title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: Prostitution in the city was previously run by gangs and violence was common. In the year 2000 the city, led by the mayor, started a clean-up operation. The areas in which prostitution was allowed was reduced to the Schipperskwartier, and a permit system was introduced. The permits for owners of the windows have to be personally signed by the mayor. This helps to keep organised crime out of the area.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: The area was refurbished and pedestrianised in an attempt to get away from the previous seedy-looking image. Usually, windows in red light districts are isolated from one another, but the windows here are interconnected in groups of 3, 5 or 7 so the prostitutes may socialise with each other and also aid each other in the event of trouble with a client. There is a small police station within the area, but the police keep a low profile.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: Between Verversrui and Schippersstraat is the "Villa Tinto". Previously an industrial building, it has been converted by architect Arne Quinze and Flemish interior designers into a complex with 51 windows on the ground floor with a doctor's practice and bed & breakfast rooms above. The project was set up by Franky De Coninck, a respected Belgian businessman. It has been called "Europe's most high tech bordello". Opened in 2005, it opens seven days a week with about a 305 girls working there in shifts. In an attempt to prevent human trafficking, only women with EU passports can work there and there are biometric keypads to the rooms so there can be no subletting. Each room has a panic button in case of trouble.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: Prostitution in Charleroi formerly took place in various places over the city. In 2002 the council limited the activity to a small area, known as the "Charleroi Triangle" (intersection of rue du Moulin, rue de Marchienne, rue Arthur Pater, rue de la Fenderie and place Rucloux). The city started planning to redevelop the "Lower City", including the Triangle, and in 2011 the trade was forced to relocate to the area around the ministère des Finances (rue des Rivages, rue Monnet, la place des Tramways and rue du Grand Central). The new area was thought to be less secure than the triangle by the prostitutes and attempts were made to move back to the old area.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: Street prostitution was prevalent in Gosselie on the northern outskirts of Charleroi. In June 2011 this was limited to the area behind the TEC Charleroi buildings. The prostitutes disregarded this limit, prompting a total ban on street prostitution in 2014. Also in Gosselie are some drinking establishments where prostitution is allowed. These are on faubourg de Bruxelles and the N5.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: In Deinze there are a few windows along the Kortrijksesteenweg (N43). The road has been nicknamed "Rue d'amour".


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: There are two red-light districts in Ghent, located close to each other. The larger is in Schepenenvijverstraat and Pieter Vanderdoncktdoorgang including Glazen Straatje (a glass roofed arcade). There are just under 70 windows here. The second area is situated in Belgradostraat, and has about 30 windows.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: Following pressure from locals, the prostitutes in the windows in Ghent dress in a respectable fashion.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: Rue Varin, in the Liège-Cathédrale quarter of Liège, had been a centre on prostitution since the 19th century. The area was partially demolished in the early 2000s for the rebuilding of Liège-Guillemins railway station. The remaining building were renovated as part of the gentrification of the area and prostitution stopped.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: There was a window area in Liège centred around Rue du Champion and Rue de l’Agneau near the River Meuse's west bank. This was shut in 2009. Street prostitution has been a problem in this area and also around Grand Poste since the windows were closed. Following the shutting of the windows, about 180 prostitutes moved to Seraing. In 2009, the council announced an intention to build an "Eros Centre" for the prostitutes to work in, but this was cancelled in 2015.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: There have been windows in various streets in the docklands area of Ostend - Langestraat, Hazegras, Fregatstraat, Vrijhavenstraat and Oesterbankstraat. Ostend council have been trying to clean the area up and many establishments have closed.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: There are a number of windows in rue Marnix, Seraing. There were about 100 prostitutes working there until the shutting of the windows in Liège, when about 180 prostitutes moved to Seraing.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: The council plan to stop prostitution in rue Marnix and build a new "Eros Centre". The centre will have 34 working rooms, a medical office, police station and a car park. Activities within the centre will be screened from the passing public.


title: Red-light districts in Belgium

text: There are a number of windows along Luikersteenweg, Sint-Truiden. It is known locally as "Chaussée d'Amour". Currently, there are 42 brothel permits issued, but the mayor of Sint-Truiden wants to tighten up on the establishments. Weekly checks on working conditions and work permits are carried out by the local police.


title: Economy of Burundi

text: The economy of Burundi is $3.436 billion by gross domestic product as of 2018, being heavily dependent on agriculture, which accounts for 32.9% of gross domestic product as of 2008. Burundi itself is a landlocked country lacking resources, and with almost nonexistent industrialization. Agriculture supports more than 70% of the labor force, the majority of whom are subsistence farmers.


title: Economy of Burundi

text: Although Burundi is potentially sufficient in food production, civil unrest, overpopulation, and soil erosion have contributed to the contraction of the subsistence economy by 25% in recent years. Large numbers of internally displaced persons have been unable to produce their own food and are largely dependent on international humanitarian assistance. Burundi is a net food importer, with food accounting for 17% of imports in 1997. Burundi is a least developed country according to the United Nations.


title: Economy of Burundi

text: In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products, like sorghum (28 thousand tons) and coffee (14 thousand tons).


title: Economy of Burundi

text: Little industry exists except for the processing of agricultural exports. Although potential wealth in petroleum, nickel, copper, and other natural resources is being explored, the uncertain security situation has prevented meaningful investor interest. Industrial development also is hampered by Burundi's distance from the sea and high transport costs. Lake Tanganyika remains an important trading point. The trade embargo, lifted in 1999, negatively impacted trade and industry. Since October 1993 the nation has suffered from massive ethnic-based violence which has resulted in the death of perhaps 250,000 people and the displacement of about 800,000 others. Foods, medicines, and electricity remain in short supply.


title: Economy of Burundi

text: Burundi is heavily dependent on bilateral and multilateral aid, with external debt totaling $1.247 billion (1.247 G$) in 1997. A series of largely unsuccessful 5-year plans initiated in July 1986 in partnership with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund attempted to reform the foreign exchange system, liberalize imports, reduce restrictions on international transactions, diversify exports, and reform the coffee industry.


title: Economy of Burundi

text: IMF structural adjustment programs in Burundi were suspended following the outbreak of the crisis in 1993. The World Bank has identified key areas for potential growth, including the productivity of traditional crops and the introduction of new exports, light manufactures, industrial mining, and services. Other serious problems include the state's role in the economy, the question of governmental transparency, and debt reduction.


title: Economy of Burundi

text: To protest the 1996 coup by President Pierre Buyoya, neighboring countries imposed an economic embargo on Burundi. Although the embargo was never officially ratified by the United Nations Security Council, most countries refrained from official trade with Burundi. Following the coup, the United States also suspended all but humanitarian aid to Burundi. The regional embargo was lifted on January 23, 1999, based on progress by the government in advancing national reconciliation through the Burundi peace process.


title: Economy of Burundi

text: In an article titled "The Blood Cries Out," "Foreign Policy (FP)" reported that the Burundian population growth rate is 2.5 percent per year, more than double the average global pace, and that a Burundian woman has on average 6.3 children, nearly triple the international fertility rate. "FP" further reported that "The vast majority of Burundians rely on subsistence farming, but under the weight of a booming population and in the long-standing absence of coherent policies governing land ownership, many people barely have enough earth to sustain themselves." In 2014, the average size for a farm was about one acre. "FP" added that "The consequence is remarkable scarcity: In the 2013 Global Hunger Index, Burundi had the severest hunger and malnourishment rates of all 120 countries ranked."


title: Shane Lynch

text: Shane Eamon Mark Stephen Lynch (born 3 July 1976) is an Irish singer, but best known as a member of Boyzone. In recent years, he has taken up auto racing, participated in reality shows such as "Celebrity Big Brother" in 2018 and appeared as a judge on "The All Ireland Talent Show".


title: Shane Lynch

text: Born to Brendan and Noeleen Lynch, a mechanic and housewife, and raised in Donaghmede, North-east Dublin, Lynch struggled with his education during his school years due to dyslexia, but excelled at sports and was a motor racing enthusiast, winning the Portuguese BMX Championship at fourteen. It was around this period he was expelled from school and began to work with his father as a mechanic.


title: Shane Lynch

text: In 1993, music manager Louis Walsh, who had managed Johnny Logan, held auditions in Dublin to find a new boyband to rival British group Take That. Lynch was among the hopefuls present, and was eventually selected. Before even recording any material, he and five other successful auditionees made their infamous appearance on RTÉ's "The Late Late Show with Gay Byrne". Although their performance was criticised by the Irish press, the band became one of the most successful pop bands in Ireland.


title: Shane Lynch

text: Lynch quickly gained a reputation as the bad boy of the group due to his body piercings, tattoos and violent outbursts which clashed with the band's clean-cut image. In 1999, he attended the MTV Europe Music Awards with the band and broke protocol with his FUBU tracksuit while his bandmates wore co-ordinated suits, and announced to the shocked audience "In the press recently, there's been a whole load of fucking shite about Boyzone in the year 2000 about breaking up, [but] we are not breaking up." Later that night, he was involved in a physical brawl with American rapper Puff Daddy. Two years later, at a live concert for Childline, Lynch turned to the camera and yelled: "Tabloid newspapers, you can kiss me fucking arse!"


title: Shane Lynch

text: In 2007, Boyzone reunited, completed a 29-date reunion tour, and released their comeback single on 29 September 2008, "Love You Anyway", which was followed by a Greatest Hits album entitled "Back Again... No Matter What" released on 13 October 2008.


title: Shane Lynch

text: In 2004, during his break from Boyzone, Lynch played Eli Knox the chairman of Harchester United in the Sky One football drama, "Dream Team". He has also appeared in pantomime, and starred in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at the Wycombe Swan in High Wycombe, during the 2004 Christmas season. In 2006, he starred in "Cinderella" at the Tameside Hippodrome as Prince Charming alongside Sue Jenkins as the evil stepmother Baroness. In 2012, he starred as Abanazar at The Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks and in 2015 Captain Hook in Peter Pan there. In 2016 he starred as Abanazer in the Blue Genie production of Aladdin at The Whitley Bay Playhouse.


title: Shane Lynch

text: A keen motor racing enthusiast, Lynch raced a Marcos, TVR and then Mosler from 2002 to 2006 for the Eclipse Motorsport team in the British GT Championship, and came within a few laps of winning the 2003 British GT Championship at the last race of the season at Brands Hatch when he crashed into a spinning backmarker he was lapping. In 2005, he was involved with the 'Christians in Motorsport' team and competed in the British GT Championship Silverstone round. Lynch addressed a crowd of race fans at the team marquee about how his faith helps him in racing and in life generally.


title: Shane Lynch

text: Lynch is now involved in drifting, competing in the British Drift Championship for performance parts manufacturer & race team Team Japspeed.


title: Shane Lynch

text: In 2008 he was involved in an accident with team-mate Danny Eyles while competing in the European Drift Championship round at Silverstone and, although he was not injured, both Nissan Skyline cars were written off.


title: Shane Lynch

text: For the 2016 season of the British Drift Championship, Lynch and Team Japspeed debuted a brand new VH45 V8 powered Nissan 370Z, achieving a second-place finish on debut at Lydden Hill.


title: Shane Lynch

text: Lynch has taken part in several reality television series. He was in the second series of the Channel 4 reality television show, "The Games" 2004, and received a gold medal. Lynch was also in the second series of ITVs "Love Island", but left after the fifth week. In 2007, he competed in the second series of Sky One's "Cirque De Celebrite". In January 2018 Shane was a housemate in series 21 of Celebrity Big Brother and finished in third place.


title: Shane Lynch

text: In 2000, Lynch teamed up with bandmate Keith Duffy and released a novelty version of the Milli Vanilli song "Girl You Know It's True" as Keith 'N' Shane. They re-wrote the verses in which the original was critical of today's music, but the chorus was kept the same. It was a top 40 hit in the UK, peaking at No. 36 in December 2000. He also featured in the Celebrity Special Championship of "Robot Wars" in 2000.


title: Shane Lynch

text: In early 2005, Lynch released the song "Don't Go" which was originally a 1988 hit for the band Hothouse Flowers. The same year, he was announced as one of the judges on RTÉ's "The All Ireland Talent Show", a reality contest which is modelled on "Britain's Got Talent". In 2010, he announced his decision to quit.


title: Shane Lynch

text: In 2008, Lynch published his autobiography "The Chancer", which focused on his early years, pop reign, his marriage to Easther Bennett, and newly found Christianity. In May 2011, Lynch became involved with the launch of a new energy vodka called "Ver2Vodka".


title: Shane Lynch

text: At the end of 2012 Lynch, along with friends Ben Ofoedu, Kiz (KizMusic) and Paddy, started a new music project called Cruise Control. Their first song "Raindrops" hit YouTube by storm reaching over 50,000 hits in two weeks until YouTube pulled it offline. Cruise Control then announced on Christmas Eve of 2012 that their first song "Raindrops" would be available for free download. Cruise Control stated that they had big plans for 2013 and had an album waiting for release.


title: Shane Lynch

text: In January 2013, Lynch fronted an informative channel 5 programme in the UK about dyslexia. During this, he undertook his own dyslexia assessment. He was confirmed to have the learning disability.


title: Shane Lynch

text: On 7 June 2013, Lynch featured on a celebrity special edition of "The Jeremy Kyle Show" to talk about his life after being in Boyzone.


title: Shane Lynch

text: In April 2014, Lynch forged a business partnership with Northern Ireland businessmen Dwaine Smyth and Michael Dowall and opened a chain of 1920s prohibition inspired barbershops, known as The Elk & Clipper. There are currently three outlets in Northern Ireland with further expansion plans in the future.


title: Shane Lynch

text: In 2019, Lynch joined former REDHILL and Cruise Control bandmate Ben Ofoedu for a new supergroup called Boyz on Block with former Five member Abz Love and former Another Level member Dane Bowers. The group released their debut single on 20 November 2020, a cover of East 17's "Stay Another Day" featuring former East 17 member and songwriter Tony Mortimer. Their second single was a cover of K-Ci & JoJo's "All My Life", released on 15 February 2021. They had an album scheduled for released in 2021.


title: Shane Lynch

text: Lynch's sisters, twins Keavy and Edele Lynch, found fame as members of the girl group B*Witched, which became the first group to replace members of their own family at number one in the charts. Younger sister, Naomi, was part of the duo Buffalo G who achieved a top 20 hit, and another sibling, Tara, was a member of FAB!


title: Shane Lynch

text: On 8 March 1998, Lynch married Easther Bennett, lead singer of Eternal, but they divorced in July 2000. In 2002, Lynch was in a relationship with socialite, aristocrat and "It girl" Lady Victoria Hervey. Lynch and singer Sheena White were married in Ireland on 22 August 2007, and on 25 October 2008, White gave birth to their daughter Billie Rae. Shane and Sheena celebrated the birth of their second child in September 2012, another daughter whom they named Marley Mae.


title: Shane Lynch

text: Lynch, who had been involved with clairvoyants and ouija boards and claimed to have been frequently visited by evil spirits who tortured his mind in his teenage years, became a Christian in 2003; he was persuaded to convert by close friend Ben Ofoedu, who was his colleague in the band REDhill which Lynch joined after Boyzone.


title: Aymara language

text: Aymara (; also ) is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Bolivian Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over one million speakers. Aymara, along with Spanish and Quechua, is an official language in Bolivia and Peru. It is also spoken, to a much lesser extent, by some communities in northern Chile, where it is a recognized minority language.


title: Aymara language

text: Some linguists have claimed that Aymara is related to its more widely spoken neighbor, Quechua. That claim, however, is disputed. Although there are indeed similarities, like the nearly identical phonologies, the majority position among linguists today is that the similarities are better explained as areal features rising from prolonged cohabitation, rather than natural genealogical changes that would stem from a common protolanguage.


title: Aymara language

text: Aymara is an agglutinating and, to a certain extent, a polysynthetic language. It has a subject–object–verb word order. It is based on a three value logic system. Aymara is normally written using the Latin alphabet, but in 2015 a full writing system was developed using the Korean script Hangeul.


title: Aymara language

text: The ethnonym "Aymara" may be ultimately derived from the name of some group occupying the southern part of what is now the Quechua speaking area of Apurímac. Regardless, the use of the word "Aymara" as a label for this people was standard practice as early as 1567, as evident from Garci Diez de San Miguel's report of his inspection of the province of Chucuito (1567, 14; cited in Lafaye 1964). In this document, he uses the term "aymaraes" to refer to the people. The language was then called Colla. It is believed that Colla was the name of an Aymara nation at the time of conquest, and later was the southernmost region of the Inca empire Collasuyu. However, Cerrón Palomino disputes this claim and asserts that Colla were in fact Puquina speakers who were the rulers of Tiwanaku in the first and third centuries (2008:246). This hypothesis suggests that the linguistically-diverse area ruled by the Puquina came to adopt Aymara languages in their southern region.


title: Aymara language

text: In any case, the use of "Aymara" to refer to the language may have first occurred in the works of the lawyer, magistrate and tax collector in Potosí and Cusco, Polo de Ondegardo. This man, who later assisted Viceroy Toledo in creating a system under which the indigenous population would be ruled for the next 200 years, wrote a report in 1559 entitled 'On the lineage of the Yncas and how they extended their conquests' in which he discusses land and taxation issues of the Aymara under the Inca empire.


title: Aymara language

text: More than a century passed before "Aymara" entered general usage to refer to the language spoken by the Aymara people (Briggs, 1976:14). In the meantime the Aymara language was referred to as "the language of the Colla". The best account of the history of Aymara is that of Cerrón-Palomino, who shows that the ethnonym Aymara, which came from the glottonym, is likely derived from the Quechuaized toponym "ayma-ra-y" 'place of communal property'. The entire history of this term is thoroughly outlined in his book, "Voces del Ande" (2008:19–32) and "Lingüística Aimara".


title: Aymara language

text: The suggestion that "Aymara" comes from the Aymara words ""jaya"" (ancient) and ""mara"" (year, time) is almost certainly a mistaken folk etymology.


title: Aymara language

text: It is often assumed that the Aymara language descends from the language spoken in Tiwanaku on the grounds that it is the native language of that area today. That is very far from certain, however, and most specialists now incline to the idea that Aymara did not expand into the Tiwanaku area until rather recently, as it spread southwards from an original homeland that was more likely to have been in Central Peru. Aymara placenames are found all the way north into central Peru. Indeed, (Altiplano) Aymara is actually the one of two extant members of a wider language family, the other surviving representative being Jaqaru.


title: Aymara language

text: The family was established by the research of Lucy Briggs (a fluent speaker) and Dr. Martha Hardman de Bautista of the Program in Linguistics at the University of Florida. Jaqaru ["jaqi aru" = human language] and Kawki communities are in the district of Tupe, Yauyos Valley, in the Dept. of Lima, in central Peru. Terminology for this wider language family is not yet well established. Hardman has proposed the name 'Jaqi' ('human') while other widely respected Peruvian linguists have proposed alternative names for the same language family. Alfredo Torero uses the term 'Aru' ('speech'); Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino, meanwhile, has proposed that the term 'Aymara' should be used for the whole family, distinguished into two branches, Southern (or Altiplano) Aymara and Central Aymara (Jaqaru and Kawki). Each of these three proposals has its followers in Andean linguistics. In English usage, some linguists use the term Aymaran languages for the family and reserve 'Aymara' for the Altiplano branch.


title: Aymara language

text: There is some degree of regional variation within Aymara, but all dialects are mutually intelligible.


title: Aymara language

text: Most studies of the language focused on either the Aymara spoken on the southern Peruvian shore of Lake Titicaca or the Aymara spoken around La Paz. Lucy Therina Briggs classifies both regions as being part of the Northern Aymara dialect, which encompasses the department of La Paz in Bolivia and the department of Puno in Peru. The Southern Aymara dialect is spoken in the eastern half of the Iquique province in northern Chile and in most of the Bolivian department of Oruro. It is also found in northern Potosi and southwest Cochabamba but is slowly being replaced by Quechua in those regions.


title: Aymara language

text: Intermediate Aymara shares dialectical features with both Northern and Southern Aymara and is found in the eastern half of the Tacna and Moquegua departments in southern Peru and in the northeastern tip of Chile.


title: Aymara language

text: There are roughly two million Bolivian speakers, half a million Peruvian speakers, and perhaps a few thousand speakers in Chile. At the time of the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century, Aymara was the dominant language over a much larger area than today, including most of highland Peru south of Cusco. Over the centuries, Aymara has gradually lost speakers both to Spanish and to Quechua; many Peruvian and Bolivian communities that were once Aymara-speaking now speak Quechua.


title: Aymara language

text: Aymara has three phonemic vowel qualities , which, in most varieties of the language, occur as either long or short (i.e. /iː i aː a uː u/). Long vowels are indicated in the spelling with a diaeresis in writing: "ä", "ï", "ü". The high vowels /i u/ occur as mid-high /e o/ when near uvular consonants /q qʰ qʼ χ/.


title: Aymara language

text: Vowel deletion is frequent in Aymara. Vowel deletion typically occurs due to one of three factors: (i) phonotactic, (ii) syntactic, and (iii) morphophonemic.


title: Aymara language

text: Aymara has phonemic stops at the labial, alveolar, palatal, velar and uvular points of articulation. Stops show no distinction of voice (e.g. there is no phonemic contrast between and ), but each stop occurs in three laryngeal settings: plain or voiceless unaspirated (aka tenuis), glottalized, and aspirated. Sounds such as [] occur as allophones of //. Aymara also has a tapped , and an alveolar/palatal contrast for nasals and laterals, as well as two semivowels ( and ).


title: Aymara language

text: Stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable, but long vowels may shift it. Although the final vowel of a word is elided except at the end of a phrase, the stress remains unchanged.


title: Aymara language

text: The vast majority of roots are disyllabic and, with few exceptions, suffixes are monosyllabic. Roots conform to the template (C)V(C)CV, with CVCV being predominant. The majority of suffixes are CV, though there are some exceptions: CVCV, CCV, CCVCV and even VCV are possible but rare.


title: Aymara language

text: The agglutinative nature of this predominantly suffixing language, coupled with morphophonological alternations caused by vowel deletion and phonologically conditioned constraints, gives rise to interesting surface structures that operate in the domain of the morpheme, syllable, and phonological word/phrase. The phonological/morphophonological processes observed include syllabic reduction, epenthesis, deletion, and reduplication.


title: Aymara language

text: Beginning with Spanish missionary efforts, there have been many attempts to create a writing system for Aymara. The colonial sources employed a variety of writing systems heavily influenced by Spanish, the most widespread one being that of Bertonio. Many of the early grammars employed unique alphabets as well as the one of Middendorf's "Aymara-Sprache" (1891).


title: Aymara language

text: The first official alphabet to be adopted for Aymara was the Scientific Alphabet. It was approved by the "III Congreso Indigenista Interamericano de la Paz" in 1954, though its origins can be traced as far back as 1931. Rs. No 1593 (Deza Galindo 1989, 17). It was the first official record of an alphabet, but in 1914, Sisko Chukiwanka Ayulo and Julián Palacios Ríos had recorded what may be the first of many attempts to have one alphabet for both Quechua and Aymara, the "Syentifiko Qheshwa-Aymara Alfabeto" with 37 graphemes.


title: Aymara language

text: Several other attempts followed, with varying degrees of success. Some orthographic attempts even expand further: the "Alfabeto Funcional Trilingüe", made up of 40 letters (including the voiced stops necessary for Spanish) and created by the Academia de las Lenguas Aymara y Quechua in Puno in 1944 is the one used by the lexicographer Juan Francisco Deza Galindo in his "Diccionario Aymara – Castellano / Castellano – Aymara". This alphabet has five vowels ⟨a, e, i, o, u⟩, aspiration is conveyed with an ⟨h⟩ next to the consonant, and ejectives with ⟨'⟩. The most unusual characteristic is the expression of the uvular /χ/ with ⟨jh⟩. The other uvular segment, /q/, is expressed by ⟨q⟩, but transcription rules mandate that the following vowel must be ⟨a, e, o⟩ (not ⟨i, u⟩), presumably to account for uvular lowering and to facilitate multilingual orthography.


title: Aymara language

text: The alphabet created by the Comisión de Alfabetización y Literatura Aymara (CALA) was officially recognized in Bolivia in 1968 (co-existing with the 1954 Scientific Alphabet). Besides being the alphabet employed by Protestant missionaries, it is also the one used for the translation of the "Book of Mormon". Also in 1968, de Dios Yapita created his take on the Aymara alphabet at the Instituto de Lenga y Cultura Aymara (ILCA).


title: Aymara language

text: Nearly 15 years later, the "Servicio Nacional de Alfabetización y Educación Popular" (SENALEP) attempted to consolidate these alphabets to create a system which could be used to write both Aymara and Quechua, creating what was known as the Alfabeto Unificado. The alphabet, later sanctioned in Bolivia by Decree 20227 on 9 May 1984 and in Peru as la Resolución Ministerial Peruana 1218ED on 18 November 1985, consists of 3 vowels, 26 consonants and an umlaut to mark vowel length.


title: Aymara language

text: Aymara is a highly agglutinative, predominantly suffixing language. All suffixes can be categorized into the nominal, verbal, transpositional and those not subcategorized for lexical category (including stem-external word-level suffixes and phrase-final suffixes), as below:


title: Aymara language

text: Linguistic and gestural analysis by Núñez and Sweetser also asserts that the Aymara have an apparently unique (or at least very rare) understanding of time. Aymara is, with Quechua, one of very few [Núñez & Sweetser, 2006, p. 403] languages in which speakers seem to represent the past as in front of them and the future as behind them. Their argument is mainly within the framework of conceptual metaphor, which recognizes in general two subtypes of the metaphor "the passage of time is motion:" one is "time passing is motion over a landscape" (or "moving-ego"), and the other is "time passing is a moving object" ("moving-events"). The latter metaphor does not explicitly involve the individual/speaker. Events are in a queue, with prior events towards the front of the line. The individual may be facing the queue, or it may be moving from left to right in front of him/her.


title: Aymara language

text: The claims regarding Aymara involve the moving-ego metaphor. Most languages conceptualize the ego as moving forward into the future, with ego's back to the past. The English sentences "prepare for what lies before us" and "we are facing a prosperous future" exemplify the metaphor. In contrast, Aymara seems to encode the past as in front of individuals and the future behind them. That is typologically a rare phenomenon [Núñez & Sweetser, 2006, p. 416].


title: Aymara language

text: The fact that English has words like "before" and "after" that are (currently or archaically) polysemous between 'front/earlier' or 'back/later' may seem to refute the claims regarding Aymara uniqueness. However, those words relate events to other events and are part of the moving-events metaphor. In fact, when "before" means "in front of ego, it can mean only "future". For instance, "our future is laid out before us while "our past is behind us". Parallel Aymara examples describe future days as "qhipa uru", literally 'back days', and they are sometimes accompanied by gestures to behind the speaker. The same applies to Quechua-speakers, whose expression "qhipa p'unchaw" corresponds directly to Aymara "qhipa uru". Possibly, the metaphor is from the fact that the past is visible (in front of one's eyes), but the future is not.


title: Aymara language

text: There is increasing use of Aymara locally and there are increased numbers learning the language, both Bolivian and abroad. In Bolivia and Peru, intercultural bilingual education programs with Aymara and Spanish have been introduced in the last two decades. There are even projects to offer Aymara through the internet, such as by ILCA.


title: Aymara language

text: The following is a sample text in Ayamara, Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by the United Nations):


title: Parasite (comics)

text: Parasite is the name of several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Each version of the character has the ability to temporarily absorb the life-energy, superpowers, and knowledge of others. The most recurring Parasite is Rudy Jones, who is a main adversary of Superman and belongs to the collective of enemies that make up his rogues gallery. In 2009, Parasite was ranked as IGN's 61st Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: The Rudy Jones incarnation of the Parasite has been substantially adapted from the comics into multiple forms of media, most notably in the DC Animated Universe's "" and "Justice League". He has also been portrayed in live-action television by Brendan Fletcher in "Smallville". Different versions of Parasite appeared in TV shows set in the Arrowverse, with William Mapother portraying Rudy Jones in the second season, Anthony Konechny portraying Raymond Jensen in the fourth season of "Supergirl", and Rya Kihlstedt portraying a variation of Alexandra Allston renamed Ally Allston in the second season of "Superman & Lois".


title: Parasite (comics)

text: The Raymond Maxwell Jenson version of the Parasite first appeared in "Action Comics" #340 (August 1966) and was created by Jim Shooter. Shooter, who began working for DC at age 13, says that his inspiration for the villain was learning about parasites in his ninth-grade biology class.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: The Rudy Jones version of the Parasite first appeared in "Firestorm" (vol. 2) #58 and was created by John Ostrander and Joe Brozowski.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: The Alex and Andrea Allston versions of the Parasite first appeared in "The Adventures of Superman" #633 and were created by Greg Rucka, Matthew Clark, and Andrew Lanning.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: The Joshua Allen version of the "New 52" Parasite first appeared in "Superman" (vol. 3) #23.4 and was created by Aaron Kuder.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In the Pre-Crisis, Raymond Maxwell Jensen was a lowlife who got a job as a plant worker for a research center. Wrongly believing that the company payrolls were hidden in storage containers, Jensen opened one and was bombarded with energies from biohazard materials (which was actually waste collected by Superman when he traveled into outer space), which transformed him into a purple-skinned, parasitic entity, and thus he became the Parasite. Any time he touched someone, he could absorb their physical and mental properties. Touching Superman would instantly absorb a sizable fraction of his superhuman powers (it was established early on that he is not capable of acquiring the whole of Superman's powers). On one occasion, while attempting to absorb a greater portion of his adversary's powers than previously, his body disintegrated for a period of time due to the pressure in his cells. Despite these abilities, the Parasite became depressed because he could no longer embrace his wife and children. The Parasite made a number of reappearances before the Crisis, yet he never successfully found a means to permanently defeat Superman. Despite this, he had knowledge of his foe's alter ego and often used this to attack Clark Kent. Gaining sizable intellect from his multiple encounters with Superman, the Parasite devised the means to reanimate dormant plant remains left behind from the Earth-Two supervillain Solomon Grundy, creating a newer and stronger version of the creature to plague his adversary. On another occasion, the Parasite devised the means to transfer the powers of the hero Air Wave to the young hero's adversary Casey Jones temporarily.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: The eventual fate of the Pre-"Crisis" version of the Parasite is briefly mentioned in the beginning of "", where Lois Lane talks about the fates of the various Superman villains. The Parasite is dead, having died while fighting his occasional partner-in-crime Terra-Man in what Lane refers to a "clash of egos". Terra-Man is killed in the battle as well.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: Originally a menial slacker in the Post-Crisis, Rudolph "Rudy" Jones was transformed into the Parasite while working as a janitor at a Pittsburgh S.T.A.R. Labs facility. Unknown to anyone at the scene, the Lord of Apokolips, Darkseid, remembered the Pre-"Crisis" Parasite and manipulated Jones to become the modern version. He made Rudy think that a waste container might have held something valuable. He opened it and was exposed to strange radiation that changed his body into the hairless, green-skinned villain. Jones now had the ability to absorb the life energy of other people, leaving behind smoldering skeletons. This power was necessary for his survival, as his own body is in a constant state of hunger for energy that it cannot sustain on its own. During this time, Martin Stein, one half of the Firestorm Matrix (Ronnie Raymond being the other half) learned he was dying and decided to destroy all the nuclear weapons in the world. This did not sit well with Earth's governments, particularly the United States, who sent the Suicide Squad to Times Square where Firestorm was holding a press conference. Things quickly got out of control as the Squad and the Justice League, both intent on subduing Firestorm, fought one another, and the Parasite (who was brought on the mission against the protests of both Amanda Waller and Colonel Rick Flag Jr.) is released. He goes on a rampage and apparently kills Multiplex, only being brought under control by the cooperation of both teams. Later, he attacked the new Firestorm who easily subdued him and left him near death.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: During one of his stints at Belle Reve Prison, doctors attempted to make him human again. Despite their intentions, the doctors only managed to change his skin color to the more familiar purple and also inadvertently increased his absorption power, enabling him to feed on other forms of energy, such as electricity and heat. After a number of years, the Parasite became involved in the plot to save Superman from overloading on solar energy. Rudy and Superman battled on the moon where Superman uncontrollably unleashed an immense blast of heat vision that the Parasite absorbed, causing him to mutate even further into a huge, hulking monster with teeth resembling a leech's. This mutation again increased Rudy's draining abilities, allowing him to absorb fast-moving objects' inertia, as well as making him impervious to telepathic attack to an unknown extent, since he could now drain energy through a mental link as he displayed when Dubbilex telepathically attacked him. His extra size and power did have a downside, however; he needed to absorb more energy more frequently to stay alive.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: Unfortunately for a scientist who was tending to Rudy during one of his terms of imprisonment, he was tricked by Lex Luthor and somehow absorbed into the Parasite. This joining was different from Rudy's others as, apparently due to unspecified modifications to Rudy's physiology during this stint at S.T.A.R. Labs (although some sources speculate that the scientist's strength of character contributed to his 'survival'), he actually retained the scientist, Dr. Torval Freeman, as a part of his own mind. This combined intelligence made the Parasite even more menacing, given Freeman's superior intellect; however, just as the Parasite was about to finish off Superman (who he had drained almost to death), Superman was taken by the Tribunal and Dr. Freeman's wife intervened, convincing the Dr. Freeman persona to leave the Parasite (along with Dr. Freeman's body); after this, Rudy Jones' personality was back in control. He is later recruited by Morgan Edge to be part of the second Superman Revenge Squad. After Superman's powers were converted into energy-based ones, the Parasite returned to see what he could absorb from the Man of Steel. At this point in time, Superman was not in full control of what was happening with his powers and nearly killed the Parasite. Later, the Parasite returned once again to make trouble for Superman, but found himself facing off against Supergirl instead, absorbing some of her new angelic powers and nearly killing himself due to the 'divine judgment' of Supergirl's new 'wings'.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: At one point, Rudy was contracted to help drain off a being named the Strange Visitor's excess electromagnetic energy, as she could not fully control it. This exposure to the Strange Visitor's power caused the Parasite to mutate again, giving him the ability to fully and permanently retain the intellects of all of his victims and also allowed him to maintain any stolen energy for up to 24 hours. Like Torval Freeman, Rudy also absorbed an unknown shapeshifter into his biology, granting him the permanent power to mimic the exact genetic makeup and appearance of his victims.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: After he later escaped from S.T.A.R. Labs in the early 2000s, the Parasite began to form a plan to get back at Superman. He began stalking Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in an attempt to get to those closest to Superman. The Parasite had taken the form of one of his previous victims, an old man, and was run down in the pandemonium that evening when Lois came to his aid. Not realizing that she was actually in contact with the Parasite, a simple touch was all Rudy needed to get her knowledge of Superman. Rudy was surprised to learn from Lois Superman's secret identity. A new plan formed when he realized how close Superman actually was to Lois; the Parasite decided to take her place and tear him down emotionally by pretending to be a scorned Lois Lane, apparently even having an affair with Luthor in the process. When Clark attempted to confront Lois about her recent distance from him, in a fit of rage uncharacteristic of Lois Lane, Rudy punched Clark out of their apartment and into the streets of Metropolis. Shortly after this display, Superman got the Parasite to reveal himself in the guise of Lois Lane. Rudy could not handle the fact that anyone other than himself as the Parasite took down the Man of Steel. Just as the Parasite was about to lay the final blow to an exhausted Superman, Rudy drops, completely crippled by kryptonite poisoning he had drained from Superman, unbeknownst to either Rudy or Clark. Superman finally realized the reason he has felt so weak recently was because he was being constantly drained by the Parasite and also the victim of the mysterious kryptonite poisoning. When he asked Rudy how long he had pretended to be Lois, the Parasite related his story to the Man of Steel. In his final moments, he tells Superman that he still needed to have contact with Lois once every 24 hours to maintain his charade, confirming that she is still alive. He also told him that Lois loves him more deeply than he could ever know, and loves him in a way that nobody ever loved the Parasite. The Parasite died before he could tell Superman where Lois was imprisoned ("Superman" (vol. 2) #157). Although Superman initially tried to investigate himself, his efforts were hampered by a bout of kryptonite poisoning, and Steel was forced to contact Batman to help in the investigation. Accompanied by Superman, Batman tracked a spree of recent disappearances to the Parasite's hiding place, during which Superman gained a new insight into Batman's methods and actions, and Lois was soon found alive by the two heroes. Lex Luthor, with whom it is implied the Parasite had engaged in amorous, "extramarital" activity while in Lois' form, was infuriated when he learned of the Parasite's schemes. As such, Luthor went to great efforts to obtain the Parasite's remains.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In "Justice League of America" (vol. 2) #2, the Parasite is found to be holed up in St. Roch, Louisiana, where he uses his power-absorbing abilities to temporarily neutralize the powers of villains for a fee so they might evade detection during the course of criminal efforts.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In "Action Comics" Annual #10, a headshot of the Parasite was seen as part of "Superman's Top 10 Most Wanted" that bore a resemblance to the version seen in "Justice". This version of the Parasite later appeared in "Action Comics" #759 wearing the ""-inspired costume the Parasite wore circa 2000, and is later seen as a member of the new Injustice League. It has not yet been revealed if this Parasite is the same that appeared in "Justice League of America" (vol. 2) #2, but he has been revealed to be a resurrected Rudy Jones by Lex Luthor in "".


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In the New Krypton storyline where 100,000 Kryptionian refugees are freed from the bottle city of Kandor, the Kandorians decide to take it upon themselves to eliminate Superman's enemies. A group of Kandorians break the Parasite out of prison, killing several prison guards in the process and imprison the Parasite in the Phantom Zone. Superman freed the Parasite so he could be taken to Belle Reve, but the Parasite escaped.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: The 2009-10 miniseries "" redefines the Parasite's origin. In this version, Rudy Jones is a janitor at the "Daily Planet". One day, Lex Luthor chooses Rudy as part of a daily "LexCorp Lottery" in which he selects one person from the crowd formed outside the LexCorp building to provide them with a new life. Inside LexCorp, Rudy eats a donut which had been accidentally spilled with a purple toxic material (revealed in issue #5 to have been produced by extracting the radiation from kryptonite). This transforms him into the Parasite, subsequently going on a rampage in Metropolis until he is stopped by Superman. He was last seen in issue #5 to be in a holding cell in LexCorp tower, having been seen by both Lex and Lois Lane's father, General Sam Lane.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth", which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". Parasite was seen sucking electricity from the power station until Superman arrives. Not wanting Superman's help, Parasite loses his power after the power station explodes and gets away. Parasite later tries to drain the energy from the hospital generators. Superman was able to subdue Parasite on the Moon.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: During the "" storyline, Parasite was with the other Superman villains when they witnessed the rampage of a version of Superman called Last Sun. Metallo asks Parasite if he would suck the powers out of Last Son. He turned down that suggestion claiming that Last Sun's powers would be too dangerous for him.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: Jimmy Olsen once recaps to Lois about the time when Superman took on Parasite, Lex Luthor, Mongul, Silver Banshee, Bizarro, and Metallo while protecting innocent bystanders.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: After the villain Ruin (who was secretly Professor Hamilton) performed some experiments, two new Parasites debuted, one purple, the other green. The two new Parasites were teenagers named Alex (the green Parasite) and Alexandra (the purple Parasite) who wanted to seek vengeance on the people who made their lives difficult. They were soon subdued by Superman after a battle.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: After attempting to escape from a metahuman prison, Alex was killed by an OMAC while his sister Alexandra escaped and joined the Secret Society of Super Villains under Alexander Luthor Jr. (who was posing as Lex Luthor).


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In 2011, "The New 52" rebooted the DC Comics universe. Joshua Michael Allen was a misanthropic delivery boy who was caught in the middle of a battle between Superman and a giant parasite. Allen snapped and attacked the creature, electrocuting it and himself with a live wire. While at Star Labs to check his health from the encounter, their testing transformed him into a creature who constantly feels hunger for energy he obtains from people, leaving their molded skeletons. Tired of this kind of life, he tried to commit suicide and was rescued by Superman, from whom Allen absorbed energy like never before. This eased the pain and hunger he experienced, until his energy was depleted. Allen was imprisoned in Belle Reve.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: During the "Forever Evil" storyline, Allen escaped and joined the Crime Syndicate of America's version of the Secret Society of Super Villains. The Parasite is defeated by an overload of energy.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: All incarnations of the Parasite have the ability to temporarily absorb the life energy, superpowers, and knowledge of their victims through physical contact, and are also able to drain virtually any other form of energy and use it as a power source.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In particular, Rudy Jones is granted enhanced strength, intelligence, agility, durability, and reflexes by absorbing the energy of other beings. When Jones drains other superpowered individuals, he gains their abilities for a limited period of time until he "runs out of life-energy" and must seek a new victim to "feed on". He is shown to have a heightened sense of perception that allows him to detect the life force and power within other beings. While drawing the energy of ordinary humans is almost instantaneous, it takes a notably longer time in the case of immensely powerful beings, which gives the victim more time to react and free themselves from the Parasite's grip. Following an encounter with the Strange Visitor, however, the Parasite's powers were enhanced and enable him to retain the energy he takes for longer as well as granting Jones the ability to shapeshift; he can now physically morph into his victims right down to their DNA, being able to access their memories, gain their natural abilities, and mimic their voices. The Parasite's biggest weakness is that he also absorbs the weaknesses of his victims and cannot counter such susceptibilities even when he has other abilities that should do so; when he absorbed both Superman and Livewire's powers, he retained the latter's vulnerability to water despite possessing the former's near-invulnerability. The Parasite also maintains Superman's weaknesses, like kryptonite, even when the Parasite in addition already absorbed the powers of non-Kryptonians.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: An alternate version of the Parasite appeared in DC Comics' "All-Star Superman" #5 as an antagonist in the main subplot. He passes by Clark Kent who is interviewing Lex Luthor, a prisoner on Death Row at the 'Stryker's Island' prison. Clark is surprised to see the Parasite, and the entity feeds on Superman's ambient energy. This provides enough power for the Parasite to go on a murderous rampage. The sheer amount of energy causes the Parasite to evolve into little more than a body and a mouth. Clark uses subterfuge and his strength to ultimately defeat the creature. Lex believes his attempts actually helped.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: The Parasite was one of the main characters in the second Marvel/DC crossover between Spider-Man and Superman. In this story, he was recruited by Doctor Doom as an agent in Doom's latest plan to conquer the world by wiping out all power sources but his own fusion reactor. Doom claimed that he needed the Parasite to function as an invincible bodyguard, capturing the Hulk and Wonder Woman and giving the Parasite a harness that would allow him to retain their powers for prolonged periods. However, Doom's true intention was to kill the Parasite by allowing him to absorb so much power that his cells would burst, causing the Parasite to, according to Doom's calculations, transform into a crystalline mass that would allow Doom to perfect the reactor by using its energy-manipulation abilities to control the reactor's power output. This plan was thwarted when the Parasite briefly absorbed Spider-Man's powers, causing his borrowed spider-sense to alert him to Doom's treachery in time for him to turn on Doom and destroy the equipment that would have allowed him to absorb the powers from Superman, Wonder Woman and the Hulk, although he was subsequently defeated by Superman using a gauntlet of Doom's that prevented the Parasite from absorbing his energy when he was attacked.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In the second "" miniseries entitled "JSA: The Unholy Three", the Parasite is a former KGB agent working freelance as a contract killer.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: "Justice" features the faceless Pre-"Crisis" version of the Parasite as part of the Legion of Doom. While not identified by name in the story, it is revealed via Batman's computer files that this version of the Parasite is Raymond Maxwell Jensen. He first appears in issue #4 as part of a group of villains sent to kill Superman (alongside Bizarro, Solomon Grundy, and Metallo), draining Superman's powers before Metallo exposes Superman to his kryptonite heart. The quartet are soon defeated by Captain Marvel, who slams Metallo's heart into the Parasite to defeat him. Lex Luthor teleports to the group almost immediately after Marvel and Superman leave to the Batcave, literally scolding the group as he returns Metallo his heart, telling the Parasite he also gets Superman's weaknesses as well as his strengths. He is later seen giving Luthor an unconscious Supergirl. When the Justice League attacks the Hall of Doom, the Parasite initially attacks Aquaman using some of Supergirl's powers, hoping to take his powers, and threatens Mera's life, and is subsequently stabbed by Aquaman. Gold later tries to imprison him in his body, hoping to turn the Parasite into gold, but is distracted after Platinum is attacked by Metallo. After escaping, he takes Black Adam's powers and Metallo's heart to kill Superman, but he is still unable to beat the Man of Steel and is defeated by the lightning bolt from Black Adam saying "Shazam!".


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In the DC "Kingdom Come" alternate timeline, the Parasite is involved in the explosion that destroys Kansas. This incarnation of the Parasite is the Raymond Jensen version. Besieged by a group of metahumans led by Magog, the weakened Parasite desperately lashes out at Captain Atom, tearing through his outer shell and causing the Captain's nuclear energy to erupt. The ensuing explosion destroys everything within a large radius and annihilates over 1 million people. With the exception of Magog and the enormous hero Alloy, none of the metahumans involved in the battle, including the Parasite, are shown to survive.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: The Parasite is the primary antagonist in "Superman: Earth One Volume Two", the sequel to "". This incarnation of the Parasite is the Raymond Maxwell Jensen version. Raymond Jensen was a criminal who would do anything to get what he wanted, including murder. His backstory reveals that he has been sociopathic since childhood and delights in killing anyone or anything for pleasure. After an accident at S.T.A.R. Labs, he becomes a serial-killing metahuman with the ability to absorb energy and life force through physical contact and to convert that energy into health and power for himself. This increases his strength, durability, muscle mass, and allows him to project the energy as a weapon. By absorbing Superman's life force, he gains his powers and renders the Man of Steel powerless. Ray has a sister named Theresa Jensen, who believes that her brother is a consultant with a real estate firm, unaware of his status as a murderous criminal until his transformation.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In Art Baltazar's "Superman Family Adventures", Otis from the Richard Donner "Superman" movies became this universe's Parasite. Lex grabs a purple rock from space that Otis keeps instead of throwing away, which takes over his body and allows him the Parasite's abilities. Rather than commit villainous acts, Otis focuses his efforts on living Superman's life and dubs himself the "Purple Superman" before Lois calls him the Parasite. Superman defeats him by putting oven mitts on his hands while avoiding Otis, causing Otis to eventually lose Superman's powers and tire out.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In "", an incarnation of the Parasite is one of various enemies of Superman created by Dr. Lex Luthor.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: The Joshua Michael Allen (modeled after the Rudy Jones version's appearance) version of the Parasite appears in ""'s prequel comic. In "Year Five", the Parasite is fighting against the Cyborg and Hal Jordan in Coast City until Superman arrives and takes him to the Sun, where he throws the Parasite in, apparently killing him.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: In Stan Lee's "Just Imagine...", a version of Parasite exists as an African-American female serial killer named Lucinda Radama. She's one of the death row criminals turned supervillains under the Reverend Darrk, alongside Brock Smith/Blockbuster and criminal Deke Durgan/Deathstroke.


title: Parasite (comics)

text: Parasite has made a brief appearance in Superman American Alien #5 by Max Landis. It shows the tragic story of Rudy Jones, how he became an addict and eventually a "guest" of Lex Luthor, who slowly turned him into an energy-hungry monster. After a brief rampage inside Metropolis Mall, he is apprehended by Superman and (mistakenly) returned to Lex Luthor, from whom he escaped in the first place. This serves as an example of "humanizing" the character of Superman, showing that he has flaws and makes mistakes as any other person does.


title: Fast Retailing

text: In addition to its primary subsidiary Uniqlo, it owns several other brands, including J Brand, Comptoir des Cotonniers, GU, Princesse Tam-Tam, and Theory.


title: Fast Retailing

text: The company was founded as Men's Shop Ogori Shoji in 1949, and formally incorporated as Ogōri Shōji Co., Ltd. in 1963 by Hitoshi Yanai.


title: Fast Retailing

text: In 1984, the company, which ran a menswear store in Ube, Yamaguchi, opened a new casual-wear store named Unique Clothing Warehouse in Hiroshima City; this was the forebear of Uniqlo.


title: Fast Retailing

text: In September 1991, Ogori Shoji changed its name to Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., and was listed on the Hiroshima Stock Exchange in July 1994.


title: Fast Retailing

text: The company also owns the American brand Theory; Fast Retailing acquired "an equity stake in Link Theory Holdings Co Ltd, the marketer of the Theory and Helmut Lang apparel brands, in 2004". It acquired the rest of the company in 2009.


title: Fast Retailing

text: In 2007, it unsuccessfully offered a bid of US$900 million for Barneys New York department store to the Jones Apparel Group.


title: Fast Retailing

text: In 2012, the company purchased an 80% stake of premium denim company J Brand for US$290 million and US$10 million in advisory legal fees.


title: Matthew Hoppe

text: Matthew Timothy Hoppe (born March 13, 2001) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Championship club Middlesbrough and the United States national team.


title: Matthew Hoppe

text: Hoppe played a single season with the LA Galaxy academy, before being released by the team. After playing for the Barça Residency Academy in Arizona, Hoppe signed with Schalke 04 in June 2019.


title: Matthew Hoppe

text: On November 28, 2020, he made his professional debut for Schalke against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga. On January 9, 2021, he scored a hat-trick, and his first senior goals for Schalke, in a league match against Hoffenheim. Hoppe became the first American to score a hat-trick in the Bundesliga and the 4–0 result also meant that the club ended their 30 game winless streak in the league.


title: Matthew Hoppe

text: Hoppe signed his first professional deal at Schalke on February 1, 2021, keeping him at the club until 2023.


title: Matthew Hoppe

text: Hoppe moved to La Liga club Mallorca on August 31, 2021, the last day of the 2021 summer transfer window. The transfer fee paid to Schalke 04 was reported as €3.5 million plus possible bonuses. Hoppe made only seven appearances for the club across all competitions in a debut season that was beset with injuries and a bout of COVID-19.


title: Matthew Hoppe

text: Hoppe received his first call-up to the United States ahead of a friendly against Switzerland on May 20, 2021.


title: Matthew Hoppe

text: Hoppe is the son of Tom and Anna Hoppe. He is of German descent through his father's lineage. He has two older siblings; one brother and one sister. Hoppe is a Christian.


title: 2026 Asian Games

text: The 2026 Asian Games (), also known as XX Asiad () and Aichi-Nagoya 2026, will be a multi-sport event celebrated in the Aichi Prefecture and its capital Nagoya in Japan from 19 September to 4 October 2026. Nagoya will be the third Japanese city to host the Games, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994.


title: 2026 Asian Games

text: The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) selected Nagoya to host the Games at their annual general assembly session in Danang, Vietnam, on September 25, 2016. The bid was initially in threat of falling apart after a budget dispute between Aichi Prefecture and its capital Nagoya, but was resolved, allowing the bid to be accepted. The OCA originally planned to choose the 2026 host city in 2018, but brought the planning date forward due to the intensity of the region's sporting calendar, including the next three Olympic Games between 2018 and 2022 (held in Pyeongchang, Tokyo and Beijing).


title: 2026 Asian Games

text: The city of Nagoya received an estimate of roughly ¥85 billion in costs from the Aichi Prefecture government for the event, 30% of which is expected to be covered by sponsorships and other revenue, while the remainder is planned to be split on a 70–30 basis between Nagoya and Aichi Prefecture.


title: 2026 Asian Games

text: The games are planned to use existing facilities. It is expected that Paloma Mizuho Stadium will host both the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics, Nippon Gaishi Hall Complex is to be used for both gymnastics and aquatics, the Nagoya Dome is to be used for baseball, and the Toyota Stadium is to be used for football.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: This game features biweekly, downloadable themed tours with different cups, each of which has three courses and a bonus challenge. In addition to courses which already appeared in the "Mario Kart" series, "Mario Kart Tour" includes courses located in world cities (New York, Tokyo, Paris, London, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Berlin, Sydney, Singapore, Amsterdam, and Bangkok).


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: The game deviates from the traditional gameplay of the "Mario Kart" series, where the objective is to reach the finish line in first; this game utilizes a point-based system. There are four options of speed: 50cc (namely "leisurely"), 100cc ("fast"), 150cc ("very fast") and 200cc ("too fast"; Gold Pass only that is subscription in the game). Unlike previous installments in the series, much of the driving (notably acceleration, jump boosts) is performed automatically. "Mario Kart Tour" includes features from previous "Mario Kart" games, such as underwater racing and hang gliding from "Mario Kart 7". This game introduces a new Frenzy mode, which occurs when a driver gets three identical items from an item box, allowing them to repeatedly use the item for a short period. Each character can get a unique item (also known as "Special Skill") from item boxes.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: "Mario Kart Tour" introduces a new format called "Tours". Tours are named after cities in the real world, "Mario" series characters, "Mario" series games, or other themes. Each tour lasts for two weeks, beginning on Wednesday at 1.00 a.m. EST. In a tour, players can compete in twelve to eighteen cups and collect drivers, karts and gliders which represent the corresponding cities or themes. There are also spotlight drivers, karts, and gliders while a tour lasts for two weeks. Each Cup consists of three courses and a bonus challenge. Courses from previous cups may be reused for subsequent cups. Most races have two laps, while most bonus challenges are done in one lap. The cups are also named after some of the drivers in the game instead of the usual items in the "Mario" franchise.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: After the player finishes a race, the player is awarded Grand Stars to unlock tour gifts, coins and experience points for the used character, kart, and glider. If the player finishes in the top three, they will earn some player points for their level. If the player finishes in 5th place or below, the level-gauge will decrease. When the player fills the gauge all the way, they will level-up to get a reward. Each course also has an experience point limit. Currently, the max player-level is 300.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: Each week, a tour's cup is a tournament. 20 players are placed on a leaderboard based on the overall score for the cup. By the following Wednesday, Lakitu announces how well the player did. The player will increase in tier, and earn some rewards if their end position is near the top, but they will lose one or two tiers if they finish poorly. The player also gets a reward if the player and their friends' score reaches a certain amount.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: This game includes races against AI-controlled opponents with usernames of real players. In addition, a beta test for the multiplayer function of this game began from "approximately 2:00 p.m. EST on December 19, 2019 to 0:59 p.m. EST on December 27, 2019" and was only available for subscribers to the Gold Pass. From January 23, 2020, to January 29, 2020, there was a multiplayer test for all players of the game.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: At 11 p.m. EST on March 8, 2020, multiplayer function in "Mario Kart Tour" was officially launched. All players "can race against up to seven other players, whether they're registered as in-game friends, nearby to your location, or even scattered around the world." In the meantime, "Gold Races are available exclusively to subscribers of the Mario Kart Tour Gold Pass." One of the main differences between the Standard Races (for players without the Gold Pass) and the Gold Races is the selection of speed: only 100cc is available in the Standard Races while 150cc and 200cc are available in the Gold Races. There is a multiplayer rank (ranging from F to A, S to S+6 if subscribed to the Gold Pass) for each player. A percentage for the rank will increase when a player wins in a multiplayer race, but will decrease or remain unchanged during a loss.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: The game originally could only be played in portrait mode; however, on July 21, 2020, the game received an update that allowed the players to also play the game in landscape mode. An update in March 2022 added support for Miis as playable racers.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: On February 9, 2022, Nintendo announced that several of the game's original tracks will be bundled as DLC tracks for the previously released "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" for the Nintendo Switch.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: On September 2, 2022, Nintendo announced that the game's most controversial piece, the "gacha" mechanic with the ruby spotlight pipe would be removed and replaced with a normal shop that would not only include any new tours' brand new characters, gliders, and karts; but bring back old ones that people missed out on in previous tours. Alongside that was the reveal of battle mode making its return. Both were done with an update released October 5, 2022.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: In January 2018, Nintendo announced a mobile version of the "Mario Kart" series for iOS and Android. Nintendo announced in April 2019 that they would be holding a closed beta for the game, exclusively for Android users, which took place from late May to early June. Initially expected to be released by March 2019, the game was released on September 25, 2019. As of September 26, a day after "Mario Kart Tour" release, there had been over ten million downloads of the game.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: To celebrate the "Super Mario Bros." 35th Anniversary, the game was updated to include two new characters: SNES Mario and Donkey Kong Jr., who had not appeared in the series since "Super Mario Kart".


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: On its first day, "Mario Kart Tour" was available for download in 58 markets, including the Japanese and American markets. Revenue-wise, it placed #19 for iPhone apps in the United States. This was a significant debut improvement compared to "Dr. Mario World", a match-three mobile game also developed by Nintendo and released on July 9, 2019, which placed #503 during its debut. Another game published by Nintendo on February 2, 2019, "Fire Emblem Heroes", placed #17 on the top iPhone revenue app during its debut.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: "Mario Kart Tour" received 90.1 million downloads in its first week of availability according to Sensor Tower, the highest number of first-week downloads for a Nintendo mobile game, surpassing ""s 14.3 million downloads. It also made $12.7 million in first-week player spending, the 3rd-highest for a Nintendo mobile game behind "Fire Emblem Heroes" ($28.2 million) and "Super Mario Run" ($16.1 million). Total downloads reached 123.9 million in the first month of release, generating $37.4 million in player spending. In April 2021, Sensortower released an information about Mario Kart Tour surpassing 200 million downloads and 200 million for revenue, making it the second biggest mobile game in revenue for Nintendo, only behind Fire Emblem Heroes.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: The game received "mixed or average reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic. While critics praised the graphics and simple controls, they criticized "Mario Kart Tour"s gacha element, as well as its monthly $4.99 "Gold Pass" feature, which is required to use the game's 200cc feature, to get more items and in-game achievements, the constant need for a stable internet connection, and the only way to unlock things like karts and gold badges in the game requires money. Many journalists noted that the monthly charge for the subscription service was the same as that of Apple Arcade, which launched a few days prior to the release of "Mario Kart Tour", claiming that the former provides subscribers with more content for the same price and thus, is a better value. The game was also criticized for player selection multiplayer functionality and not having characters at launch like Luigi who had been available in trailers, tutorials and the beta testing stage of the game.


title: Mario Kart Tour

text: The game won the award for "Racing Game of the Year" at the 23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, and was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards.


title: José Kléberson

text: José Kléberson Pereira (born 19 June 1979), commonly known as José Kléberson or simply Kléberson, is a Brazilian football coach and former player who is currently the assistant coach of New York City FC. He previously played for Brazil 32 times and was part of the squad that won the 2002 FIFA World Cup.


title: José Kléberson

text: Kléberson was born and raised in the provincial town of Uraí in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná. He began his football career with Atlético Paranaense. There, Kléberson won the Paraná State League in 2000 and 2001, and the Brazilian Série A title in 2001. His performances for Atlético Paranaense led to Luiz Felipe Scolari calling him up to the Brazil national team for the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan.


title: José Kléberson

text: His World Cup performances led to Scolari declaring Kléberson the driving force behind Brazil's cup-winning side, and drew interest from several European teams; Barcelona, Newcastle United, Leeds United and Celtic all expressed an interest. Leeds, failed to secure the signing after Kléberson decided against leaving Brazil without his girlfriend, who he was unable to marry until her 16th birthday, and eventually it was Manchester United who signed Kléberson, paying a fee of £6.5 million on 12 August 2003. Seen as a replacement for Juan Sebastián Verón, Kléberson was injured in his second appearance for the club and made only 20 appearances in two seasons. He scored two league goals in his time at Manchester United, both coming in home wins against Blackburn Rovers and Everton.


title: José Kléberson

text: On 6 August 2005, Kléberson signed for Turkish club Beşiktaş for €2.95 million. He signed a three-year deal, with the option of a further 12 months.


title: José Kléberson

text: Kléberson unilaterally terminated the contract after claiming the club failed to pay his wages on time.


title: José Kléberson

text: Kléberson signed with Flamengo on 27 September 2007 as a free agent, but he was unable to play for the club until February 2008, due to problems related to his resignation from Beşiktaş. On 10 August 2007 (announced on 27 August), the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber passed a decision that Kléberson had to pay Beşiktaş €3.18 million as for the compensation of breach of contract. and Besiktas had to pay US$461,112 as outstanding wage. Furthermore, Kléberson was suspended for four months (retroactively from 27 September 2007) Kléberson and the club later agreed to reduce the compensation from €3.18 million to €1 million.


title: José Kléberson

text: Kléberson's first matches for his new club were on the reserves team in several matches of the Rio State League. His climb to the first team started slowly as he began to play consistently in the Copa Libertadores. Kléberson earned an important spot in the midfield after the transfers of Renato Augusto and Marcinho.


title: José Kléberson

text: After returning to the first team, Kléberson's good spell in 2009 was interrupted on 12 August, in a friendly match against Estonia, where he suffered a foul and fell, causing him a dislocated shoulder. Kléberson had surgery and was expected to miss the rest of the year. He managed to recover quickly being able to return on 22 November in a 0–0 draw against Goiás and also playing in the 2–1 win over Grêmio and winning the 2009 Brazilian Série A, the second in his career.


title: José Kléberson

text: In the 2010 pre-season, Palmeiras speculated the possibility of involving Kléberson in a trade for Vágner Love, but Flamengo refused to accept the idea.


title: José Kléberson

text: After a poor year playing on loan for Atlético Paranaense, when the club was relegated to Série B, Kléberson signed for Bahia on a two-year contract in July 2012. He scored his first goal for Bahia on his debut, against his former club Flamengo.


title: José Kléberson

text: Kléberson was acquired on loan by the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer (MLS) on 25 March 2013. He scored the game-winning goal in the 95th minute from a free kick against Toronto FC on 10 October 2013.


title: José Kléberson

text: On 25 March 2014, Kléberson reportedly signed a two-year deal with Indy Eleven of the North American Soccer League (NASL). Kléberson was released by Indy Eleven in December 2015 after two seasons at the club.


title: José Kléberson

text: Kléberson made his first international appearance for Brazil in a friendly match against Bolivia on 31 January 2002. He also marked his debut by scoring Brazil's fourth goal in a 6–0 win. He also scored against Iceland in March 2002. He was subsequently selected by Luiz Felipe Scolari for Brazil's squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. He was initially relegated to the bench for the first four matches in the tournament. He was brought into the starting line-up for Brazil's game against England, with Scolari feeling his tenacity would help counter the high work-rate of the English side. His tackle on his future teammate Paul Scholes led to Brazil's equaliser before Brazil ended up winning 2–1. He then was included in the starting lineup for the rest of the tournament. Brazil defeated Germany in the final, with Kléberson setting up one of the two Brazilian goals, as Brazil won the World Cup for a record fifth time.


title: José Kléberson

text: After the World Cup, Kléberson retained his starting position in Brazil's team under the new coach Carlos Alberto Parreira and was also included in Brazil's squad for 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup, where Brazil were eliminated in the group stage. That summer, Kléberson moved to Europe to join Manchester United. He failed to achieve regular playing time with his club, and as a result he lost his position in the national team. He managed to be included in Brazil's squad for the 2004 Copa América. He made five appearances in the tournament, starting in every match he played as Brazil went on to win the tournament.


title: José Kléberson

text: After more than four years in the international wilderness, Kléberson was recalled to the national team by Dunga on 28 May 2009. He was recalled to replace Anderson in two matches for 2010 World Cup qualification and the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa. After recovering from his shoulder surgery, once again Kléberson was called up for the national team on 9 February 2010 for a friendly match against the Republic of Ireland on 2 March in London.


title: José Kléberson

text: Kléberson was then called up to Brazil's 2010 World Cup squad by Dunga on 11 May. The 23-man squad was almost exactly the same as the squad against Ireland but included one additional player, Heurelho Gomes. His only appearance in the 2010 World Cup was in the round of 16 game against Chile.


title: José Kléberson

text: In 2017, Kléberson rejoined the Philadelphia Union as a coach in the youth academy. In 2022, he was promoted to assistant coach of Philadelphia Union II for their inaugural season in MLS Next Pro.


title: José Kléberson

text: After Kleberson's starring role at the 2002 World Cup, Europe's top sides competed to sign him, but he chose to stay in Brazil for another year so he could marry his 15-year-old fiancée when she reached the age of consent, having met her when she was 14.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (December 1912 – 15 January 1966) was a Nigerian politician who served as the first and only Prime Minister of Nigeria upon independence.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was born in December 1912 in modern-day Bauchi State, in the Northern Nigeria Protectorate. Balewa's father, Yakubu Dan Zala, was of Gere ethnicity, and his mother Fatima Inna was of Gere and Fulani descent. His father worked in the house of the district head of Lere, a district within the Bauchi Emirate.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Balewa began his education at a Qur'anic School in Bauchi; when southern colonial administrators began to push for western education in the Northern region, Balewa was among the children sent to Tafawa Balewa Elementary School, after the Qur'anic school. Thereafter, he proceeded to Bauchi Provincial School. Like many of his contemporaries, he studied at Barewa College, then known as Katsina College, where he was student number 145. Ahmadu Rabah, later known as Ahmadu Bello, was student number 87 and was two years his senior, while Abubakar Imam was a year ahead of him. The college was several kilometers from Bauchi and was not close to a railway station nor other public transportation. During holidays, which was twice a year, Balewa trekked home, a journey of more than 400 kilometers. He trekked for 40 kilometers a day, before finding a resting place at a nearby village. In total, the journey took him 10 days.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Katsina College had British expatriate teachers, many of whom had been educated at leading British schools and then attended Cambridge or Oxford Universities. Students were taught in English, and speech was an important part of learning for the students. Apart from excellence in English, the school was also a training ground for teachers to be posted to the provincial and middle schools within the Northern Provinces of Nigeria.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Balewa completed his five-year education in 1933 and returned to Bauchi to teach at Bauchi Middle School. He taught at the school and rose to become a senior schoolmaster. In 1941, he became acquainted with a young Aminu Kano, who was posted to the school as a teacher. After a student unrest, investigations into student grievances indicted the headmaster, and in 1941 Balewa was nominated as the new headmaster. In 1944, Balewa and some other educated teachers in the Northern Provinces were chosen to study abroad at the University of London's Institute of Education, which today forms part of University College London. Upon returning to Nigeria, he became an Inspector of Schools for the colonial administration and later entered politics.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: He was elected in 1946 to the Northern House of Assembly, and to the Legislative Council in 1947. As a legislator, he was a vocal advocate of the rights of Northern Nigeria. He supported hesitance by the North to become independent, based on the objection that the north and south regions were not at an equal footing. In the Northern Assembly, he sought more roles and responsibility in the Native Administration for the educated members of the emirates.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Together with Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, who held the hereditary title of "Sardauna" of Sokoto, they proposed the transformation of the cultural organization, Jam'iyyar Mutanen Arewa, which means Northern People's Congress (NPC) in English, to become a political platform for use as campaign platform during the elections of 1951. Balewa was elected Vice President of the new party and subsequently resigned his post as headmaster of Bauchi Middle School. NPC won the plurality of votes to the regional House of Assembly in 1951.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Balewa was among the new legislators in Kaduna. Under a new constitution, the Macpherson Constitution of 1951, an electoral college system was implemented whereby, some regional legislators were elected to the Federal House of Representatives in Lagos, and among the federal legislators, three members from each region would be appointed federal ministers with portfolio. Balewa was among those nominated to Lagos and along with Kashim Ibrahim and Muhammadu Ribadu were nominated to become ministers.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Balewa entered the government in 1952 as Minister of Works, and later served as Minister of Transport during a time Nigeria was moving towards self-government. During his tenure at the transport ministry, both the Marine and Railway departments were transformed to corporations and the designs for a bridge over the Niger and plans for the Kainji Dam were developed.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: In 1957, NPC won the plurality of votes in the Federal House of Representatives and Balewa became the Chief Minister and designated Prime Minister. As part of his plans to unify the country towards the move for independence in 1960, he formed a coalition government between the NPC and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), led by Nnamdi Azikiwe and also invited the Action Group (A.G.), the 1957 cabinet was constituted as an all party cabinet. Though, Awolowo, the leader of A.G. and premier of the Western region was skeptical of the plan, the national executive committee of Action Group party endorsed the National Government and Ayo Rosiji and Samuel Akintola were nominated by the party. During this period, Balewa developed a close relationship with K.O. Mbadiwe from NCNC and Akintola from AG.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Balewa retained the post as Prime Minister of Nigeria when Nigeria gained independence in 1960, and was reelected in 1964.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Prior to Nigeria's independence, a constitutional conference in 1954 had adopted a regional political framework for the country, with all regions given a considerable amount of political freedom. The three regions then were composed of diverse cultural groups. The premiers and some prominent leaders of the regions later took on a policy of guiding their regions against political encroachment from other regional leaders. Later on, this political environment influenced the Balewa administration. His term in office was turbulent, with regional factionalism constantly threatening his government.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: However, as Prime Minister of Nigeria, Balewa played important roles in the continent's formative indigenous rule. He was an important leader in the formation of the Organisation of African Unity and creating a cooperative relationship with French speaking African countries. He was also instrumental in negotiations between Moise Tshombe and the Congolese authorities during the Congo Crisis of 1960–1964. He led a vocal protest against the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 and also entered into an alliance with Commonwealth ministers who wanted South Africa to leave the Commonwealth in 1961. However, a treason charge and conviction against one of the western region's leaders, Obafemi Awolowo, led to protest and condemnation from many of his supporters. The 1965 election in the region later produced violent protests. Rioting and violence were soon synchronous with what was perceived as inordinate political encroachment and an over-exuberant election outcome for Awolowo's western opponents.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: As Prime Minister of Nigeria, Balewa, from 1960 to 1961, doubled as Foreign Affairs advocate of Nigeria. In 1961, the Balewa government created an official Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations ministerial position in favour of Jaja Wachuku who became, from 1961 to 1965, the first substantive Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations, later called External Affairs.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Balewa was overthrown and murdered in a military coup on 15 January 1966, as were many other leaders, including his old companion Sir Ahmadu Bello. The circumstances of his death still remain unresolved. His body was discovered at a roadside near Lagos six days after he was ousted from office. Balewa was buried in Bauchi. News of his assassination spurred violent riots throughout Northern Nigeria and ultimately led to the bloody counter-coup of July 1966.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: In 1933, Balewa wrote "Shaihu Umar", a novella about a pious Muslim in response to a request by Rupert East, the head of the colonial Translation Bureau, to promote Hausa literature. "Shaihu Umar" was first published in 1934. An English translation by Mervyn Hiskett was published in 1967.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Written in a prose homily structure, the protagonist, Shaihu Umar, recounts his events in his life's history. Events and themes in the novel deal with the trans-Saharan slave trade, familial relationships and Islamic themes of submission to the will of God.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: In January 1960, Balewa was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Sheffield in May 1960. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from the New York University in July 1961.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Balewa's portrait was placed on the 5 Naira Note. The Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi was named in his honour.


title: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

text: Balewa was described as modest and self-effacing. At his death, his major assets included his house in Bauchi and a 50-acre farm where he vacationed when he wanted to relax. The farm was located on the way to Tafawa Balewa village about nine miles outside Bauchi; many official decisions while in office were taken at the farm. Balewa was married to four women who bore him nineteen children.


title: Władysław Sikorski

text: Prior to the First World War, Sikorski established and participated in several underground organizations that promoted the cause for Polish independence. He fought with distinction in the Polish Legions during the First World War, and later in the newly created Polish Army during the Polish–Soviet War of 1919 to 1921. In that war, he played a prominent role in the decisive Battle of Warsaw (1920). In the early years of the Second Polish Republic, Sikorski held government posts, including serving as prime minister (1922 to 1923) and as minister of military affairs (1923 to 1924). Following Józef Piłsudski's May Coup of 1926 and the installation of the "Sanation" government, he fell out of favor with the new régime.


title: Władysław Sikorski

text: During the Second World War, Sikorski became prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, and a vigorous advocate of the Polish cause in the diplomatic sphere. He supported the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union, which had been severed after the Soviet pact with Germany and the 1939 invasion of Poland—however, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin broke off Soviet-Polish diplomatic relations in April 1943 following Sikorski's request that the International Red Cross investigate the Katyń Forest massacre.


title: Władysław Sikorski

text: In July 1943, a plane carrying Sikorski plunged into the sea immediately after takeoff from Gibraltar, killing all on board except the pilot. The exact circumstances of Sikorski's death have been disputed and have given rise to a number of different theories surrounding the crash and his death. Sikorski had been the most prestigious leader of the Polish exiles, and his death was a severe setback for the Polish cause.


title: Władysław Sikorski

text: Sikorski was born in Tuszów Narodowy, Galicia, at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the third child in his family; his father was Tomasz Sikorski, a school teacher; his mother was Emilia Habrowska. His grandfather, Tomasz Kopaszyna Sikorski, had fought and been wounded at the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska in the November Uprising, during which he received the Virtuti Militari medal.


title: Władysław Sikorski

text: Sikorski attended the gimnazjum in Rzeszów (now Konarski's High School in Rzeszów) from 1893 to 1897, then transferred for a year to a Rzeszów teachers' college. In 1899 he attended the Lwów Franciszek Józef Gymnasium, and in 1902 he passed his final high school exam there. Starting that year, young Sikorski studied engineering at the Lwów Polytechnic, specializing in road and bridge construction, and graduated in 1908 with a diploma in hydraulic engineering. In 1906 Sikorski volunteered for a year's service in the Austro-Hungarian army and attended the Austrian Military School, obtaining an officer's diploma and becoming an army reserve second lieutenant ("podporucznik rezerwy"). In 1909 he married , whom he met while at the high school in Lwów. In 1912 they had a daughter, Zofia. After graduation he lived in Leżajsk and worked for the Galician administration's hydraulic engineering department, working on the regulation of the San river, and later was involved in private enterprises related to construction, real estate and the petroleum trade.


title: Władysław Sikorski

text: During his studies at the Polytechnic, Sikorski became involved in the People's School Association ("Towarzystwo Szkoły Ludowej"), an organization dedicated to spreading literacy among the rural populace. Around 1904–1905 he was briefly involved with the "endecja" Association of the Polish Youth "Zet", and then drifted towards paramilitary socialist organizations related to the Polish Socialist Party, which was intent on securing Polish independence. He made contact with the socialist movement around 1905–1906 through the "Union for the Resurrection of the Polish Nation" ("Związek Odrodzenia Narodu Polskiego"). In 1908, in Lwów, Sikorski—together with Józef Piłsudski, Marian Kukiel, Walery Sławek, Kazimierz Sosnkowski, and Henryk Minkiewicz—organized the secret Union for Active Struggle" (Związek Walki Czynnej)", with the aim of bringing about an uprising against the Russian Empire, one of Poland's three partitioners. In 1910, likewise in Lwów, Sikorski helped to organize a Riflemen's Association (the "Związek Strzelecki"), became the president of its Lwów chapter, and became responsible for the military arm within the Commission of Confederated Independence Parties ("Komisja Skonfederowanych Stronnictw Niepodległościowych, KSSN"). Having a military education, he lectured other activists on military tactics.


title: Władysław Sikorski

text: Upon the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914, Sikorski was mobilized, but through KSSN influence he was allowed to participate in the organizing of the Polish military units, rather than being delegated to other duties by the Austro-Hungarian military command. In the first few weeks of the war he became the chief of the Military Department in the Supreme National Committee ("Naczelny Komitet Narodowy, NKN") and remained in this post until 1916. He was a commissioner in charge of the recruitment to the Polish Legions in Kraków, choosing this role over the opportunity to serve in the Legions as a frontline commander. On 30 September 1914 he was promoted to "podpułkownik" (lieutenant colonel), and soon after that he became the commander of a Legions officer school ("Szkoła Podchorążych"). The Legions—the army created by Józef Piłsudski to liberate Poland from Russian and, ultimately, Austro-Hungarian and German rule—initially fought in alliance with Austria-Hungary against Russia. From August 1915 there was growing tension between Sikorski, who advocated cooperation with Austria-Hungary, and Piłsudski, who felt that Austria-Hungary and Germany had betrayed the trust of the Polish people. In 1916 Piłsudski actively campaigned to have the Military Department of NKN disbanded. In July that year, Sikorski was promoted to "pułkownik" (colonel). Following the Act of 5th November (1916), Sikorski became involved with the Legions' alternatives, the Polish Auxiliary Corps and Polnische Wehrmacht. In June 1917 Piłsudski refused Austro-Hungarian orders to swear loyalty to the Habsburg Emperor (the "oath crisis") and was interned at the fortress of Magdeburg, while Sikorski abandoned Polnische Wehrmacht and returned to the Austro-Hungarian Army. In 1918, however, following the February Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the battle of Rarańcza, Sikorski chose belatedly to side with Piłsudski, announcing solidarity with his actions, protesting against the planned separation of Chełm Land from the planned Polish state, and thus soon joined Piłsudski in internment (he would be held in Dulfalva (Dulovo)). Nonetheless, this was not enough to smooth the differences between him and Piłsudski, and these two major Polish leaders would drift farther apart in the continuing years.


title: Władysław Sikorski

text: In 1918 the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and German empires collapsed, and Poland once again became independent, but the borders of the Second Polish Republic were not fully determined and were unstable. In the east they would be formed in the escalating conflicts among Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Soviet forces in what culminated in the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921). Winston Churchill commented: "The war of giants has ended, the wars of the pygmies began." Bolshevik leaders saw Poland as a bridge that the communist revolution would have to force to bring communism to the West, and Poland's very existence would soon be at stake.


title: Władysław Sikorski

text: After his release from internment, from 1 May 1918 Sikorski worked for the Regency Council, organizing the new Polish Army. He was soon at the frontlines again, this time in the Polish–Ukrainian War, where troops under his command secured and defended Przemyśl in October–November 1918.


title: Władysław Sikorski

text: Polish independence came in November 1918 with the formation of the Second Republic of Poland. In the course of the Polish–Ukrainian War, and in the opening phase of the Polish–Soviet War, Sikorski, now a high-ranking officer of the Polish Army was involved in further operations in the Galicia region. In January 1919 he commanded troops defending Gródek Jagielloński; in March that year he commanded an infantry division, advancing to Stawczany and Zbrucz. From 1 August 1918 Sikorski commanded the Polesie Group, and the Polish 9th Infantry Division. In order to curtail excesses of the forces under his command, he oversaw trials of 36 officers. His forces took Mozyr and Kalenkowicze in March 1920, and he would command the Polesie Group during Poland's Kiev offensive in April 1920, advancing to the Dnieper River and the Chernobyl region. On 1 April that year he was promoted to brigade general.