries and Reformation group and declared the beliefs and theology of Malankara Church were same as the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: Geevarghese Dionysius of Vattasseril, who became the Malankara metropolitan bishop in 1908, played a significant role with the other clerical and lay leaders of Malankara in re-establishing the Catholicos of the East in India in 1912. In 1909 the relations with the Syrian Orthodox Church soured, when Patriarch Ignatius Abded Aloho II who arrived in India, began demanding registered deeds granting the patriarch temporal authority over the church. Dionysius rejected the request and thus emerged two factions in the church. The faction that supported the Patriarch came to be called as "Bava Kakshi" (Patriarch Faction) and the faction that supported the Malankara Metropolitan came to be known as "Methran Kakshi" (Metropolitan Faction). The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church wanted to retain its autocephaly, and appealed to Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Abdul Masih II. He enthroned Murimattathil Paulose Ivanios as Baselios Paulose I, Catholicos of the East, on the apostolic throne of St. Thomas at St. Mary's Church in Niranam on 15 September 1912.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: In 1934, The Malankara Church adopted a constitution for smooth functioning of the church, parishes and institution. In 1947, Saint Gregorios of Parumala was declared as a saint by the Church. In 1952 the Official Residence of the Malankara Metropolitan and the Headquarters of Malankara Church was shifted to Devalokam from Pazhaya Seminary. In 1958, The Supreme Court declared Catholicos Baselios Geevarghese II as the legitimate Malankara Metropolitan. The two factions of the Malankara Orthodox Church rejoined. In 1964, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch participated in the enthronement ceremony of the Catholicos and Malankara Metropolitan, Baselios Augen I. In 1995, the Supreme Court of India declared the MOSC constitution adopted in 1934 was valid.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: In 2002, fresh elections were conducted in Malankara Association under the observation of Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court declared Catholicos Baselios Mathews II is the official and legitimate Malankara Metropolitan and also declared that this decision cannot be disputed in any platform. In 2003, Vattasheril Dionysius VI was declared as a saint. In 2012, the centennial of the establishment of the church and Catholicate were celebrated with history classes and church publications. On 3 July 2017, a major verdict by the Supreme Court of India declared the MOSC legally applicable to all parishes in disputed possession between the MOSC and Jacobite Syrian Christian Church.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The spiritual head of the church is the Catholicos of the East, and its temporal head is the Malankara Metropolitan. Since 1934, both titles have been vested in one person; the official title of the head of the church is "The Catholicos of the Apostolic Throne of Saint Thomas and The Malankara Metropolitan". Baselios Marthoma Paulose II was enthroned as the Malankara Metropolitan and the Catholicos of the Malankara Church on 1 November 2010 at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Parumala. He is the eighth Catholicose of the East in Malankara and the 21st Malankara Metropolitan.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: Oriental Orthodox Churches, including the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, accept only the first three ecumenical councils: the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople, and the Council of Ephesus. The church, like all other Oriental Orthodox Churches, uses the original Nicene Creed without the filioque clause. Like the Syriac Orthodox Church, it primarily uses the liturgy of Saint James in Malayalam, Konkani, Kannada, Hindi, English and other Indian languages.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The church has used the Malankara Rite, part of the Antiochene Rite, since the 17th century. The Jacobite Church and the Maronite Church also belong to the same liturgical family. In the first half of the fifth century, the Antiochene church adopted the Liturgy of Saint James. In the 4th and 5th centuries, The liturgical language of fourth- and fifth-century Jerusalem and Antioch was Greek, and the original liturgy was composed in Greek.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: After the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Eastern Church was divided in two; one group accepted the council, and the other opposed it. Both groups continued to use the Greek version of the Saint James liturgy. The Byzantine emperor Justin (518–527) expelled the opponents from Antioch, and they took refuge in the Syriac-speaking Mesopotamia on the Roman–Persian border (modern eastern Syria, Iraq, and southeastern Turkey). The Antiochene liturgical rites were gradually translated into Syriac, and Syriac hymns were introduced.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: Gregorios Abdal Jaleel came to Malankara from Jerusalem in 1665 and introduced Syriac Orthodox liturgical rites. The most striking characteristic of the Antiochene liturgy is its large number of anaphoras (celebrations of the Eucharist). About eighty are known, and about a dozen are used in India. All have been composed following the Liturgy of Saint James.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: Christians of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church pray the canonical hours of the Shehimo at fixed prayer times seven times a day.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: In conformity with other Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, and also with the Catholic Church, the Malankara church adheres to the tradition of seeking the intercession of saints. Several have been canonized:


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The temporal, ecclesiastical and spiritual administration of the church is vested in the Malankara Metropolitan, subject to the church constitution which was adopted in 1934. The Malankara Metropolitan is president of the Malankara Syrian Christian Association (Malankara Association) and its managing committee, and trustee of community properties. He is the custodian of the Pazhaya Seminary and other common properties of Malankara Syrian Community. He is also the custodian of vattipanam interest which was deposited in Travancore Government by Marthoma VII. He is elected by the Malankara association.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: "Catholicos" means "the general head", and can be considered equivalent to "universal bishop." The early church had three priestly ranks: "episcopos" (bishop), priest and deacon. By the end of the third century, bishops of important cities in the Roman Empire became known as metropolitans. The fourth-century ecumenical councils recognized the authority of the metropolitan. By the fifth century, the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch gained control of the churches in surrounding cities.They gradually became the heads of the regional churches, and were known as patriarchs (common father). Outside the Roman Empire, patriarchs were known as catholicos. There were four catholicates before the fifth century: the Catholicate of the East, the Catholicate of Armenia, the Catholicate of Georgia and the Catholicate of Albania. In Orthodox tradition, any apostolic and autonomous national church (often referred to as a local church) may call its head a catholicos, pope or patriarch. The archdeacons reigned from the fourth to the 16th centuries; in 1653, the archdeacon was elevated to bishop by the community as Mar Thoma I.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The Catholicate of the East was relocated to India in 1912, and Baselios Paulose I was seated on the apostolic throne of St. Thomas as the Catholicos of the East. The headquarters of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Catholicos of the East is the Catholicate Palace at Devalokam, Kottayam, Kerala, which was consecrated on 31 December 1951. The new palace, built in 1961, was dedicated by visiting Armenian Catholicos Vazgen IThe Holy Synod and Managing committee designated H.G.Dr. Mathews Mor Severios to the new Malankara Metropolitan and Catholicos of Malankara Church succeeding Baselios Marthoma Paulose II. He was consecrated as the 22nd Malankara Metropolitan during the Malankara Association that took place on the 14th of October 2021 at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Parumala and enthroned as the 9th Catholicos of Malankara Church on 15 October 2021.[8][9][10].


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: Relics of St. Thomas are kept in the catholicate chapel, and Geevarghese II, Augen I, Mathews I and Paulose II are interred there.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: Until the 17th century, the church was administered by the archdeacon (Malankara Moopan). The elected archdeacon was in charge of day-to-day affairs, including the ordination of deacons to the priesthood. Ordinations were performed by Persian bishops visiting India. The Malankara Palliyogam (a forerunner of the Malankara Association) consisted of elected representatives from individual parishes. The isolation of the Malankara church from the rest of Christendom preserved the apostolic age's democratic nature through interactions with Portuguese (Roman Catholic) and British (Anglican) colonialists. From the 17th to the 20th centuries, the church had five pillars of administration:


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: Envisioned by Dionysius VI, the church's general and day-to-day administration was codified in its 1934 constitution. The constitution was presented at the 26 December 1934 Malankara Christian Association meeting at M. D. Seminary, adopted and enacted. It has been amended three times. Although the constitution was challenged in court by dissident supporters of the Patriarch of Antioch, Supreme Court rulings in 1958, 1995, 2017 and 2018 upheld its validity.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The constitution's first article emphasises the bond between the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Malankara church, defining that the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church is a division of the Orthodox Syrian Church, whose chief Primate is the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch. The Chief Primate of Malankara Church is Catholicos who is also the Malankara Metropolitan. The second article outlines the church's foundation and designates its primate as the Catholicos. The third article refers to the name of the church, and the fourth to their faith traditions. The fifth article examines the canon law governing church administration.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The elected Malankara Association, consisting of parish members, manages the church's religious and social concerns. Formerly the Malankara Palli-yogam (മലങ്കര പള്ളി യോഗം; Malankara Parish Assembly, its modern form is believed to have been founded in 1873 as the Mulanthuruthy Synod, a gathering of parish representatives in Parumala. In 1876, the Malankara Association began.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The church constitution outlines the association's powers and responsibilities. The Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan is the president, and the diocesan metropolitan bishops are vice-presidents. All positions are elected. Each parish is represented in the association by an elected priest and laypeople, proportional to parish-membership size.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The two seminaries which offers bachelor's and master's degrees in theology are Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kottayam and St. Thomas Orthodox Theological Seminary, Nagpur.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The Malankara Orthodox Seminary at Kottayam is the first Orthodox Seminary in Asia established in year 1815.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The church was a founding member of the World Council of Churches. Catholicos Geevarghese II and other metropolitan participated in the 1937 Conference on Faith and Order in Edinburgh; a church delegation participated in the 1948 WCC meeting in Amsterdam in 1948, and the church played a role in the 1961 WCC conference in New Delhi. Metropolitan Paulos Gregorios was president of the WCC from 1983 to 1991.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The church participated in the 1965 Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches in Addis Ababa. It is a member of the Faith and Order Commission, the Christian Conference of Asia


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: and the Global Christian Forum. A number of primates of sister churches have visited, including Patriarch Justinian of Romania in February 1957 and in January 1969; Catholicos of All Armenians Vazgen I in December 1963; Armenian Patriarch Derderian of Jerusalem in December 1972; Patriarch Pimen I of Moscow in January 1977; Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II in September 1982; Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie in 1986, Patriarch Teoctist Arăpașu of Romania in 1989; Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I in November 2000; Metropolitan (later Patriarch) Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church in December 2006; Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II in November 2008, Patriarch of Ethiopia Abune Paulos in December 2008; the Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I Keshishian in February 2010, and Patriarch of Ethiopia Abune Mathias in November 2016.


title: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

text: The Order of St. Thomas, the church's highest award is presented to heads of state and churches by the Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. Recipients include Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, Patriarch of Ethiopia Abune Paulos, Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I, and Patriarch of Ethiopia Abune Mathias.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Amityville: The Awakening is a 2017 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Franck Khalfoun and starring Bella Thorne, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Cameron Monaghan, Mckenna Grace, Thomas Mann, Taylor Spreitler, Jennifer Morrison, and Kurtwood Smith. It is the tenth installment of the main "Amityville Horror" film series and a direct sequel/metafilm taking place in the "real world" outside of the continuity of the series which establishes "The Amityville Horror" (1979), the sequels from 1982 to 1996, and the 2005 remake of the original film as fiction. Its plot follows a teenager who moves into 112 Ocean Avenue with her family, who shortly find themselves haunted by a demonic entity using her brain-dead twin brother's body as a vessel.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Filmed in 2014, the film suffered numerous release delays before finally being released for free on Google Play on October 12, 2017. It was released by Dimension Films in a limited release on October 28. It is the last film to be released by RADiUS-TWC, as the company shut down along with The Weinstein Company on July 16, 2018.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Teenager Belle Walker moves to 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island with her mother Joan, younger sister Juliet, brain-dead twin brother, James, as well as her dog, Larry. The family's reason for moving there was to be closer to Dr. Milton, a neurologist hoping to treat James, who is on life support after an accident that left him paralyzed. Upon moving in, Juliet tells Belle that James has been talking to her lately. That night, James flatlines, but is mysteriously revived and opens his eyes.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: At school, Belle is taunted by her peers over moving into the home, which she learns was the site of a mass murder by Ronald DeFeo Jr. in 1974. In her third-floor bedroom, she discovers blood stains from the murder concealed under the wallpaper.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: One night, Belle invites acquaintances Terrence—an enthusiast on the Amityville haunting—and Marissa over to watch "The Amityville Horror" (1979) at the house. At 3:15am in the middle of the film, the power goes out and the three go into the basement to locate the fuse box, where they are confronted by Joan, who thinks they are intruders.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Dr. Milton, who suspects James may have locked-in syndrome, performs an EEG test on James that show increased neurological function. During the test, Dr. Milton witnesses an apparition of flies filling the room and attacking him, and leaves the house, shaken.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: James quickly gains the ability to communicate with the family via an AAC computer system that allows him to type by looking at letters on a screen. Terrence suggests to Belle that James' sudden revival may be a result of possession stemming from the house, and they suspect that a ring on the ground surrounding the house may represent a magic circle.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Belle explains her troubled past to Marissa and reveals that James sustained his injuries after falling off a three-story balcony during a fight with a boy who had leaked nude pictures of Belle online.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Belle asks James if someone else is inhabiting his body, to which he replies "Yes" and "Help" via his computer. He asks her to kill him, and she shuts off his ventilation machine. Joan enters the room and finds that James is now breathing on his own.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: The next day, Belle types “Outside walk” on James’ computer in order to distract her mother and find the Red Room in the basement, which she believes to be the source of James’ power. Larry the dog is found mauled to death in the lake by Juliet, and Belle confronts her mother with the theory that the house is possessing James.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Joan reveals to her that after having lost her faith in God following the death of her husband and James’ subsequent accident, she moved the family to the home, hoping to harness the demonic energy there in order to bring James back to life.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: That night, as Belle prepares to leave, Joan knocks her unconscious. Belle awakens at 3:15am, just as her aunt Candice arrives at the house. James rises from his bed, and harnesses the energy from the Red Room, which revitalizes his body. Belle makes her way downstairs as Candice enters the house, but James shoots Candice with a shotgun. Belle retrieves Juliet from her room, but the house locks the doors, preventing them from escaping.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Joan is confronted by James in her bedroom and knowing she is facing death, she retrieves her crucifix, and holds it toward James, but he is unaffected. He reminds her that with the loss of her faith, God is not able to save her. James shoots Joan in the chest before throwing her on her bed and shooting her in the head.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: He lures Juliet to the third floor, where he attempts to kill her, but is stopped by Belle, who tackles him, resulting in them both falling from the window. She drags James outside the circle, after which his body withers back to its paralyzed form, and he dies after thanking her for freeing him from the possession.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: A newsreel epilogue reveals that Belle is being questioned for the murders of her mother, aunt, and brother. However, Juliet corroborates Belle’s story that James was the murderer. James' fingerprints were discovered on the murder weapon, but Dr. Milton refutes the claim due to James’ paralysis. The news report comments on yet another tragedy occurring in the Amityville house.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: The film was initially conceived as a separate film entitled "Amityville: The Lost Tapes". Dimension Films and Blumhouse Productions were to co-produce the film together, with a screenplay by Casey La Scala and Daniel Farrands. It was to be a found-footage film in the style of La Scala and Blumhouse's highly successful "Paranormal Activity" films. The plot involved "an ambitious female television news intern, on the verge of breaking the most famous haunted house case in the world, who leads a team of journalists, clergymen and paranormal researchers into an investigation of the bizarre events that will come to be known as "The Amityville Horror", only to unwittingly open a door to the unreal that she may never be able to close."


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Franck Khalfoun was set to write and direct the film, and filming was to begin in the summer and be released by January 27, 2012.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: In a press release, Bob Weinstein stated, "We are thrilled to return to the mythology of the Amityville Horror with a new and terrifying vision that will satisfy our existing fans and also introduce an entirely new audience to this popular haunting phenomenon." After several delays, the film was rewritten with a completely new story and screenplay by Khalfoun. In March 2014, this new iteration was retitled "Amityville".


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: That month, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bella Thorne signed on to star. In April, Thomas Mann, Taylor Spreitler and Cameron Monaghan signed on to the film.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Principal photography beginning in May and a tentative 2015 release date. Further delays, including February 2016 reshoots, pushed the film's release to late 2016, and then early 2017.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: The film was originally scheduled for release on January 2, 2015. However, in September 2014, it was removed from the schedule. In May 2015, it was announced the film would be released on April 15, 2016. When Filmyard Holdings sold Miramax to beIN Media Group on March 2, 2016, Miramax was no longer the production company of "Amityville: The Awakening". It was set to be released on April 1, 2016, but was delayed due to test screening responses and given the release date of January 6, 2017. On December 16, 2016, just weeks away from the film's January 6 release date, the film was again pushed back, this time to June 30, 2017; it was eventually removed from there as well. In September 2017, it was announced that it would be released in select theaters in the US on October 28, 2017, and for free on Google Play from October 12 to November 8, 2017.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Despite the US delays, the film began its theatrical run in Ukraine and Central America on July 20, 2017, where the film grossed $580,466 from 830 screens. The film was released in the Philippines on August 2, 2017.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: The film opened in the US on a limited release on October 28, 2017. Playing in 10 theaters the film made just $742 in its opening weekend (an average of $74 per venue), finishing 60th at the box office.


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 30% based on 20 reviews, and an average rating of 3.90/10. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: Witney Siebold of "IGN" gave the film a score of 5.5/10, writing that the film, "while largely a generic haunting film without much in the way of a hook beyond its famous setting, can at least claim to be one of the more watchable "Amityville" films, for whatever that praise may be worth," and deemed it "perhaps the best "Amityville" film since 1983." "Dread Central" gave the film two and a half stars out of five saying "At the end of the day, this isn't such a bad flick, but viewers looking for an insane new "Amityville" experience will just have to keep chasing that dragon." "Slant Magazine" gave the film two out of four stars and called it "an elegant entry in a lame series of horror films."


title: Amityville: The Awakening

text: The film was released on Blu-ray, DVD, and on demand on November 14, 2017, but was not released in the U.K.


title: Pacific Rim

text: The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The "Pacific Basin" includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire.


title: Pacific Rim

text: This is a list of countries that are generally considered to be a part of the Pacific Rim, since they lie along the Pacific Ocean.


title: Pacific Rim

text: The Pacific has much international shipping. The top 10 busiest container ports, with the exception of Dubai's Port of Jebel Ali (9th), are in the Rim nations. They are home to 29 of the world's 50 busiest container shipping ports:


title: Pacific Rim

text: Various intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations focus on the Pacific Rim, including APEC, the East-West Center, Sustainable Pacific Rim Cities, the Pacific Basin Institute, and the Institute of Asian Research. In addition, the RIMPAC naval exercises are coordinated by United States Pacific Command.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: Kabul International Airport (known as Hamid Karzai International Airport from 2014 to 2021; ), also known as Kabul Airport, is located about from the center of Kabul in Afghanistan. It is owned by the Government of Afghanistan and operated by UAE-based GAAC Holding on behalf of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. It serves as one of the nation's main international airports, capable of housing over one hundred aircraft. It was locally named as Khwaja Rawash Airport. The airport was renamed in 2014 in honor of former President Hamid Karzai. The decision was made by the National Assembly of Afghanistan and the Cabinet of the then President Ashraf Ghani. It was given its current name in 2021 by the Taliban.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: Opened in 1960, the airport has been the primary gateway to Afghanistan and is located at high altitude, surrounded by the mountains of the Hindu Kush. For many years it has been the base of Ariana Afghan Airlines and Kam Air. A new international terminal was opened in the 2000s and at the time a number of military bases were also built around the airport, which were used by the United States Armed Forces and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and later the Resolute Support Mission (RS). The Afghan Air Force also had a base there, while the Afghan National Police provided security inside the passenger terminals. Prior to the withdrawal of NATO's military forces in mid-2021, the airport provided scheduled flights to and from Pakistan, India, Iran, China, Turkey, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and the Arab Gulf states. As of June 2016, the most frequently serviced destination from the airport was Dubai in the UAE, with no fewer than four passenger airlines flying the route, and some with multiple daily flights.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: After the evacuation of NATO's forces on August 31, 2021, all civilian flights were canceled and suspended until further notice. A week before that the airport's Abbey Gate had been attacked in a suicide bombing by Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K). Following the Taliban takeover, the airport was closed to the public for about a week. On September 26, the Taliban announced that the resulting debris at the airport had been cleaned up, and asked international airlines to resume flights.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: Kabul Airport was originally built in 1960 by Soviet engineers. The airport was locally named Khwaja Rawash Airport. Foreign tourists began visiting Afghanistan via Kabul Airport. This era ended after the 1978 Saur Revolution, especially after the 1979 Soviet invasion.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: The airport was used by the Soviet Army during the Soviet–Afghan War from 1979 to 1989, and by the military forces of the former President of Afghanistan, Mohammad Najibullah. Control of the airport switched between different sides during the civil war after 1992. By November 1996, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan governed by Mullah Muhammad Omar was in possession of the airport, until late 2001 when they fled the city after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Due to international sanctions during the Taliban government, the airport was closed in the late 1990s, with very limited international flights.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Kabul Airport was bombed by United States and coalition forces. After the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took over control, the airport began to be developed slowly over the years. A new radar system was installed in 2005, which was upgraded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in 2010.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: A new $35 million terminal for international flights was inaugurated in November 2008, built with aid from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended the inauguration ceremony. The new terminal was officially opened to international flights in June 2009. The existing terminal has been refurbished and used for domestic flights.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: Passenger movements reached 100,000 per year by 2010 or 300 per day. In early 2012, the radar system was upgraded to cover Afghanistan's entire air space.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: In October 2014, the National Assembly of Afghanistan proposed naming the airport after former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a month after his tenure ended, in recognition of his services and contributions to the country's rebuilding. This decision was approved by the Cabinet of the new President Ashraf Ghani, which renamed the structure as "Hamid Karzai International Airport".


title: Kabul International Airport

text: The North Side Cantonment – Kabul Airport facility was completed and turned over to the United States Armed Forces in October 2008. It houses the command facilities for the Afghan Air Force (AAF), and includes housing, administrative, operations, maintenance and recreation facilities. The project included two new hangar complexes, a new taxiway and ramps. It is the headquarters and main base (1st or 201st Wing) of the Afghan Air Force. The first hangar facility was turned over to the AAF in January 2008. The second hangar was completed later that year.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: In July 2021, the Taliban took over many areas in Afghanistan, including those near Kabul Airport. Turkey announced that it would provide security at the airport. U.S. and NATO forces were still deployed at the airport as well. A few weeks later, Kabul fell into the hands of the Taliban, prompting hundreds of people to flee to the airport in an attempt to leave the country. Seven people were alleged to have died at the airport after the crowds consisting of hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the airport. US forces fired in the air to prevent the crowds running onto the tarmac and runways. On 16 August 2021, the US Deputy Security Advisor announced the deployment of more forces to secure the airport. The Pentagon confirmed the head of U.S. Central Command, General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., met Taliban leaders in Qatar. The Taliban officials agreed to terms set by McKenzie for refugees to flee using the Kabul International Airport.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: Following the fall of Kabul, the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police abandoned their posts. U.S. and allied forces subsequently took over the posts. On 16 August 2021, all commercial flights from Kabul Airport were cancelled indefinitely.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: On 26 August 2021, more than 100 people were killed in an explosion outside Kabul Airport. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - Khorasan (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility. The last American forces departed from the airport around midnight on 30 August, ending U.S. involvement in the 20-year war. The Taliban subsequently took control of the airport. Rough estimates by the Taliban calculated the damage to the airport at around $350 million. Abdul Hadi Hamadan, the Taliban head of the airport, later stated that the damage to the airport's terminal alone due to the evacuation was $1 million.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: Following the Taliban takeover, the airport was closed. Much of its infrastructure had been degraded or destroyed during the evacuation. According to Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar was to send technical assistance to Afghanistan to help reopen the airport as soon as possible. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, stated that the Taliban and other countries had requested Turkey for help in resuming operations at the airport. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Sigrid Kaag, stated that her government was willing to support Turkey and Qatar in reopening the airport. Meanwhile, the security of the airport was handed over to the Al-Fatah Brigade of the special forces of the group on 3 September.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: The airport reopened for Ariana Afghan Airlines' domestic flights between Kabul and the cities of Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar, as well as for receiving aid from other countries, on 4 September, following work carried out by a technical team from Qatar, which repaired the airport's runway. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid stated on 6 September that Turkey and Qatar were trying to restart all flights from the airport. On 8 September 2021, a NOTAM was issued by the airport's NOTAM office, indicating that the airport is operating between 03:30 and 13:30 Coordinated Universal Time. Additional NOTAMs issued that day indicate that the airports instrument landing system is operative and that the airport's tower is operating again.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: A Qatar Airways flight evacuating 113 nationals of other countries from Afghanistan was allowed to land at and depart from the airport on 9 September due to cooperation between the United States and the Taliban, marking the first such flight since the Taliban had completely taken over the facility. Meanwhile, the Taliban renamed the airport to "Kabul International Airport", eliminating the reference to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: A Pakistan International Airlines flight landed at the airport on 13 September, marking the first international commercial flight to land since the Taliban takeover. Mahan Air resumed flights to the airport on 15 September, marking resumption of commercial flights between Iran and Afghanistan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 26 September announced that the problems at the airport had been resolved and asked international airlines to resume their flights, promising full cooperation.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: The airport has two terminals: the original that opened in 1960 and a newer building that opened in 2008. The terminal that opened in 2008 is used for international flights; the original 1960 Soviet-constructed terminal is used for domestic flights. Several hangars along the runway are for military aircraft. There are no hangars for civilian (or transient) aircraft. The airport has seven helicopter pads which are used mostly for military traffic. Fire fighting equipment is present. The firefighting equipment has a present capacity of up to of water and has the ability to reach in height to manage fire outbreaks.


title: Kabul International Airport

text: Buses, taxi and private cars provide transportation to and from the airport. A four-lane highway connects the airport to Kabul.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: Sean Hughes (10 November 1965 – 16 October 2017) was a British-born Irish comedian, writer and actor. He starred in his own Channel 4 television show "Sean's Show" and was one of the regular team captains on the BBC Two musical panel game "Never Mind the Buzzcocks".


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: Hughes was born the middle boy in a family of three boys in Whittington Hospital in North London. He had an older brother Alan and a younger brother Martin. He was born in Archway, London, but spent most of his youth in Firhouse, Dublin. His mother was from Cork, while his father was from Dublin; they first met on a London bus. His father worked in a telephone exchange and was also a driving instructor. At the age of six, Hughes moved to Dublin and lived with his paternal grandmother. He attended Coláiste Éanna in Ballyroan.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: [He] used to talk about how sounding like a Cockney in an Irish school was not easy. He later quipped that he spent "most of my childhood in a headlock". Not surprisingly his Mary Poppins accent soon developed a lilting local burr. Making schoolfriends laugh was a classic defence mechanism and he even set up comedy gigs at his school. What started out as a hobby quickly became a career.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: In 1987, he began appearing at the Comedy Store. In 1990, aged 24, he became the youngest winner of the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award for his show, "A One-Night Stand with Sean Hughes".


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: He marked his 30th birthday with the "Sean Hughes Is Thirty Somehow" tour, which was broadcast on Channel 4, in 1995. Hughes returned to stand-up, touring the UK and Australia in 2007 with his show, "The Right Side of Wrong".


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: As well as comedy, he wrote collections of prose and poetry and worked on a number of films. He also presented weekend radio shows on the BBC's London radio station BBC GLR, and in 2002 joined BBC 6 Music, presenting the Sunday morning programme. He left the station a year after its launch, proclaiming it had turned into everything he had wanted it to be. He also wrote two novels, "The Detainees" (1998) and "It's What He Would Have Wanted" (2000).


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: It was reported that Hughes was a close friend of the American comedian Bill Hicks, but Hughes stated this was not true. In a 2014 interview, he explained: "It says on my Wikipedia page that I was good friends with him. I wasn't! We were in Australia together, so we hung out. I did get to know him a little bit, which was a real pleasure. When I saw him I just went, 'That's the best comic I'm going to see in my lifetime.'" Nevertheless, Hughes wrote the foreword to Cynthia True's biography of Hicks, "American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story". He concluded his foreword by writing "being a genius is a heavy burden and he's the only one I'm ever likely to meet. I still miss you Bill."


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: In 1992, he had his own TV show, "Sean's Show", ostensibly set in his own home. It received a nomination for the 1992 British Comedy Award for Best Channel 4 Sitcom. Series one of "Sean's Show" has been released on DVD. Later, he recorded a series of brief programmes called "Sean's Shorts", in which he toured England, visiting many of the country's towns and cities, visiting local places of interest and meeting local people. He appeared in the film "Snakes and Ladders" shot in Dublin, and released in 1996.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: From 1996 to 2002, he was a team captain on the BBC 2 comedy quiz show "Never Mind the Buzzcocks", alongside Phill Jupitus and Mark Lamarr. He can be seen during Terrorvision's music video for their single "Tequila" from 1999 and in the video for The Cure's 1996 single, "The 13th". He appeared in the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: In ITV's series "The Last Detective", featuring "Dangerous" Davies, Hughes played his friend, the perpetually unemployed and well-read "Mod Lewis" (he spends all his time at the library to save on heating). He played Eileen Grimshaw's love interest Pat in the British soap "Coronation Street".


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: In 2003, Hughes voiced the part of Finbar the clockwork Shark, one of seven plastic bath toys which come to life whenever no-one is watching in the children's television series "Rubbadubbers", shown on CBeebies in the United Kingdom for pre-school children.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: He played Sergeant Lake in the ITV "Agatha Christie's Marple" production of "They Do It with Mirrors", which was broadcast on 1 January 2010.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: Hughes played Brendan in the film version of Tony Hawks' book, "Round Ireland with a Fridge" (2010). He also played the lead in the film adaptation of Spike Milligan's comic novel, "Puckoon". Hughes also voiced Tapir in the three "Robbie the Reindeer" films.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: In early 2014 Hughes started a podcast called "Under the Radar", which ran for approximately 57 episodes (excluding repeats and split episodes) until December 2016.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: Hughes took over the role of stationmaster Mr Perks in the musical "The Railway Children" at King's Cross Theatre in March 2015.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: Hughes was a vegetarian and proponent of animal rights. Hughes was a heavy drinker most of his career. In 2012, it was reported that he had become a teetotaller.


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: Hughes died aged 51 on 16 October 2017 from the effects of cirrhosis, at Whittington Hospital in North London (the same hospital he was born in).


title: Sean Hughes (comedian)

text: A funeral service was held at St Pancras and Islington Cemetery on 23 October 2017, where, after the mourning party heard eulogies to his memory, there were recited extracts of some of Hughes' poetry and recorded music from The Smiths and Lily Allen, his body was cremated. A wake was held afterwards in a nearby pub.


title: P. Vasu

text: Vasudevan Peethambharan, known professionally as P Vasu, is an Indian director, writer and actor who works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam language films. In a career spanning three decades, Vasu has directed over 64 films.


title: P. Vasu

text: P. Vasu's father, Peethambaran Nair, worked as a make-up man for N. T. Rama Rao and M. G. Ramachandran in their films during his time. He was one of the leading make-up artists during his period and was elected as the president of the make-up union Tamil Nadu for 30 years. He later went on to become a producer.


title: P. Vasu

text: He produced about 25 films in Tamil and Telugu and became one of the leading producers in the south. He produced with his brother M. C. Sekhar, who was a cinematographer. M. C. Sekhar had worked as a cinematographer for more than 150 films. Peethambharan died on 21 February 2011 at the age of 89.


title: P. Vasu

text: Vasu is an alumnus of Wesley High School, Chennai. Vasu is married to Shanthi and has a son, Sakthi Vasu, who is an actor and a daughter, Abhirami Vasudevan. His mother is Kamala. Vasu's brothers are Vidyasagar and Vimal, and his sisters are Vijaylakshmi, Vasantha and Vanaja. He is a Malayali from Nedumbal, a village in Thrissur district, Kerala, but settled in Tamil Nadu.


title: P. Vasu

text: Vasu joined director C. V. Sridhar as an assistant. Vasu started his career with Santhana Bharathi as a co-director and made films such as "Panneer Pushpangal" (1981), "Madhu Malar" (1981), "Mella Pesungal" (1983), "Sahasame Jeevitham" (1984) and "Needhiyin Nizhal" (1985). "We compromised on certain things as we had different approaches to the subject. That's the reason why some of our other movies failed to make a big impression in the box office, prompting us to take our own paths," he says.


title: P. Vasu

text: During his career, films like "Panakkaran" (1990), "Nadigan" (1990), "Chinna Thambi" (1991), "Mannan" (1992), "Walter Vetrivel" (1993) and "Sethupathi IPS" (1994) have become blockbusters.


title: P. Vasu

text: The director went through a career slump in the mid-1990s after a series of failures, through his high budget romantic musical "Love Birds" (1996). He has made films in all the four South Indian languages and he has worked with almost all top stars.


title: P. Vasu

text: From the 2000s, Vasu also began as an actor. He usually portrays a supporting role or an antagonistic role. His directed films "Apthamithra" (2004) went on to cross the one-year mark, while legendary "Chandramukhi" (2005) has had a record run of 800 days and more. Elated with the grand success of his Kannada film "Aptharakshaka" (2010), which happens the last project of Vishnuvardhan. He completed remaking the film in Telugu titled "Nagavalli" (2010) ("Chandramukhi 2"), features Venkatesh in the lead role. Earlier P. Vasu had plans about remaking the film in Tamil with Superstar Rajinikanth titled "Chandramukhi 2". However, the project didn't happen as the actor got busy with Shankar’s "Enthiran" (2010).


title: P. Vasu

text: Soon after the grand success of "Chandramukhi", P Vasu was initially supposed to sign Kamal Haasan for a film featuring him in triple action roles. However, Kamal Haasan couldn't take up the project as he already got committed to "Dasavathaaram" (2008), where he had to play 10 roles.


title: P. Vasu

text: Vasu made a film called "Thottal Poo Malarum" (2007), with his son Shakthi. The young actor is not new to acting; he has acted as a child in his father's films.


title: P. Vasu

text: In June 2013, P. Vasu revealed that he was set to direct an English film titled "Curry in Love", with an apparent star cast of Sonam Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Vijay, Eddie Murphy and Jon Voight. However, the supposed cast denied the reports as baseless and P. Vasu postponed the film, citing a delay in production. Later in April 2017, Vasu revealed that he still had intentions of making the film if he found a producer to help finance the project. Similarly in early 2014, P. Vasu released an official statement claiming that his next film would be an animatronics venture titled "Aishwaryavum Aayiram Kaakkavum" and that Aishwarya Rai would feature in the leading role. Aishwarya Rai's team later denied claims citing that such allegations of an agreement were premature.


title: P. Vasu

text: Actor Raghava Lawrence have teamed up for the first time with the director in "Shivalinga" (2017) that too for the remake of Vasu's Kannada blockbuster "Shivalinga" (2016) as horror-comedy genre. "Shivalinga" is saved by its packaging as a commercial family entertainer and Vadivelu's comedy. Vasu is also his outing with Shiva Rajkumar in "Ayushman Bhava" (2019).


title: P. Vasu

text: Vasu's films are usually in the masala genre, with melodrama as a key theme. Indiaglitz wrote: "Vasu ruled the early 90's with his sentimental tearjerkers, The joke in film circles was that Vasu came to the studios with a `thali' (mangalsutra) and a script. He started using sister-brother- mother- father sentiment". According to Behindwoods, "Vasu's style of storytelling has pervasive dramatization with a more-than-usual touch of sentiment".


title: P. Vasu

text: Vasu learnt the finer nuances of direction from Sridhar, under whom he started off as an assistant director, and added that he never followed Sridhar's style of filmmaking and has always tried to be original. Vasu said that during childhood, "I found myself watching films and narrating the stories to my friends in school. If the school would begin at nine I would reach there by eight and narrate the story for an hour".


title: P. Vasu

text: Vasu has won recognition for his work from the film fraternity and the state government. He won state awards for three years in a row from 1990, for Best Screenplay and Dialogues in "Nadigan", in 1991 as Best Director in "Chinna Thambi". He was awarded the Filmfare award for Best Direction for the movie "Apthamitra". He also won the Tamil Nadu State Film Honorary Award – J. Jayalalithaa Award in 2002. He was awarded the Kalaimaamani Award in 2004, reminiscent of his father Shri M. Peethambaram who was an awardee for Best make-up.


title: P. Vasu

text: Vasu is a member of the state award selection committee and jury member of the committee for tax-free movies.


title: Adam Kaufman (actor)

text: Adam Kaufman (born May 11, 1974) is an American actor, known for his role in 2002 in the Steven Spielberg science fiction mini-series "Taken" as Charlie Keys, and as Parker Abrams in the fourth season of The WB supernatural/horror drama "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".


title: Adam Kaufman (actor)

text: Kaufman's father is Jewish, and his mother is Catholic. He studied drama at Lynchburg College, the Circle in the Square Theatre School, and at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Theater Institute.


title: Adam Kaufman (actor)

text: Kaufman met Australian-American actress Poppy Montgomery in 2005 in Mexico while working on the independent psychological thriller film "Between". In 2010, they worked together again in the TV movie "Lying to Be Perfect". At the time, Montgomery starred as FBI agent Samantha Spade in the CBS mystery drama "Without a Trace". From 2007 to 2009, Kaufman had a recurring role in the fifth, sixth and seventh seasons as Brian Donovan, Samantha's love interest. In June 2007, Montgomery announced her pregnancy with Kaufman, which was written into the sixth season. On December 23, 2007, Montgomery gave birth to their son Jackson Phillip Deveraux Montgomery Kaufman in Los Angeles. It was reported on October 10, 2011 in "Life & Style" that Kaufman and Montgomery broke up due to the distance between them when working.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: The Hainish Cycle consists of a number of science fiction novels and stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is set in a future history in which civilizations of human beings on planets orbiting a number of nearby stars, including Terra ("Earth"), are contacting each other for the first time and establishing diplomatic relations, setting up a confederacy under the guidance of the oldest of the human worlds, peaceful Hain. In this history, human beings did not evolve on Earth but were the result of interstellar colonies planted by Hain long ago, which was followed by a long period when interstellar travel ceased. Some of the races have new genetic traits, a result of ancient Hainish experiments in genetic engineering, including people who can dream while awake, and a world of androgynous people who only come into active sexuality once a month, not knowing which sex will manifest in them. In keeping with Le Guin's style, she uses varied social and environmental settings to explore the anthropological and sociological outcomes of human evolution in those diverse environments.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: The Hainish novels "The Left Hand of Darkness" (1969) and "The Dispossessed" (1974) have won literary awards, as have the novella "The Word for World Is Forest" (1972) and the short story "The Day Before the Revolution" (1974).


title: Hainish Cycle

text: Le Guin herself often discounted the idea of a "Hainish Cycle", writing on her website that "The thing is, they aren't a cycle or a saga. They do not form a coherent history. There are some clear connections among them, yes, but also some extremely murky ones."


title: Hainish Cycle

text: In the first three novels—"Rocannon's World" (1966), "Planet of Exile" (1966), and "City of Illusions" (1967)—there is a "League of All Worlds". By "City of Illusions", the League seems to have been conquered or fragmented by an alien race, the Shing, from beyond the League.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: In the fourth, "The Left Hand of Darkness" (1969), it seems that the planets of the former League have reunited as the "Ekumen", which was founded by the Hainish people.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: In the fifth, "The Word for World Is Forest" (1972), the League of All Worlds and the "ansible" are new creations, and the term "Ekumen" is not used; it is set before any of the first four books. Note that the 1972 publication was part of the anthology "Again, Dangerous Visions". It was only published as a separate book in 1976.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: The sixth, "The Dispossessed" (1974), is the earliest novel chronologically in the Hainish Cycle. The Cetians have been visited by people from other planets, including Terra (Earth) and Hain. The various planets are separate, though there is some talk of a union. The idea of the ansible is known but none yet exists.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: Later novels and short stories speak "only" of the Ekumen—which now includes the Gethenians, who were the subject of "The Left Hand of Darkness"—and not of the League.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the people of Hain colonized a large number of worlds, including Earth, known as Terra. Most of these were similar enough that humans from one world can pass as natives of another, but on some the old Hainish 'colonisers' used genetic engineering. At least one of the various species of "Rocannon's World" are the product of genetic engineering, as are the "hilfs" ("highly intelligent life forms") of Planet S (whose story has not so far been told), and probably the androgynous humans of Gethen in "The Left Hand of Darkness". The Ekumen do not know whether the colonisers sought to adapt humans to varied worlds, were conducting various experiments, or had other reasons.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: Hainish civilization subsequently collapsed, and the colony planets (including Earth) forgot that other human worlds existed. The Ekumen stories tell of the efforts to re-establish a civilization on a galactic scale through NAFAL (Nearly As Fast As Light) interstellar travel taking years to travel between stars (although only weeks or months from the viewpoint of the traveler because of time dilation), and through instantaneous interstellar communication using the ansible.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: This seems to have happened in two phases: First, the League of All Worlds was formed, as an alliance of planets, mostly descended from colonization efforts from the planet Hain, uniting the "nine known worlds" — presumably along with new colonies. By the time of "Rocannon's World" it has grown but is also under threat from a distant enemy. In "City of Illusions" it is recalled as having been a league of some 80 worlds at the time it was destroyed by aliens called the Shing, who are uniquely able to lie in "mindspeech". After the apparent overthrow of the Shing by Terran descendants from Alterra / Werel (capable of recognizing the Shing lies), the alliance is eventually reconstructed.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: A second phase begins with "The Left Hand of Darkness". The 80 plus planets seem to have reunited as the "Ekumen" – a name derived from the Greek "oikoumene", meaning "the inhabited world", although characters occasionally refer to it as "the Household", which is in turn a reference to the Greek "oikos", a word which developed from the same root as "oikoumene". Unexplained references are made by the protagonist from Terra in the "Left Hand of Darkness" to a long-past "Age of the Enemy", which presumably refers to the time that the Shing controlled Terra, portrayed in "City of Illusions".


title: Hainish Cycle

text: The Ekumen (or the League of All Worlds, though that is also believed to be the previous planetary coalition, before some sort of galactic crisis) contains a very large number of planets and is continually exploring new ones. Genly Ai in "The Left Hand of Darkness" explains that there are 83 planets in the Ekumen, with Gethen a candidate for becoming the 84th. The process of reaching out to potential civilizations is a tedious and sometimes dangerous one.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: Societies tend to use sophisticated but unobtrusive technologies. Most notable is the ansible, an instant-communication device that keeps worlds in touch with each other.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: Physical communication is by NAFAL (Nearly As Fast As Light) ships. The physics is never explained; the ship vanishes from where it was and reappears somewhere else many years later. The trip takes slightly longer than it would to cross the same distance at the speed of light, but ship-time is just a few hours for those on board. It cannot be used for trips within a solar system. Trips can begin or end close to a planet, but if used without a "retemporalizer", there are drastic physical effects at the end of long trips, at least according to the Shing, whose information may be suspect. It is also lethal if the traveler is pregnant.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: "City of Illusions" mentions automatic death-machines that work on the same principle as the ansible and can strike instantly at distant worlds. Such a device is clearly used in the events of "Rocannon's World". The weapons are not mentioned again in later books.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: Churten theory, as developed by the physicists of Anarres, should allow people to go instantly from solar system to solar system. It is a development of the work of Shevek, whose tale is told in "The Dispossessed". Shevek's work made the ansible possible—it is mentioned in his tale that engineers decided they could build it once the correct theory was found. Churten theory offers a way to move people and spacecraft instantaneously, but there are side effects. These are described in three short stories, "The Shobies' Story," "Dancing to Ganam", and "Another Story, or, A Fisherman of the Inland Sea," all collected in "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" (1994).


title: Hainish Cycle

text: The ansible has been adopted by other science fiction and fantasy authors, such as Orson Scott Card, Elizabeth Moon, and Vernor Vinge.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: The ideas of post-technological societies and social and ecological collapse are in several of the stories. These are portrayed as the end result of the wrong kind of civilizations, i.e., competitive, capitalist, patriarchal, "dynamic, aggressive, ecology-breaking cultures," while successful societies are close to the land, peaceful, non-authoritarian, non-competitive, static, communitarian, with the holistic outlook of Eastern religions. The Earth, called "Terra" in the Cycle, is mentioned as one of the failed civilizations.


title: Hainish Cycle

text: Most of the people in the tales have a common descent from the planet Hain, whose people settled many worlds. Some of them are genetically similar enough to produce children together. The unusual hairiness of the Cetians is mentioned in "The Word for World Is Forest" and "The Dispossessed". "The Telling" includes the detail that the people of Chiffewar are all bald.


title: SD Eibar

text: Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in ) is a professional Spanish football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country.


title: SD Eibar

text: Founded on 30 November 1940, the team currently plays in the Segunda División, the second tier of Spanish football, having been relegated from La Liga at the end of the 2020–21 season. The club played in the top tier of Spanish football for seven consecutive seasons from 2014 to 2021, and participated in 26 Segunda División seasons (a spell in the 1950s, and most of the 1990s and 2000s), spending the rest of their history competing at lower levels.


title: SD Eibar

text: The team plays in claret and blue shirts with blue shorts (originating from the kit of FC Barcelona) and holds home games at the Ipurua Municipal Stadium. SD Eibar is a fan-owned club, with about 8,000 shareholders from 48 countries. Until SD Huesca qualified for the top flight in 2018, the club was considered the smallest to have played in Spain's top division, and its stadium had the lowest capacity of any La Liga teams. Although Eibar is the sole professional club of its town, it contests several Basque derbies with other clubs from the region.


title: SD Eibar

text: Formed by the merger of "Deportivo Gallo" and "Unión Deportiva Eibarresa", the club was originally known as "Eibar Fútbol Club", before changing to "Sociedad Deportiva Eibar". During the difficult postwar years, the team played sporadically, which caused Eibar to disappear from official competitions during the 1942–43 season. Originally an irregular team, it was not until the 1943–44 season that it was reorganised into more of a full-time unit.


title: SD Eibar

text: Promoted to Tercera División in 1950, Eibar achieved promotion to Segunda División three seasons later, being relegated again after a five-year stint and competing in division three for 25 of the following 28 years (in 1977 "Tercera" became the fourth level, after the creation of Segunda División B). In 1988, the side returned to the "silver category". That season also included a historic moment when goalkeeper José Ignacio Garmendia scored a goal in a game against Pontevedra via a kickout from his own area.


title: SD Eibar

text: After spending 18 years in a row in Segunda División, Eibar was relegated to the third division at the end of the 2005–06 campaign. However, it won its group the next season, thereby qualifying for the promotion play-offs where it won its semi-final tie against Hospitalet 2–0 and defeated Rayo Vallecano 2–1 on aggregate in the decisive round, sealing its return after just one year. Eibar finished 21st in the 2008–09 season meaning they were relegated to the Segunda Division B.


title: SD Eibar

text: Eibar qualified for three straight promotion play-offs but could not get promoted to the Segunda División.


title: SD Eibar

text: In the 2012–13 edition of the Copa del Rey, Eibar ousted Basque neighbours Athletic Bilbao – who had appeared in two of the last four finals in the tournament – on the away goals rule to reach the round-of-16 following a 1–1 draw at the San Mamés Stadium. The decisive goal was scored by Mikel Arruabarrena who played youth football with the opposition, as did manager Gaizka Garitano; the same season the team managed to return to the "silver category", following a four-year absence.


title: SD Eibar

text: In 2013–14 Eibar earned, for the first time in its history, one of two direct promotion berths to La Liga, which was certified on 25 May 2014 with a 1–0 home win against Deportivo Alavés. (they celebrated their feat with confetti originally produced by Barcelona, who wear the same colours and had anticipated winning the Spanish league title a week earlier, but that did not come to pass). Simultaneously, however, the club was threatened with relegation back to division three due to the financial inability of the S.A.D. to have a share capital of at least €2,146,525.95 before 6 August 2014. The club launched a campaign named "Defiende al Eibar" (Defend Eibar) with the aim of reaching the required share capital through a seasoned equity offering. On 15 July 2014 the club announced it had reached the established goal.


title: SD Eibar

text: Eibar finished its first top-flight season in 18th, ending in relegation. However, after the season ended, 13th-placed Elche were sent to the second tier as punishment for financial mismanagement, and Eibar were reinstated.


title: SD Eibar

text: On 18 July 2015, Eibar played its 75th Anniversary game against Celtic in Ipurua (1–4). This included an inaugural ceremony on the pitch with a parade of 19th-century-clothed Basque soldiers with a Saltire and bagpipes playing "Scotland the Brave", with officials from both clubs shooting a 350 kg 19th-century cannon. Eibar stated that they invited Celtic as their opponent for the game due to the strong connection between the Basque Country and Scotland, and also due to the Scottish presence in Eibar through the years (the main supporter group is named "Eskozia la Brava", meaning "Scotland the Brave").


title: SD Eibar

text: Under its new coach José Luis Mendilibar, Eibar finished its second top-flight season in 14th. Borja Bastón finished top ten in scoring and was named La Liga Player of the Month of October 2015, making him the first "Armero" to receive the award. In April 2017, Dani García became the first player to reach the milestone of 100 top division appearances for the club.


title: SD Eibar

text: The club's 10th place in 2016–17 was improved to 9th the following season, with the latter campaign marking the first time ever that Eibar had finished as the highest-ranking of the Basque teams.


title: SD Eibar

text: On 16 May 2021, Eibar was relegated after a defeat to Valencia. This ended their seven-year stay in the top tier. The following season in Segunda, Eibar was in the top two of the league for the majority of the season, however, the team had to eventually settle for third place. In the playoffs, Eibar lost to Girona, and failed to make an immediate return to La Liga.


title: SD Eibar

text: In 2015, the club signed a collaboration agreement with CD Vitoria (Tercera División) to act as an Eibar feeder team for emerging players. Eibar had previously disbanded their own B team in 2012 to cut costs while the senior side languished in Segunda División B but decided to seek a new formal arrangement for a subsidiary club after retaining their place in La Liga. Within two years of the partnership, Vitoria gained promotion to the third tier for the first time in their history; they were relegated in 2018–19 and their home matches back in the Tercera División were then moved to Eibar.


title: SD Eibar

text: In summer 2016, the club expanded its club structure further by integrating local team "Urkomendi" (of the 6th level Preferente de Guipúzcoa) into the organisation as a reserve team to act as a link between the youth level and Vitoria, to be known as "Eibar Urko".


title: SD Eibar

text: Playing in the town's Unbe Sports Complex, Eibar Urko gained promotion to the provincial fifth level in 2018, but were blocked from a further promotion after Vitoria were relegated to the same due to rules preventing teams owned by the same club competing in the same division. This also meant Urko could not be promoted in the 2019–20 or 2020–21 seasons either, as Vitoria failed to achieve the same goal.


title: SD Eibar

text: Also in 2016, Eibar made a 3-year collaboration agreement with UD Logroñés, with Eibar players going on loan to the Segunda B club for experience with the aim of achieving promotion due to the additional talent in the squad. Four players made the move that summer: goalkeeper Jon Ander, defender Amelibia, midfielder Sergio García and winger Thaylor.


title: SD Eibar

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Avoided relegation to the second tier after the 2014–15 season due to Elche's administrative relegation because of tax problems.


title: SD Eibar

text: Note: this list includes players that have appeared in at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status.


title: U Turn (1997 film)

text: U Turn is a 1997 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Sean Penn, Billy Bob Thornton, Jennifer Lopez, Jon Voight, Powers Boothe, Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, and Nick Nolte. It is based on the book "Stray Dogs" by John Ridley, who also wrote the screenplay.


title: U Turn (1997 film)

text: Bobby Cooper is a drifter in debt to a violent gangster when his car breaks down in Superior, Arizona. Stranded and broke, he meets Jake and Grace McKenna, a father and his stepdaughter who are also a married couple. They separately approach Bobby to kill the other for money.


title: U Turn (1997 film)

text: Desperate and in fear, Bobby approaches Jake about killing Grace. He becomes attracted to Grace and agrees to kill Jake, then he and Grace can be together and use Jake's money for a new start somewhere else.


title: U Turn (1997 film)

text: With Grace's help, Bobby kills Jake, and they leave together with $200,000. As they make their way out of Superior, the Sheriff, with whom Grace has been having an affair, stops them. Grace shoots and kills the sheriff. As they dump the bodies, Grace pushes Bobby over the cliff, severely injuring him. Grace suddenly realizes that Bobby has the car keys.


title: U Turn (1997 film)

text: Grace makes her way down the steep incline where she and Bobby fight, and in his weakened, injured state, Bobby kills Grace, but she also shoots him in the belly. He makes the grueling journey back up the cliff with a broken leg, then starts the car, but the radiator hose bursts, and Bobby is stranded in the heat, injured and dying.


title: U Turn (1997 film)

text: "U Turn" was filmed during November 1996–January 1997 on location in Superior, Arizona and other areas of Arizona and California, including the Coachella Valley. It was filmed entirely on Reversal stock, 5239, to give an extra harsh look to the hostile environment.


title: U Turn (1997 film)

text: For the Toby N. Tucker role, Joaquin Phoenix said small-town style gave him the inspiration and the idea for the haircut, which was "TNT" (the character's initials) shaved on the back of his head. "These kids in these small towns, these fads that just roll over them," he told "Rough Cut Magazine" in October 1998. "Like, five years pass and they still hang on to them. So, I thought it was really great if he shaves his name, he thinks he's really notorious."


title: U Turn (1997 film)

text: Reaction by critics to the film was mixed. Roger Ebert gave the film 1½ stars out of four, deeming it a "repetitive, pointless exercise in genre filmmaking—the kind of film where you distract yourself by making a list of the sources". James Berardinelli rated the film three stars out of four, stating "for those who enjoy movies on the edge, "U-Turn" offers just the trajectory you might expect." Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote that it "demonstrates a filmmaker in complete command of his craft and with little control over his impulses". "U Turn" currently holds a 61% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 51 reviews with the consensus: ""U-Turn" is a lurid, stylish lark that boasts striking moments but lacks the focus and weight of Oliver Stone's best work." On Metacritic, it has a rating of 54 out of 100 based on 20 reviews, indicating mixed or average reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: U Turn (1997 film)

text: Later Oliver Stone said: “Certain people really liked U Turn. More than you might think claimed it was the one they “most liked” of my films. It’s certainly different, and its incest storyline was verboten to the average American viewer. Let’s just say, you need a sense of humor for this one.


title: U Turn (1997 film)

text: The film was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Director (which went to Kevin Costner for "The Postman") and Worst Supporting Actor (Jon Voight, also for "Most Wanted"; ultimately, he "lost" to Dennis Rodman for "Double Team"). It was also included on Siskel and Ebert's "Worst Films of 1997" episode. In the episode, Gene Siskel reflected that ""U Turn" [had] the same highly stylized violence as Stone's "Natural Born Killers", but without that film's intellectual content, "U Turn" seems like Stone's attempt at a commercial hit – and he failed, miserably."


title: Thai Smile

text: THAI Smile Airways is a Thai regional airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of Thai Airways International headquartered in Bangkok.


title: Thai Smile

text: On 20 May 2011, the Thai Airways board announced plans to create a new lower-cost airline, at the time dubbed Thai Wings. The creation of the airline was announced by Ampon Kittiampon, the chairman of Thai's board of directors, on 19 August 2011. It is planned to begin operations in July 2012. According to Ampon, THAI Smile is intended to serve the market gap between low-cost carriers and full service airlines. The name THAI Smile was chosen from a pool of 2,229 entries in a contest to name the airline. According to an official at Thai Airways, THAI Smile is planned to begin showing an annual profit of about five million baht within two years of the start of operations.


title: Thai Smile

text: THAI Smile flies to 12 destinations in Thailand and 20 destinations in Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, India and Vietnam.


title: Thai Smile

text: THAI Smile has a partnership with USA based Optiontown to run a prepaid flight subscription platform called Flight Pass, which enables customers to pre-purchase THAI Smile flights to one or more destinations at the best available price and decide when they want to travel at a later date.


title: Thai Smile

text: Thai Smile Airways is currently an official sponsor of Thai Honda Ladkrabang and Ratchaburi Mitr Phol.


title: Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)

text: The military occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany began with the German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938, continued with the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and by the end of 1944 extended to all parts of Czechoslovakia.


text: Following the "Anschluss" of Austria to Nazi Germany in March 1938 and after he had obtained the Munich Agreement in September 1938, Adolf Hitler annexed the ethnic Germans living in Czech regions. The loss of Sudetenland was detrimental to the defense of Czechoslovakia as the extensive Czechoslovak border fortifications were also located in the same area. As a consequence, the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany that began on 1 October 1938 left the rest of Czechoslovakia weak. Moreover, a small northeastern part of the borderland region known as Zaolzie was occupied and annexed to Poland ostensibly to "protect" the local ethnic Polish community and as a result of previous territorial claims (Czech-Polish disputes in the years of 1918–20). Furthermore, by the First Vienna Award, Hungary received the southern territories of Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia, which were largely inhabited by Hungarians.


text: As the Slovak State was proclaimed on 14 March, the next day Hungary occupied and annexed the remainder of Carpathian Ruthenia. On 15 March 1939, during a visit to Berlin, the Czechoslovak president Emil Hácha was bullied into signing away his country's independence. On 16 March 1939, Hitler proclaimed the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from Prague Castle, leaving Hácha as technical head of state with the title of State President. However, he was rendered all but powerless; real power was vested in the Reichsprotektor, who served as Hitler's personal representative.


text: In March 1944, during Operation Margarethe, Hungary was occupied by Germany, while beginning at the end of August 1944 with the Slovak National Uprising, Slovakia shared the same fate. The occupation ended with the surrender of Germany following World War II. During the German occupation between 294,000 to 320,000 citizens were murdered (with Jews making up the majority of the casualties). Reprisals were especially harsh in the aftermath of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (e.g. the infamous and widely published Lidice massacre). Large numbers of people were drafted for slave labour in Germany.


text: Hitler's interest in Czechoslovakia was largely economic. Germany had the second-largest economy in the world but had more people than what German agriculture were capable of feeding while lacking many raw materials, which had to be imported. The Four-Year Plan that Hitler had launched in September 1936 to have the German economy ready for a "total war" by 1940 had seriously strained the German economy by 1937 as German government was forced to use up its foreign exchange reserves both to feed its own people and to import various raw materials to achieve the ambitious armament goals of the Four Year Plan. Through the Four Year Plan aimed at autarky, there were certain raw materials such as high-grade iron, oil, chrome, nickel, tungsten, wolfram and bauxite that Germany did not have and had to be imported. The need to import food and raw materials made Germany into Europe's second largest importer, being exceeded only by Great Britain. Moreover, hundreds of millions of "Reichsmarks" were spent on various armament works such as the "Reichswerke" steel complex, an expensive program to develop synthetic fuel, and various other equally expensive chemical and aluminum programs, all of which strained the German economy. The Great Depression was an era of trade wars and protectionism, which imposed limits on Germany's ability to export and thus earn foreign exchange. Moreover, the Four Year Plan with its aim of autarky led to Germany increasing its tariffs, which led other nations to do likewise in retaliation. The British historian Richard Overy wrote the huge demands of the Four Year Plan "...could not be fully met by a policy of import substitution and industrial rationalization", thus leading Hitler to decide in November 1937 that to stay ahead in the arms race with the other powers that Germany had to seize Czechoslovakia in the near-future.


text: At the Hossbach conference on 5 November 1937, Hitler announced that seizing Czechoslovakia would increase the supply of food under German control, which in turn would lessen the need to import food, thereby freeing up more foreign exchange to import raw materials necessary for the Four Year Plan's targets. The Hossbach conference was largely taken up with an extended discussion about the necessity of bringing areas adjunct to Germany under German economic control, by force if necessary, as Hitler argued that this was the best way to win the arms race. Hitler stated: "areas producing raw materials can be more usefully sought in Europe, in immediate proximity to the "Reich"". Overy wrote about Hitler's attitude to the "Reich"'s economic problems that: "He simply saw war instrumentally, as the Japanese had done in Manchuria, as a way to expand the German resource base and to secure it against other powers".


text: At the time, Czechoslovakia had the world's 7th largest economy and Czechoslovakia had easily the most modern, developed, and industrialized economy in Eastern Europe. The former Austrian provinces of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia that now comprise the modern Czech republic had been the industrial heartland of the Austrian empire, where the majority of the arms for the Imperial Austrian Army were manufactured, most notably at the Škoda Works. One consequence of this legacy was that Czechoslovakia was the only nation in Eastern Europe besides the Soviet Union that manufactured its own weapons instead of importing them, and Czechoslovakia was the world's 7th largest manufacturer of arms, making Czechoslovakia an important player in the global arms trade.


text: Sudeten German pro-Nazi leader Konrad Henlein offered the Sudeten German Party (SdP) as the agent for Hitler's campaign. Henlein met with Hitler in Berlin on 28 March 1938, where he was instructed to raise demands unacceptable to the Czechoslovak government led by president Edvard Beneš. On 24 April, the SdP issued the Karlsbader Programm, demanding autonomy for the Sudetenland and the freedom to profess National Socialist ideology. If Henlein's demands were granted, the Sudetenland would be an autonomous state aligned with Nazi Germany.


text: As the tepid reaction to the German "Anschluss" with Austria had shown, the governments of France, the United Kingdom and Czechoslovakia were set on avoiding war at any cost. The French government did not wish to face Germany alone and took its lead from the British government, led by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He contended that Sudeten German grievances were justified and believed that Hitler's intentions were limited. That made Britain and France advise Czechoslovakia to concede to the German demands. Beneš resisted, and on 20 May 1938, a partial mobilisation was under way in response to the possible German invasion. It is suggested that the mobilisation could have been launched on basis of Soviet misinformation about Germany being on verge of invasion, which aimed to trigger war in Western Europe.


text: On 30 May, Hitler signed a secret directive for war against Czechoslovakia to begin no later than 1 October.


text: In the meantime, the British government demanded for Beneš to request a mediator. Not wishing to sever his government's ties with Western Europe, Beneš reluctantly accepted. The British appointed Lord Runciman and instructed him to persuade Beneš to agree to a plan acceptable to the Sudeten Germans. On 2 September, Beneš submitted the Fourth Plan, which granted nearly all of the demands of the Karlsbader Programm. Intent on obstructing conciliation, however, the SdP held demonstrations that provoked the police in Ostrava on 7 September. The Sudeten Germans broke off negotiations on 13 September, and violence and disruption ensued. As Czechoslovak troops attempted to restore order, Henlein flew to Germany, and on 15 September, he issued a proclamation demanding the takeover of the Sudetenland by Germany.


text: The same day, Hitler met with Chamberlain and demanded the swift takeover of the Sudetenland by Nazi Germany under threat of war. Czechoslovakia, Hitler claimed, was slaughtering the Sudeten Germans. Chamberlain referred the demand to the British and French governments, both of which accepted. The Czechoslovak government resisted by arguing that Hitler's proposal would ruin the nation's economy and ultimately lead to German control of all of Czechoslovakia. The United Kingdom and France issued an ultimatum and made a French commitment to Czechoslovakia contingent upon its acceptance. On 21 September, Czechoslovakia capitulated. The next day, however, Hitler added new demands that insisted for the claims of Poland and Hungary to be satisfied as well. Romania was also invited to share in the division of Carpathian Ruthenia but refused because it was an ally of Czechoslovakia (see Little Entente).


text: The Czechoslovak capitulation precipitated an outburst of national indignation. In demonstrations and rallies, Czechs and Slovaks called for a strong military government to defend the integrity of the state. A new cabinet, under General Jan Syrový, was installed, and on 23 September 1938, a decree of general mobilization was issued. The Czechoslovak Army was modern, had an excellent system of frontier fortifications and was prepared to fight. The Soviet Union announced its willingness to come to Czechoslovakia's assistance. Beneš, however, refused to go to war without the support of the Western powers.


text: Hitler gave a speech in Berlin on 26 September 1938 and declared that the Sudetenland was "the last territorial demand I have to make in Europe". He also stated that he had told Chamberlain, "I have assured him further that, and this I repeat here before you, once this issue has been resolved, there will no longer be any further territorial problems for Germany in Europe!"


text: On 28 September, Chamberlain appealed to Hitler for a conference. Hitler met the next day at Munich with the chiefs of governments of France, Italy and Britain. The Czechoslovak government was neither invited nor consulted. On 29 September, the Munich Agreement was signed by Germany, Italy, France and Britain. The Czechoslovak government capitulated on 30 September, despite the army's opposition, and agreed to abide by the agreement, which stipulated that Czechoslovakia must cede Sudetenland to Germany. The German occupation of the Sudetenland would be completed by 10 October. An international commission representing Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Czechoslovakia would supervise a plebiscite to determine the final frontier. Britain and France promised to join in an international guarantee of the new frontiers against unprovoked aggression. Germany and Italy, however, would not join in the guarantee until the Polish and Hungarian minority problems were settled.


text: On 5 October 1938, Beneš resigned as president since he realised that the fall of Czechoslovakia was a "fait accompli". After the outbreak of World War II, he would form a Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London.


text: In early November 1938, under the First Vienna Award, which was a result of the Munich agreement, Czechoslovakia — which had failed to reach a compromise with Hungary and Poland— had to cede after the arbitration of Germany and Italy awarded southern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia to Hungary, while Poland invaded Zaolzie territory shortly after.


text: As a result, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia lost about 38% of their combined area to Germany, with some 3.2 million German and 750,000 Czech inhabitants. Hungary, in turn, received in southern Slovakia and southern Carpathian Ruthenia; according to a 1941 census, about 86.5% of the population in this territory was Hungarian. Meanwhile, Poland annexed the town of Český Těšín with the surrounding area (some ), some 250,000 inhabitants, Poles making up about 36% of population, and two minor border areas in northern Slovakia, more precisely in the regions Spiš and Orava. (, 4,280 inhabitants, only 0.3% Poles).


text: Soon after Munich, 115,000 Czechs and 30,000 Germans fled to the remaining rump of Czechoslovakia. According to the Institute for Refugee Assistance, the actual count of refugees on 1 March 1939 stood at almost 150,000.


text: On 4 December 1938, there were elections in Reichsgau Sudetenland, in which 97.32% of the adult population voted for the National Socialist Party. About 500,000 Sudeten Germans joined the National Socialist Party, which was 17.34% of the German population in Sudetenland (the average National Socialist Party participation in Nazi Germany was 7.85%). This means the Sudetenland was the most pro-Nazi region in Nazi Germany. Because of their knowledge of the Czech language, many Sudeten Germans were employed in the administration of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and in Nazi organizations such as the "Gestapo". The most notable was Karl Hermann Frank, the SS and police general and Secretary of State in the Protectorate.


text: The greatly weakened Czechoslovak Republic was forced to grant major concessions to the non-Czechs. The executive committee of the Slovak People's Party met at Žilina on 5 October 1938, and with the acquiescence of all Slovak parties except the Social Democrats formed an autonomous Slovak government under Jozef Tiso. Similarly, the two major factions in Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the Russophiles and Ukrainophiles, agreed on the establishment of an autonomous government, which was constituted on 8 October. Reflecting the spread of modern Ukrainian national consciousness, the pro-Ukrainian faction, led by Avhustyn Voloshyn, gained control of the local government and Subcarpathian Ruthenia was renamed Carpatho-Ukraine. In 1939, during the occupation, the Nazis banned Russian ballet.


text: A last-ditch attempt to save Czechoslovakia from total ruin was made by the British and French governments, who on 27 January 1939, concluded an agreement of financial assistance with the Czechoslovak government. In this agreement, the British and French governments undertook to lend the Czechoslovak government £8 million and make a gift of £4 million. Part of the funds were allocated to help resettle Czechs and Slovaks who had fled from territories lost to Germany, Hungary, and Poland in the Munich Agreement or the Vienna Arbitration Award.


text: In November 1938, Emil Hácha, who succeeded Beneš, was elected president of the federated Second Republic, renamed Czecho-Slovakia and consisting of three parts: Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia, and Carpatho-Ukraine. Lacking its natural frontier and having lost its costly system of border fortification, the new state was militarily indefensible. Without the natural defensive barrier of the mountains of the Sudetenland, Hácha carried out a foreign policy that was slavishly pro-German as he felt this was the best way to preserve his nation's independence.


text: In late 1938-early 1939, the continuing economic crisis caused by problems of rearmament, especially the shortage of foreign hard currencies needed to pay for raw materials Germany lacked together with reports from Hermann Göring that the Four Year Plan was hopelessly behind schedule forced Hitler in January 1939 to reluctantly order major defense cuts with the Wehrmacht having its steel allocations cut by 30%, aluminum 47%, cement 25%, rubber 14% and copper 20%. On January 30, 1939, Hitler made his "Export or die!" speech calling for a German economic offensive or "export battle" to use Hitler's term to increase German foreign exchange holdings to pay for raw materials for the Four Year Plan without cutting back on food imports. Hitler's wish to occupy Czechoslovakia was primarily caused by the foreign exchange crisis as Germany had run down its foreign exchange reserves by early 1939, and Germany urgently needed to seize the gold of the Czechoslovak central bank to continue the Four Year Plan. On 8 March 1939, Hitler met with Wilhelm Keppler, the NSDAP's economic expert, where he spoke about his wish to occupy Czecho-Slovakia for economic reasons, saying that Germany needed its raw materials and industries.


text: Hitler totally ignored the agreements of the Munich Agreement and scheduled a German invasion of Bohemia and Moravia for the morning of 15 March. In the interim, he negotiated with the Slovak People's Party and with Hungary to prepare the dismemberment of the republic before the invasion. On 13 March, he invited Tiso to Berlin and on 14 March, the Slovak Diet convened and unanimously declared Slovak independence. Carpatho-Ukraine also declared independence but Hungarian troops occupied and annexed it on 15 March and a small part of eastern Slovakia as well on 23 March.


text: After the secession of Slovakia and Ruthenia, British Ambassador to Czechoslovakia Basil Newton advised President Hácha to meet with Hitler. When Hácha arrived in Berlin on March 14, he met with the German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop prior to meeting with Hitler. Von Ribbentrop testified at the Nuremberg trials that during this meeting, Hácha had told him that "he wanted to place the fate of the Czech State in the Führer's hands." Hácha later met with Hitler, where Hitler gave the Czech President two options: cooperate with Germany, in which case the "entry of German troops would take place in a tolerable manner" and "permit Czechoslovakia a generous life of her own, autonomy and a degree of national freedom..." or face a scenario in which "resistance would be broken by force of arms, using all means." Minutes of the conversation noted that for Hácha this was the most difficult decision of his life but believed that in only a few years this decision would be comprehensible and in 50 years would probably be regarded as a blessing. After the negotiations had finished, Hitler told his secretaries, "It is the greatest triumph of my life! I shall enter history as the greatest German of them all."


text: According to Joachim Fest, Hácha suffered a heart attack induced by Hermann Göring's threat to bomb the capital and by four o'clock he contacted Prague, effectively "signing Czechoslovakia away" to Germany. Göring acknowledged making the threat to the British ambassador to Germany, Neville Henderson, but said that the threat came as a warning because the Czech government, after already agreeing to German occupation, could not guarantee that the Czech army would not fire on the advancing Germans. Göring, however, does not mention that Hácha had a heart attack because of his threat. French Ambassador Robert Coulondre reported that according to an unnamed, considered a reliable source by Coulondre, by half past four, Hácha was "in a state of total collapse, and kept going only by means of injections."


text: On the morning of 15 March, German troops entered the remaining Czech parts of Czechoslovakia ("Rest-Tschechei" in German), meeting practically no resistance (the only instance of organized resistance took place in Místek where an infantry company commanded by Karel Pavlík fought invading German troops). The Hungarian invasion of Carpatho-Ukraine encountered resistance but the Hungarian army quickly crushed it. On 16 March, Hitler went to the Czech lands and from Prague Castle proclaimed the German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The British historian Victor Rothwell wrote that the Czechoslovak reserves of gold and hard currency seized in March 1939 were "invaluable in staving off Germany's foreign exchange crisis". In addition, the Germans seized all of the factories for making weapons, mines that provided crucial raw materials for the armament program of the Four Year Plan and a "huge weapons haul, including nearly 500 tanks and nearly 1600 aircraft".


text: Besides violating his promises at Munich, the annexation of the rest of Czechoslovakia was, unlike Hitler's previous actions, not described in "Mein Kampf". After having repeatedly stated that he was interested only in pan-Germanism, the unification of ethnic Germans into one "Reich", Germany had now conquered seven million Czechs. Hitler's proclamation creating the protectorate on 16 March claimed that "Bohemia and Moravia have for thousands of years belonged to the "Lebensraum" of the German people". British public opinion changed drastically after the invasion. Chamberlain realised that the Munich Agreement had meant nothing to Hitler. Chamberlain told the British public on 17 March during a speech in Birmingham that Hitler was attempting "to dominate the world by force".


text: Subsequently, interwar Czechoslovakia has been idealized by its proponents as the only bastion of democracy surrounded by authoritarian and fascist regimes. It has also been condemned by its detractors as an artificial and unworkable creation of intellectuals supported by the great powers. Interwar Czechoslovakia comprised lands and peoples that were far from being integrated into a modern nation-state. Moreover, the dominant Czechs, who had suffered political discrimination under the Habsburgs, were not able to cope with the demands of other nationalities; however, some of the minority demands served as mere pretexts to justify intervention by Germany. Czechoslovakia was able to maintain a viable economy and a democratic political system under the adverse circumstances of the interwar period.


text: Shortly before World War II, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Its territory was divided into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the newly declared Slovak State and the short-lived Republic of Carpathian Ukraine. While much of former Czechoslovakia came under the control of Nazi Germany, Hungarian forces (aided by Poland) swiftly overran the Carpathian Ukraine. Poland and Hungary annexed some areas (e.g., Zaolzie, Southern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia) in the autumn of 1938. The Zaolzie region became part of Nazi Germany after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939.


text: The German economy—burdened by heavy militarisation—urgently needed foreign currency. Setting up an artificially high exchange rate between the Czechoslovak "koruna" and the "Reichsmark" brought consumer goods to Germans (and soon created shortages in the Czech lands).