title: Greater Albania

text: The Western part of North Macedonia was also annexed by Italy to their protectorate of Albania. In newly acquired territories, non-Albanians had to attend Albanian schools that taught a curriculum containing nationalism alongside fascism and were made to adopt Albanian forms for their names and surnames. Members from the landowning elite, liberal nationalists opposed to communism with other sectors of society in Albania came to form the Balli Kombëtar organisation and the collaborationist government under the Italians which all as nationalists sought to preserve Greater Albania.


title: Greater Albania

text: Many Kosovo Albanians were preoccupied with driving out the Serb community, particularly the post-1919 Serbian and Montenegrin colonists, often settled on confiscated Albanian property. Albanians saw Serbian and Yugoslav rule as foreign, and according to Ramet they felt that anything would be better than the chauvinism, corruption, administrative hegemonism and exploitation they had experienced under the Serbian authorities. Albanians collaborated broadly with the Axis occupiers, who had promised them a Greater Albania. Collapse of Yugoslav rule resulted in actions of revenge being undertaken by Albanians, some joining the local "Vulnetari" militia that burned Serbian settlements and killed Serbs while interwar Serbian and Montenegrin colonists were expelled into Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia. The aim of these actions were to create a homogeneous Greater Albanian state. Italian authorities in Kosovo allowed the use of the Albanian language in schools, university education and administration. The same nationalist sentiments among Albanians which welcomed the addition of Kosovo and its Albanians within an enlarged state also worked against the Italians as foreign occupation became increasingly rejected in Albania. An attempt to get Kosovan Albanians to join the resistance, a meeting in Bujan (1943–1944), northern Albania was convened between Balli Kombëtar members and Albanian communists that agreed to common struggle and maintenance of the newly expanded boundaries. The deal was opposed by Yugoslav partisans and later rescinded resulting in limited Kosovan Albanian recruits. Some Balli Kombëtar members such as Shaban Polluzha became partisans with the view that Kosovo would become part of Albania. With the end of the war, some of those Kosovan Albanians felt betrayed by the return of Yugoslav rule and for several years Albanian nationalists in Kosovo resisted both the partisans and later the new Yugoslav army. Albanian nationalists viewed their inclusion within Yugoslavia as an occupation.


title: Greater Albania

text: The Albanian Fascist Party became the ruling party of the Italian Protectorate of Albania in 1939 and the prime minister Shefqet Verlaci approved the possible administrative union of Albania and Italy, because he wanted the Italian support in order to get the union of Kosovo, Chameria and other "Albanian irredentism" into "Greater Albania". Indeed, this unification was realized after the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece from spring 1941. The Albanian fascists claimed in May 1941 that nearly all the Albanian populated territories were united to Albania.


title: Greater Albania

text: Between May 1941 and September 1943, Benito Mussolini placed nearly all the land inhabited by ethnic Albanians under the jurisdiction of an Albanian quisling government. That included parts of the region of Kosovo, parts of Vardar Macedonia and some small border areas of Montenegro. In Chameria an Albanian high commissioner, Xhemil Dino, was appointed by the Italians, but the area remained under the control of the Italian military command in Athens and so technically remained a region of Greece.


title: Greater Albania

text: When the Germans occupied the area and substituted the Italians, they maintained the borders created by Mussolini, but after World War II the Albanian borders were returned by the Allies to the pre-war status.


title: Greater Albania

text: The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was an ethnic-Albanian paramilitary organisation which sought the separation of Kosovo from Yugoslavia during the 1990s and the eventual creation of a "Greater Albania", encompassing Kosovo, Albania, and the ethnic Albanian minority of neighbouring Macedonia. The KLA found great moral and financial support among the Albanian diaspora.


title: Greater Albania

text: By 1998 the KLA's operations had evolved into a significant armed insurrection. According to the report of the USCRI, the "Kosovo Liberation Army ... attacks aimed at trying to 'cleanse' Kosovo of its ethnic Serb population." The UNHCR estimated the figure at 55,000 refugees who had fled to Montenegro and Central Serbia, most of whom were Kosovo Serbs.


title: Greater Albania

text: Its campaign against Yugoslav security forces, police, government officers and ethnic Serb villages precipitated a major Yugoslav military crackdown which led to the Kosovo War of 1998–1999. Military intervention by Yugoslav security forces led by Slobodan Milošević and Serb paramilitaries within Kosovo prompted an exodus of Kosovar Albanians and a refugee crisis that eventually caused NATO to intervene militarily in order to stop what was widely identified as an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing.


title: Greater Albania

text: The war ended with the Kumanovo Treaty, with Yugoslav forces agreeing to withdraw from Kosovo to make way for an international presence. The Kosovo Liberation Army disbanded soon after this, with some of its members going on to fight for the UÇPMB in the Preševo Valley and others joining the National Liberation Army (NLA) and Albanian National Army (ANA) during the armed ethnic conflict in Macedonia.


title: Greater Albania

text: Political parties advocating and willing to fight for a Greater Albania emerged in Albania during the 2000s. They were the National Liberation Front of Albanians (KKCMTSH) and Party of National Unity (PUK) that both merged in 2002 to form the United National Albanian Front (FBKSh) which acted as the political organisation for the Albanian National Army (AKSh) militant group and consisted of some disaffected KLA and NLA members. Regarded internationally as terrorist both have gone underground and its members have been involved in various violent incidents in Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia during the 2000s. In the early 2000s, the Liberation Army of Chameria (UCC) was a reported paramilitary formation that intended to be active in northern Greek region of Epirus. Political parties active only in the political scene exist that have a nationalist outlook are the monarchist Legality Movement Party (PLL), the National Unity Party (PBKSh) alongside the Balli Kombëtar, a party to have passed the electoral threshold and enter parliament. These political parties, some of whom advocate for a Greater Albania have been mainly insignificant and remained at the margins of the Albanian political scene. The Kosovo question has limited appeal among Albanian voters who generally speaking are not interested in electing parties advocating redrawn borders creating a Greater Albania. Centenary Albanian independence celebrations in 2012 generated nationalistic commentary among the political elite of whom prime-minister Sali Berisha referred to Albanian lands as extending to Preveza, northern Greece and Preševo, southern Serbia angering Albania's neighbors. In Kosovo, a prominent left wing nationalist movement turned political party Vetëvendosje (Self Determination) has emerged who advocates for closer Kosovo-Albania relations and pan-Albanian self determination in the Balkans. Another smaller nationalist party, the Balli Kombetar Kosovë (BKK) sees itself as an heir to the original Second World War organisation that supports Kosovan independence and pan-Albanian unification. Greater Albania remains mainly in the sphere of political rhetoric and overall Balkan Albanians view EU integration as the solution to combat crime, weak governance, civil society and bringing different Albanian populations together.


title: Greater Albania

text: On 19 July 2020, singer of Albanian descent Dua Lipa faced backlash after she shared an image of a banner associated with supporters of extreme Albanian nationalism. The same banner had sparked controversy at the 2014 Serbia vs. Albania football game. The banner depicts the irredentist map of Greater Albania, while the caption, "autochthonous". In response, Twitter users, many of them Macedonian, Greek, Montenegrin and Serbian, accused the singer of ethno-nationalism. Political scientist Florian Bieber described Lipa's tweet as "stupid nationalism".


title: Greater Albania

text: In Feb 2021, in an interview with Euronews, Albin Kurti, former Prime Minister of Kosovo, said that he would personally vote to unify Albania and Kosovo.


title: Greater Albania

text: According to the "Gallup Balkan Monitor" 2010 report, the idea of a Greater Albania was supported by the majority of Albanians in Albania (63%), Kosovo (81%) and the Republic of Macedonia (53%), although the same report noted that most Albanians thought this unlikely to happen.


title: Greater Albania

text: In a survey carried out by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), published in March 2007, only 2.5% of the Albanians in Kosovo thought unification with Albania is the best solution for Kosovo. Ninety-six percent said they wanted Kosovo to become independent within its present borders.


title: Greater Albania

text: According to a 2019 poll by Open Society Foundations that covered 2,504 respondents in both countries, 79.4% of Kosovar Albanian respondents were in favor of unification between Albania and Kosovo, compared to 82.9% of the respondents in Albania. When asked whether they would be willing to pay a tax for unification, 66.1% of respondents in Kosovo agreed, compared to 45.5% in Albania.


title: Greater Albania

text: The Albanian question in the Balkan peninsula is in part the consequence of the decisions made by Western powers in late 19th and early 20th century. The Treaty of San Stefano and the 1878 Treaty of Berlin assigned Albanian inhabited territories to other States, hence the reaction of the League of Prizren. One theory posits that the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Austro-Hungary wanted to maintain a brittle balance in Europe in the late 19th century.


title: Greater Albania

text: The degree to which different groups are working towards and what efforts such groups are undertaking in order to achieve a Greater Albania is disputed. There seems no evidence that anything more than a few unrepresentative extremist groups are working towards this cause; the vast majority of Albanians want to live in peace with their neighbors. However, they also want the human rights of the Albanian ethnic populations in North Macedonia, Serbia, Greece to be respected. An excellent example is the friendly relationship between the Montenegro and the support towards the integration of the Albanian population in North Macedonia. There is Albanian representation in government, the national parliament, local government, and the business sector, and no evidence of systematic discrimination on an ethnic or religious basis against the Albanian (or indeed any other minority) population.


title: Greater Albania

text: In 2000, the then-US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that the international community would not tolerate any efforts towards the creation of a Greater Albania.


title: Greater Albania

text: In 2004, the Vetëvendosje movement was formed in Kosovo, which opposes foreign involvement in Kosovan affairs and campaigns instead for the sovereignty the people, as part of the right of self-determination. Vetëvendosje obtained 12.66% of the votes in an election in December 2010, and the party manifesto calls for a referendum on union with Albania.


title: Greater Albania

text: In 2012, the Red and Black Alliance () was established as a political party in Albania, the core of its program is national unification of all Albanians in their native lands.


title: Greater Albania

text: In 2012, as part of the celebrations for 100th Anniversary of the Independence of Albania, Prime Minister Sali Berisha spoke of "Albanian lands" stretching from Preveza in Greece to Presevo in Serbia, and from the Macedonian capital of Skopje to the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, angering Albania's neighbors. The comments were also inscribed on a parchment that will be displayed at a museum in the city of Vlore, where the country's independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared in 1912.


title: Greater Albania

text: The concept is also often used, especially with Ilirida (the proposed western region of North Macedonia), by nationalists in circles of Macedonian and Serbian politics in bids to rally support.


title: Greater Albania

text: Kosovo has an overwhelmingly Albanian majority, estimated to be around 88%. The 2011 census stated a higher percentage Albanian people, but due to the exclusion of northern Kosovo, a Serb-dominated area, and a partial boycott by the Romani and Serb population in south Kosovo, those numbers are unreliable.


title: Greater Albania

text: The irredentist claims in Montenegro are in the border areas, including Kraja, Ulcinj, Tuzi (Malësia), Plav and Gusinje, and Rožaje (Sandžak). According to the 2011 census, the Albanian proportion in those municipalities are following: Ulcinj–14,076 (70%), Tuzi–2,383 (50%), Plav–(19%), Rožaje–188 (2%). The claim on the Sandžak area, where the Albanian community is small and the Bosniak community is the majority, is based on the Albanian state borders in World War II and presence in the late Ottoman period.


title: Greater Albania

text: The western part of North Macedonia is an area with a large ethnic Albanian minority. The Albanian population in North Macedonia make up 25% of the population, numbering 509,083 in the 2002 census. Cities with Albanian majorities or large minorities include Tetovo (Tetova), Gostivar (Gostivari), Struga (Struga) and Debar (Diber).


title: Greater Albania

text: In the 1980s, Albanian irredentist organizations appeared in the SR Macedonia, particularly Vinica, Kicevo, Tetovo and Gostivar. In 1992, Albanian activists in Struga proclaimed also the founding of the Republic of Ilirida () with the intention of autonomy or federalization inside Macedonia. The declaration had only a symbolic meaning and the idea of an autonomous State of Ilirida is not officially accepted by the ethnic Albanian politicians in North Macedonia.


title: Greater Albania

text: The irredentist claims in Central Serbia (excluding Kosovo) are in the southern Preševo Valley, including municipalities of Preševo (), Bujanovac () and partially Medveđa (), where there is an Albanian community. In 2001, the Albanians were estimated to have numbered 70,000 in the area. According to the 2002 census, the Albanian proportion in those municipalities were following: Preševo–31,098 (89%), Bujanovac–23,681 (55%), Medveđa–2,816 (26%).


title: Greater Albania

text: Following the Kosovo War (1998–99), the Albanian separatist Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (, UÇPMB), fought an insurgency against the Serbian government, aiming to seceding the Preševo Valley into Kosovo.


title: Greater Albania

text: The coastal region of Thesprotia in northwestern Greece referred to by Albanians as "Çamëria" is sometimes included in Greater Albania. According to the 1928 census held by the Greek state, there were around 20,000 Muslim Cams in Thesprotia prefecture. They were forced to seek refuge in Albania at the end of World War II after a large part of them collaborated and committed a number of crimes together with the Nazis during the 1941–1944 period. In the first post-war census (1951), only 123 Muslim Çams were left in the area. Descendants of the exiled Muslim Chams (they claim that they are now up to 170,000 now living in Albania) claim that up to 35,000 Muslim Çams were living in southern Epirus before World War II. Many of them are currently trying to pursue legal ways to claim compensation for the properties seized by Greece. For Greece the issue "does not exist".


title: Greater Albania

text: International Crisis Group researched the issue of Pan-Albanianism and published a report titled "Pan-Albanianism: How Big a Threat to Balkan Stability?" on February 2004.


title: Greater Albania

text: The International Crisis Group advised in the report the Albanian and Greek governments to endeavour and settle the longstanding issue of the Chams displaced from Greece in 1945, before it gets hijacked and exploited by extreme nationalists, and the Chams' legitimate grievances get lost in the struggle to further other national causes. Moreover, the ICG findings suggest that Albania is more interested in developing cultural and economic ties with Kosovo and maintaining separate statehood.


title: Val McCallum

text: McCallum has toured with, and served as a studio musician for many well-known musicians. He toured with Jackson Browne, and McCallum's musical resume includes stints with Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams, The Wallflowers, Bonnie Raitt, and Loretta Lynn, among others. McCallum released his first solo record, entitled "At the End of the Day". His parents are actor/musician David McCallum and actress Jill Ireland.


title: Val McCallum

text: In addition to his solo album and extensive work in touring and session bands, McCallum is also a member of the comic-country band, Jackshit. The band originated as Vonda Shepard's backing band on the hit series "Ally McBeal".


title: Ester Noronha

text: Ester Valerie Noronha (born 12 September 1992), is an Indian actress and playback singer who works in Telugu, Kannada and Konkani-language films. "1000 Abaddalu" (2013), "Bhimavaram Bullodu" (2014) and "Lanke" (2021) are some of her notable films.


title: Ester Noronha

text: Noronha, who was a popular name in the Konkani music circuits from the early age of 8, debuted in the Hindi film "Baromas" under her Guru Saroj Khan's choreography. She was then noticed and cast by film director Teja in his Telugu film "1000 Abaddalu" in 2013, and was immediately signed by the prestigious Suresh Productions for their film "Bhimavaram Bullodu" alongside Sunil. Noronha debuted in Kannada cinema with the film "Usirigintha Neene Hattira" in 2014.


title: Ester Noronha

text: While still pursuing her B.A in Political Science and Psychology at the University of Mumbai, she appeared in the title song of the Telugu film "Garam", alongside hero Aadi, and in the Tamil film "Meen Kuzhambum Mann Paanaiyum". She also debuted in Konkani films with the historic blockbuster "Noshibacho Khell". Noronha later starred in the Konkani film "Sophiya - A Dream Girl" which fetched Ester her good recognition.


title: Ester Noronha

text: Noronha is a Roman Catholic and traces her roots to the aristocratic family of the Noronha's of Portugal. Her paternal ancestors are said to be Portuguese/Goans who settled in Verna, Goa and eventually moved to Udupi, Karnataka. While her mother is a Mangalorean.


title: Ester Noronha

text: Noronha married Indian singer and rapper Noel Sean in January 2019. They separated in February 2019 due to irreconcilable differences and filed for divorce in June 2019. The couple was granted the divorce in the Court of Law as well the Court of Church (Annulment) in August 2020.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: The politics of Ukraine take place in a framework of a semi-presidential republic and of a multi-party system. A Cabinet of Ministers exercises executive power (jointly with the president until 1996). Legislative power is vested in Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada ().


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: As part of the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic until 1991, the political system featured a single-party socialist-republic framework characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), the sole-governing party then permitted by the Ukrainian SSR's constitution. In 1996, the current constitution replaced the previous constitution that was introduced in 1978.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: From 2014 changes in the administration on-the-ground in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk have complicated the "de facto" political situation associated with those areas.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Shortly after becoming independent in 1991, Ukraine named a parliamentary commission to prepare a new constitution, adopted a multi-party system, and adopted legislative guarantees of civil and political rights for national minorities. A new, democratic constitution was adopted on 28 June 1996, which mandates a pluralistic political system with protection of basic human rights and liberties, and a semi-presidential form of government.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: The Constitution was amended in December 2004 to ease the resolution of the 2004 presidential election crisis. The consociationalist agreement transformed the form of government in a semi-presidentialism in which the President of Ukraine had to cohabit with a powerful Prime Minister.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: The Constitutional Court of Ukraine in October 2010 overturned the 2004 amendments, considering them unconstitutional. The present valid Constitution of Ukraine is therefore the 1996 text. On November 18, 2010 The Venice Commission published its report titled "The Opinion of the Constitutional Situation in Ukraine in Review of the Judgement of Ukraine's Constitutional Court", in which it stated "It also considers highly unusual that far-reaching constitutional amendments, including the change of the political system of the country - from a parliamentary system to a parliamentary presidential one - are declared unconstitutional by a decision of the Constitutional Court after a period of 6 years. ... As Constitutional Courts are bound by the Constitution and do not stand above it, such decisions raise important questions of democratic legitimacy and the rule of law".


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: On February 21, 2014 the parliament passed a law that reinstated the December 8, 2004 amendments of the constitution. This was passed under simplified procedure without any decision of the relevant committee and was passed in the first and the second reading in one voting by 386 deputies. The law was approved by 140 MPs of the Party of Regions, 89 MPs of Batkivshchyna, 40 MPs of UDAR, 32 of the Communist Party, and 50 independent lawmakers. According to Radio Free Europe, however, the measure was not signed by the then-President Viktor Yanukovych, who was subsequently removed from office.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: According to the Article 5 of the Constitution, the bearer of sovereignty and the single source of power in Ukraine are people. The people exercise their power directly and through state and local authorities. Nobody can usurp power in Ukraine.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: The Article 15 of the Constitution established that public life in Ukraine is based on principles of political, economical and ideological diversity. No ideology could be recognized by the state as mandatory.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Freedom of religion is guaranteed by law, although religious organizations are required to register with local authorities and with the central government. The Article 35 of the Constitution defines that no religion could be recognized by the state as mandatory, while church and religious organizations in Ukraine are separated from state.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Minority rights are respected in accordance with a 1991 law guaranteeing ethnic minorities the right to schools, educational buildings, and cultural facilities and the use of national languages in conducting personal business. According to the Ukrainian constitution, Ukrainian is the only official state language. However, in Crimea and some parts of eastern Ukraine—areas with substantial ethnic Russian minorities—use of Russian is widespread in official business.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Freedom of speech and press are guaranteed by law, but authorities sometimes interfere with the news media through different forms of pressure (see Freedom of the press in Ukraine). In particular, the failure of the government to conduct a thorough, credible, and transparent investigation into the 2000 disappearance and murder of independent journalist Georgiy Gongadze has had a negative effect on Ukraine's international image. Over half of Ukrainians polled by the Razumkov Center in early October 2010 (56.6%) believed political censorship existed in Ukraine. Over half of Ukrainians feel political censorship, Kyiv Post (October 9, 2010)


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Official labor unions have been grouped under the Federation of Labor Unions. A number of independent unions, which emerged during 1992, among them the Independent Union of Miners of Ukraine, have formed the Consultative Council of Free Labor Unions. While the right to strike is legally guaranteed, strikes based solely on political demands are prohibited.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: The president is elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The President nominates the Prime Minister, who must be confirmed by parliament. The Prime-minister and cabinet are "de jure" appointed by the Parliament on submission of the President and Prime Minister respectively. of the Constitution of Ukraine.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: The Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) has 450 members, elected for a four-year term (five-year between 2006 and 2012 with the 2004 amendments). Prior to 2006, half of the members were elected by proportional representation and the other half by single-seat constituencies. In the 2006 and 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary elections, all 450 members of the Verkhovna Rada were elected by party-list proportional representation, but the system returned to parallel voting in 2012.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: The Verkhovna Rada initiates legislation, ratifies international agreements, and approves the budget.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Ukrainian parties tend not to have clear-cut ideologies but incline to centre around civilizational and geostrategic orientations (rather than economic and socio-political agendas, as in Western politics), around personalities and business interests.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Party membership is lower than 1% of the population eligible to vote (compared to an average of 4.7% in the European Union).


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Laws, acts of the parliament and the Cabinet, presidential edicts, and acts of the Crimean parliament (Autonomous Republic of Crimea) may be nullified by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, when they are found to violate the Constitution of Ukraine. Other normative acts are subject to judicial review. The Supreme Court of Ukraine is the main body in the system of courts of general jurisdiction.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: The Constitution of Ukraine provides for trials by jury. This has not yet been implemented in practice. Moreover, some courts provided for by legislation as still in project, as is the case for, e.g., the Court of Appeals of Ukraine. The reform of the judicial branch is presently under way.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Important is also the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, granted with the broad rights of control and supervision.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Ukraine is divided into 24 oblasts (regions). Each oblast is divided into rayons (districts). The current administrative divisions remain the same as the local administrations of the Soviet Union. The heads of the oblast and rayon are appointed and dismissed by the President of Ukraine. They serve as representatives of the central government in Kyiv. They govern over locally elected assemblies. This system encourages regional elites to compete fiercely for control over the central government and the position of the president.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: During 1992, a number of pro-Russian political organizations in Crimea advocated secession of Crimea and annexation to Russia. During USSR times Crimea was ceded from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 by First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev to mark the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav. In July 1992, the Crimean and Ukrainian parliaments determined that Crimea would remain under Ukrainian jurisdiction while retaining significant cultural and economic autonomy, thus creating the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: The Crimean peninsula—while under Ukrainian sovereignty, served as site for major military bases of both Ukrainian and Russian forces, and was heavily populated by ethnic Russians.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: In early 2014, Ukraine's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted by Ukrainians over his refusal to ally Ukraine with the European Union, rather than Russia. In response, Russia invaded Crimea in February 2014 and occupied it.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: In March 2014, a controversial referendum was held in Crimea with 97% of voters backing joining Russia.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: On 18 March 2014, Russia and the new, self-proclaimed Republic of Crimea signed a treaty of accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol in the Russian Federation. In response, the UN General Assembly passed non-binding resolution 68/262 declaring the referendum invalid, and officially supporting Ukraine's claim to Crimea. Although Russia administers the peninsula as two federal subjects, Ukraine and the majority of countries do not recognise Russia's annexation.


title: Politics of Ukraine

text: Center for Adaptation of Civil Service to the Standards of EU - public institution established by the Decree of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to facilitate administrative reform in Ukraine and to enhance the adaptation of the civil service to the standards of the European Union.


title: Tashan (film)

text: Tashan () is a 2008 Indian action comedy film written by Vijay Krishna Acharya in his directorial debut and produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films. Starring Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor in the lead roles with Anil Kapoor as the lead antagonist, it was released on 25 April 2008.


title: Tashan (film)

text: Jeetendra Kumar Makwana a.k.a. Jimmy Cliff (Saif Ali Khan) is a call center executive who also teaches English. Pooja Singh (Kareena Kapoor) shows up outside his class and says she needs private tutoring. Without any hesitation, Jimmy quickly agrees as he has already fallen in love with her; he later finds out that Pooja's boss Lakhan Singh Ballebaaz a.k.a. Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor) is the one who has to be tutored. As their love grows, Pooja reveals that she is only working for Bhaiyyaji to pay her debts, so she can then go to Haridwar to scatter her father's ashes. They decide to steal Bhaiyyaji's money and run away. The couple succeeds in their mission, and Jimmy asks Pooja to guard the money while he goes to the call center to tell them he is leaving.


title: Tashan (film)

text: At the call center, Jimmy learns that Bhaiyyaji is a maverick gangster who enjoys killing people and goes home to warn Pooja. Unexpectedly, Pooja has run away with all the money and she meets a bank manager to deposit the money in the bank locker. He initially disagrees but Pooja gives him a handjob and he agrees. Bhaiyyaji hires Bachchan Pandey (Akshay Kumar), a gangster, to catch Jimmy. After getting caught, Jimmy and Bachchhan head towards Haridwar to find Pooja and recover Bhaiyyaji's money. When they reach there, Pooja sees them and runs away. Unable to find Pooja there, Jimmy and Bachchan set off to find her again. While on the road, the duo got into a silly fight about the radio station and their car falls into the water.


title: Tashan (film)

text: Along with Jimmy and Bachchan, Pooja comes out of the water too; she had been hiding in their trunk the whole time. She tells them that she has hidden the money in seven different places across India. Jimmy and Pooja decide to run away with the money. The duo decides that Pooja should seduce Bachchan just like she did Jimmy. She tries to play the ploy, but discovers in the process that he is her childhood lover, and they both fall in love. After recovering all of the money, Bachchan decides to leave with it, not knowing that Jimmy has replaced the money with stones.


title: Tashan (film)

text: When Pooja realizes what Jimmy has done, she tells him the truth about Bhaiyyaji killing her father, a kindhearted gangster, to usurp his throne. Rushing to save Bachchan, Pooja and Jimmy reach Bhaiyyaji's lair with the money. Jimmy pretends to betray Pooja and slaps Bachchan. He tells Bhaiyyaji to give him his gun so that he can kill Bachchan. After getting the gun, Jimmy instead points it to Bhaiyyaji and takes him hostage. He heads towards a car with Pooja and Bachchan following him. Surrounded by Bhaiyyaji's henchmen with guns, Bhaiyyaji manages to jump out of the car and everybody begins shooting at them. After an elongated fight, Bhaiyyaji is killed by Pooja who stabs him with a knife. In the end, Jimmy opens his own call centre, where only girls work, and Bachchhan and Pooja get married.


title: Tashan (film)

text: Pre-production began in late 2006 with Akshay Kumar being signed first, and Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor next. In early 2007, Anil Kapoor was signed on to play a negative role in the film which marks his first role as a villain. This film continued Khan's long-standing successful collaboration with Yash Raj Films. It also marked a return for 3 of its lead actors to Yash Raj Films: Kumar was previously seen in "Dil To Pagal Hai" (1997), whilst Kareena Kapoor and Anil Kapoor were last seen in "Mujhse Dosti Karoge!" (2002) and "Lamhe" (1991), respectively.


title: Tashan (film)

text: Apart from the major star cast, Khan's son, Ibrahim, also made his acting debut, where he played the younger version of his father's character. Sources later indicated that all the actors would be seen sporting new looks designed by designer Aki Narula. In June 2007, the cast began filming in Kerala, and later continued shooting in Ladakh and Rajasthan. Pictures of Khan and Kareena Kapoor were taken in September 2007 while shooting for the film in the Fort area of Mumbai. Some portions of the film were later shot in the city of Haridwar on the banks of the river Ganges. The video clips of two songs were made in Milos Island and Nafplio in Greece.


title: Tashan (film)

text: The first promo was shown on 30 November 2007 with the release of Anil Mehta's "Aaja Nachle". In a poll conducted by "indiaFM", "Tashan" ranked #1 on the list of "Most Awaited Movies of 2008". To promote the film, Yash Raj Films built communities on social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut and YouTube.


title: Tashan (film)

text: Released on 10 January 2008 by Yash Raj Films, "Tashan"s soundtrack was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, whilst the lyrics were penned by 4 different lyricists: Piyush Mishra, Anvita Dutt Guptan, Vishal Dadlani and Kausar Munir. Joginder Tuteja from "IndiaFM" gave the film's soundtrack 4 out of 5 stars and noted, "Songs in "Tashan" excite, get on to you quickly and make you put them on a repeat mode". There is not a single dull moment in this entire album which has its tallest highpoints in "Dil Dance Maare", "Dil Haara" and "Falak Tak".


title: Tashan (film)

text: The soundtrack of the film debuted at #3, where it stayed the following week. On the week of the film's release, the album moved up to #1. According to the Indian trade website "Box Office India", with around 15,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's ninth highest-selling.


title: Tashan (film)

text: Before the release of the film, "Tashan" received an advance booking, which ranged from 25 to 35% tickets sold for the weekend at the major centres. On the day of its release, the film opened to a 75-80% response but well short of the expected bumper opening due to the multiplex revenue-sharing problem, which didn't allow the film to be released in major multiplexes across India. Due to this, the film lost a major chunk of its revenue and collected a total of Rs. 180 million after its first week. Although the following week, an agreement was made between Yash Raj Films and the multiplexes, which allowed the film to be screened from 3 May 2008 onwards at multiplexes across the country, the film managed to add only another Rs. 70 million to its collections and was declared below-average at the box-office.


title: Tashan (film)

text: Meanwhile, the film opened to below-average response overseas as well. During its first week, the film collected £181,838 on 46 screens and debuted at #13 in the U.K charts. In the United States, the film debuted at #24 and collected US$301,226 on 75 screens whilst in Australia, "Tashan" debuted at #17 and collected a total of $148,087 on 13 screens. During its second week in the overseas market, the film experienced a heavy fall and was declared below average.


title: Tashan (film)

text: "Tashan" opened to mixed reviews from critics. Most Indian critics criticized the lackluster script penned by director Vijay Krishna Acharya. Critic Taran Adarsh from "indiaFM" gave the film a 1.5 out of 5 rating and concluded that it was "...one of the weakest films to come out of the Yash Raj banner." Rajeev Masand from "CNN-IBN" described the film as "...a road movie...that is going in all the wrong directions." On the other hand, Sanjay Ram, who gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5, wrote, "The film, though with many slips, is thoroughly engaging and entertaining. The vibrancy and spunk keeps it alive and loaded."


title: Tashan (film)

text: US critics were favourable. Rachel Saltz of "The New York Times" wrote, "The giddy camera work and busy visual effects would be exhausting if their excess didn't fit so well with the movie's tongue-in-cheek tone". Frank Lovece of "Film Journal International" found it "crowded with dizzying visuals, dry humor, cartoonishly violent set-pieces that play like Indian Spaghetti Westerns, and gorgeously shot musical numbers. Maitland McDonagh of "TV Guide" described the film as "a delirious crime romp [that] borrows pop-savvy attitude from Quentin Tarantino, stylised gun-play from Sergio Leone and stylised hand-to-hand combat moves from Hong Kong action films. The result is a nutty, ridiculously entertaining neo-noir pastiche with lavish musical numbers."


title: Tashan (film)

text: The performances of the lead cast too received mixed reviews. Kumar and Kareena were praised for their performances, however Anil and Khan received mixed reviews for their performances. Taran Adarsh noted, ""Tashan" belongs to Akshay Kumar completely. No two opinions on that. Take Akshay out of this film and the movie is a big zero. He's the lifeline of this project...[whilst] Kareena Kapoor is fantastic. She looks gorgeous and acts very well." Sonia Chopra from "Sify" concluded, "It is Akshay and Kareena who sizzle in the film and have the best parts." Sonia Chopra explained "Anil plays the baddie to the hilt...[and] Saif...gives a strictly lukewarm performance."


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: Lactobacillales are an order of gram-positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally nonsporulating, nonrespiring, either rod-shaped (bacilli) or spherical (cocci) bacteria that share common metabolic and physiological characteristics. These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and milk products, produce lactic acid as the major metabolic end product of carbohydrate fermentation, giving them the common name lactic acid bacteria (LAB).


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: Production of lactic acid has linked LAB with food fermentations, as acidification inhibits the growth of spoilage agents. Proteinaceous bacteriocins are produced by several LAB strains and provide an additional hurdle for spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms. Furthermore, lactic acid and other metabolic products contribute to the organoleptic and textural profile of a food item. The industrial importance of the LAB is further evidenced by their generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status, due to their ubiquitous appearance in food and their contribution to the healthy microbiota of animal and human mucosal surfaces.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: The genera that comprise the LAB are at its core "Lactobacillus", "Leuconostoc", "Pediococcus", "Lactococcus", and "Streptococcus", as well as the more peripheral "Aerococcus", "Carnobacterium", "Enterococcus", "Oenococcus", "Sporolactobacillus", "Tetragenococcus", "Vagococcus", and "Weissella". All but "Sporolactobacillus" are members of the Lactobacillales order, and all are members of the Bacillota phylum.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: Although lactic acid bacteria are generally associated with the order Lactobacillales, bacteria of the genus "Bifidobacterium" (phylum Actinomycetota) also produce lactic acid as the major product of carbohydrate metabolism.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are either rod-shaped (bacilli), or spherical (cocci), and are characterized by an increased tolerance to acidity (low pH range). This aspect helps LAB to outcompete other bacteria in a natural fermentation, as they can withstand the increased acidity from organic acid production (e.g., lactic acid). Laboratory media used for LAB typically include a carbohydrate source, as most species are incapable of respiration. LAB are catalase-negative. LAB are amongst the most important groups of microorganisms used in the food industry. Their relative simple metabolism has also prompted their use as microbial cell factories for the production of several commodities for the food and non-food sectors


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: Some members of "Lactobacillus" appear also able to perform aerobic respiration, making them facultative anaerobes, unlike the other members of the order, which are all aerotolerant. Using oxygen helps these bacteria deal with stress.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: In 1985, members of the diverse genus "Streptococcus" were reclassified into "Lactococcus", "Enterococcus", "Vagococcus", and "Streptococcus" based on biochemical characteristics, as well as molecular features. Formerly, streptococci were segregated primarily based on serology, which has proven to correlate well with the current taxonomic definitions. Lactococci (formerly Lancefield group N streptococci) are used extensively as fermentation starters in dairy production, with humans estimated to consume 10 lactococci annually. Partly due to their industrial relevance, both "L. lactis" subspecies ("L. l. lactis" and "L. l. cremoris") are widely used as generic LAB models for research. "L. lactis" ssp. "cremoris", used in the production of hard cheeses, is represented by the laboratory strains LM0230 and MG1363. In similar manner, "L. lactis" ssp. "lactis" is employed in soft cheese fermentations, with the workhorse strain IL1403 ubiquitous in LAB research laboratories. In 2001, Bolotin "et al." sequenced the genome of IL1403, which coincided with a significant shift of resources to understanding LAB genomics and related applications.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: and the phylogeny is based on 16S rRNA-based LTP release 106 by 'The All-Species Living Tree' Project.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: ♠ Strains found at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, but not listed in the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: Probiotics are products aimed at delivering living, potentially beneficial, bacterial cells to the gut ecosystem of humans and other animals, whereas prebiotics are indigestible carbohydrates delivered in food to the large bowel to provide fermentable substrates for selected bacteria. Most strains used as probiotics belong to the genus "Lactobacillus". (Other probiotic strains used belong to the genus "Bifidobacterium").


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: Probiotics have been evaluated in research studies in animals and humans with respect to antibiotic-associated diarrhea, travellers' diarrhea, pediatric diarrhea, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome and Alzheimer's disease. Future applications of probiotics have been conjectured to include delivery systems for vaccines and immunoglobulins, and the treatment of different gastrointestinal diseases and vaginosis.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: The quest to find food ingredients with valuable bioactive properties has encouraged interest in exopolysaccharides from LAB. Functional food products that offer health and sensory benefits beyond their nutritional composition are becoming progressively more important to the food industry. The sensory benefits of exopolysaccharides are well established, and there is evidence for the health properties that are attributable to exopolysaccharides from LAB. However, there is a wide variation in molecular structures of exopolysaccharides and the complexity of the mechanisms by which physical changes in foods and bioactive effects are elicited.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: Some LAB produce bacteriocins which limit pathogens by interfering with cell wall synthesis or causing pore formation in the cell membrane. Nisin, a bacteriocin produced by LAB, was first researched as a food preservative in 1951 and has since been widely commercially used in foods due to its antimicrobial activity against Gram positive bacteria. Nisin is utilized as a food additive in at least 50 countries. In addition to having antibacterial activity, LAB can inhibit fungal growth. Various LAB, largely from genus "Lactococcus" and "Lactobacillus," suppress mycotoxigenic mold growth due to the production of anti-fungal metabolites. Furthermore, LAB have the potential to reduce the abundance of mycotoxins in foods by binding to them. In a study for postharvest food product safety conducted with 119 LAB isolated from the rhizosphere of olive trees and desert truffles, mostly within the genera of "Enterococcus" and "Weissella", researchers found strong antibacterial activity against "Stenotrophomonas maltophilia", "Pantoea agglomerans", "Pseudomonas savastanoi", "Staphylococcus aureus" and "Listeria monocytogenes", and anti-fungal activity against "Botrytis cinerea", "Penicillium expansum", "Verticillium dahliae" and "Aspergillus niger".


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: Researchers have studied the impact of lactic acid bacteria on indoleacetic acid production, phosphate solubilization, and nitrogen fixation on citrus. While most of the bacterial isolates, were able to produce IAA, phosphate-solubilization was limited to only one of the eight LAB isolates.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: Lactic acid bacteria are used in the food industry for a variety of reasons such as the production of cheese and yogurt products. This process has been going on for thousands of years by human ancestors. But, some of the beverages we enjoy today are produced by using lactic acid bacteria. Popular drinks such as kombucha have known to have traces of "lactobacillus" and "pediococcus" once the drink is made.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: Even the beer and wine-making process utilizes certain lactic acid bacteria mostly "lactobacillus". The interesting relationship between lactic acid bacteria and yeast can be observed in the wine-making process. The LAB is used to start the wine-making process by starting the malolactic fermentation. After the malolactic fermentation, yeast cells are used to start the alcoholic fermentation process in grapes. The malolactic fermentation mechanism is mainly transformation of L-malic acid (dicarboxylic acid) to an lactic acid (monocarboxylic acid). This change occurs due to the presence of malolactic and malic enzymes. All malic acid are degraded and this increase the pH levels which changes the taste of the wine. Not only do they start the process but they are responsible for the different aromas produced in wine by the nutrients presence and the quality of the grapes. Also, the presence of different strains can change the desirability of aromas' presence. The different availability of enzymes that contribute to the vast spectrum of aromas in wine are associated with glycosidases, "β"-glucosidases, esterases, phenolic acid decarboxylases and citrate lyases.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: By using molecular biology, researchers can help pick out different desirable strains that help improve the quality of wine and help with the removable of the undesirable strains. The same can be said about brewing beer as well which uses yeast with some breweries using lactic acid bacteria to change the taste of their beer.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: A broad number of food products, commodity chemicals, and biotechnology products are manufactured industrially by large-scale bacterial fermentation of various organic substrates. Because this involves cultivating enormous quantities of bacteria each day in large fermentation vats, a serious threat in these industries is the risk of contamination by bacteriophages, which can rapidly bring fermentations to a halt and cause economical setbacks. Areas of interest in managing this risk include the sources of phage contamination, measures to control their propagation and dissemination, and biotechnological defense strategies developed to restrain them. In the context of the food fermentation industry, the relationship between bacteriophages and their bacterial hosts is very important. The dairy fermentation industry has openly acknowledged the problem of phage contamination, and has worked for decades with academia and starter-culture manufacturers to develop defence strategies and systems to curtail phages' propagation and evolution.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: The first contact between an infecting phage and its bacterial host is the phage's attaching to the host cell. This attachment is mediated by the phage's receptor binding protein (RBP), which recognizes and binds to a receptor on the bacterial surface. RBPs are also referred to as host-specificity proteins, host determinants, and antireceptors. A variety of molecules have been suggested to act as host receptors for bacteriophages infecting LAB; among those are polysaccharides and (lipo)teichoic acids, as well as a single-membrane protein. A number of RBPs of LAB phages have been identified by the generation of hybrid phages with altered host ranges. These studies, however, also found additional phage proteins to be important for successful phage infection. Analysis of the crystal structure of several RBPs indicates that these proteins share a common tertiary folding, and support previous indications of the saccharide nature of the host receptor. Gram-positive LAB have a thick peptidoglycan layer, which must be traversed to inject the phage genome into the bacterial cytoplasm. Peptidoglycan-degrading enzymes are expected to facilitate this penetration, and such enzymes have been found as structural elements of a number of LAB phages.


title: Lactic acid bacteria

text: LAB are able to synthesize levans from sucrose, and dextrans from glucose. Dextrans, like other glucan, enable bacteria to adhere to the surface of teeth, which in turn can cause tooth decay through the formation of dental plaque and production of lactic acid. While the primary bacteria responsible for tooth decay is "Streptococcus mutans", LAB do feature among the other most common oral bacteria that cause decay.


title: History of association football

text: The history of association football, more commonly known as football or soccer stretches back to, at least the medieval ball games sometimes known as "folk football." Some predecessors of football date back to ancient greece, ect. The modern football was formed when the Laws of the Game was issued in England, 1863. However, the history of football in Britain including England even dates back to at least the eighth century CE; later, the development of present-day association football has its origins in medieval ball games and English public school games, the modern game of association football originated with mid-nineteenth century efforts between local football clubs to standardize the varying sets of rules, culminating in formation of The Football Association (The FA) in London, England in 1863, the FA issued Laws of the Game in the same year, Laws of the Game later was recognized by both the most powerful organizations in football in their stub period as the International Football Association Board (IFAB) and International Association Football Federation (FIFA), especially FIFA. The rules of football drafted by The FA allowed clubs to play each other without dispute, and specifically banned both handling of the ball (except by goalkeepers) and hacking during open field play. After the fifth meeting of the association a schism emerged between association football and the rules played by the Rugby school, later to be called rugby football. Besides the tournaments for only football; football has been also an Olympic sport ever by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since the second modern Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France, 1900.


title: History of association football

text: During the early-mid nineteenth century, different sets of rules for football began to be drawn up in schools, universities, and clubs. The first such set of rules to be published was that of Rugby School in 1845.


title: History of association football

text: According to N. L. Jackson, in the University of Cambridge in 1846 "two old Shrewsbury boys, Messrs H. de Winton and J. C. Thring, persuaded some Old Etonians to join them and formed a club. Matches were few and far between, but some were played on Parker's Piece. Unfortunately, the game was not popular at the 'Varsity then, and the club did not last long". According to Thring's own account, written in 1861:


title: History of association football

text: This was among the first of several known attempts to formulate a set of "compromise" rules of football at Cambridge between alumni of different schools. In his "History of the Football Association", Geoffrey Green describes it as "the first positive step to create an identity of views and a common code of laws [of football] acceptable to as many as possible", and laments the absence of a plaque "to commemorate this historic moment".


title: History of association football

text: During the 1850s, many clubs unconnected to schools or universities were formed throughout the English-speaking world, to play various forms of football. Some came up with their own distinct codes of rules, most notably the Sheffield Rules, created by the Sheffield Football Club, formed in 1857, which were adopted by the newly formed Sheffield Football Association in 1867.


title: History of association football

text: According to the recollections of Henry Charles Malden, a set of rules was created for use at the University of Cambridge in 1848, drawing features from the different public school games. A later set of "Cambridge Rules" from 1856 survives in a copy at Shrewsbury School.


title: History of association football

text: During the early 1860s, there were increasing attempts in England to unify and reconcile the various football games that were played in the public schools as well in the industrial north under the Sheffield Rules. In 1862, J. C. Thring, who had been one of the driving forces behind the original Cambridge Rules, was a master at Uppingham School and issued his own rules of what he called "The Simplest Game" ("aka" the Uppingham Rules). In early October 1863, a new set of "Cambridge Rules" was drawn up by a seven-member committee representing former pupils of Eton, Harrow, Shrewsbury, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster.


title: History of association football

text: Ebenezer Cobb Morley, a solicitor from Hull, wrote to "Bell's Life" newspaper in 1863, proposing a governing body for football. Morley was to become the FA's first secretary (1863–66) and its second president (1867–74), but is particularly remembered for drafting the first Laws of the Game at his home in Barnes, London, that are today played the world over. For this, he is considered not just the father of the Football Association, but of Association Football itself.


title: History of association football

text: Public schools such as Charterhouse and Westminster School were influential in forming the new rules, at both schools the pupils' surroundings meant they were confined to playing their football in the cloisters, making the rough and tumble of the handling game that was developing at other schools such as Rugby impossible, and necessitating a different code of rules. Forest School was also influential in formulating the new rules, being present at the fifth meeting of the F.A. on 1 December 1863, and having several members at the influential Forest Club. During the formulation of the rules of Association Football in the 1860s representatives of Charterhouse and Westminster pushed for a passing game, in particular rules that allowed forward passing ("passing on"). Other schools (in particular Eton College, Shrewsbury School and Harrow) favoured a dribbling game with a tight off-side rule. It is claimed that Stoke Ramblers were formed in 1863 when former pupils of Charterhouse School formed a football club while apprentices at the North Staffordshire Railway works in Stoke-on-Trent. By 1867 the Football Association had chosen in favour of the Charterhouse and Westminster game and adopted a "loose" off-side rule that permitted forward passing.


title: History of association football

text: On the evening of 26 October 1863, representatives of several football clubs in the Greater London area met at the Freemasons' Tavern on Long Acre in Covent Garden. This was the first meeting of The Football Association (FA). It was the world's first official football body and for this reason is not preceded with the word English. The first meeting resulted in the issuing of a request for representatives of the public schools to join the association. With the exception of Thring at Uppingham, most schools declined. In total, six meetings of the FA were held between October and December 1863. Committee member J. F. Alcock, said: "The Cambridge Rules appear to be the most desirable for the Association to adopt."


title: History of association football

text: After the third meeting, a draft set of rules were published by the FA. However, at the beginning of the fourth meeting, attention was drawn to the recently published Cambridge Rules of 1863. The Cambridge rules differed from the draft FA rules in two significant areas; namely "running with (carrying) the ball" and "hacking" (kicking opposing players in the shins). The two contentious FA rules were as follows:


title: History of association football

text: At the fifth meeting a motion was proposed that these two rules be removed from the FA rules. Most of the delegates supported this suggestion but F. W. Campbell, the representative from Blackheath and the first FA treasurer, objected strongly. He said, "hacking is the true football". The motion was carried nonetheless and — at the final meeting — Campbell withdrew his club from the FA. After the final meeting on 8 December the FA published the "Laws of Football", the first comprehensive set of rules for the game later known as association football. The game also came to be called "soccer" as a shortening of "Association" around the same time as Rugby football, colloquially referred to as "rugger", was developing as the main ball carrying version of English football, and "soccer" remains a common descriptor in countries with other prominent football codes today.


title: History of association football

text: These first FA laws contained elements that are no longer part of association football, but which are still recognisable in other games (e.g. Rugby Union and Australian rules football): for instance, if a player first touched the ball behind the opponents' goal line, his side was entitled to a "free kick" at goal, from that point and fifteen yards [approximately 14 metres] in front of the goal line; and a player could make a catch and claim a "mark", which entitled him to a free kick from or behind that point (see Laws 7 and 8 respectively).


title: History of association football

text: The laws of the game agreed on by the FA members stipulated a maximum length and breadth for the pitch, the procedure for kicking off, and definition of terms, including goal, throw in, offside. Passing the ball by hand was still permitted provided the ball was caught ""fairly or on the first bounce"". Despite the specifications of footwear having no ""tough nails, iron plates and gutta percha"" there were no specific rule on number of players, penalties, foul play or the shape of the ball; captains of the participating teams were expected to agree on these things prior to the match.


title: History of association football

text: The laws laid down by the FA had an immediate effect, with Sheffield F.C. and Nottingham (now Notts County) playing an annual fixture on the FA code, among others. As more teams joined the code in the 1860s, the sport veered away from its origins in public schools, came to be played with round balls and by teams that had settled on 11 players each. The rule eliminating passing of the ball forwards by making all players in front of the ball 'offside' (much like in rugby today) was dropped. A Sheffield against London game in 1866 had allowed the FA to observe how the rules were affecting the game; subsequently handling of the ball was abolished except for one player on each team, the goalkeeper. A red tape was added between the two goalposts to indicate the top of the goal, and a national competition was proposed. 1867 saw the introduction of the first competition and oldest existing trophy in football, the Youdan Cup.


title: History of association football

text: On 20 July 1871, C. W. Alcock, a gentleman from Sunderland and a former pupil of Harrow School proposed that ""a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the [Football] Association"", the idea that gave birth to the competition. At the first FA Cup in 1872, Wanderers and Royal Engineers met in the final in front of 2,000 paying spectators. Despite the Royal Engineers being the heavy favourites, one of their players sustained a broken collar bone early on and since substitutions had not yet been introduced, the Engineers played a man down for the rest of the match which they eventually lost 1–0.


title: History of association football

text: The FA Cup was a success and within a few years all of the clubs in England wanted to take part. To do so they had to accept the FA code, which led to the quick spread of a universal set of rules. These rules are the basis of which all association football rules today stem from.


title: History of association football

text: Later competitions saw the 'Gentleman' or Southerners dominate with Old Etonians, Wanderers, Royal Engineers and Oxford University who amongst them took 19 titles. Queens Park withdrew in the semi-finals of the 1873 cup (which due to the format being played that year meant that all the challengers to Wanderers' trophy played a competition for the right to throw down the gauntlet and play the holders, hence the full name FA Challenge Cup) because they had trouble raising travel expenses to pay for the constant trips to England, this directly led to the formation of the Scottish FA. However, despite this, Queens Park continued to participate in the FA Cup, reaching the final twice, before the Scottish FA banned Scottish clubs from entering in 1887.


title: History of association football

text: In 1872, Alcock purchased the Football Association Cup for £20. That year, fifteen clubs entered the competition. Queen's Park reached the semi-finals without playing due to withdrawals, but then after a goalless draw with Wanderers, were forced to withdraw as before the advent of penalties and extra time, they could not afford to come back to London for the replay. Wanderers won the cup outright in 1878 after what remains to this day one of only two hat tricks of wins ever. However they returned the cup to the FA in order for the competition to continue, on the condition that no other club could win the cup outright ever again.


title: History of association football

text: In 1888, William McGregor a gentleman from Perthshire and a director of Aston Villa F.C was the main force between meetings held in London and Manchester involving 12 football clubs, with an eye to a league competition. These 12 clubs would later become the Football League's 12 founder members. The meetings were held in London, the main concern was that an early exit in the knockout format of the FA Cup could leave clubs with no matches for almost a year, and if that happened, not only could they suffer heavy financial losses, but fans often didn't stick around for that long without a game, and instead went to other teams. Matters were finalised on 17 April in Manchester.


title: History of association football

text: McGregor had voted against the name The Football League, as he was concerned that it would be associated with the Irish Land League. But this name still won by a majority vote and was selected. The competition guaranteed fixtures and members for all of its member clubs. The clubs were split equally among North and Midlands teams. It excluded Southern teams, who were still strictly amateur.


title: History of association football

text: A rival English league called the Football Alliance operated from 1889 to 1892. In 1892 it was decided to formally merge the two leagues, and so the Football League Second Division was formed, consisting mostly of Football Alliance clubs. The existing League clubs, plus three of the strongest Alliance clubs, comprised the Football League First Division.


title: History of association football

text: The first international game was played in Scotland on 30 November 1872. Charles Alcock, who was elected to secretary of the FA at the age of 28, devised the idea of an international competition, inaugurating an annual Scotland-England fixture. In 1870 and 1871 he placed advertisements in Edinburgh and Glasgow newspapers, requesting players for an international between the two countries. The only response that he received stated: "devotees of the "association" rules will find no foemen worthy of their steel in Scotland" For this reason the 1870 and 1871 matches were composed entirely of Scots living in England. Notably, however, Smith of the Queen's Park football club took part in most of the 1870 and 1871 international matches. As early as 1870, Alcock was adamant that these matches were "open to every Scotsman" [Alcock's italics] whether his lines were cast North or South of the Tweed and that if in the face of the invitations publicly given through the columns of leading journals of Scotland the representative eleven consisted chiefly of Anglo-Scotians ... the fault lies on the heads of the players of the north, not on the management who sought the services of all alike impartially. To call the team London Scotchmen contributes nothing. The match was, as announced, to all intents and purposes between England and Scotland".


title: History of association football

text: In 1872 the challenge was eventually taken up by Queens Park FC. The first international currently recognised as official by FIFA (which took place on 30 November 1872, Glasgow, Scotland) ended in a goalless draw between the two sides and thus, one of the most bitterly disputed fixtures in footballing history was born. The 2nd game between the two sides, on the 8 March 1873, ended 4–2 in favour of England, the Scots then went on to win the next game 2–1. The fourth game ended in a 2–2 draw after which the Scots enjoyed a 3-game winning streak.


title: History of association football

text: The first non-European international was contested on 28 November 1885, at Newark, New Jersey, between the US and Canada, the Canadians winning 1–0.


title: History of association football

text: When football was gaining popularity during the 1870s and 1880s professionals were banned in England and Scotland. Then in the 1880s, soon after Wanderers disbanded, in the north of England, teams started hiring players known as 'professors of football', who were often professionals from Scotland (who were referred to at the time as the 'Scotch Professors'). This was the first time professionalism got into football. The clubs in working class areas, especially in Northern England and Scotland, wanted professional football in order to afford playing football besides working. Several clubs were accused of employing professionals.


title: History of association football

text: The northern clubs made of lower class paid players started to gain momentum over the amateur 'Gentleman Southerners'. The first northern club to reach the FA Cup final was Blackburn Rovers in 1882, where they lost to Old Etonians, who were the last amateur team to win the trophy.


title: History of association football

text: During the summer of 1885, there was pressure put on the Football Association to accept professionalism in English football, culminating in a special meeting on 20 July, after which it was announced that it was ""in the interests of Association Football, to legalise the employment of professional football players, but only under certain restrictions"". Clubs were allowed to pay players provided that they had either been born or had lived for two years within a six-mile radius of the ground. There were also rules preventing professional players playing for more than one club in a season, without obtaining special permission, and all professional players had to be registered with the F.A.


title: History of association football

text: Though English clubs employed professionals, the Scottish Football Association continued to forbid the practice. Consequently, many Scottish players migrated southward. At first the FA put residential restrictions in place to prevent this, but these were abandoned by 1889. In the inaugural season of the Football League (1888–89), champions Preston North End fielded ten Scottish professionals.


title: History of association football

text: One of the teams to benefit from the move of Scottish players to England, who were nicknamed the Scotch Professors, was Sunderland A.F.C. The club went professional in 1885, and the club recruited a number of Scotsmen the same year, their first internationally capped players. Founder James Allan left Sunderland in 1888 because of his dislike for the "professionalism" that had been creeping into the club, and subsequently formed Sunderland Albion.


title: History of association football

text: The wealthy miner Samuel Tyzack, who alongside and shipbuilder Robert Turnbull funded the now professional "team of all talents," often pretended to be a priest while scouting for players in Scotland, as Sunderland's recruitment policy in Scotland enraged many Scottish fans. In fact, the whole Sunderland lineup in the 1895 World Championship was made from entirely Scottish players. On 5 April 1890, the Football League's founder, William McGregor, labelled Sunderland as "the team of all talents" stating that they had "a talented man in every position".


title: History of association football

text: Another team to benefit from the Scotch Professors was Preston North End, the first English team to win the Championship and Cup "double", which did so with a majority of their team being made up of Scottish players.


title: History of association football

text: The Scottish FA lifted its ban on professionalism in 1893, whereupon 560 players were registered as professionals.


title: History of association football

text: Early English women's teams, such as the Dick, Kerr's Ladies from Preston, were so popular that their matches raised money for charities. The first recorded women's football match, on 23 March 1895, was held in England between a northern and southern team. The fundraising matches continued, in spite of objections. A maximum wage was placed on players, players challenged this and came close to strike action in 1909, but it was not to be for another fifty years before the maximum wage was abolished. In 1921, women were banned from playing on FA league grounds. FA history states that this ban "effectively destroyed the game" in England for the next 40 years. Hakoah Vienna was probably the first non-British club to pay their players during the 1920s .


title: History of association football

text: In 1934, the Swedish club Malmö FF was relegated from the top division after it had been discovered that they paid their players, something that was not allowed in Swedish football at the time.


title: History of association football

text: Between 1915 and 1919 competitive association football was suspended in England. Many footballers signed up to fight in the war and as a result many teams were depleted, and fielded guest players instead. The Football League and FA Cup were suspended and in their place regional league competitions were set up; appearances in these tournaments do not count in players' official records.


title: History of association football

text: The oldest club in continental Europe could be the Swiss club Lausanne Football and Cricket Club, founded 1860. Football was introduced in a Belgian school in Melle (near Ghent) in 1863. In the Netherlands the first football match was played in 1865 in Enschede. This was followed by the founding of Koninklijke HFC by Pim Mulier in 1879. The Koninklijke HFC was the first Dutch football club. Ten years later, in 1889, the Royal Dutch Football Association (the KNVB) was founded. Association football was introduced in the Danish club, Kjøbenhavns Boldklub (KB) by English residents, in Swiss club FC St. Gallen in 1879 and in Belgium Royal Antwerp FC in 1880. This makes KB, St. Gallen, Koninklijke HFC and Royal Antwerp FC the oldest still existing football clubs on Continental Europe. However, Royal Antwerp FC (nickname "The Great Old") is the only one that never merged with or into another club.


title: History of association football

text: The Danish Football Association was founded in 1889. Italian football was played in regional groups from its foundation in 1898 until 1929 when the Serie A was organised into a national league by the Italian Football Federation. La Liga, Spain's national league, had its first season in 1928, with its participants based on the previous winners of the Copa del Rey, which began in 1902. The modern German national league, the Bundesliga was late in foundation, especially for European countries, given it wasn't founded until 1963. The German Football Association was founded as early as 1900 with the first German football champions being Leipzig in 1903. However, prior to the formation of the Bundesliga, German football was played at an amateur level in a large number of regional leagues.


title: History of association football

text: The first recorded football game in Imperial Russia occurred in Odessa when some British sailors played a game amongst themselves.


title: History of association football

text: The first organised game of football in Portugal took place in 1875 in Camacha, Madeira. Organised by the Madeira born Harry Hinton.


title: History of association football

text: On 31 March 1914, the 3 regional associations that existed in Portugal (Lisbon, Portalegre and Porto), merged to create a national association called "a União Portuguesa de Futebol" which is the ancestor of the current national association "Federação Portuguesa de Futebol" which was formed on 28 May 1926.


title: History of association football

text: The first recorded football match in Argentina was played in 1867 by British railway workers at the Buenos Aires Cricket Club Ground. The game was a blend of both association and rugby footballs, allowing the use of hands. The first association football team in South America, Buenos Aires Football Club was created in Argentina that same year. The first country's league was the "Association Argentine Football" (AAF), founded in 1891 by F.L. Wooley. This league organized the first ever championship to take place in 1891, making Argentina's the oldest association football league outside mainland Great Britain although it only lasted for one season. Its successor, the Argentine Football Association was founded by Scottish schoolteacher Alexander Watson Hutton in 1893, remaining nowadays.


title: History of association football

text: In the 1870s an expatriate named John Miller who worked on the railway construction project in São Paulo together with some 3000 other immigrant families from the British Isles in the last decades of the 19th century, decided to send his young boy Charles William Miller to England for his education. In 1884 Charles aged 10 was sent to Bannisters school in Southampton. Charles was a natural footballer who quickly picked up the arts of the game. The football association was being formed at the time. Eton, Rugby, Charterhouse and other colleges all had developed their own rules to the game. As an accomplished winger and striker Charles held school honours that were to gain him entry first into the Southampton Club team and then into the County team of Hampshire.


title: History of association football

text: In 1892 a couple of years before his return to Brazil, Miller was invited to play a game for the Corinthians, a team formed of players invited from public schools and universities.


title: History of association football

text: On his return Miller brought some association football equipment and a rules book with him. He then went on to develop the new rules of the game amongst the community in São Paulo. In 1888, six years before his return, the first sports club was founded in the city, São Paulo Athletic Club. São Paulo Athletic Club won the first three years championships. Miller's skills were far and above his colleagues at this stage. He was given the honour of contributing his name to a move involving a deft flick of the ball with the heel "Chaleira".


title: History of association football

text: Charles Miller kept a strong bond with English association football throughout his life. Teams from Southampton and Corinthians Club came over to Brazil and played against São Paulo Athletic Club and other teams in São Paulo. One on occasion in 1910 a new local team was about to be formed after a tour of the Corinthians team to Brazil and Charles was asked to suggest a name for the team. He suggested they should call themselves after Corinthians.


title: History of association football

text: During the first years of the 20th century, several British clubs toured on South America, mainly Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Southampton was the first foreign club to tour the continent in 1904, followed by Nottingham Forest one year later. Those tours contributed to the spread and develop of football in the region, with some matches (such as the Alumni v South Africa) being attended by more than 10,000 spectators. Those British teams trips lasted until 1929, with the Chelsea tour.


title: History of association football

text: The Argentine Primera División is the oldest league in South America, being first held in 1891. Moreover, Argentina became the first country outside the United Kingdom to establish a football league. The Uruguayan Football Association was also established in 1900. Both associations organised together the first "Rioplatense" club competitions in the region, starting with the Tie Cup in 1900.


title: History of association football

text: In 1988, São Paulo A.C. celebrated its centenary and the English Corinthian F.C. (that had first toured on Brazil in 1910) went across again to play them at Morumbi Stadium. The end of the tour was against the local Corinthians Paulista team (which had taken its name from the English side) with former stars Sócrates and Rivelino amongst its players. This game was played at Pacaembu Stadium in São Paulo and true to Corinthian principles of good clean association football the score was 1 to 0 in favour of the locals when as agreed Socrates changed shirts to play alongside the English amateurs. This did not affect the score unfortunately although a largely packed stadium was cheering on for a drawn result.


title: History of association football

text: The Brazilian Football Confederation was founded in 1914, and the current format for the Campeonato Brasileiro was established in 1971.


title: History of association football

text: The first association football club in the United States was the Oneida Football Club of Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1862. It is often said that this was the first club to play association football outside Britain. However, the Oneidas were formed before the English Football Association (FA); it is not known what rules they used and the club wound up within the space of a few years. According to "Encyclopædia Britannica", the club is often credited with inventing the "Boston Game", which both allowed players to kick a round ball along the ground, and to pick it up and run with it.


title: History of association football

text: The first U.S. match known to have been inspired by FA rules was a game between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869, although the game included features such as extremely physical tackling and teams of 20 each. Other colleges emulated this development, but all of these were converted to rugby-oriented rules from soccer-oriented rules by the mid-1870s on, and they would soon become famous as early bastions of American football. (For more details see: History of American football and 1869 college football season.)


title: History of association football

text: Early football leagues in the U.S. mostly used the name football leagues: for example, the American Football Association (founded in 1884), the American Amateur Football Association (1893), the American League of Professional Football (1894), the National Association Foot Ball League (1895), and the Southern New England Football League (1914). However, the word "soccer" was beginning to catch on, and the St. Louis Soccer League was a significant regional competition between 1907 and 1939. What is now the United States Soccer Federation was originally the U.S. Football Association, formed in 1913 by the merger of the American Football Association and the American Amateur Football Association. The governing body of the sport in the U.S. did not have the word soccer in its name until 1945, when it became the U.S. Soccer Football Association. It did not drop the word football from its name until 1974, when it became the U.S. Soccer Federation.


title: History of association football

text: Two further football leagues were started in the 1967, the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League. These merged to form the North American Soccer League in 1968, which survived until 1984. The NASL also ran an indoor league in the later years.


title: History of association football

text: Indoor soccer was a great success in the 1980s to the '90s, in part due to the input of the North American Soccer League. When the NASL folded, other leagues, including the Major Indoor Soccer League filled in to meet the demand. A new MISL exists today with seven teams operating in the 2013–2014 season. However, it is unrelated to the original MISL. The highest level of soccer in the United States is Major League Soccer, formed as a result of the U.S. hosting the 1994 FIFA World Cup.


title: History of association football

text: The need for a single body to oversee the worldwide game became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. The English Football Association had chaired many discussions on setting up an international body, but was perceived as making no progress. It fell to seven other European countries to band together to form this association. FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) was founded in Paris on 21 May 1904 - the French name and acronym persist to this day, even outside French-speaking countries. Its first president was Robert Guérin.


title: History of association football

text: FIFA presided over its first international competition in 1906, however it met with little approval or success. This, in combination with economic factors, led to the swift replacement of Guérin with Daniel Burley Woolfall from England, which had become a member association by that point. The next tournament staged the football competition for the 1908 Olympics in London was more successful, despite the presence of professional footballers, contrary to the founding principles of FIFA.


title: History of association football

text: Membership of FIFA expanded beyond Europe with the application of South Africa in 1909, Argentina in 1912 and the United States in 1913.


title: History of association football

text: FIFA however floundered during World War I with many players sent off to war and the possibility of travel for international fixtures severely limited. Post-war, following the death of Woolfall, the organisation fell into the hands of Alexander Bartholomew. The organisation had a new leader though after Bartholomew's death in 1919. It was saved from extinction, but at the cost of the withdrawal of the Home Nations, who cited an unwillingness to participate in international competitions with their recent World War enemies.


title: History of association football

text: In 1946 the four British nations returned. On 10 May 1947 a 'Match of the Century' between Great Britain and 'Rest of Europe XI' was played at Hampden Park in Glasgow before 135,000 spectators - Britain won 6–1. The proceeds from the match, coming to £35,000, were given to FIFA, to help re-launch it after World War Two. This was followed by FIFA's first post-war World Cup in 1950, held in Brazil. FIFA, meanwhile, continued to expand so that by the time of its fiftieth anniversary it had 84 members.


title: History of association football

text: The first Football World Cup was played in Uruguay in 1930. In the first championship match between Argentina and Uruguay, the teams could not decide on a ball so they used Argentina's ball the first half and Uruguay's in the second. Many countries did not enter, but most of those that did came from the Americas. By 1950 however, European teams took interest, and the competition blossomed into the world's biggest footballing and sporting event.


title: History of association football

text: The South American Copa América was first contested in 1916 and preceded the World Cup. Decades later, other continental championships emerged - the AFC Asian Cup (1956), the African Cup of Nations (1957), the European Championship (1960), North America's Gold Cup (1991) Oceania's OFC Nations Cup (1996) and UEFA Nations League (2018).


title: History of association football

text: The Brazilian team is the most successful team in the World Cup, having won five times. The next most successful teams are Italy and Germany (three as West Germany) with four titles each, having won their latest honours in 2006 and 2014 respectively. Uruguay (last in 1950), Argentina (last in 1986) and France (last in 2018) have two titles each.


title: History of association football

text: The FIFA Women's World Cup was inaugurated with the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup, hosted in China, with 12 teams sent to represent their countries.


title: History of association football

text: Over 90,185 spectators attended the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup and nearly 1 billion viewers from 70 countries tuned in. By the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, 16 teams competed in the championship finals. Of the eight tournaments held to date (as of 2019), the United States (1991, 1999, 2015, 2019) is the most successful team with four titles; Germany (2003, 2007) have won the championship twice, and Norway (1995) and Japan (2011) have each won once. Women's confederations are the same as men's: Oceania (OFC), European (UEFA), North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF), South American (CONMEBOL), Asian (AFC) and African (CAF).


title: Rachael Price

text: Rachael Price (born August 30, 1985) is an Australian-born American jazz and blues singer, known for her work as the lead singer for the band Lake Street Dive. She was born in Sydney, Australia and grew up in Tennessee, graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music. She is the great-granddaughter of Seventh-day Adventist leader George McCready Price, the granddaughter of Hollywood actor John Shelton, and the daughter of composer and conductor Tom Price.


title: Rachael Price

text: Price was born in Australia and raised in Hendersonville, Tennessee. When she was nine, she performed with The Voices of Baháʼí choir with her sisters Emily and Juliette. At twelve, she was a soloist. The choir toured in India, Europe, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Australia. Price has said that she had a large personality as a child and accepted every opportunity to sing.


title: Rachael Price

text: Price practices the Baháʼí Faith, and explains its influence on her musical career this way:"We believe that music is praise, and that is service, and service is prayer, and so that’s how I think about it . . . I think music is an extremely spiritual art form. I do it for praise and gratitude. That’s what the Faith has taught me about music."She was attracted to jazz at the age of five when she heard Ella Fitzgerald singing "The Lady is a Tramp". She recorded her first album when she was 17. She admires Bonnie Raitt and Nancy Wilson in part for their longevity in the music business.


title: Rachael Price

text: In 2003, Price received an honorable mention at the Montreux Jazz Festival's International Jazz Vocal Competition. In 2004, she was a semifinalist and the youngest competitor in the history of the Thelonious Monk Institute Vocal Competition. In August 2004 she made her U.S. jazz festival debut at Yale's Jazz On the Green, where she opened for Joshua Redman. She won the 2006 Independent Music Award for Best Gospel Song with her recording of "My God, My Adored One" with the Boston Praise Collective. She appeared in concert as a featured vocalist with the T. S. Monk Sextet.


title: Rachael Price

text: Price performs with Lake Street Dive, a band she started with Michael Calabrese, Bridget Kearney, and Mike (“McDuck”) Olson, who met when they were students together at the New England Conservatory of Music.


title: Rachael Price

text: With help from an award by the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Lake Street Dive recorded "In this episode...", their debut album in 2006. They started touring soon afterwards. Nonesuch released the album "Side Pony" in February 2016. Their previous album, "Bad Self Portraits", was released in February 2014.


title: Rachael Price

text: Rachael Price and Vilray also met at the New England Conservatory, in 2003. Under the name Rachael and Vilray they sing jazz, pop, and Tin Pan Alley songs from the 1930s and '40s. Nonesuch released their self-titled first album in 2019.


title: Rachael Price

text: In 2015 Price toured with Hot Tuna on the Jefferson Airplane 50th Anniversary tour. She sang Grace Slick's parts.


title: Betsy Russell

text: Elizabeth "Betsy" Russell (born September 6, 1963) is an American actress who is best known for her roles in "Private School" (1983), "Tomboy" (1985), and as Jill Tuck, one of the primary characters of the "Saw" film series from 2006 to 2010.


title: Betsy Russell

text: Russell was born in San Diego, California, the daughter of Constance ("née" Lerner) and Richard Lion Russell, a stock analyst, and the granddaughter of journalist and educator Max Lerner. Her father and maternal grandfather were Jewish. Russell wanted to be an actress since the age of eight and started acting in school plays. She appeared in a Pepsi commercial that was taped locally while in high school. After graduating from Mission Bay High School in 1981, she moved to Los Angeles and began taking acting classes before landing her first role. She did a masters program in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica and is a certified hypnotist and life coach, also from the University of Santa Monica.


title: Betsy Russell

text: Russell's first role was in the 1982 film "Let's Do It!" That same year, she landed roles on "T. J. Hooker", "Family Ties", and "The Powers of Matthew Star". In 1983, Russell's breakout role came as Jordan Leigh-Jensen in the sex comedy "Private School". While shooting the action film "Avenging Angel", she was offered to audition for the 1985 film "Silverado" but turned it down. She said in an interview, "Everything happens for a reason. I always believe my career would have been different had I done that part. I can't say if it would have been better or worse. I’ve had a great run." She went on to star in a series of B movies in the 1980s, including the comedy "Tomboy" and the slasher film "Cheerleader Camp". Russell also appeared on TV series such as "The A-Team", "Murder, She Wrote", "1st & Ten", and an episode of "Superboy", which was a reunion with her "Tomboy" co-star Gerard Christopher.


title: Betsy Russell

text: After a brief retirement from acting, Russell appeared in a small role in "Saw III" playing John Kramer's ex-wife, Jill Tuck. She went on to star in the sequels, "Saw IV", "Saw V", "Saw VI", and "Saw 3D". She played a role in the 2010 film "Chain Letter", the SyFy film "Mandrake", and "My Trip Back to the Dark Side".


title: Betsy Russell

text: In August 1988, Russell was engaged to actor Vincent Van Patten, son of Dick Van Patten. They were married nine months later on May 27, 1989, in North Hollywood. Their wedding reception was at Van Patten's father's Sherman Oaks home which was attended by numerous A-list celebrities. They divorced in 2001 and have two sons: Richard Van Patten (March 1993) and Vincent Van Patten, Jr. (September 3, 1995) Russell was previously engaged to film producer Mark Burg.


title: Ottoman Turkish

text: Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian, and its speakers used the Ottoman Turkish alphabet for written communication. During the peak of Ottoman power (), words of foreign origin in Turkish literature in the Ottoman Empire heavily outnumbered native Turkish words, with Arabic and Persian vocabulary accounting for up to 88% of the Ottoman vocabulary in some texts.


title: Ottoman Turkish

text: Consequently, Ottoman Turkish was largely unintelligible to the less-educated lower-class and to rural Turks, who continued to use ("raw/vulgar Turkish"; compare Vulgar Latin and Demotic Greek), which used far fewer foreign loanwords and is the basis of the modern standard. The Tanzimât era (1839–1876) saw the application of the term "Ottoman" when referring to the language ( or ); Modern Turkish uses the same terms when referring to the language of that era ( and ). More generically, the Turkish language was called or "Turkish".


title: Ottoman Turkish

text: Ottoman Turkish was highly influenced by Arabic and Persian. Arabic and Persian words in the language accounted for up to 88% of its vocabulary. As in most other Turkic and other foreign languages of Islamic communities, the Arabic borrowings were borrowed through Persian, not through direct exposure of Ottoman Turkish to Arabic, a fact that is evidenced by the typically Persian phonological mutation of the words of Arabic origin.


title: Ottoman Turkish

text: The conservation of archaic phonological features of the Arabic borrowings furthermore suggests that Arabic-incorporated Persian was absorbed into pre-Ottoman Turkic at an early stage, when the speakers were still located to the north-east of Persia, prior to the westward migration of the Islamic Turkic tribes. An additional argument for this is that Ottoman Turkish shares the Persian character of its Arabic borrowings with other Turkic languages that had even less interaction with Arabic, such as Tatar, Bashkir, and Uyghur. From the early ages of the Ottoman Empire, borrowings from Arabic and Persian were so abundant that original Turkish words were hard to find. In Ottoman, one may find whole passages in Arabic and Persian incorporated into the text. It was however not only extensive loaning of words, but along with them much of the grammatical systems of Persian and Arabic.


title: Ottoman Turkish

text: A person would use each of the varieties above for different purposes, with the variant being the most heavily suffused with Arabic and Persian words and the least. For example, a scribe would use the Arabic () to refer to honey when writing a document but would use the native Turkish word when buying it.


title: Ottoman Turkish

text: In 1928, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, widespread language reforms (a part in the greater framework of Atatürk's Reforms) instituted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk saw the replacement of many Persian and Arabic origin loanwords in the language with their Turkish equivalents. One of the main supporters of the reform was the Turkish nationalist Ziya Gökalp. It also saw the replacement of the Perso-Arabic script with the extended Latin alphabet. The changes were meant to encourage the growth of a new variety of written Turkish that more closely reflected the spoken vernacular and to foster a new variety of spoken Turkish that reinforced Turkey's new national identity as being a post-Ottoman state.


title: Ottoman Turkish

text: See the list of replaced loanwords in Turkish for more examples of Ottoman Turkish words and their modern Turkish counterparts. Two examples of Arabic and two of Persian loanwords are found below.