title: Airi Suzuki

text: In April 2018, Suzuki announced her solo debut album, "Do Me a Favor", which was set for release on June 6, 2018, and featured collaborations with bands Scandal, Akai Ko-en, and Spicy Chocolate. The album's lead single, "Distance", was released on May 3, 2018, to promote the album, along with music videos for "Distance", "Start Again", and "#DMAF." "Do Me a Favor" peaked at #6 on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart. On the day of the album's release, Suzuki also released a music video for "Hikari no Hou e", her collaboration song with Akai Ko-en. Suzuki was announced as a musical guest at the Rakuten Girls Award Autumn/Winter 2018 fashion show.


title: Airi Suzuki

text: In December 2019, Suzuki released her second album "I". The album included the song "Break it Down", which was produced by Official Hige Dandism.


title: Airi Suzuki

text: In April 2020, Suzuki appeared as a featured artist on Masayuki Suzuki's song "Daddy! Daddy! Do!", the theme song for the second season of "". In 2022, she sang "Heart wa Oteage", the ending theme for the show's third season.


title: Airi Suzuki

text: Suzuki is the daughter of professional golfers Toru Suzuki and Kyoko Maruya. Suzuki also has a younger brother. She graduated from Keio University in 2017 with a degree in Environmental Studies.


title: Woodlouse spider

text: The woodlouse spider (Dysdera crocata) is a species of spider that preys primarily upon woodlice. Other common names refer to variations on the common name of its prey, including woodlouse hunter, sowbug hunter, sowbug killer, pillbug hunter and slater spider.


title: Woodlouse spider

text: Adult females have a body length of , males . They have six eyes, a tawny orange to dark-red cephalothorax and legs, and a shiny (sometimes very shiny) pale beige to yellow-brown abdomen, sometimes dark grey. Notably, they have disproportionately large chelicerae for a spider of this size. "Dysdera crocata" is difficult to distinguish from the much less common "Dysdera erythrina", although this species is not often found near human habitation.


title: Woodlouse spider

text: "Dysdera crocata", which originated in the Mediterranean area, now has a cosmopolitan distribution (see map), ranging from Eurasia to parts of North and South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.


title: Woodlouse spider

text: Woodlouse spiders are usually found under logs, rocks, bricks, plant pots and in leaf litter in warm places, often close to woodlice. They have also been found in houses. They spend the day in a silken retreat made to enclose crevices in, generally, partially decayed wood, but sometimes construct tent-like structures in indents of various large rocks. Woodlouse spiders hunt at night and do not spin webs. Rather than spinning their webs at night, they use this time to search warm places for prey.


title: Woodlouse spider

text: Their diet consists principally of woodlice which—despite their tough exoskeleton—are pierced easily by the spider's large chelicerae; the spider usually stabs and injects venom into the woodlouse's soft underbelly while avoiding any noxious defensive chemicals. The Woodlouse Spider’s powerful jaws are made to impale the thick armor of woodlice and are strong enough to give humans a painful bite. Although the Woodlouse Spider is a dangerous predator to woodlice, it is not known to be a health hazard to humans or smaller animals. Laboratory experiments have shown "D. crocata" will take other invertebrates, and shows no particular preference for woodlice; these are simply the most common prey in its habitat. Other invertebrates preyed on by "D. crocata" include silverfish, earwigs, millipedes, burying beetles and crickets. This small but relatively large-fanged spider is very well equipped to prey on underground invertebrates of almost any kind.


title: Woodlouse spider

text: Because of its relatively large fangs and wide gape, the woodlouse spider is an unusually dominant predator for its size. Like many other "Dysdera" spiders, it frequently dominates, and sometimes kills, other spiders and centipedes.


title: Woodlouse spider

text: The courtship of these spiders is typically aggressive and mates risk injury from each other's large chelicerae. The female lays her eggs in a silken sac and is believed to look after her young after hatching. These hiding places serve as a nest for the female's sac which can carry up to 70 eggs.


title: Woodlouse spider

text: They have been known to bite humans if handled. Verified bites have caused no major medical problems. Localized itchiness at the bite site has been reported in some cases.


title: Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven

text: Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven () is a Tamil-language action comedy film directed by Sundar C. and produced by Lyca Productions. A remake of the Telugu film "Attarintiki Daredi" (2013), the film stars Silambarasan, Ramya Krishnan, Prabhu, Nassar, Megha Akash, and Catherine Tresa, with Mahat Raghavendra and Yogi Babu, among others, in supporting roles. Hiphop Tamizha composes the film's music. The title of the film is taken from a famous dialogue by Silambarasan in the film "Chekka Chivantha Vaanam" (2018).


title: Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven

text: Raghunandhan is a rich but unhappy businessman based in Madrid. He wishes to reconcile with his estranged daughter Nandhini, whom he expelled because she married Prakash against his wishes. His grandson Aadhi promises Raghunandan that he will bring her back to their home on his 80th birthday. Nandhini has two daughters: Maya and Priya. Aadhi enters the house as a driver named Raja who was appointed by Prakash after saving him from a heart attack. Raja tries to woo Priya but gives up when he learns that she is in love with another man. Maya hates Raja and is suspicious of him. Nandhini later reveals to Raja that she is aware of his real identity much before the incidents and warns him to abstain from doing anything with the intention of taking her back to Raghunandan.


title: Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven

text: To save Priya's love, Raja and Bucket, Nandhini and Prakash's manager, go to a village, and accidentally, Maya falls into the jeep due to a head injury, thus suffering with amnesia. Raja introduces himself as her lover for the time being. Maya believes it. The trio goes to the venue. Raja and Bucket enter the house. They and the bridegroom escape from there and reach Nandhini's home after a violent altercation with the family members of the bridegroom where Maya's memory is revived. The bride's father Pandithurai asks for compensation for the damage caused by Raja, to which Nandhini promises Maya's marriage with Pandithurai's second son Saravanan. To avoid complications, Prakash fires Raja. Raja later learns that Maya loved him from the beginning but was hesitant to express her feelings.


title: Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven

text: Azhagu, Pandithurai’s eldest son, falls for Maya, but his attempts are repeatedly thwarted by Raja. On the day of her marriage, Maya elopes with Raja. While waiting with him for the train to Coimbatore, Pandithurai's men reach the station to stop them, only to be trashed by Raja and his assistants, led by Roshan. Through Roshan, Maya discovers Raja’s real motive. An angry Prakash, with Nandhini, arrives to shoot Raja, but Prakash is taken aback after knowing his true identity as Aadhi. Aadhi reveals that the day Nandhini left the house, Raghunandan tried to commit suicide but accidentally killed Aadhi’s mother. He says that he chose to love his grandfather, though he killed his mother. Nandhini chose to hate him, as he injured Prakash and expelled them.


title: Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven

text: Nandhini and Prakash realise their folly and reconcile with Aadhi. Maya is kidnapped by four henchmen appointed by Azhagu, where she narrates the story to the henchmen. Aadhi and Bucket reach the spot, and Maya reconciles with Raja. Pandithurai is arrested. Raghunandan reconciles with Nandhini, and Aadhi is unanimously appointed as the CEO of the company thanks to Raghunandan and Nandhini's support. The film ends with Aadhi holding Raghunandan's hand with affection.


title: Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven

text: Hiphop Tamizha scored the film's soundtrack for Sundar C the fourth time, while collaborating for the first time with Silambarasan. The song "Vaanga Machan Vaanga" is a remix of the song of the same name from the yesteryear film, "Madurai Veeran".The song modern muniyamma was a re-used song by Hiphop Thamizha From the Film Krishnarjuna Yudham"


title: Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven

text: S Subhakeerthana of The Indian Express gave the film a rating of 1.5 stars out of 5, citing "The core purpose of any ‘entertainer’ is to ‘entertain’ you. But this Sundar C film doesn’t.". "Sify" gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5, stating "Watch it if you are a fan of STR!"


title: Romano Prodi

text: Romano Antonio Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, senior civil servant, and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Prime Minister of Italy, first from 18 May 1996 to 21 October 1998, and then from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008. Prodi is considered the founder of the Italian centre-left and one of the most prominent and iconic figures of the so-called Second Republic. He is often nicknamed "Il Professore" ("The Professor") due to his academic career.


title: Romano Prodi

text: A former professor of economics and international advisor to Goldman Sachs, Prodi ran as lead candidate of The Olive Tree coalition, winning the 1996 Italian general election and serving as Prime Minister until 1998. Following the victory of his coalition The Union over the House of Freedoms led by Silvio Berlusconi in the 2006 Italian general election, Prodi took power again. On 24 January 2008, he lost a vote of confidence in the Senate and consequently tendered his resignation as Prime Minister to President Giorgio Napolitano; he continued in office for almost four months for routine business until early elections were held and a new government was formed. Prodi has been the first left-leaning candidate to ever come first at legislative elections since 1921 and to manage to form a government without the need of opponents' parliamentary support.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 14 October 2007, Prodi became the first president of the Democratic Party upon foundation of the party. On 12 September 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon selected Prodi as president of the African Union–United Nations peacekeeping panel. Since 2021, he is serving as the United Nations Special Envoy for the Sahel.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi was born in Scandiano, near Reggio Emilia, in 1939; he is the eighth of nine children. His father Mario Prodi was an engineer grown up in a peasant family, and his mother Enrichetta was an elementary school teacher. Most of the brothers are, or have been, university professors, among them Giovanni Prodi had been professor of mathematical analysis, Vittorio Prodi of physics as well as MEP, Paolo Prodi of modern history, Franco Prodi of atmospheric physics, and Giorgio Prodi of general pathology.


title: Romano Prodi

text: In 1969, he married Flavia Franzoni, at that time a student, who later became an economist and university professor. The couple was married by Camillo Ruini, now a well-known cardinal. They have two sons, Giorgio and Antonio. He spends the summer holidays in the coastal town of Castiglione della Pescaia.


title: Romano Prodi

text: After completing his secondary education at the "Liceo Ludovico Ariosto" in Reggio Emilia, Prodi graduated in law at Milan's Università Cattolica in 1961 with a thesis on the role of Protectionism in the development of Italian industry. He then carried out postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi has received almost 20 honorary degrees from institutions in Italy, and from the rest of Europe, North America, Asia and Africa.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 25 November 1978 Prodi was appointed Minister of Industry, Commerce and Crafts in the government of the Christian Democratic leader Giulio Andreotti. Even if he was a DC member, Prodi was widely considered a "technical minister". As minister, he promoted a law, known as "Prodi law', which aimed a regulating of the extraordinary state administration procedure for the rescue of large enterprises in crisis.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 2 April 1978, Prodi and other teachers at the University of Bologna passed on a tip-off that revealed the whereabouts of the safe house where the kidnapped Aldo Moro, the former Prime Minister, was being held captive by the Red Brigades. Prodi claimed he had been given this tip-off by the founders of the Christian Democracy party, contacted from beyond the grave via a séance and a Ouija board. Whilst during this supposed séance Prodi thought the word Gradoli referred to a town on the outskirts of Rome, it probably referred to the Roman address of a Red Brigades safe house, located at no. 96, Via Gradoli.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The information was trusted and a police group made an armed blitz in the town of Gradoli, 80 km from Rome, on the following day, 6 April though Moro was not found.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi spoke to the Italian parliament's commission about the case in 1981. In the notes of the Italian parliament commission on terrorism, the séance is described as a fake, used to hide the true source of the information. In 1997 Giulio Andreotti declared that the information came from the Bologna section of Autonomia Operaia, a far-left organization with some ties with the Red Brigades, and that Francesco Cossiga also knew the true source. Judge Ferdinando Imposimato considered Andreotti's theory as "possible", but accused him of having kept information that could have been valuable in a trial about Moro's murder.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Moro's widow later declared that she had repeatedly informed the police that a via Gradoli existed in Rome, but the investigators did not consider it; some replied to her that the street did not appear in Rome's maps. This is confirmed by other Moro relatives, but strongly denied by Francesco Cossiga, who served as Interior Minister during Moro's kidnapping.


title: Romano Prodi

text: In the 1990s the séance matter was reopened by the Italian parliament's commission on terrorism. While Prodi (then Prime Minister) declared that he had no time for an interview, both Baldassarri (senator and vice-minister in two Berlusconi cabinets) and Clò (Minister of Industry in Lamberto Dini's cabinet and owner of the house where the séance was performed) responded to the call: they confirmed the circumstances of the séance, and that the word "Gradoli" had appeared in several sessions, even if the participants had changed.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Later, other Italian members of the European Commission claimed Prodi had invented this story to conceal the real source of the tip-off, which they believed to have originated somewhere among the far-left Italian political groups.


title: Romano Prodi

text: This issue came back again in 2005, when Prodi was accused of being "a KGB man" by Mario Scaramella. The same accusation was raised in 2002 by the Mitrokhin Commission.


title: Romano Prodi

text: This claim was further repeated by Gerard Batten, the Member of the European Parliament for London who claimed he was informed of this by his constituent and former FSB operative, Alexander Litvinenko. The 2018 February 16 indictment of Paul Manafort unsealed on 23 February as part of the Mueller special counsel investigation alleges that Foreign Politicians hypothesized to be Prodi and Alfred Gusenbauer took payments exceeding $2m from Manafort to promote the case of his client, Viktor Yanukovich.


title: Romano Prodi

text: After leaving his position in 1989, Prodi ran the Bologna based consulting company "Analisi e Studi Economici", which he jointly owned along with his wife. Between 1990 and 1993 the company earned £1.4 million, most of which was paid by the investment bank Goldman Sachs.


title: Romano Prodi

text: In 1993, he was between the main candidates to become Prime Minister at the head of a technocratic government, but the Governor of the Bank of Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was chosen for this office by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.


title: Romano Prodi

text: In 1993–1994, Prodi was appointed again President of the IRI, by Ciampi, where he oversaw extensive privatization of public assets. For his activities in this period Prodi would later twice come under investigation – firstly for an alleged conflict of interest in relation to contracts awarded to his own economic research company in relation to the Italdel-Siemens merger, and secondly concerning the sale of the loss-making state-owned food conglomerate SME to the multinational Unilever, for which he had previously been a paid consultant.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi's former employer Goldman Sachs was involved in both of the deals. In February 2007 the Italian Treasury Police raided the Milan office of Goldman Sachs, where they removed a file called "MTononi/memo-Prodi02.doc". They also obtained a letter to Siemens from the Frankfurt office of Goldman Sachs regarding the Italdel deal, which revealed that Prodi was made the Senior Advisor of Goldman Sachs International in Italy in March 1990. In November 1996, after Prodi had been elected Prime Minister, Rome prosecutor Guiseppa Geremia concluded that there was enough evidence to press charges against Prodi for conflict of interest in the Unilever deal. The case was however shut down within weeks by superiors, while Geremia was "exiled to Sardinia".


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 25 May 1994, Prodi went to Palazzo Chigi to announce his resignation as IRI President to the new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; the resignation had been formalised on 31 May and became effective on 22 July.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 11 August, Prodi announced to the "Gazzetta di Reggio" of his intent to enter politics. A few months earlier, Prodi had rejected a proposal from the Italian People's Party (PPI) to run for the 1994 European election.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 13 February 1995 Prodi, along with his close friend Arturo Parisi, founded his political alliance The Olive Tree. Prodi's aim was to build a centre-left coalition composed by centrist and leftist parties, opposed to the centre-right alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi, who resigned from the office of Prime Minister few weeks before, when Lega Nord withdrew his support to the government.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The movement was immediately supported by Mariotto Segni, leader of the centrist Segni Pact; after few weeks the post-communist Democratic Party of the Left of Massimo D'Alema, the PPI and the Federation of the Greens also joined the Olive Tree coalition.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 19 February 1996, the outgoing Prime Minister Lamberto Dini announced that he would run in the election with a new party called Italian Renewal, allied with Prodi's Olive Tree rather than Berlusconi's Pole for Freedoms. Shortly after Berlusconi claimed that Dini "copied his electoral programme".


title: Romano Prodi

text: On election day, Prodi's Olive Tree coalition won over Berlusconi's Pole for Freedoms, becoming the first coalition composed of a post-communist party to win a general election since the Second World War. In the Senate, The Olive Tree obtained the majority, but in the Chamber, it required the external support of Communist Refoundation Party.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 17 May 1996, Prodi received from President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro the task of forming a new government. He ultimately formed a 23-member cabinet that included 16 PDS ministers (including Deputy Prime Minister Walter Veltroni) and 10 PDS junior ministers–the first (former) Communists to take part in government in half a century.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi's economic programme consisted in continuing the past governments' work of restoration of the country's economic health, in order to pursue the then seemingly unreachable goal of leading the country within the strict European Monetary System parameters in order to allow the country to join the Euro currency. He succeeded in this in little more than six months.


title: Romano Prodi

text: During his first premiership, Prodi faced the Albanian civil war; his government proposed the so-called Operation Alba ("Sunrise"), a multinational peacekeeping force sent to Albania in 1997 and led by Italy. It was intended to help the Albanian government restore law and order in their troubled country after the 1997 rebellion in Albania.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Following the degenerating loss of administrative control by the Government in the first days of March 1997, culminating in the desertion of most Police and many Republican Guard and Army units, leaving their armouries open to the inevitable looting which soon followed, several Nations autonomously helped evacuate their Nationals, causing wider concerns about the fate of others. The UN Security Council therefore agreed United Nations Security Council Resolution 1101 as a stop-gap operation to manage this and buy time, laying the foundations for another International Organisation to manage a planned reconstruction, which after six weeks of debate fell to the Western European Union, creating the Multinational Albanian Police Element around a command structure of Italian Military Carabinieri, which actually undertook the work of Judicial and Police reconstruction, extending into the elimination of the economic causes of the crisis.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The Italian 3rd Army Corps assumed responsibility for the stop-gap mission as Operation Alba, the first multinational Italian-led Mission since World War II. Eleven contributing European Nations brought humanitarian aid to a country that was in a dramatic economic and political situation.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi's government fell in 1998 when the Communist Refoundation Party withdrew its external support. This led to the formation of a new government led by Massimo D'Alema as Prime Minister. There are those who claim that D'Alema, along with People's Party leader Franco Marini, deliberately engineered the collapse of the Prodi government to become Prime Minister himself. As the result of a vote of no confidence in Prodi's government, D'Alema's nomination was passed by a single vote. This was the first occasion in the history of the Italian Republic on which a vote of no confidence had ever been called; the Republic's many previous governments had been brought down by a majority "no" vote on some crucially important piece of legislation (such as the budget).


title: Romano Prodi

text: In September 1999 Prodi, a strong supporter of European Integration, became President of the European Commission, thanks to the support of both the conservative European People's Party, the social-democratic Party of European Socialists and the centrist Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party in the European Parliament.


title: Romano Prodi

text: His commission took office on 13 September 1999 following the scandal and subsequent resignation of the Santer Commission which had damaged the reputation of the institution. It took over from the interim Marín Commission. The College consisted of 20 Commissioners which grew to 30 following the Enlargement of the European Union in 2004. It was the last commission to see two members allocated to the larger member states. This commission (the 10th) saw in increase in power and influence following Amsterdam Treaty. Some in the media described president Prodi as being the first "Prime Minister of the European Union".


title: Romano Prodi

text: It was during Prodi's presidency, in 2002, that 11 EU member states ditched their national currencies and adopted the euro as their common currency. This commission (the 10th) saw an increase in power and influence following the Amsterdam Treaty.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The treaty was the result of long negotiations which began in Messina, Sicily, on 2 June 1995, nearly forty years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome, and reached completion in Amsterdam on 18 June 1997. Following the formal signing of the Treaty on 2 October 1997, the member states engaged in an equally long and complex ratification process. The European Parliament endorsed the treaty on 19 November 1997, and after two referendums and 13 decisions by parliaments, the member states finally concluded the procedure. Under this treaty the member states agreed to devolve certain powers from national governments to the European Parliament across diverse areas, including legislating on immigration, adopting civil and criminal laws, and enacting foreign and security policy (CFSP), as well as implementing institutional changes for expansion as new member nations join the EU.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Due to this increased power of the Commission President, some media described President Prodi as being the first "Prime Minister of the European Union".


title: Romano Prodi

text: As well as the enlargement and Amsterdam Treaty, the Prodi Commission also saw the signing and enforcement of the Treaty of Nice as well as the conclusion and signing of the European Constitution: in which he introduced the "Convention method" of negotiation. The treaty was signed by European leaders on 26 February 2001 and came into force on 1 February 2003.


title: Romano Prodi

text: It amended the Maastricht Treaty (or the Treaty on European Union) and the Treaty of Rome (or the Treaty establishing the European Community which, before the Maastricht Treaty, was the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community). The Treaty of Nice reformed the institutional structure of the European Union to withstand eastward expansion, a task which was originally intended to have been done by the Amsterdam Treaty, but failed to be addressed at the time. The entry into force of the treaty was in doubt for a time, after its initial rejection by Irish voters in a referendum in June 2001. This referendum result was reversed in a subsequent referendum held a little over a year later.


title: Romano Prodi

text: In 2004, his last year as Commission President, the European Union was enlarged to admit several more member nations, most formerly part of the Soviet bloc. It was the largest single expansion of the European Union (EU), in terms of territory, number of states, and population to date; however, it was not the largest in terms of gross domestic product. It occurred on 1 May 2004.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The simultaneous accessions concerned the following countries (sometimes referred to as the "A10" countries): Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Seven of these were part of the former Eastern Bloc (of which three were from the former Soviet Union and four were and still are members of the Central European alliance Visegrád Group), one of the former Yugoslavia (together sometimes referred to as the "A8" countries), and the remaining two were Mediterranean islands and former British colonies.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Part of the same wave of enlargement was the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, who were unable to join in 2004, but, according to the Commission, constitute part of the fifth enlargement.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The commission was due to leave office on 31 October 2004, but due to opposition from the European parliament to the proposed Barroso Commission which would succeed it, it was extended and finally left office on 21 November 2004. When his mandate expired, Prodi returned to domestic politics.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Shortly before the end of his term as President of the European Commission, Prodi returned to national Italian politics at the helm of the enlarged centre-left coalition, The Union.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Having no party of his own, in order to officially state his candidacy for the 2006 general election, Prodi came up with the idea of an apposite primary election, the first of such kind to be ever introduced in Europe and seen by its creator (Prodi himself) as a democratic move to bring the public and its opinion closer to the Italian politics.


title: Romano Prodi

text: When the primary elections were first proposed, they were mostly meant as a plebiscite for Romano Prodi, since there were no other candidates for the leadership of the coalition. The secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party, Fausto Bertinotti, then announced he would run for the leadership, even if only to act as a symbolic candidate, to avoid a one-candidate election. After some time, more candidates were presented, like Union of Democrats for Europe leader Clemente Mastella, Italy of Values leader and former magistrate Antonio Di Pietro, Federation of the Greens leader Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio and others few minor candidates.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The primary election may have been foreseen an easy win for Romano Prodi, with the other candidates running mostly to "measure their strengths" in the coalition, and they often talked about reaching a certain percentage rather than winning. However, there were rumours of supporters of the House of Freedoms trying to participate in the elections, and vote in favour of Mastella, reputed to be the least competent of the candidates and the least likely to win against Berlusconi, other than the most centrist; other rumours indicated such "fake" left-wing voters would vote for Bertinotti, because his leadership would likely lose any grip on the political centre.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The election had been held nationwide on 16 October 2005, from 8 am to 10 pm. Poll stations were mainly managed on a voluntary basis; they were hosted mainly in squares, local party quarters, schools, and even restaurants, bars, campers and a hairdresser; some polling stations were also provided outside the country for Italians abroad. Most of the party leaders claimed a result of 1 million voters would be a good success for the election, but over four million people for the occasion went to cast a vote in the primary election.


title: Romano Prodi

text: After having won the centre-left primary election, Prodi led The Union coalition in the 2006 election. The Union was a heterogeneous alliance, which was formed by centrist parties like UDEUR and communists like PRC and Party of Italian Communists.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi led his coalition to the electoral campaign preceding the election, eventually on 9 and 10 April won by a very narrow margin of 25,000 votes, and a final majority of two seats in the Senate. Initial exit polls suggested a victory for Prodi, but the results narrowed as the count progressed. On 11 April 2006, Prodi declared victory; Berlusconi never conceded defeat explicitly but this is not required by the Italian law.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Preliminary results showed The Union leading the House of Freedoms in the Chamber of Deputies, with 340 seats to 277, thanks to obtaining a majority bonus (actual votes were distributed 49.81% to 49.74%). One more seat is allied with The Union (Aosta Valley) and 7 more seats in the foreign constituency. The House of Freedoms had secured a slight majority of Senate seats elected within Italy (155 seats to 154), but The Union won 4 of the 6 seats allocated to voters outside Italy, giving them control of both chambers.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 19 April 2006, Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation ruled that Prodi had indeed won the election, winning control of the Chamber of Deputies by only 24,755 votes out of more than 38 million votes cast, and winning 158 seats in the Senate to 156 for Berlusconi's coalition. Even so, Berlusconi refused to concede defeat, claiming unproven fraud.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi's appointment was somewhat delayed, as the outgoing President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, ended his mandate in May, not having enough time for the usual procedure (consultations made by the President, appointment of a Prime Minister, the motion of confidence and oath of office). After the acrimonious election of Giorgio Napolitano to replace Ciampi, Prodi could proceed with his transition to government. On 16 May he was invited by Napolitano to form a government. The following day, 17 May 2006, Prodi and his second cabinet were sworn into office.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi's new cabinet drew in politicians from across his centre-left winning coalition, in addition to Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, an unelected former official of the European Central Bank with no partisan membership. Romano Prodi obtained the support for his cabinet on 19 May at the Senate and on 23 May at the Chamber of Deputies.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The coalition led by Prodi, thanks to the electoral law which gave the winner a sixty-seat majority, can count on a good majority in the Chamber of Deputies but only on a very narrow majority in the Senate. The composition of the coalition was heterogeneous, combining parties of communist ideology, the Party of Italian Communists and Communist Refoundation Party, within the same government as parties of Catholic inspiration, Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy and UDEUR. The latter was led by Clemente Mastella, former chairman of Christian Democracy. Therefore, according to critics, it was difficult to have a single policy in different key areas, such as economics and foreign politics (for instance, Italian military presence in Afghanistan).


title: Romano Prodi

text: In foreign policy, the Prodi II Cabinet continued the engagement in Afghanistan, under UN command, while withdrawing troops from post-invasion Iraq on 18 May 2006, when Prodi laid out some sense of his new foreign policy, pledging to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq and called the Iraq War a "grave mistake that has not solved but increased the problem of security".


title: Romano Prodi

text: The major effort of foreign minister Massimo D'Alema concerned the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon War, being the first to offer troops to the UN for the constitution of the UNIFIL force, and assuming its command in February 2007. In fact, Prodi had a key role in the creation of a multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon following the Israel-Lebanon conflict.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Italy led negotiations with the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni and was proposed by Israel to head the multinational peacekeeping mission, although the dangers of the mission for Italian troops sparked warnings from the center-right opposition that it could prove a "kamikaze" mission, with the peacekeepers sandwiched between Israel and the well-armed Hezbollah. Prodi and D'Alema pledged Italy's willingness to enforce the United Nations resolution on Lebanon and urged other European Union member states to do the same because the stability of the Middle East should be a chief concern for Europeans.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi's government faced a crisis over policies in early 2007, after just nine months of government. Three ministers in Prodi's Cabinet boycotted a vote in January to continue funding for Italian troop deployments in Afghanistan. Lawmakers approved the expansion of the US military base Caserma Ederle at the end of January, but the victory was so narrow that Deputy Prime Minister Francesco Rutelli criticised members of the coalition who had not supported the government. At around the same time, Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, of the coalition member UDEUR, said he would rather see the government fall than support its unwed couples legislation.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Tens of thousands of people marched in Vicenza against the expansion of Caserma Ederle, which saw the participation of some leading far-left members of the government. Harsh debates followed in the Italian Senate on 20 February 2007. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Massimo D'Alema declared during an official visit in Ibiza, Spain that, without a majority on foreign policy affairs, the government would resign. The following day, D'Alema gave a speech at the Senate representing the government, clarifying his foreign policy and asking the Senate to vote for or against it. In spite of the fear of many senators that Prodi's defeat would return Silvio Berlusconi to power, the Senate did not approve a motion backing Prodi's government foreign policy, two votes shy of the required majority of 160.


title: Romano Prodi

text: After a Government meeting on 21 February, Romano Prodi tendered his resignation to the President Giorgio Napolitano, who cut short an official visit to Bologna in order to receive the Prime Minister. Prodi's spokesman indicated that he would only agree to form a new Government "if, and only if, he is guaranteed the full support of all the parties in the majority from now on." On 22 February, centre-left coalition party leaders backed a non-negotiable list of twelve political conditions given by Prodi as conditions of his remaining in office. President Napolitano held talks with political leaders on 23 February to decide whether to confirm Prodi's Government, ask Prodi to form a new government or call fresh elections.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Following these talks, on 24 February, President Napolitano asked Prodi to remain in office but to submit to a vote of confidence in both houses. On 28 February, the Senate voted to grant confidence to Prodi's Government. Though facing strong opposition from the centre-right coalition, the vote resulted in a 162–157 victory. Prodi then faced a vote of confidence in the lower house on 2 March, which he won as expected with a large majority of 342–198.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 14 October 2007, Prodi oversaw the merger of two main parties of the Italian centre-left, Democrats of the Left and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, creating the Democratic Party. Prodi himself led the merger of the two parties, which had been planned over a twelve-year period, and became the first President of the party. He announced his resignation from that post on 16 April 2008, two days after the Democratic Party's defeat in the general election.


title: Romano Prodi

text: In early January 2008, Justice Minister and Union of Democrats for Europe's leader Clemente Mastella resigned after his wife Sandra Lonardo was put under house arrest for corruption charges. With three Senators, UDEUR was instrumental to ensure a narrow centre-left majority in the Italian Senate.


title: Romano Prodi

text: After first promising to support the government, he later retracted this support, and his party followed, in part also due to pressure from the Vatican, for which the government's proposed laws in regards to registered partnerships of same-sex couples, and other liberal reforms were objectionable. Mastella also cited lack of solidarity from the majority parties after the arrest of his wife, and declared that his party would vote against the government bills since then.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The decision of former Minister of Justice Mastella arrived a few days after the confirmation of the Constitutional Court which confirmed the referendum to modify the electoral system. As stated many times by Minister Mastella, if the referendum had been confirmed, it would lead directly to the fall of the government


title: Romano Prodi

text: and it happened. The fall of the government would disrupt a pending election-law referendum that if passed would make it harder for small parties like Mastella's to gain seats in parliament.


title: Romano Prodi

text: The UDEUR defection forced caused Prodi to ask for a confidence vote in both Chambers: he won a clear majority in the Chamber of Deputies on 23 January, but was defeated 156 to 161 (with 1 abstention) in the Senate the next day. He therefore tendered his resignation as Prime Minister to President Giorgio Napolitano, who accepted it and appointed the President of the Senate, Franco Marini, with the task of evaluating possibilities for forming interim government to implement electoral reforms prior to holding elections. Marini, after consultation with all major political forces, acknowledged the impossibility of doing so on 5 February, forcing Napolitano to announce the end of the legislature. Prodi said that he would not seek to lead a new government and snap election were called. In the election that followed in April 2008, Berlusconi's centre-right The People of Freedom and allies defeated the Democratic Party.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 19 March 2008, during the political campaign for the snap general election, Romano Prodi stated "I called it a day with Italian politics and maybe with politics in general."


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 12 September 2008, Prodi was named by the UN as head of a joint AU-UN panel aimed at enhancing peacekeeping operations in Africa.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 6 February 2009, he was appointed Professor-at-Large at the Watson Institute for International Studies of Brown University. Since 2010 Romano Prodi is the chair for Sino-European dialogue at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS – Shanghai&Beijing), China's leading business school.


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 9 October 2012, Romano Prodi was appointed by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as his Special Envoy for the Sahel. He served in that position until 31 January 2014.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi is also a member of the Club de Madrid, an international organization of former democratic statesmen, which works to strengthen democratic governance and leadership. He is a former member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.


title: Romano Prodi

text: Prodi was drafted by Democratic Party parliamentarians to be President of Italy during the 2013 presidential election after Democratic Party–People of Freedom compromise candidate Franco Marini failed to receive sufficient votes on the first ballot. During the first three rounds of voting, few people cast ballots for Prodi (14 on the first ballot, 13 on the second and 22 on the third).


title: Romano Prodi

text: On 16 April 2013, just a few days prior to the fourth ballot, Prodi gave a "lectio magistralis" at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, "Angelicum" entitled "I grandi cambiamenti della politica e dell'economia mondiale: c'è un posto per l'Europa?" ("The Great Changes in Politics and the World Economy: Is there Room for Europe?). Prodi was sponsored by the "Angelicum" and the Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi on behalf of the Political Science program "Scienze Politiche e del Buon Governo."


title: Romano Prodi

text: A few days later on 19 April, starting on the fourth ballot Prodi was looked at seriously as a possible candidate. However, Prodi announced he was pulling out of the race for President after more than 100 centre-left electors did not vote for him as he received only 395 (of 504 votes needed to be elected). After this vote, Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of centre-left Democratic Party, announced his resignation as party's secretary. As of September 2020, he is a member of the Italian Aspen Institute.


title: Jordan Nagai

text: Jordan Nagai (born February 5, 2000) is an American student and former child voice actor. He is best known for his voice role as Russell in "Up".


title: Jordan Nagai

text: Jordan's older brother Hunter originally auditioned for Russell in "Up". Director Pete Docter has said, "As soon as Jordan's voice came on we started smiling because he is appealing and innocent and cute and different from what I was initially thinking." About four hundred children had shown up for the auditions, but Nagai stood out because he wouldn't stop talking the whole time. Nevertheless, he was sometimes very shy, and Docter found it difficult getting him to recite all of his lines. Nagai's character in "Up" is the first Asian American figure in a movie by Pixar.


title: Jordan Nagai

text: He also lent his voice to an episode of "The Simpsons" called "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?" as the voice of Charlie, an orphan who befriends Bart in his quest for a baby brother. The program aired on December 13, 2009. Nagai has not acted in anything since; instead, opting to pursue a career in biology and healthcare management.


title: Gary Patterson

text: Gary Allen Patterson (born February 13, 1960) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the special assistant to the head coach at the University of Texas. He is the former head football coach at Texas Christian University and the coach with the most wins in Horned Frogs' history. Patterson led the TCU Horned Frogs to six conference championships—one Conference USA title in 2002; four Mountain West Conference titles in 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011; —and eleven bowl game victories—including victories in the 2011 Rose Bowl and 2014 Peach Bowl. His 2010 squad finished the season undefeated at 13–0 after a 21–19 Rose Bowl victory over the Wisconsin Badgers on New Year's Day 2011, and ranked second in the final tallying of both major polls.


title: Gary Patterson

text: Patterson grew up in Rozel, Kansas and played football at Dodge City Community College and at Kansas State University. Patterson is married to Kelsey Patterson (née Hayes). He has three sons: Josh, Cade, and Blake. He received his bachelor's degree in physical education in 1983 from Kansas State University, where he became a member of the Acacia fraternity. While coaching at Tennessee Tech, he earned a master's degree in educational administration in 1984. Outside of coaching, Patterson plays guitar and performs at charity events around the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the off-season.


title: Gary Patterson

text: Patterson began his coaching career in 1982 at Kansas State University as an assistant to head coach Jim Dickey. After subsequently serving a number of years as an assistant coach at a number of different schools, Patterson was hired by Dennis Franchione as the defensive coordinator at the University of New Mexico in 1996. He had previously served as a linebackers coach at Tennessee Tech (1983-1984) where Franchione was the offensive coordinator and in the same capacity on Franchione's Pittsburg State University staff in 1988, as well as playing on the 1980 Kansas State Wildcats football team when Franchione was an assistant on the coaching staff. He followed Franchione to Texas Christian University (TCU) in 1998, serving as the defensive coordinator there, as well. Patterson was a 2000 finalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation's top college football assistant coach. He was named head coach at TCU prior to the Mobile Alabama Bowl in December 2000 after Franchione left to become the head coach at the University of Alabama.


title: Gary Patterson

text: Patterson remains friends with New Mexico State head coach Jerry Kill from their time as coaches on Franchione's Pittsburg State staff. Kill served as the best man during Patterson's wedding to wife Kelsey in 2004.


title: Gary Patterson

text: Patterson won his 110th game at TCU with a 56–0 victory over Grambling, passing Dutch Meyer as the winningest coach in program history. His teams won 10 games or more in a season eleven times. Only three times have they failed to reach a bowl, in 2004, 2013, and 2019. Under Patterson, the Horned Frogs earned a spot in the year-end top 25 ten times, counting his partial season as head coach in 2000. In 2005, Patterson led the Frogs to the Mountain West Conference championship in their first season as a member. Over the course of the 2005 and 2006 seasons, the Frogs won four consecutive games against Big 12 Conference opponents, with three of the victories coming on the road. He tandem jumped with the Army Golden Knights prior to the 2005 TCU vs. Army football game, crossing skydiving off his bucket list. Patterson was named the 2005 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year. In January 2007, Patterson turned down a head coaching offer from the University of Minnesota worth over $2 million per year.


title: Gary Patterson

text: Patterson led the 2009 Horned Frogs to a perfect 12–0 regular season record, a Mountain West Conference championship, a No. 4 final BCS ranking, and an invitation to the 2010 Fiesta Bowl—their first major bowl appearance in 51 years. They ultimately lost 17–10 to undefeated No. 6 Boise State. The 2009 Horned Frogs became the second "BCS Buster" from the Mountain West Conference (and the fourth, overall). For much of the season, they were a contender for the 2010 BCS National Championship Game. However, any chance of the Horned Frogs playing for the national championship ended on the final day of the season, when Cincinnati defeated Pitt. This assured that two teams from Automatic Qualifying conferences would finish the regular season undefeated (whoever won the 2009 SEC Championship Game would have also finished undefeated). Patterson was named the 2009 AP Coach of the Year, becoming the first head coach of a BCS non-AQ conference team to win the award. He won a total of seven national "Coach of the Year" awards in 2009 in addition to being named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year for the second time (his third conference "Coach of the Year" award, overall).


title: Gary Patterson

text: The following year, Patterson led the 2010 Horned Frogs to a second consecutive undefeated regular season and a No. 3 final BCS ranking. TCU received the first Rose Bowl invitation offered to a team from a non-automatic qualifying conference during the BCS era. The Horned Frogs won the 2011 Rose Bowl, 21–19, over Wisconsin to cap off only the second undefeated and untied season in school history. When TCU entered the Big 12 Conference in 2012, Patterson was faced with 7-6 2012 and 4-8 2013 seasons, but turned it around and led the Horned Frogs to their first Big 12 title in 2014, going 11-1, finishing in the top 5 of polls, with impressive wins over No. 4 Oklahoma, Minnesota, No. 7 Kansas State and scoring 82 points behind a 31-point third quarter against Texas Tech.


title: Gary Patterson

text: The 2014 TCU Horned Frogs football team shared a conference title with Baylor and were ranked No. 6 by the inaugural College Football Playoff selection committee. Patterson once again won several national "Coach of the Year" honors for turning the team around after the 2013 season. He was also named the Big 12 Chuck Neinas Coach of the Year, his 4th such award in a 3 different conferences, all earned while at TCU.


title: Gary Patterson

text: In August 2016, TCU announced Patterson's contract had been extended through 2022, with an annual base salary of $4.75 million. The Frogs went 6-7 (4-5) in 2016 losing 31-23 to Georgia in the Liberty Bowl. In 2017, TCU opened with a 63-0 victory Jackson State. They defeated Arkansas 28-7 in Week 2. In Week 3, the No. 20 Frogs beat SMU in the Iron Skillet Rivalry 56-36. In week 4, the No. 16 Frogs upset No. 6 Oklahoma State 44-31 behind a 31 carry 160 yard 3 touchdown performance from halfback Darius Anderson. Next, the No. 9 Frogs won 31-24 over No. 23 West Virginia in a game in which quarterback Kenny Hill had a passing, rushing, and receiving touchdown. No. 6 TCU then won 26-6 over Kansas State and moved up to No. 4 with a 6-0 start. They shutout Kansas 43-0 to move to 7-0 and lead the Big 12. However, in Week 8 they lost 14-7 to No. 25 Iowa State dropping to No. 8. They beat Texas the next week 24-7 moving up to No. 6, but they lost 38-20 to No. 5 Oklahoma. TCU bounced back by beating Texas Tech 27-3 in which Kenny Hill didn't play. In Week 13, the No. 12 Frogs beat Baylor 45-22 to finish 10-2. They made the Big 12 Title Game as No. 11 but lost 41-17 to No. 3 Oklahoma. They dropped to No. 13 and were selected to the Alamo Bowl against No. 15 Stanford. TCU beat Stanford 39-37 to win the Alamo Bowl.


title: Gary Patterson

text: Patterson began the 2021 season 3–5 and was fired on October 31, 2021. At the time of his departure, he was the second longest tenured coach in the FBS, only behind Iowa's Kirk Ferentz.


title: Gary Patterson

text: Gary and Kelsey Patterson are dedicated to supporting children in and around Fort Worth through The Gary Patterson Foundation. Gary serves as the chairman, and Kelsey serves as the secretary/treasurer and manages the daily operations. Through grants, scholarships and collaboration with other area non-profit organizations, the foundation’s primary goal is to provide equitable educational opportunities for all children.


title: Gary Patterson

text: In December 2018, The Gary Patterson Foundation donated $325,000 to 38 Fort Worth ISD elementary schools to upgrade the schools' libraries. Gary and Kelsey Patterson were subsequently awarded the 2019 Texas Library Association Benefactor Award.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The Distinguished Conduct Medal was a decoration established in 1854 by Queen Victoria for gallantry in the field by other ranks of the British Army. It is the oldest British award for gallantry and was a second level military decoration, ranking below the Victoria Cross, until it was discontinued in 1993 when it was replaced by the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross. The medal was also awarded to non-commissioned military personnel of other Commonwealth Dominions and Colonies.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The Distinguished Conduct Medal was instituted by Royal Warrant on 4 December 1854, during the Crimean War, as an award to Warrant Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and men of the British Army for "distinguished, gallant and good conduct in the field". For all ranks below commissioned officer, it was the second highest award for gallantry in action after the Victoria Cross, and the other ranks equivalent of the Distinguished Service Order, which was awarded only to commissioned officers.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: Prior to its institution, there had been no official medal awarded by the British Crown in recognition of individual acts of gallantry in the Army. The Meritorious Service Medal, established in 1845 to reward long serving Warrant Officers and Sergeants, was awarded several times up to 1854 for gallantry in action, although this was not the medal's main purpose. One earlier award specifically for acts of gallantry by other ranks was the unofficial Sir Harry Smith's Medal for Gallantry, instituted by Major General Sir Harry Smith in 1851. Although the British government initially disapproved of Sir Harry's institution of the medal, it subsequently paid for it and thereby gave it recognition, but not official status.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The Distinguished Conduct Medal was awarded with a gratuity, that varied in amount depending on rank, and given on the recipient's discharge from the Army.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: A bar to the medal, introduced in 1881, could be awarded in recognition of each subsequent act of distinguished conduct for which the medal would have been awarded.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: During the First World War, concern arose that the high number of medals being awarded would devalue the medal's prestige. The Military Medal was therefore instituted on 25 March 1916 as an alternative and lower award, with the Distinguished Conduct Medal reserved for more exceptional acts of bravery. Around 25,000 Distinguished Conduct Medals were awarded during the First World War, with approximately 1,900 during the Second World War.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The Distinguished Conduct Medal could also be awarded to military personnel serving in any of the Sovereign's forces in the British Empire, with the first awards to colonial troops made in 1872, to the West India Regiment. Members of the Indian Army remained ineligible since they could receive the Indian Order of Merit and, from 1907, the Indian Distinguished Service Medal.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: From September 1916, members of the Royal Naval Division were made eligible for military decorations, including the Distinguished Conduct Medal, for the war's duration. Otherwise, it remained an exclusively Army award until 1942, when other ranks of the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and the Navies and Air Forces of the Dominions and Colonies also became eligible for distinguished conduct in action on the ground.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: In 1979 eligibility for a number of British awards, including the DCM, was extended to permit posthumous awards. Until that time, only the Victoria Cross and a mention in dispatches could be awarded posthumously.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: In May 1894, Queen Victoria authorised Colonial governments to adopt various military medals for award to their local military forces. The Colony of Natal and the Cape Colony introduced this system in August and September 1894 respectively, and the Transvaal Colony followed in December 1902, while Australia, Canada and New Zealand also adopted the medal. However, only the Natal and Canada versions were finally awarded, both in the King Edward VII version.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: A territorial version of the Distinguished Conduct Medal was approved for the Union of South Africa in 1913, but was never awarded. More than 300 members of the Union Defence Forces were awarded the applicable British versions of the decoration during the two World Wars.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: In 1903 specific African Distinguished Conduct Medals were established for the King's African Rifles and the Royal West African Frontier Force. These were superseded by the British Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1943.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: These colonial Distinguished Conduct Medals were of the same design as the British version, with an additional territorial or unit inscription on the reverse, in a curved line above the regular inscription.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: In the aftermath of the 1993 review of the British honours system, which formed part of the drive to remove distinctions of rank in respect of awards for bravery, the Distinguished Conduct Medal was discontinued, as was the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal and the award, specifically for gallantry, of the Distinguished Service Order. These three decorations were replaced by the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, to serve as the second level award for gallantry for all ranks of all the Arms of the Service.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: After the Second World War, most Commonwealth countries created their own honours system and no longer recommended British awards. The last Distinguished Conduct Medal awards for the Canadian Army were for Korea. The last Australian DCM award was announced in the "London Gazette" on 1 September 1972 for Vietnam, as was the last New Zealand award, announced on 25 September 1970. Canada, Australia and New Zealand replaced the DCM in the 1990s, as part of the creation of their own gallantry awards under their own honours systems.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: In the order of wear prescribed by the British Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, the Distinguished Conduct Medal ranks on par with the Distinguished Conduct Medal (Natal) and takes precedence after the Air Force Cross and before the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The medal was struck in silver and is a disk, in diameter and thick. The suspender of all versions is of an ornamented scroll pattern. The manner of attachment of the suspender to the medal varied between medal versions and, on early versions, allows the medal to swivel.<br>All medals awarded bear the recipient's number, rank, name and unit on the rim.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The original Victorian obverse shows a Trophy of Arms, designed by Benedetto Pistrucci, incorporating a central shield bearing the Royal Coat of Arms without any inscription, as also seen on early Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. From 1902, after the accession of King Edward VII, the effigy of the reigning monarch replaced the trophy of arms, with the respective titles of the monarch inscribed around the perimeter:


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The reverse of all versions is smooth, with a raised rim, and bears the inscription ""FOR DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT IN THE FIELD"" in four lines, underlined by a laurel wreath between two spear blades.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The bar for a second or subsequent award is straight and also of silver. Bars awarded between 1881 and mid-1916 bear the month and year of the subsequent award, while those awarded after mid-1916 bear a laurel-spray and no date. In undress uniform or on occasions when only ribbons are worn, a silver rosette is worn on the ribbon to indicate the award of each bar.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The ribbon is 32 millimetres wide and dark crimson, with a 10 millimetres wide navy blue band in the centre.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: All awards of the Distinguished Conduct Medal were notified in the London Gazette and, during the First World War, citations were generally also included.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: From 1854 to 1914 3,529 medals and 13 second award bars were awarded. Of these, about 808 medals were awarded for the Crimean War and 2,092 for the Second Boer War, with some of the latter being the Edward VII version. During the Boer War, six medals were awarded posthumously and six dated bars were awarded, three of them to recipients who had won their first Distinguished Conduct Medal in this war.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: For the First World War, 24,620 medals as well as 472 first bars and nine second bars were awarded, with 46 further awards for the period 1920–39.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: Post War, a total of 153 DCMs were earned between 1947 and 1979, including 45 to Australian and New Zealand forces for service in Vietnam. A further 25 awards were made after 1979, nine for service in Northern Ireland, eight for the South Atlantic, and eight for the Gulf War, including a number of retrospective awards up to 2006.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: Honorary awards of the Distinguished Conduct Medal were made to members of allied forces, including 5,227 for the First World War and 107 for the Second World War. (Lists of WW1 awards to allied forces are kept in country specific files within the WO 388/6 series at Kew, and were published in 2018.)


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: Beginning in the Second Boer War, the Distinguished Conduct Medal has been awarded to 2,071 members of the Australian Army and to three members of the Royal Australian Air Force. Thirty first Bars were awarded, all to members of the Army and the majority for actions during the First World War. The last award to an Australian was made in 1972, arising from the Vietnam War.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The medal was first awarded to a Canadian on 19 April 1901. Altogether, there were 2,132 awards to Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force personnel, 38 first Bars and one second Bar.


title: Distinguished Conduct Medal

text: The medal was instituted in the State of Penang in 1959 and conferred on individuals who have exhibited competence or achieved praiseworthy deeds in any field. The recipient must possess good conduct and character. Post-nominal letters PKT.


title: Yoshiwara

text: Created by the shogunate to curtail the tastes of and sequester the nouveau riche (merchant) classes, the entertainment offered in Yoshiwara, alongside other licensed districts, would eventually give rise to the creation of geisha, who would become known as the fashionable companions of the classes and simultaneously cause the demise of , the upper-class courtesans of the red-light districts.


title: Yoshiwara

text: The licensed district of Yoshiwara was created in the city of Edo, near to the area today known as Nihonbashi, itself close to the beginning of the Tōkaidō road, the primary route to western Kyoto during the Edo period.


title: Yoshiwara

text: In 1656, due to the need for space as the city grew, the government decided to relocate Yoshiwara, with plans being made to move the district to its present location north of Asakusa on the outskirts of the city.


title: Yoshiwara

text: Having been established some decades earlier, the original Yoshiwara district burned down, along with much of the city, in the Great fire of Meireki of 1657; it was then rebuilt in its new location, named 'Shin Yoshiwara' ('New Yoshiwara'), the old location being known as 'Moto Yoshiwara' ('Original Yoshiwara'), though the moniker of 'new' was eventually dropped, with the rebuilt district becoming known simply as Yoshiwara.


title: Yoshiwara

text: Yoshiwara was home to some 1,750 women in the 18th century, with records of some 3,000 women from all over Japan at one time. Many were typically indentured to their brothel; if indentured by their parents, a larger advance payment would often be received. Though contracts of indenture often did not last more than five to ten years, the debt sometimes accrued by these women could keep them working there for much longer. However, a significant number either served out their contracts and married a client, went into other employment (including other forms of prostitution), or returned to their family homes. In these cases, the advanced payments a woman's parents received could be used to fund her dowry. Despite this, many women also died of sexually transmitted diseases, or following failed abortions, before completing their contracts.


title: Yoshiwara

text: If chosen to receive the correct training at a young age, a girl indentured to a brothel could become an apprentice to a high-ranking courtesan; when the girl was old enough and had completed her training, she would become a courtesan herself and work her way up the ranks. Another path to success and eventual freedom for a working woman in Yoshiwara was for a rich man to buy out her contract from the brothel, and thus keep her as his wife or mistress; a further path would be for a woman to work successfully enough that she could eventually buy her own freedom, though this was an uncommon and infrequent occurrence.


title: Yoshiwara

text: Social classes were not strictly divided in Yoshiwara; a commoner with enough money would be served as an equal to a samurai, and though samurai were discouraged from entering Yoshiwara, they often did so, the only requirement being that their weapons be left at the town's entrance. By law, brothel patrons were only allowed to stay for a night and a day at a time. Like all official policies for Yoshiwara, this was rarely enforced.


title: Yoshiwara

text: Following its inception, Yoshiwara became a strong commercial area, with the fashions created in the town by prostitutes changing frequently and creating a great demand for merchants and artisans. Traditionally, prostitutes were supposed to wear only simple blue robes, but this was rarely enforced. In contrast, the highest ranking (courtesans) came to be emblematic of the height of Edo period fashion, wearing colourful and expensive silk kimono alongside elaborate hairstyles and a number of hair accessories; these outfits frequently dictated the contemporary trends of fashion in Japan of the time.


title: Yoshiwara

text: Despite the reputation of Yoshiwara and its highest-ranking courtesans, most prostitutes working in the area came from poor families, would be commonly exploited, and were so poor that, when they died, their bodies would be brought anonymously to Jōkan-ji temple and left at the back entrance, a proper burial being too expensive to afford. The temple therefore also became known as 'Nage-komi dera' ('Throw-away temple'); a memorial in the temple to thousands of anonymous prostitutes of Yoshiwara was consecrated in the Meiji era.


title: Yoshiwara

text: The area had over 9,000 women in 1893, many of whom suffered from syphilis. In 1913, the area was damaged by an extensive fire, and further damaged to the point of near-obliteration a decade later by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. However, Yoshiwara remained in business as a traditional red-light district until prostitution was outlawed by the Japanese government in 1958 following World War II.


title: Yoshiwara

text: Though technically illegal – with the definition of prostitution under the Prostitution Prevention Law being 'compensated penetrative sex with an unspecified person' other forms of sex work that do not violate this law continue to exist in the modern area of Yoshiwara, with the portion of the town near Minowa station on the Hibiya Line, now known as Senzoku Yon-chōme, retaining a large number of soaplands and other façades for sexual services.


title: Yoshiwara

text: People involved in would include (comedians), kabuki actors, dancers, dandies, rakes, tea-shop girls, Kanō (painters of the official school of painting), courtesans who resided in (green houses) and geisha in their .


title: Yoshiwara

text: The sex workers found within Yoshiwara would consist of (; the district's rank and file prostitutes), (young female students), (senior female students), (lower-ranking courtesans), (high-ranking courtesans just below ), (high-ranking courtesans), , (older chaperones for an ), and the who replaced the when they were priced out of the market.


title: Yoshiwara

text: In addition to courtesans, there were also geisha, apprentice geisha, geisha (male geisha), (patrons of geisha), and the female managers of teahouses and . The lines between geisha and courtesans were, officially, sharply drawn soon after the inception of the geisha profession; laws were passed forbidding a geisha from being sexually involved with a customer. In reality a number of exceptions existed, with geisha ranging from little more than themselves to geisha who offered only artistic entertainment and companionship.


title: Yoshiwara

text: Today, Yoshiwara roughly corresponds to . Yoshiwara today looks very similar to many other neighborhoods of modern Tokyo, but it retains legacies to its past, as it contains commercial establishments engaged in the sex trade although police cracked down on the soaplands in 2007. The street grid pattern and the temples and shrines from times past still exist.


title: Miguel Caro Quintero

text: Miguel Ángel Caro Quintero (born 1963) is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former leader of the Sonora Cartel, a defunct criminal group based in Sonora.


title: Miguel Caro Quintero

text: The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) states Caro Quintero created the Sonora Cartel from remnants of the Guadalajara Cartel, which was co-founded by his brother Rafael Caro Quintero. Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested in Costa Rica in 1985 in connection with the torture and death of DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar.


title: Miguel Caro Quintero

text: In 1989 Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo was arrested, causing the splintering of the Guadalajara Cartel into the Sinaloa Cartel, Tijuana Cartel and Sonora Cartel.


title: Miguel Caro Quintero

text: Caro Quintero was previously arrested in 1992 on charges of tax evasion, he was found not guilty, which the DEA attributes to the use of threats and bribes by Caro Quintero. While imprisoned, it is believed Caro Quintero is still running the Sonora Cartel, where he is being held on charges of racketeering, drug smuggling and money laundering. Caro Quintero was arrested in December 2001 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Prior to his arrest he has repeatedly stated he is innocent of the charges and has accused the DEA of pursuing a vendetta against him for his brother Rafael Caro Quintero's, alleged role in the death of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena. Miguel Caro Quintero is noted as having called into a radio station to profess his innocence, stating: "If I had a cartel, I'd have a lot of money and my brother wouldn't be there (in jail)"; he claimed to be an innocent rancher. He further stated he does not believe his brother was involved in the killing of the DEA agent.


title: Miguel Caro Quintero

text: Miguel Caro Quintero was arrested in Mexico in 2001 and charged with smuggling cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. for over 10 years. He was extradited to the U.S. on February 25, 2009. After his indictment Miguel admitted trafficking more than 100 tons of marijuana, and sending more than $100 million to Mexico. Miguel Caro Quintero pleaded guilty and he was sentenced on February 4, 2010 in Denver to 17 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute marijuana in Arizona and racketeering.


title: Miguel Caro Quintero

text: On 20 July 2019, Caro Quintero was deported from the U.S. to Mexico after completing his sentence. He was deported through El Chaparral port of entry in Tijuana, Baja California. On the Mexican side, Caro Quintero was received by his family members. Mexican authorities did not issue an official statement regarding his status in Mexico.


title: Social policy

text: Social policy is a plan or action of government or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform society.


title: Social policy

text: Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD and DO in healthcare), with social policy deemed more holistic than public policy. Whichever of these persuasions a university adheres to, social policy begins with the study of the welfare state and social services. It consists of guidelines, principles, legislation and associated activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare, such as a person's quality of life. The Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics defines social policy as "an interdisciplinary and applied subject concerned with the analysis of societies' responses to social need", which seeks to foster in its students a capacity to understand theory and evidence drawn from a wide range of social science disciplines, including economics, sociology, psychology, geography, history, law, philosophy and political science. The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard University describes social policy as "public policy and practice in the areas of health care, human services, criminal justice, inequality, education, and labor". Social policy might also be described as actions that affect the well-being of members of a society through shaping the distribution of and access to goods and resources in that society. Social policy often deals with wicked problems.


title: Social policy

text: The discussion of 'social policy' in the United States and Canada can also apply to governmental policy on social issues such as tackling racism, LGBT issues (such as same-sex marriage) and the legal status of abortion, guns, euthanasia, recreational drugs and prostitution. In other countries, these issues would be classified under health policy and domestic policy.


title: Social policy

text: The study of social policy can either be a stand-alone degree in social policy such as the University of York, Oxford University, and the University of Pennsylvania, or a specialization as part of a public policy degree program such as at McGill University, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Harris School of Public Policy, and the Hertie School of Governance. In the Global South, social policy is offered along with public policy degree programmes, as at the Institute of Public Policy, National Law School of India University, Bangalore, combined with development policy.


title: Social policy

text: Social policy was first conceived in the 1940s by Richard Titmuss within the field of social administration in Britain. Titmuss's essay on the "Social Division of Welfare" (1955) laid the development for social policy to gradually absorb social administration. Titmuss was an essayist whose work concerned the failure of the market; the inadequacy of selective social services; and the superiority of collectivism and universal approaches. While some scholars describe social policy as an interdisciplinary field of practice, scholars like Fiona Williams and Pete Alcock believe social policy is a discipline unto itself.


title: Social policy

text: Some of the earliest examples of direct intervention by government in human welfare date back to Ancient Rome's "Cura Annonae" (grain dole) founded in 123 BC, and Umar ibn al-Khattāb's rule as the second caliph of Islam in the 6th century: he used "zakat" collections and also other governmental resources to establish pensions, income support, child benefits, and various stipends for people of the non-Muslim community. The enactment of English Poor Laws helped curb poverty and recidivism: these laws influenced the justices of Berkshire to implement the Speenhamland system, which was the first social program in the modern sense of that word. In the modern West, proponents of scientific social planning such as the sociologist Auguste Comte, and social researchers, such as Charles Booth, contributed to the emergence of social policymaking in the first industrialised countries following the Industrial Revolution. Surveys of poverty exposing the brutal conditions in the urban slum conurbations of Victorian Britain supplied the pressure leading to changes such as the decline and abolition of the poor law system and Liberal welfare reforms. Other significant examples in the development of social policy are the Bismarckian welfare state in 19th century Germany, social security policies in the United States introduced under the rubric of the New Deal between 1933 and 1935, and both the Beveridge Report and the National Health Service Act 1946 in Britain. Thus, two major models of social insurance arose in practice: Bismarkian welfare from Germany and Beveridgean welfare from Britain.


title: Social policy

text: Social policy in the 21st century is complex and in each state it is subject to local and national governments, as well as supranational political influence. For example, membership of the European Union is conditional on member states' adherence to the Social Chapter of European Union law


title: Social policy

text: Social policy aims to improve human welfare and to meet human needs for education, health, housing and economic security. Important areas of social policy are wellbeing and welfare, poverty reduction, social security, justice, unemployment insurance, living conditions, animal rights, pensions, health care, social housing, family policy, social care, child protection, social exclusion, education policy, crime and criminal justice, urban development, and labor issues.


title: Social policy

text: The United States was a pioneer in generous social spending (relative to comparable countries), as it provided substantial social spending for Civil War veterans and their families. However, the United States would go on to lag behind other advanced industrial democracies in social spending.


title: Social policy

text: Religious, racial, ideological, scientific and philosophical movements and ideas have historically influenced American social policy, for example, John Calvin and his idea of pre-destination and the Protestant Values of hard work and individualism. Moreover, Social Darwinism helped mold America's ideas of capitalism and the "survival of the fittest" mentality. The Catholic Church's social teaching has also been considerably influential to the development of social policy.


title: Social policy

text: United States politicians who have favored increasing government observance of social policy often do not frame their proposals around typical notions of welfare or benefits; instead, in cases like "Medicare" and "Medicaid", President Lyndon Johnson presented a package called the Great Society that framed a larger vision around poverty and quality of life. Insurance has been a growing policy topic, and a recent example of health care law as social policy is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act formed by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, on March 23, 2010.


title: Social policy

text: Moreover, former president Franklin D. Roosevelt's ground breaking New Deal is a paragon example of Social Policy that focused predominantly on a program of providing work and stimulating the economy through public spending on projects, rather than on cash payment. The programs were in response to the Great Depression affecting the United States in the 1930s.


title: Social policy

text: One example of a recent, widely discussed education policy change was the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) during the administration of Republican President George W. Bush with bipartisan support. The law took effect on January 8, 2002, attempting to raise standards in education, address educational inequities (framed as an achievement gap), and issues in schools framed as issues of accountability. The No Child Left Behind Act required every state to assess students on basic skills to receive federal funding. While the law did attempt to address issues underlying U.S. education, it's provisions were widely viewed as unsuccessful. States continued to create their own standards while assessing themselves. NCLB also led to the closure of numerous schools labeled "low-performing" or "failing", disproportionately impacting schools that served predominately Black students and rural communities. Provisions of NCLB were changed and replaced under the Race to the Top and Every Child Succeeds Act passed during the Administration of President Barack Obama.


title: Suryaputra Karn

text: Suryaputra Karn () is an Indian mythological epic television series, which premiered on 29 June 2015 on Sony Entertainment Television (India) and Sony Entertainment Television Asia. The show aired Monday through Friday nights at 8:30 PM. Produced by Siddharth Kumar Tewary of Swastik Pictures, the series covers the life journey of Karna in the Mahabharata. The show starred Gautam Rode (adult Karna), Vishesh Bansal (young Karna) and Basant Bhatt (teenage Karna) as the lead character at various stages of his life.


title: Suryaputra Karn

text: The story revolves around the best archer of the Mahabharata, Karna and narrates the entire story of Mahabharata from Karna and Pandavas' birth to the eventual crowning of Karna in the Swarga. The show covers the life journey of Karna on his way to becoming a great warrior.


title: Suryaputra Karn

text: He was the son of Surya and Kunti. He was born to Kunti before her marriage with Pandu. Kunti thus abandoned him. He was then saved by Adhirath, who was a charioteer. Karna since his childhood only decided to become an archer. He learnt archery from Lord Parshurama and lied him about his identity of being a Brahmin. But his lie was soon discovered and Parshurama cursed him.


title: Suryaputra Karn

text: After that Duryodhana made him the king of Anga and befriended him. Later, he along with Shakuni, devised a plan to insult Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas. They arranged a gambling where Yudhishthir lost all of his properties including Draupadi. Duryodhana asked Dushasan to disrobe her but failed as Lord Krishna saved her dignity. The Pandavas and Draupadi were sent for an exile of 13 years. This sowed the seeds of Mahabharata war.


title: Suryaputra Karn

text: Indra, in disguise of a Brahmin took Karna's armour and earrings. Later, he learned his true identity of Kunti and Surya's son but he decided to fight for Duryodhana blaming Yudhishthir for owing Draupadi. The Mahabharata war resulted in the death of Karna, Bheeshma, Drona, and many of the Kauravas. Thus, the Pandavas won the war. Yudhishthir was made the king of Hastinapura.


title: Suryaputra Karn

text: Gandhari cursed Krishna for destroying Kuru Vansh. Her curse showed result after 36 years and Krishna's dynasty also got destroyed. A hunter named Jara killed Krishna mistakenly. Thus, the Pandavas decided to go to heaven where they met the Kauravas and Karna. The show ended with Krishna's blessings to everyone.


title: Suryaputra Karn

text: Karanvir Bohra, Karan Grover, Karan Tacker, Avinesh Rekhi and Aditya Redij were approached for playing the lead role of Karna, but Gautam Rode was signed for the eponymous role. In 2015, Gautam Rode won the Best Actor in a Historical Serial award in Indian Telly Awards for the show. The show was intended to be a finite series of 150 episodes but was extended up to August due to a rise in the ratings.


title: Suryaputra Karn

text: This show is also dubbed in Telugu as "Suryaputra Karna" (Telugu: సూర్యపుత్ర కర్ణ) and airing in ETV Telugu from 30 May 2021.


title: Ninurta

text: Ninurta (: , possible meaning "Lord [of] Barley"), also known as Ninĝirsu (: , meaning "Lord [of] Girsu"), is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was first worshipped in early Sumer. In the earliest records, he is a god of agriculture and healing, who cures humans of sicknesses and releases them from the power of demons. In later times, as Mesopotamia grew more militarized, he became a warrior deity, though he retained many of his earlier agricultural attributes. He was regarded as the son of the chief god Enlil and his main cult center in Sumer was the Eshumesha temple in Nippur. Ninĝirsu was honored by King Gudea of Lagash (ruled 2144–2124 BC), who rebuilt Ninĝirsu's temple in Lagash. Later, Ninurta became beloved by the Assyrians as a formidable warrior. The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883–859 BC) built a massive temple for him at Kalhu, which became his most important cult center from then on.


title: Ninurta

text: In the epic poem "Lugal-e", Ninurta slays the demon Asag using his talking mace Sharur and uses stones to build the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to make them useful for irrigation. In a poem sometimes referred to as the "Sumerian "Georgica"", Ninurta provides agricultural advice to farmers. In an Akkadian myth, he was the champion of the gods against the Anzû bird after it stole the Tablet of Destinies from his father Enlil and, in a myth that is alluded to in many works but never fully preserved, he killed a group of warriors known as the "Slain Heroes". His major symbols were a perched bird and a plow.


title: Ninurta

text: Ninurta may have been the inspiration for the figure of Nimrod, a "mighty hunter" who is mentioned in association with Kalhu in the Book of Genesis. Conversely, and more conventionally, the mythological Ninurta may have been inspired by a historical person, such as Ninus. He may also be mentioned in the Second Book of Kings under the name Nisroch. In the nineteenth century, Assyrian stone reliefs of winged, eagle-headed figures from the temple of Ninurta at Kalhu were commonly, but erroneously, identified as "Nisrochs" and they appear in works of fantasy literature from the time period.


title: Ninurta

text: Ninurta was worshipped in Mesopotamia as early as the middle of the third millennium BC by the ancient Sumerians, and is one of the earliest attested deities in the region. His main cult center was the Eshumesha temple in the Sumerian city-state of Nippur, where he was worshipped as the god of agriculture and the son of the chief-god Enlil. Though they may have originally been separate deities, in historical times, the god Ninĝirsu, who was worshipped in the Sumerian city-state of Girsu, was always identified as a local form of Ninurta. According to the Assyriologists Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, the two gods' personalities are "closely intertwined". As the city-state of Girsu declined in importance, Ninĝirsu became increasingly known as "Ninurta". He became primarily characterized by the aggressive, warlike aspect of his nature.


title: Ninurta

text: In later times, Ninurta's reputation as a fierce warrior made him immensely popular among the Assyrians. In the late second millennium BC, Assyrian kings frequently held names which included the name of Ninurta, such as Tukulti-Ninurta ("the trusted one of Ninurta"), Ninurta-apal-Ekur ("Ninurta is the heir of [Ellil's temple] Ekur"), and Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur ("Ninurta is the god Aššur's trusted one"). Tukulti-Ninurta I (ruled 1243–1207 BC) declares in one inscription that he hunts "at the command of the god Ninurta, who loves me." Similarly, Adad-nirari II (ruled 911–891 BC) claimed Ninurta and Aššur as supporters of his reign, declaring his destruction of their enemies as moral justification for his right to rule. In the ninth century BC, when Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883–859 BC) moved the capital of the Assyrian Empire to Kalhu, the first temple he built there was one dedicated to Ninurta.


title: Ninurta

text: The walls of the temple were decorated with stone relief carvings, including one of Ninurta slaying the Anzû bird. Ashurnasirpal II's son Shalmaneser III (ruled 859–824 BC) completed Ninurta's ziggurat at Kalhu and dedicated a stone relief of himself to the god. On the carving, Shalmaneser III's boasts of his military exploits and credits all his victories to Ninurta, declaring that, without Ninurta's aid, none of them would have been possible. When Adad-nirari III (ruled 811–783 BC) dedicated a new endowment to the temple of Aššur in Assur, they were sealed with both the seal of Aššur and the seal of Ninurta.


title: Ninurta

text: After the capital of Assyria was moved away from Kalhu, Ninurta's importance in the pantheon began to decline. Sargon II favored Nabu, the god of scribes, over Ninurta. Nonetheless, Ninurta still remained an important deity. Even after the kings of Assyria left Kalhu, the inhabitants of the former capital continued to venerate Ninurta, who they called "Ninurta residing in Kalhu". Legal documents from the city record that those who violated their oaths were required to "place two minas of silver and one mina of gold in the lap of Ninurta residing in Kalhu." The last attested example of this clause dates to 669 BC, the last year of the reign of King Esarhaddon (ruled 681 – 669 BC). The temple of Ninurta at Kalhu flourished until the end of the Assyrian Empire, hiring the poor and destitute as employees. The main cultic personnel were a "šangû"-priest and a chief singer, who were supported by a cook, a steward, and a porter. In the late seventh century BC, the temple staff witnessed legal documents, along with the staff of the temple of Nabu at Ezida. The two temples shared a "qēpu"-official.


title: Ninurta

text: On "kudurrus" from the Kassite Period ( 1600 – 1155 BC), a plough is captioned as a symbol of Ninĝirsu. The plough also appears in Neo-Assyrian art, possibly as a symbol of Ninurta. A perched bird is also used as a symbol of Ninurta during the Neo-Assyrian Period. One speculative hypothesis holds that the winged disc originally symbolized Ninurta during the ninth century BC, but was later transferred to Aššur and the sun-god Shamash. This idea is based on some early representations in which the god on the winged disc appears to have the tail of a bird. Most scholars have rejected this suggestion as unfounded. Astronomers of the eighth and seventh centuries BC identified Ninurta (or Pabilsaĝ) with the constellation Sagittarius. Alternatively, others identified him with the star Sirius, which was known in Akkadian as "šukūdu", meaning "arrow". The constellation of Canis Major, of which Sirius is the most visible star, was known as "qaštu", meaning "bow", after the bow and arrow Ninurta was believed to carry. In the MUL.APIN Ninurta is consistently identified with Mercury, as it is read: "Mercury whose name is Ninurta travels the (same) path the Moon travels." In Babylonian times, Ninurta was also associated with the planet Saturn, and Mercury later became associated with Nabu.


title: Ninurta

text: Ninurta was believed to be the son of Enlil. In "Lugal-e", his mother is identified as the goddess Ninmah, whom he renames Ninhursag, but, in "Angim dimma", his mother is instead the goddess Ninlil. Under the name "Ninurta", his wife is usually the goddess Gula, but, as Ninĝirsu, his wife is the goddess Bau. Gula was the goddess of healing and medicine and she was sometimes alternately said to be the wife of the god Pabilsaĝ or the minor vegetation god Abu. Bau was worshipped "almost exclusively in Lagash" and was sometimes alternately identified as the wife of the god Zababa. She and Ninĝirsu were believed to have two sons: the gods Ig-alima and Šul-šagana. Bau also had seven daughters, but Ninĝirsu was not claimed to be their father. As the son of Enlil, Ninurta's siblings include: Nanna, Nergal, Ninazu, Enbilulu, and sometimes Inanna.


title: Ninurta

text: Second only to the goddess Inanna, Ninurta probably appears in more myths than any other Mesopotamian deity. In the Sumerian poem "Lugal-e", also known as "Ninurta's Exploits", a demon known as Asag has been causing sickness and poisoning the rivers. Ninurta confronts Asag, who is protected by an army of stone warriors. Ninurta slays Asag and his armies. Then Ninurta organizes the world, using the stones from the warriors he has defeated to build the mountains, which he designs so that the streams, lakes and rivers all flow into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, making them useful for irrigation and agriculture. Ninurta's mother Ninmah descends from Heaven to congratulate her son on his victory. Ninurta dedicates the mountain of stone to her and renames her Ninhursag, meaning "Lady of the Mountain". Finally, Ninurta returns home to Nippur, where he is celebrated as a hero. This myth combines Ninurta's role as a warrior deity with his role as an agricultural deity. The title "Lugal-e" means "O king!" and comes from the poem opening phrase in the original Sumerian. "Ninurta's Exploits" is a modern title assigned to it by scholars. The poem was eventually translated into Akkadian after Sumerian became regarded as too difficult to understand.


title: Ninurta

text: A companion work to the "Lugal-e" is "Angim dimma", or "Ninurta's Return to Nippur", which describes Ninurta's return to Nippur after slaying Asag. It contains little narrative and is mostly a praise piece, describing Ninurta in larger-than-life terms and comparing him to the god An. "Angim dimma" is believed to have originally been written in Sumerian during the Third Dynasty of Ur ( 2112 – 2004 BC) or the early Old Babylonian Period ( 1830 – 1531 BC), but the oldest surviving texts of it date to Old Babylonian Period. Numerous later versions of the text have also survived. It was translated into Akkadian during the Middle Babylonian Period ( 1600 — 1155 BC).


title: Ninurta

text: In the Old, Middle, and Late Babylonian myth of "Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies", the Anzû is a giant, monstrous bird. Enlil gives Anzû a position as the guardian of his sanctuary, but Anzû betrays Enlil and steals the Tablet of Destinies, a sacred clay tablet belonging to Enlil that grants him his authority, while Enlil is preparing for his bath. The rivers dry up and the gods are stripped of their powers. The gods send Adad, Gerra, and Shara to defeat the Anzû, but all of them fail. Finally, the god Ea proposes that the gods should send Ninurta, Enlil's son. Ninurta confronts the Anzû and shoots it with his arrows, but the Tablet of Destinies has the power to reverse time and the Anzû uses this power to make Ninurta's arrows fall apart in midair and revert to their original components.


title: Ninurta

text: Ninurta calls upon the south wind for aid, which rips the Anzû's wings off. The god Dagan announces Ninurta's victory in the assembly of the gods and, as a reward, Ninurta is granted a prominent seat on the council. Enlil sends the messenger god Birdu to request Ninurta to return the Tablet of Destinies. Ninurta's reply to Birdu is fragmentary, but it is possible he may initially refuse to return the Tablet. In the end, however, Ninurta does return the Tablet of Destinies to his father. This story was particularly popular among scholars of the Assyrian royal court.


title: Ninurta

text: The myth of "Ninurta and the Turtle", recorded in UET 6/1 2, is a fragment of what was originally a much longer literary composition. In it, after defeating the Anzû, Ninurta is honored by Enki in Eridu. Enki senses his thoughts and creates a giant turtle, which he releases behind Ninurta and which bites the hero's ankle. As they struggle, the turtle digs a pit with its claws, which both of them fall into. Enki gloats over Ninurta's defeat. The end of the story is missing; the last legible portion of the account is a lamentation from Ninurta's mother Ninmah, who seems to be considering finding a substitute for her son. According to Charles Penglase, in this account, Enki is clearly intended as the hero and his successful foiling of Ninurta's plot to seize power for himself is intended as a demonstration of Enki's supreme wisdom and cunning.


title: Ninurta

text: In "Ninurta's Journey to Eridu", Ninurta leaves the Ekur temple in Nippur and travels to the Abzu in Eridu, led by an unnamed guide. In Eridu, Ninurta sits in assembly with the gods An and Enki and Enki gives him the "me" for life. The poem ends with Ninurta returning to Nippur. The account probably deals with a journey in which Ninurta's cult statue was transported from one city to another and the "guide" is the person carrying the cult statue. The story closely resembles the other Sumerian myth of "Inanna and Enki", in which the goddess Inanna journeys to Eridu and receives the "mes" from Enki. In a poem known as the "Sumerian "Georgica"", written sometime between 1700 and 1500 BC, Ninurta delivers detailed advice on agricultural matters, including how to plant, tend, and harvest crops, how to prepare fields for planting, and even how to drive birds away from the crops. The poem covers nearly every aspect of farm life throughout the course of the year.


title: Ninurta

text: The myth of the "Slain Heroes" is alluded to in many texts, but is never preserved in full. In this myth, Ninurta must fight a variety of opponents. Black and Green describe these opponents as "bizarre minor deities"; they include the six-headed Wild Ram, the Palm Tree King, the seven-headed serpent and the Kulianna the Mermaid (or "fish-woman"). Some of these foes are inanimate objects, such as the Magillum Boat, which carries the souls of the dead to the Underworld, and the strong copper, which represents a metal that was conceived as precious. This story of successive trials and victories may have been the source for the Greek legend of the Twelve Labors of Heracles.