title: Shatt al-Arab

text: When Al-Faw peninsula was captured by the Iranians in 1986, Iraq's shipping activities virtually came to a halt and had to be diverted to other Arab ports such as Kuwait and even Aqaba, Jordan. On 17 April 1988, an Iraqi offensive was started which saw Al-Faw peninsula recaptured after three days of fighting. After retaking Al-Faw, the Iraqis began a sustained drive to clear the Iranians out of all of southern Iraq. In May 1988, the Iraqis expelled the Iranians from Salamchech and took Majnun Island. During the fighting in the spring of 1988, the Iranians showed all the signs of collapsing morale. Brogan reported:


title: Shatt al-Arab

text: During the 1988 battles, the Iranians seemed tired and worn out by the nearly eight years of the war, and "put up very little resistance" to the Iraqi offensives. At the end of the Iran–Iraq War, both sides agreed to once again treat the Algiers Accord as binding.


title: Shatt al-Arab

text: Conflicting territorial claims and disputes over navigation rights between Iran and Iraq were among the main factors for the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War that lasted from 1980 to 1988, when the pre-1980 "status quo" was restored. The Iranian cities and major ports of Abadan and Khorramshahr and the Iraqi cities and major ports of Basra and Al-Faw are situated along this river.


title: Shatt al-Arab

text: During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the waterway was a key military target for the coalition forces. Since it is the only outlet to the Persian Gulf, its capture was important in delivering humanitarian aid to the rest of the country, and stopping the flow of operations trying to break the naval blockade against Iraq. The British Royal Marines staged an amphibious assault to capture the key oil installations and shipping docks located at Umm Qasr on the al-Faw peninsula at the onset of the conflict.


title: Shatt al-Arab

text: Following the end of the war, the UK was given responsibility, subsequently mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1723, to patrol the waterway and the area of the Persian Gulf surrounding the river mouth. They were tasked until 2007 to make sure that ships in the area were not being used to transport munitions into Iraq. British forces also trained Iraqi naval units to take over the responsibility of guarding their waterways after the Coalition Forces left Iraq in December 2011.


title: Shatt al-Arab

text: On two separate occasions, Iranian forces operating on the Shatt al-Arab captured British Royal Navy sailors who they claim trespassed into their territory.


title: Shatt al-Arab

text: The river is also known in Iraq as the Dijla al-Awara (دجلة العوراء) and in Iran as the Arvand Rud (Persian: اروندرود, lit. 'Swift River').


title: Shatt al-Arab

text: The Persian epic poem "Shahnameh" (written between ) and many other works of Middle Persian literature use the name "Arvand" () for the Tigris, the confluent of the Shatt al-Arab. Iranians also used this name specifically to designate the Shatt al-Arab during the later Pahlavi period, and continue to do so since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.


title: Body-on-frame

text: Body-on-frame, also known as ladder frame construction, is a common motor vehicle construction method, whereby a separate body or coach is mounted on a strong and relatively rigid vehicle frame or chassis that carries the powertrain (the engine and drivetrain) and to which the wheels and their suspension, brakes, and steering are mounted. While this was the original method of building automobiles, body-on-frame construction is now used mainly for heavy trucks, pickups, and predominantly large SUVs.


title: Body-on-frame

text: In the late 19th century the frames, like those of the carriages they replaced, might be made of wood (commonly ash), reinforced by steel flitch plates – but in the early 20th century steel ladder frames or chassis rapidly became standard. Mass production of all-metal bodies began with the Budd Company and the Dodge Brothers. Mass production of all-metal bodies became general in the 1920s but Europe, with exceptions, followed almost a decade later. Europe's custom-made or "coachbuilt" cars usually contained some wood framing or used aluminium alloy castings. Towards the beginning of international automobile assembly and construction, most manufacturers created rolling chassis consisting of a powertrain, suspension, steering column and a fuel tank that was then sent to a coachbuilder that added the body, interior and upholstery to the customers specific requests.


title: Body-on-frame

text: In contrast, unibody or monocoque designs, where panels within the body supported the car on its suspension, were developed by European manufacturers in the late 1920s with Budd USA (which had a number of large factories in Europe) and its technical knowhow. Because of the high cost of designing and developing these structures and the high cost of specialised machinery to make the large pressings required by this style of construction it is not used by low-volume manufacturers, who might construct an equivalent by welding steel tube to form a suitable space frame.


title: Body-on-frame

text: The Ford Model T carried the tradition of body-on-frame over from horse-drawn buggies, helping to facilitate high volume manufacturing on a moving assembly line. In the United States, frequent changes in automotive design made it necessary to use a ladder frame rather than unibody construction to make it possible to change the design without having to change the chassis, allowing frequent changes and improvements to the car's bodywork and interior (where they were most noticeable to customers) while leaving the chassis and driveline unchanged, and thus keeping costs down and design times short. It was also easy to use the same chassis and driveline for several very different cars. Especially in the days before computer-aided design, this was an advantage.


title: Body-on-frame

text: Most small passenger vehicles switched to unibody construction by the end of the 1930s. The trend had started with cars like the Citroën Traction Avant (1934) and Opel Olympia (a General Motors design) introduced in 1935, and the Chrysler Airflow. Trucks, bus manufacturers and large low volume cars or those made in the United States continued to use separate bodies on "conventional" frames. Body-on-frame remains the preferred construction method for heavy-duty commercial vehicles (especially those intended to carry or pull heavy loads, such as trucks and some sport utility vehicles (SUVs)) but as production volumes rise increasing numbers of SUVs and crossover SUVs are switching to unibody frames. Mass-market manufacturers Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are abandoning true body-on-frame SUVs, opting, when sales volume permits, for more efficient unibody construction. Toyota currently manufactures the most body-on-frame SUVs with the 4Runner, Sequoia, Land Cruiser, Lexus GX and LX followed by Nissan with the Patrol, Armada, and Infiniti QX56/80.


title: Body-on-frame

text: The following is a list of production cars, SUVs, and light-duty pickup trucks that currently have a body-on-frame construction. The list is divided by vehicle category.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: The Fall () is a philosophical novel by Albert Camus. First published in 1956, it is his last complete work of fiction. Set in Amsterdam, "The Fall" consists of a series of dramatic monologues by the self-proclaimed "judge-penitent" Jean-Baptiste Clamence, as he reflects upon his life to a stranger. In what amounts to a confession, Clamence tells of his success as a wealthy Parisian defense lawyer who was highly respected by his colleagues. His crisis, and his ultimate "fall" from grace, was meant to invoke, in secular terms, the fall of man from the Garden of Eden. "The Fall" explores themes of innocence, imprisonment, non-existence, and truth. In a eulogy to Albert Camus, existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre described the novel as "perhaps the most beautiful and the least understood" of Camus' books.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Clamence often speaks of his love for high, open places — everything from mountain peaks to the top decks of boats. "I have never felt comfortable," he explains, "except in lofty surroundings. Even in the details of daily life, I need to feel "above"". Then it is paradoxical that Clamence leads his "cher ami" away from the human symmetries of a picturesque town to sit on a level, seaside expanse. The location of Amsterdam, as a city below sea-level, therefore assumes particular significance in relation to the narrator. Moreover, Amsterdam is generally described in "The Fall" as a cold, wet place where a thick blanket of fog constantly hangs over the crowded, neon-light-lined streets. Beside the atmosphere (which could be established almost anywhere else) the city also was chosen by Camus for a more peculiar reason. In the opening pages Clamence casually remarks,


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: The "last circle of hell" is the site of Amsterdam's red-light district and the location of a bar named "Mexico City", which Clamence frequents nightly, and where the bulk of his narrative gradually unfolds. (The bar, "Mexico City", did exist in Amsterdam.) The setting thus serves to illustrate, literally and metaphorically, Clamence's fall from the heights of high-class Paris society to the dark, dreary, Dantesque underworld of Amsterdam, where tortured souls wander aimlessly among each other. Indeed, critics have explored at length the parallels between Clamence's fall and Dante's descent through Hell in the "Inferno" (see Galpin, King).


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: It is also significant, particularly as Camus develops his philosophical ideas, that the story develops against the backdrop of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Clamence tells us that he lives only a short distance from "Mexico City", in what was — formerly — the Jewish Quarter, "until our Hitlerian brethren spaced it out a bit. ... I am living on the site of one of the greatest crimes in history" (Camus 281). The naming of the bar also recalls the destruction of the Aztec civilization whose ruined capital has been supplanted by modern Mexico City.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Among other things, "The Fall" is an attempt to explain how humankind could be capable of perpetrating such evils.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: The novel opens with Clamence sitting in the bar "Mexico City" casually talking to a stranger — the reader, some would say — about the proper way to order a drink; for here, despite the cosmopolitan nature of Amsterdam, the bartender refuses to respond to anything other than Dutch. Thus, Clamence serves as interpreter and he and the stranger, having discovered that they are fellow compatriots who, moreover, both hail from Paris, begin discussing more substantive matters.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Clamence tells us that he used to lead an essentially perfect life in Paris as a highly successful and well-respected defence lawyer. The vast majority of his work centred around "widow and orphan" cases, that is, the poor and disenfranchised who otherwise would be unable to provide themselves with a proper defence before the law. He also relates anecdotes about how he always enjoyed giving friendly directions to strangers on the streets, yielding to others his seat on the bus, giving alms to the poor, and, above all, helping the blind to cross the street. In short, Clamence conceived of himself as living purely for the sake of others and "achieving more than the vulgar ambitious man and rising to that "supreme summit" where virtue is its own reward" (Camus 288).


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Late one night when crossing the Pont Royal on his way home from his "mistress", however, Clamence comes across a woman dressed in black leaning over the edge of the bridge. He hesitates for a moment, thinking the sight strange at such an hour and given the barrenness of the streets, but continues on his way nevertheless. He had only walked a short distance when he heard the distinct sound of a body hitting the water. Clamence stops walking, knowing exactly what has happened, but does nothing — in fact, he doesn't even turn around. The sound of screaming was


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Despite Clamence's view of himself as a selfless advocate for the weak and unfortunate, he simply ignores the incident and continues on his way. He later elaborates that his failure to do anything was most probably because doing so would have required him to put his own personal safety in jeopardy.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Several years after the apparent suicide of the woman off the Pont Royal — and an evidently successful effort to purge the entire event from his memory — Clamence is on his way home one autumn evening after a particularly pleasing day of work. He pauses on the empty Pont des Arts and reflects:


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Clamence turns around to discover that the laughter, of course, was not directed at him, but probably originated from a far-off conversation between friends — such is the rational course of his thought. Nevertheless, he tells us that "I could still hear it distinctly behind me, coming from nowhere unless from the water." The laughter is thus alarming because it immediately reminds him of his obvious failure to do anything whatsoever about the woman who had presumably drowned years before. The unlucky coincidence for Clamence here is that he is reminded of this precisely at the moment when he is congratulating himself for being such a selfless individual. Furthermore, the laughter is described as a "good, hearty, almost friendly laugh," whereas, mere moments later, he describes himself as possessing a "good, hearty badger" (Camus 297). This implies that the laughter originated within himself, adding another dimension to the inner meaning of the scene. That evening on the Pont des Arts represents, for Clamence, the collision of his true self with his inflated self-image, and the final realization of his own hypocrisy becomes painfully obvious.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: A third and final incident initiates Clamence's downward spiral. One day while waiting at a stoplight, Clamence finds that he is trapped behind a motorcycle which has stalled ahead of him and is unable to proceed once the light changes to green as a result. Other cars behind him start honking their horns, and Clamence politely asks the man several times if he would please move his motorcycle off the road so that others can drive around him; however, with each repetition of the request, the motorcyclist becomes increasingly agitated and threatens Clamence with physical violence.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Angry, Clamence exits his vehicle in order to confront the man when someone else intervenes and "informed me that I was the scum of the earth and that he would not allow me to strike a man who had a motor-cycle between his legs and hence was at a disadvantage" (Camus 303-4). Clamence turns to respond to his interlocutor when suddenly the motorcyclist punches him in the side of the head and then speeds off. Without retaliating against his interlocutor, Clamence, utterly humiliated, merely returns to his car and drives away. Later, he runs through his mind "a hundred times" what he thinks he should have done — namely strike his interlocutor, then chase after the motorcyclist and run him off the road. The feeling of resentment gnaws away at him, and Clamence explains that


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Clamence thus arrives at the conclusion that his whole life has in fact been lived in search of honour, recognition, and power over others. Having realized this, he can no longer live the way he once did.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Clamence initially attempts to resist the sense that he has lived hypocritically and selfishly. He argues with himself over his prior acts of kindness, but quickly discovers that this is an argument he cannot win. He reflects, for example, that whenever he had helped a blind man across the street — something he especially enjoyed doing — he would doff his hat to the man. Since the blind man obviously cannot see this acknowledgement, Clamence asks, "To whom was it addressed? To the public. After playing my part, I would take my bow" (Camus 301). As a result, he comes to see himself as duplicitous and hypocritical.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: This realization precipitates an emotional and intellectual crisis for Clamence which, moreover, he is unable to avoid, having now discovered it; the sound of laughter that first struck him on the Pont des Arts slowly begins to permeate his entire existence. In fact, Clamence even begins laughing at himself as he defends matters of justice and fairness in court. Unable to ignore it, Clamence attempts to silence the laughter by throwing off his hypocrisy and ruining the reputation he acquired therefrom.


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Clamence proceeds to "destroy that flattering reputation" (Camus 326) primarily by making public comments that he knows will be received as objectionable: telling beggars that they are "embarrassing people," declaring his regret at not being able to hold serfs and beat them at his whim, and announcing the publication of a "manifesto exposing the oppression that the oppressed inflict on decent people." In fact, Clamence even goes so far as to consider


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: To Clamence's frustration and dismay, however, his efforts in this regard are ineffective, generally because many of the people around him refuse to take him seriously; they find it inconceivable that a man of his reputation could ever say such things and not be joking. Clamence eventually realizes that his attempts at self-derision can only fail, and the laughter continues to gnaw at him. This is because his actions are just as dishonest: "In order to forestall the laughter, I dreamed of hurling myself into the general derision. In fact, it was still a question of dodging judgment. I wanted to put the laughers on my side, or at least to put myself on their side" (Camus 325).


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Ultimately, Clamence responds to his emotional-intellectual crisis by withdrawing from the world on precisely those terms. He closes his law practice, avoids his former colleagues in particular and people in general, and throws himself completely into uncompromising debauchery; while humankind may be grossly hypocritical in the areas from which he has withdrawn, "no man is a hypocrite in his pleasures" (Camus 311 – a quotation from Samuel Johnson). Debauchery (women and alcohol) does prove a temporarily effective means of silencing the laughter—the biting sense of his own hypocrisy—because, as he explains, it thoroughly dulls his wits. Unfortunately, he finds himself unable to maintain this lifestyle due to personal failings that he describes as follows: "...my liver and an exhaustion so terrible that it still has not left me (?)"


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: The last of Clamence's monologues takes place in his apartment in the (former) Jewish Quarter, and recounts more specifically the events which shaped his current outlook; in this regard his experiences during the Second World War are crucial. With the outbreak of war and the fall of France, Clamence considers joining the French Resistance, but decides that doing so would ultimately be futile. He explains,


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Instead, Clamence decides to flee Paris for London, and takes an indirect route there, moving through North Africa; however, he meets a friend while in Africa and decides to stay and find work, eventually settling in Tunis. But after the Allies land in Africa, Clamence is arrested by the Germans and thrown into a concentration camp — "chiefly [as] a security measure," he assures himself (Camus 343).


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: While interned, Clamence meets a comrade, introduced to the reader only as "Du Guesclin", who had fought in the Spanish Civil War, was captured by "the Catholic general", and now found himself in the hands of the Germans in Africa. These experiences subsequently caused the man to lose his faith in the Catholic Church (and perhaps in God as well); as a form of protest Du Guesclin announces the need for a new Pope — one who will "agree to keep alive, in himself and in others, the community of our sufferings" — to be chosen from among the prisoners in the camp. As the man with "the most failings," Clamence jokingly volunteers himself, but finds that the other prisoners agree with his appointment. As a result of being selected to lead a group of prisoners as "Pope," Clamence is afforded certain powers over them, such as how to distribute food and water and deciding who will do what kind of work. "Let's just say that I closed the circle," he confesses, "the day I drank the water of a dying comrade. No, no, it wasn't Du Guesclin; he was already dead, I believe, for he stinted himself too much" (Camus 343-4).


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Clamence then relates the story of how a famous fifteenth-century painting, a panel from the Ghent Altarpiece known as "The Just Judges", came into his possession. One evening a regular patron of "Mexico City" entered the bar with the priceless painting and sold it for a bottle of jenever to the bartender who, for a time, displayed the piece prominently on the wall of his bar. (Both the man who sold the painting and the now-vacant place on the wall where it hung are cryptically pointed out at the beginning of the novel.) However, Clamence eventually informs the bartender that the painting is in fact stolen, that police from several countries are searching for it, and offers to keep it for him; the bartender immediately agrees to the proposal. Clamence attempts to justify his possession of the stolen painting in a number of ways, primarily "because those judges are on their way to meet the Lamb, because there is no lamb or innocence any longer, and because the clever rascal who stole the panel was an instrument of the unknown justice that one ought not to thwart" (Camus 346).


title: The Fall (Camus novel)

text: Finally, Clamence employs the imagery of the Ghent Altarpiece and "The Just Judges" to explain his self-identification as a "judge-penitent". This essentially espouses a doctrine of relinquished freedom as a method of enduring the suffering imposed on us by virtue of living in a world without objective truth and one that is therefore, ultimately meaningless. With the death of God, one must also accept by extension the idea of universal guilt and the impossibility of innocence. Clamence's argument posits, somewhat paradoxically, that freedom from suffering is attained only through submission to something greater than oneself. Clamence, through his confession, sits in permanent judgment of himself and others, spending his time persuading those around him of their own unconditional guilt. The novel ends on a sinister note: "Pronounce to yourself the words that years later haven't ceased to resound through my nights, and which I will speak at last through your mouth: "O young girl, throw yourself again into the water so that I might have a second time the chance to save the two of us!" A second time, eh, what imprudence! Suppose, dear sir, someone actually took our word for it? It would have to be fulfilled. Brr...! the water is so cold! But let's reassure ourselves. It's too late now, it will always be too late. Fortunately!"


title: Vel (film)

text: Vel () is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action family drama film written and directed by Hari and produced by M. Chinthamani. It stars Suriya, Asin, Vadivelu and Kalabhavan Mani. Suriya plays a dual role as identical twins. The film also features Charan Raj, Nassar, Lakshmi, Saranya Ponvannan, Ambika in supporting roles. The film's score and soundtrack was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. Priyan handled the cinematography, while V. T. Vijayan handled the editing. The film released on 8 November 2007, coinciding with Diwali.


title: Vel (film)

text: Thiyagarajan and Sharadha, a couple who have twins, lose one of them while traveling between Tirunelveli and Chennai. The child stolen by a beggar for its gold chain is abandoned at the door of a rich feudal landlord. He is brought up in the family as Vel and becomes the darling of everybody including Appatha, the family head. Meanwhile the other twin grows up and becomes a private detective Vasu, who falls in love with a television hostess, Swathi. At the same time Vel is given a tough time by Sakkara Pandi, a former minister and local strongman who has his own axe to grind. Vasu is filled with smiles and happiness, while Vel lives with sickles and rage in his battle against Sakkara Pandi.


title: Vel (film)

text: Vel encounters Vasu while in Madras, and Vasu learns about Vel through Swathi, who spotted Vel while in his village doing a television broadcast. Vasu goes to Vel's village believing he was his long-lost brother. While Vasu was in a bus, Sakkara Pandi planted bombs in the nearby canal believing Vel was in the bus, fortunately, Vasu escapes by jumping out the bus before the bus went past the canal. Vasu is saved by Vel's family who tried to hide him violently inside a car while Vel returned home. They blow their cover when Vasu angrily kicks Vel's uncles outside of the car windshield, enraging Vel to almost slice Vasu's neck until he realizes that Vasu is his look-alike. Vasu and Vel meet and the truth about Vel being adopted is revealed and Appatha breaks down. Vel gets mad and states that despite this, Appatha and her family is his family, and tells Vasu to leave. Vasu asks Vel to come to Madras and see his actual parents, which Vel refuses. Vasu asks to stay for a few days, but Vel refuses him again. Feeling sympathetic for Vasu, Appatha permits him to stay at Vel's house for a few days, despite an enraged Vel vehemently disagreeing.


title: Vel (film)

text: During his time, Vasu becomes close with the family and sees how much they love Vel. He realizes that sending Vel to Chennai will be very tough on everyone due to their immense love for him. Vasu befriends Kuzhandaisami, who was the son of Muthupandi, who was Vel's foster father's younger brother. He learns from Kuzhandaisami who Sakkara Pandi is and why he is a enemy to the family. 15 years ago, after Vel's grandfather Velupandi died, Vel's father Rajapandi was the head of the house and he got rid of minister Sakkara Pandi's factories and put him to jail for 3 years, Sakkara Pandi after released from jail, poisoned Rajapandi and his wife Sivagami foods and killed them without evidence while they were travelling back home. Ever since then the family eats only Appatha's homemade foods.


title: Vel (film)

text: After Vasu leaves with a heavy heart and promising to not talk about Vel to his parents, he and Vel get into an argument which ended up with them swapping roles. Vasu offers to help Vel with Sakkara Pandi while Vel goes as Vasu to Chennai for 10 days in order to meet his actual parents for the first time, with only Kuzhandaisami knowing the truth. Swathi and Vasu's close friend Moorthy were informed of Vel coming instead of Vasu and help Vel maintain his cover as Vasu and show him around. Vasu uses non-conflict tactics to stop Sakkara Pandi and his factories which succeeds, but Appatha is poisoned by Sakkara Pandi. Kuzhandaisami calls Vel from the village and informs him this, but the family overhears and Vasu's true identity is revealed and he is disgraced and kicked out.


title: Vel (film)

text: An enraged Sakkara Pandi, realizing he has been tricked, openly challenges Vasu as "detective naaye" and plants bombs all over the village and threatens to murder Vel's family. Vel and Vasu team up and stop the bombs from blasting, and Vel's uncles apologize to Vasu for their earlier treatment of him, upon realizing his good heart. Vel fights and chases Sakkara Pandi and during the chase, his leg gets caught on the railway. But he had a bomb with him and explained he would do one last killing by killing the civilians on the train. Fortunately, Vel tricks him, cuts off his leg and pushes him down where the bombs explodes, killing Sakkara Pandi. Vasu's parents, had gone to Appatha and pleaded for them to give Vel to them, Appatha sadly agrees. But when Vel comes, she started crying and a few kids were begging Vel not to leave. Vasu pleads with his mother to let Vel stay here and sacrifice her son, shocking everyone. Sharadha cries, but she agrees saying "after all these years, I just hoped I can know he's alive, but instead I met him and talked with him, that is more than enough".


title: Vel (film)

text: Director Hari once again teamed up with composer Yuvan Shankar Raja for the musical score of "Vel" after having worked together in "Thaamirabharani". The soundtrack of "Vel" was released on 13 October 2007 and features 6 songs. Lyrics were written by Na. Muthukumar and Hari. Comedian Vadivelu had lent his voice for one of the songs.


title: Vel (film)

text: Sify rated 3 out of 5 stars stating "Above Average"."Behindwoods" rated 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "A masala sale!"Rediff rated 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "The saving graces of Vel include the fact that it is slick, neat, moves at a brisk pace to keep everyone interested, displays no cleavage and has very little blood and gore in spite of the violent storyline".


title: Vel (film)

text: This film's theaterical run was 50 days in 17 centers and 100 days in 13 centers making it a commercially successful venture.


title: Z shell

text: The Z shell (Zsh) is a Unix shell that can be used as an interactive login shell and as a command interpreter for shell scripting. Zsh is an extended Bourne shell with many improvements, including some features of Bash, ksh, and tcsh.


title: Z shell

text: Paul Falstad wrote the first version of Zsh in 1990 while a student at Princeton University. The name "zsh" derives from the name of Yale professor Zhong Shao (then a teaching assistant at Princeton University) – Paul Falstad regarded Shao's login-id, "zsh", as a good name for a shell.


title: Z shell

text: Zsh was at first intended to be a subset of csh for the Commodore Amiga, but expanded far beyond that. By the time of the release of version 1.0 in 1990 the aim was to be a cross between ksh and tcsh – a powerful "command and programming language" that is well-designed and logical (like ksh), but also built for humans (like tcsh), with all the neat features like spell checking, login/logout watching and termcap support that were "probably too weird to make it into an AT&T product".


title: Z shell

text: Zsh is available as a separate package for Microsoft Windows as part of the UnxUtils collection of native Win32 ports of common GNU Unix-like utilities.


title: Z shell

text: In 2019, macOS Catalina adopted Zsh as the default login shell, replacing the GPLv2 licensed version of Bash, and when Bash is run interactively on Catalina, a warning is shown by default.


title: Z shell

text: A user community website known as "Oh My Zsh" collects third-party plug-ins and themes for the Z shell. As of 2021, their GitHub repository has over 1900 contributors, over 300 plug-ins, and over 140 themes. It also comes with an auto-update tool that makes it easier to keep installed plug-ins and themes updated.


title: Danny Jones

text: Daniel Alan David Jones (born 12 March 1986) is an English singer-songwriter and musician who is one of the lead vocalists and the lead guitarist for pop-rock band McFly. Jones's fellow band members are Tom Fletcher (rhythm guitarist and vocals), Dougie Poynter (bass and vocals), and Harry Judd (drums).


title: Danny Jones

text: McFly rose to fame in 2004, partly due to their association with Busted; McFly supported Busted on their A Present for Everyone Tour. Jones met Fletcher when he auditioned for the "boy band" V (he mistakenly perceived V as similar in style to the future Busted). Fletcher, who was filming the auditions for Island Records, later approached Jones. The two conversed and discovered common interests, leading to a songwriting session between Fletcher, Jones and Busted's James Bourne.


title: Danny Jones

text: When they finished writing projects for Busted, Fletcher and Jones began writing for their own, then-unnamed band. They temporarily moved into the InterContinental Hotel in London, United Kingdom (UK). Drummer Judd and bassist Poynter were subsequently recruited through an advertisement placed by Fletcher and Jones in NME magazine.


title: Danny Jones

text: Jones, working with his fellow band members, has co-written all five of McFly's studio albums. He also penned three of his own solo tracks on the first three McFly albums. He has also produced tracks for McFly and other musicians; for example, he produced the song, "Only The Strong Survive", from McFly's fourth studio album """", as well as his band's cover of Rihanna's "Umbrella". Jones has also been listed as a producer for McFly's 6th studio album, which has still not been released but will soon be according to the band. He has also produced countless demos for his band, alongside Fletcher. Jones also takes the role of lead guitarist in most performances, with Fletcher playing rhythm guitar. He can be seen performing solos in songs such as "That Girl", "I Wanna Hold You", "Everybody Knows", and "Transylvania".


title: Danny Jones

text: As a side project, Jones works on remixes for his band's songs, including "Party Girl" or "Nowhere Left to Run", and "Take Me There". Some remixes can be found as b-sides on singles released from the album "Above the Noise".


title: Danny Jones

text: Jones is a keen producer/DJ and footballer, as is McFly. He assisted Alan Shearer in a charity match in which England beat the rest of the world. After McFly's direction changed it was announced he would remix "Party Girl" as a b-side of the single after that he remixed "Nowhere Left to Run" for the "That's the Truth" single. After this success Jones played songs such as "Take Me There" or "End of the World" and "IF U C Kate" as well as his other remixes. Jones also works with DJ Roger Sanchez under the name 'The Saturn V'. Jones has toured England as a DJ and is set to release songs called "Gone" and "Around Me" with Sanchez, also a remix of Rihanna's song "We Found Love". Jones produced a bonus track for One Direction on their second album "Take Me Home" and wrote "Don't Forget Where You Belong" from their third album "Midnight Memories". In June 2021 he was in the starting XI for Old Habs as they won the Gareth Dineen Trophy.


title: Danny Jones

text: Jones was born and raised in Bolton, Greater Manchester, where his mother runs a hairdressing business. He was educated at Thornleigh Salesian College and, briefly, Haberdashers’ Boys’ School. He and his sister Vicky were interested in music from an early age. In 2014, Vicky took part in the third series of "The Voice" but was eliminated during the battle round. Jones attended Bury College where he studied for a BTEC National Diploma in music.


title: Danny Jones

text: Their father walked out on the family when Danny was eighteen and it left a lasting impression on him. Not long after, he co-wrote the song "Don't Know Why" (from "Wonderland") with Vicky. The McFly song "The Ballad of Paul K", which he co-wrote with McFly bandmate Dougie Poynter, whose father also left home, was based on both their experiences. Jones has rarely spoken of his father and only briefly mentioned him in McFly's autobiography.


title: Danny Jones

text: On 26 July 2013, Jones announced he was engaged to model and former Miss England, Georgia Horsley. They married on 2 August 2014 in Malton, North Yorkshire. They have a son, Cooper Alf Jones, who was born on 27 January 2018.


title: Danny Jones

text: In 2018 Jones Began Working On His Debut EP. He Began Teasing The EP's Lead Single "Muddy Water", The Single Was Released On 7 June 2019. "Bad Habits" Was Released As The EP's Second Official Single On 14 June 2019. A Week Later, On 21 June 2019 He Released "$igns" As The Third Official Single. "Talk in the Morning" Was Released On 28 June As The EP's Fourth And Final Single. On 5 July Jones Released The Full EP, The EP Featured The Singles, "Muddy Water", "Bad Habits", "$igns", "Talk in the Morning" And Also Featured A Cover Of Without Me By American Singer Halsey


title: Inactivated vaccine

text: An inactivated vaccine (or killed vaccine) is a vaccine consisting of virus particles, bacteria, or other pathogens that have been grown in culture and then killed to destroy disease-producing capacity. In contrast, live vaccines use pathogens that are still alive (but are almost always attenuated, that is, weakened). Pathogens for inactivated vaccines are grown under controlled conditions and are killed as a means to reduce infectivity and thus prevent infection from the vaccine.


title: Inactivated vaccine

text: Inactivated vaccines were first developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s for cholera, plague, and typhoid. Today, inactivated vaccines exist for many pathogens, including influenza, polio (IPV), rabies, hepatitis A and pertussis.


title: Inactivated vaccine

text: Because inactivated pathogens tend to produce a weaker response by the immune system than live pathogens, immunologic adjuvants and multiple "booster" injections may be required in some vaccines to provide an effective immune response against the pathogen. Attenuated vaccines are often preferable for generally healthy people because a single dose is often safe and very effective. However, some people cannot take attenuated vaccines because the pathogen poses too much risk for them (for example, elderly people or people with immunodeficiency). For those patients, an inactivated vaccine can provide protection.


title: Inactivated vaccine

text: The pathogen particles are destroyed and cannot divide, but the pathogens maintain some of their integrity to be recognized by the immune system and evoke an adaptive immune response. When manufactured correctly, the vaccine is not infectious, but improper inactivation can result in intact and infectious particles.


title: Inactivated vaccine

text: When a vaccine is administered, the antigen will be taken up by an antigen-presenting cell (APC) and transported to a draining lymph node in vaccinated people. The APC will place a piece of the antigen, an epitope, on its surface along with a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecule. It can now interact with and activate T cells. The resulting helper T cells will then stimulate an antibody-mediated or cell-mediated immune response and develop an antigen-specific adaptive response. This process creates an immunological memory against the specific pathogen and allows the immune system to respond more effectively and rapidly after subsequent encounters with that pathogen.


title: Inactivated vaccine

text: Inactivated vaccines tend to produce an immune response that is primarily antibody-mediated. However, deliberate adjuvant selection allows inactivated vaccines to stimulate a more robust cell-mediated immune response.


title: Inactivated vaccine

text: "Inactivated vaccines" often refer to "non-live vaccines." They are further classified depending on the method used to inactivate the pathogen:


title: ANOM

text: The ANOM (also stylized as AN0M or ΛNØM) sting operation (known as Operation Trojan Shield (stylized TRØJAN SHIELD) or Operation Ironside) is a collaboration by law enforcement agencies from several countries, running between 2018 and 2021, that intercepted millions of messages sent through the supposedly secure smartphone-based messaging app ANOM. The ANOM service was widely used by criminals, but instead of providing secure communication, it was actually a trojan horse covertly distributed by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP), enabling them to monitor all communications. Through collaboration with other law enforcement agencies worldwide, the operation resulted in the arrest of over 800 suspects allegedly involved in criminal activity, in 16 countries. Among the arrested people were alleged members of Australian-based Italian mafia, Albanian organised crime, outlaw motorcycle clubs, drug syndicates and other organised crime groups.


title: ANOM

text: The shutdown of the Canadian secure messaging company Phantom Secure in March 2018 left international criminals in need of an alternative system for secure communication. Around the same time, the San Diego FBI branch had been working with a person who had been developing a "next-generation" encrypted device for use by criminal networks. The person was facing charges and cooperated with the FBI in exchange for a reduced sentence. The person offered to develop ANOM and then distribute it to criminals through their existing networks. The first communication devices with ANOM were offered by this informant to three former distributors of Phantom Secure in October 2018.


title: ANOM

text: The FBI also negotiated with an unnamed third country to set up a communication interception, but based on a court order that allowed passing the information back to the FBI. Since October 2019, ANOM communications have been passed on to the FBI from this third country.


title: ANOM

text: The FBI named the operation "Trojan Shield", and the AFP named it "Ironside". Europol set up the Operational Task Force Greenlight.


title: ANOM

text: The ANOM devices consisted of a messaging app running on Android smartphones that had been specially modified to disable normal functions such as voice telephony, email, or location services, and with the addition of PIN entry screen scrambling to randomise the layout of the numbers, the deletion of all information on the phone if a specific PIN is entered, and the option for the automatic deletion of all information if unused for a specific period of time.


title: ANOM

text: The app was opened by entering a specific calculation within the calculator app, described by the developer of GrapheneOS as "quite amusing security theater", where the messaging app then communicated with other devices via supposedly secure proxy servers, which also – unknown to the app's users – copied all sent messages to servers controlled by the FBI. The FBI could then decrypt the messages with a private key associated with the message, without ever needing remote access to the devices. The devices also had a fixed identification number assigned to each user, allowing messages from the same user to be connected to each other.


title: ANOM

text: About 50 devices were distributed in Australia for beta testing from October 2018. The intercepted communications showed that every device was used for criminal activities, primarily being used by organised criminal gangs. About 125 devices were shipped to different drop-off points to the United States in 2020.


title: ANOM

text: Use of the app spread through word of mouth, and was also encouraged by undercover agents; drug trafficker Hakan Ayik was identified "as someone who was trusted and was going to be able to successfully distribute this platform", and without his knowledge was encouraged by undercover agents to use and sell the devices on the black market, further expanding its use. After users of the devices requested smaller and newer phones, new devices were designed and sold; customer service and technical assistance was also provided by the company. The most commonly used languages on the app were Dutch, German and Swedish.


title: ANOM

text: After a slow start, the rate of distribution of ANOM increased from mid-2019. By October 2019, there were several hundred users. By May 2021, there had been 11,800 devices with ANOM installed, of which about 9,000 were in use. New Zealand had 57 users of the ANOM communication system. The Swedish Police had access to conversations from 1,600 users, of which they focused their surveillance on 600 users. Europol stated 27 million messages were collected from ANOM devices across over 100 countries.


title: ANOM

text: The sting operation culminated in search warrants that were executed simultaneously around the globe on 8 June 2021. It is not entirely clear why this date was chosen, but news organisations have speculated it might be related to a warrant for server access expiring on 7 June. The background to the sting operation and its transnational nature was revealed following the execution of the search warrants. Over 800 people were arrested in 16 countries. Among the arrested people were alleged members of Australian-based Italian mafia, Albanian organised crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs, drug syndicates and other crime groups. In the European Union, arrests were coordinated through Europol. Arrests were also made in the United Kingdom, although the National Crime Agency was unwilling to provide details about the number arrested.


title: ANOM

text: The seized evidence included almost 40 tons of drugs (over eight tons of cocaine, 22 tons of cannabis and cannabis resin, six tons of synthetic drug precursors, two tons of synthetic drugs), 250 guns, 55 luxury cars, and more than $48 million in various currencies and cryptocurrencies. In Australia, 224 people were arrested on 526 total charges. In New Zealand, 35 people were arrested and faced a total of 900 charges. Police seized $3.7 million in assets, including 14 vehicles, drugs, firearms and more than $1 million in cash.


title: ANOM

text: Over the course of the three years, more than 9,000 police officers across 18 countries were involved in the sting operation. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that the sting operation had "struck a heavy blow against organised crime". Europol described it as the "biggest ever law enforcement operation against encrypted communication".


title: ANOM

text: In 2022, "Motherboard" journalist Joseph Cox published documents stating that the FBI obtained message data through the cooperation of an unnamed country within the European Union.


title: ANOM

text: About 50 of the devices had been sold in Australia. Police arrested 224 suspects and seized 104 firearms and confiscated cash and possessions valued at more than 45 million AUD.


title: ANOM

text: In Germany, the majority of the police activity was in the state of Hesse where 60 of the 70 nationwide suspects were arrested. Police searched 150 locations and in many cases under suspicion of drug trafficking.


title: ANOM

text: In the Netherlands, 49 people were arrested by Dutch police while they investigated 25 drug production facilities and narcotics caches. Police also seized eight firearms, large supplies of narcotics and more than 2.3 million euros.


title: ANOM

text: In Sweden, 155 people were arrested as part of the operation. According to police in Sweden which received intelligence from the FBI, during an early phase of the operation it was discovered that many of the suspects were in Sweden. Linda Staaf, head of the Swedish police's intelligence activities, said that the suspects in Sweden had a higher rate of violent crime than the other countries.


title: ANOM

text: No arrests were made in the United States because of privacy laws that prevented law enforcement from collecting messages from domestic subjects. However, the United States Department of Justice indicted seventeen persons (all foreign nationals) under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act for their participation in "the ANOM enterprise" which spread the devices.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The Republic of China (Taiwan) passport () is the passport issued to nationals of the Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan. The ROC passport is also generally referred to as a Taiwanese passport. As of September 2020, approximately 60.87 percent of Taiwanese citizens possess a valid passport.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The Republic of China Passport were Chinese official passports prior to 1949. The earliest edition of the ROC passport which can be verified is the one issued by the Beiyang government in 1919. The current version of passport could be traced back to the prototype that published in 1929 by the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government (1927–1948) based in Nanjing. After the defeat of Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, the jurisdiction of the ROC government was effectively limited to the Taiwan Area, thus making it a valid travel document only issued in Taiwan. All passports published in Taiwan since 2008 have been biometric.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The status and international recognition of the ROC passport is complicated due to the political status of Taiwan. The Nationality Law of the Republic of China considers not only residents of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu, but eligible overseas Chinese and Chinese residents of Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, to be nationals of the Republic of China. It is worth noting that the vast majority of Chinese-descent residents in Hong Kong, Macau or Mainland China are also nationals of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and do not hold any identification documents issued by the ROC. Individuals in the latter two categories may be eligible for a ROC passport under certain conditions, but do not have household registration in Taiwan (i.e. they are "nationals without household registration", or "NWOHR"), and thus do not enjoy the right of abode in Taiwan. Countries granting visa-free privileges to Taiwan passport holders often require a Taiwanese National ID number imprinted on the passport's biodata page, which signifies the holder's right of abode in Taiwan.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The Republic of China (Taiwan) passport is one of five passports with the most improved rating globally since 2006 in terms of the number of countries that its holders may visit without a visa. As of September 2020, holders of ordinary Republic of China passports (for ROC nationals with Taiwan area household registration who therefore possess right of abode in Taiwan and also the right to obtain a National Identity Card) had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 149 countries and territories, with additional 20 countries eligible for granting eVisas, ranking the Republic of China (Taiwan) passport 32nd in the world in terms of travel freedom (tied with the Mauritius and St. Vincent and the Grenadines passports), according to the Henley Passport Index 2020.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The first generation biometric passports were introduced on 29 December 2008. The Republic of China (Taiwan) became the 60th country in the world to issue biometric passports when they were introduced.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The cover of the ordinary Republic of China (Taiwan) passport is dark green, with the ROC national emblem – Blue Sky with a White Sun – in the middle. On the top is the official name of the country, "REPUBLIC OF CHINA", in Traditional Chinese characters. It is also written in English in fine print circling the national emblem. Below the national emblem, the word "TAIWAN" is printed in English only and "PASSPORT" is printed in both Traditional Chinese and English. At the bottom is the biometric passport symbol ().


title: Taiwan passport

text: The cover of the official passport is brown and has the words "OFFICIAL PASSPORT" on the cover, and the diplomatic passport is dark blue with "DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT" on the cover.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The first page of the passport is the passport note page and printed with the following request, anti-counterfeiting printing shows the shape of the island of Taiwan at the top and word TAIWAN at the bottom.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Personal biodata page information for the passport holder and the machine readable zone are listed below.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The biodata page is protected by a plastic anti-counterfeiting layer with laser holograms of the country code TWN and broad-tailed swallowtail butterfly, an endemic species of Taiwan.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Following the passage of an amendment to Article 14 of the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act on 9 August 2019, romanization can take place from any of Taiwan's national languages, which include Hakka, Hoklo, and Formosan languages spoken by indigenous peoples.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Selected nature hotspots and famous sights of Taiwan are printed in the inner pages, each page also contains a transparent watermark of Jade Mountain, the highest peak of the country.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The second generation biometric passport has been issued since 5 February 2018. It was originally scheduled to be rolled out on 25 December 2017, however the rollout was suspended a day later and did not resume until 5 February 2018 due to the Dulles Airport image controversy.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Nationals with household registration in the Taiwan Area may apply for passports from the Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) in Taipei or its branch offices in Kaohsiung, Hualien, Chiayi and Taichung with the following documents:


title: Taiwan passport

text: First time applicants are required to submit their documents in person to the BOCA headquarters or a BOCA branch.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Due to mandatory military service for men, travel restrictions are placed on male citizens from the age of 15 until they have completed their military service. When a passport is issued to a such citizen, a stamp with the following words will be shown on the remarks page, and a sticker which describes the regulation will be attached to the back cover of the passport.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Before traveling, the holder needs to apply for permission to travel overseas with the National Immigration Agency or the conscription administration near his residence. Permission is granted in the form of a stamp on the remarks page, including the expiration date and the issuing authority.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Around 60,000 Taiwan passport holders are NWOHRs, accounting for approximately 0.5% of total valid passports. NWOHRs are overseas nationals without household registration in Taiwan, and hence do not have the right of abode in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other outlying islands.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Overseas nationals can only apply for a passport from an embassy, consulate or Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office near their residing country with the following document.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The Republic of China nationality law adopts the "jus sanguinis" principle. The applicant's nationality may be established through ancestral ties. Various documents may be used as proof, see the eligibility paragraph for more information thereto.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Unlike residents of Taiwan, NWOHRs do not automatically have right of abode in Taiwan. They are required to apply for an entry permit to enter Taiwan prior to their travel if they are not exempted. The application must be submitted to the embassy, consulate or Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office of their country of residence. Once the application is approved, a visa-like permit will be affixed on the visa page.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Unlike passports of Taiwanese residents, passports for NWOHRs contain a special stamp that indicates non-resident status and exempts holders from conscription.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The ROC was founded in 1912 governing Mainland China while Taiwan was part of Japan. The earliest verifiable ROC passports were issued by the Beiyang Government in Beijing in September 1919, and an ROC passport booklet was first issued by Beiyang Foreign Minister Wellington Koo Wei-chun in April 1922. After the surrender of the Japanese Empire in 1945, the Republic of China was given administrative jurisdiction over Taiwan and maintained control of it ever since. At the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the ROC lost its control of Mainland China to the Chinese Communist Party, which established the People's Republic of China (PRC). Henceforth, the ROC has been able to administer only Taiwan and some islands off the Mainland's coast. Maintaining the view that it is still the legitimate government of the whole of China, the ROC does not formally recognize the legitimacy of PRC. It has also constitutionally defined all the territory under its control as the "Free Area" (or the "Taiwan Area") and the territory outside Taiwan Area as the "Mainland Area". The ROC constitution allows the ROC government to make laws for one Area of the country without affecting the other Area..


title: Taiwan passport

text: However, permanent residents in the Mainland Area, Hong Kong or Macau are not generally eligible to obtain a ROC passport [Passport Act, Article 6]. Furthermore, Overseas Chinese applicants normally must submit one of the following forms of proof of ROC nationality [Passport Act Enforcement Rules, Article 4]:


title: Taiwan passport

text: As the first ROC nationality law, in effect from 5 February 1929 to 9 February 2000, only permitted ROC national fathers to pass nationality down to the descendants, any person who was born on or before 9 February 1980 to an ROC national mother and a foreign father is not a ROC national, regardless of place of birth.


title: Taiwan passport

text: There are certain exceptions to this in certain cases for first and second generation emigrants, but in general an applicant will be unable to obtain a ROC passport unless he already holds ROC-issued nationality documentation for himself or an ancestor.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The interior is in traditional Chinese characters and English. Until the mid-1990s, the passport also contained an entry for provincial ancestry (籍貫), stating the Chinese province and county of one's ancestral home, but this field has been eliminated. However, the Chinese province or county of birth is still listed in the birthplace entry if the passport holder was born in either Mainland China or Taiwan.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Visa requirements for Taiwan passport holders are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on nationals of Taiwan. As of 7 January 2020, holders of ordinary Taiwan passports (for ROC nationals with Taiwan area household registration who therefore possess right of abode in Taiwan and also the right to obtain a National Identity Card) had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 146 countries and territories, ranking the Taiwan passport 32nd in the world in terms of travel freedom (tied with the Mauritius and St. Vincent and the Grenadines passports), according to the Henley Passport Index 2020. Additionally, Arton Capital's Passport Index ranked the ordinary Taiwan passport 30th in the world in terms of travel freedom, with a visa-free score of 135 (tied with Panamanian passports), as of 12 January 2020.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Visa requirements for ROC nationals without household registration (NWOHR), i.e., nationals of Taiwan who do not possess right of abode in Taiwan and hence ineligible for a National Identity Card, are different. Unlike ROC nationals with household registration in Taiwan, NWOHRs cannot apply for the Australian Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) and must instead apply for a subclass 600 visa in order to visit Australia. NWOHRs also require visas to visit Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the Schengen Area (including future member states Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Cyprus), the United Kingdom and the United States (where NWOHRs are considered stateless and their visas issued on a separate form).


title: Taiwan passport

text: Even though the Republic of China maintains official relations with only 15 countries, the ROC passport is still accepted as a valid travel document in most countries of the world. Although Taiwanese enjoy visa-free status in 148 countries, some countries, pursuant to their policies on Taiwan's political status, refuse to visé or stamp ROC passports, and instead issue visas on a separate travel document or a separate piece of paper to Taiwanese travelers to avoid conveying any kind of diplomatic recognition to the ROC. The chart below only lists countries or territories which explicitly state that ROC passports are not accepted, while also requiring a visa or entry permit for ROC nationals prior to arrival.


title: Taiwan passport

text: In 2015, a pro-independence activist, Denis Chen, designed the Taiwan Passport Sticker (Republic of Taiwan sticker) to be placed on the front cover of ROC passports. The stickers re-brand the country's name as 「臺灣國」 (literally, "State of Taiwan") and "Republic of Taiwan" , as well as replacing the existing national emblem of a Blue Sky with a White Sun with cartoons of either Jade Mountain, Formosan black bear, or pro-democracy activist Cheng Nan-jung.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Although applauded by pro-independence supporters, this move caused controversies in Taiwan's neighboring countries and regions, as well as the United States, since the alteration of passport covers might be a violation of immigration laws in other countries or regions and eventually cause the refusal of entry to holders of such passports.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Singapore was the first country in Asia to deny entry to holders of altered passports on 29 November 2015, and deported three ROC nationals for "altering their travel documents". Among the three, two immediately removed the Republic of Taiwan stickers upon the further inquiries by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers, but were eventually deported by Singapore to Taiwan. Another person had refused to remove such stickers and instead requested diplomatic representatives of Taiwan for consular protection, but was also deported in the end by ICA. The two Special Administrative Regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau, soon followed suit and refused to accept holders of such passports for entry. A spokesperson of Hong Kong Immigration Department said that any person who "altered the travel document without lawful authority, or, who possess or use altered travel document", is a violation of "Immigration Ordinance" and can be sentenced for up to 14 years in prison.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) had, through diplomatic channels, notified the MOFA and confirmed that holders of such altered passports may be extensively questioned by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and be removed from the United States, and in March 2016, two travelers from Taiwan voluntarily removed Republic of Taiwan stickers because of the extensive questioning by CBP officers. The two travelers were eventually admitted into the U.S., while a CBP spokesperson warned that alterations of travel documents made by any person who is not authorized by the government of a country can render it invalid and will result the holder's refusal of admission to the U.S., and placing Republic of Taiwan stickers on passports is deemed to have altered the travel documents. Similar incident also occurred in Japan when a holder of altered passport was taken to secondary inspection. After being told that he would be deported, the man finally removed the Republic of Taiwan stickers and placed them on his T-shirt and was allowed into Japan.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Supporters of the stickers claimed that passports with Republic of Taiwan stickers were accepted in the United Arab Emirates and in Japan. In the latter case, the person who placed Republic of Taiwan sticker claimed that he was simply trying to block the word "China" from his passport. Holders of such passports were also allowed entry in the Philippines, although a Bureau of Immigration (BI) spokesperson claimed that the passenger would normally be thoroughly inspected and called the incident "a serious matter", while also said that the government would launch an investigation.


title: Taiwan passport

text: According to the BOCA, a total of 21 people had been denied entry by Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong since the end of 2015. Also, incidents were reported in Japan and the U.S. of the use of Republic of Taiwan stickers. The MOFA called upon travelers to not alter the cover of their travel documents so that they would not be denied entry.


title: Taiwan passport

text: From 2020, such problems have largely ceased to exist after the Taiwanese government issued new versions of passports that have reduced "Republic of China" to small texts surrounding the national emblem, and highlighted "Taiwan" instead.


title: Taiwan passport

text: Page 5 of the redesigned second generation biometric passport, originally scheduled to roll out on 25 December 2017, was to feature an image of the iconic terminal 1 of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, a project of Chinese-American architect Tung-Yen Lin completed in 1979. On the same day, however, netizens on Facebook noticed that a picture of the terminal building of Washington Dulles International Airport was used on page 5 instead. Dulles's terminal, which was completed in 1962 and designed by renowned architect Eero Saarinen, had greatly inspired Lin's design of terminal 1, hence the two buildings bear a high degree of similarity.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The MOFA initially dismissed the reports in the morning of 26 December when a spokesperson of the ministry claimed that the photo was taken at Taoyuan Airport. Nearly 12 hours would pass before the MOFA acknowledged the error and stated that over 220,000 new passports were printed and delivered by the Central Engraving and Printing Plant (CEPP) and 285 of them, which were already recalled, had been delivered to applicants by the time the mistake was discovered. BOCA chief Agnes Chen took responsibility and resigned on 27 December as the rollout of the new passport was halted, and applicants were issued first generation biometric passports instead. It was later reported that an extra 330,000 undelivered blank booklets were already printed by the CEPP, bringing the number of total affected booklets to more than 550,000, and destroying those would cost the government NT$220 million. To reduce costs, the MOFA decided to print new stickers with the correct building which would cover page 5 and turn it into a travel warnings page from a blank amendment/endorsement page, a move that will cost a much smaller NT$16 million. In January 2018, the CEPP had also agreed to cover the NT$9.9 million manufacturing cost of the undelivered 330,000 booklets.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The second generation biometric passport with stickers on page 5 was officially rolled out on 5 February 2018, more than a month behind the original schedule, to ameliorate the controversy. MOFA confirmed that it had notified immigration authorities of foreign countries so that holders of passports with the sticker would not encounter difficulties when travelling. Two months later in April 2018, the Control Yuan had released a report on the incident, in which it placed the majority of the blame on the BOCA passport design group and group members' carelessness when researching images for the terminal. The report also highlighted the lack of communication between the BOCA and the CEPP, which failed to exercise due diligence on copyright issues and did not independently verify the correctness of the image due to the BOCA's status as a long-time customer. The report also strongly condemned the MOFA's initial dismissal of the incident.


title: Taiwan passport

text: On 4 May 2018, the BOCA announced that it had estimated that the initial stock of the 550,000 booklets with the sticker would be depleted by mid-May, and the new version without the sticker on page 5 would then be issued. The sticker-less version would continue to feature page 5, which now bears the correct terminal building, as a travel warnings page rather than an amendment/endorsement page.


title: Taiwan passport

text: The common English word "Taiwan" has been printed on the front of passports since 2003. This was added after an original proposal to add "Issued in Taiwan" was shelved after strong criticism from the mainland Chinese government the previous year.


title: Taiwan passport

text: On 22 July 2020, the Legislative Yuan passed two resolutions put forth by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that ask the executive branch of government to highlight "Taiwan" on passports and China Airlines' (CAL) aircraft. The resolutions require the Executive Yuan to work out measures to emphasize the word for "Taiwan" written in Chinese (台灣) and in English on the passport cover. The New Power Party has uploaded proposed passport designs for public vote. The Kuomintang (KMT; Nationalist Party of China) has accused the DPP of revisionism and criticized President Tsai Ing-wen's administration for missing an opportunity to advertise the nation to the world due to its focus on its own ideological and political considerations.


title: Omalizumab

text: Omalizumab, sold under the brand name Xolair, is a medication used to treat asthma, nasal polyps, and urticaria (hives).


title: Omalizumab

text: Omalizumab is a recombinant DNA-derived humanized IgG1k monoclonal antibody that specifically binds to free human immunoglobulin E (IgE) in the blood and interstitial fluid and to the membrane-bound form of IgE (mIgE) on the surface of mIgE-expressing B lymphocytes. Unlike an ordinary anti-IgE antibody, it does not bind to IgE that is already bound by the high affinity IgE receptor (FcεRI) on the surface of mast cells, basophils, and antigen-presenting dendritic cells.


title: Omalizumab

text: In the United States, omalizumab is indicated to treat moderate to severe persistent asthma, nasal polyps, and chronic idiopathic urticaria.


title: Omalizumab

text: In the European Union, omalizumab is indicated to treat allergic asthma, chronic (long-term) spontaneous urticaria (itchy rash), and severe chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.


title: Omalizumab

text: Omalizumab is used to treat people with severe, persistent allergic asthma, uncontrollable with oral or injectable corticosteroids. Those patients have already failed step I to step IV treatments and are in step V of treatment. Such a treatment scheme is consistent with the widely adopted guidelines for the management and prevention of asthma, issued by Global Initiative of Asthma (GINA), which was a medical guidelines organization launched in 1993 in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA, and the World Health Organization.


title: Omalizumab

text: Omalizumab is indicated for chronic spontaneous urticaria in adults and adolescents (>12 years old) poorly responsive to H1-antihistamine therapy. When administered subcutaneously once every four weeks, omalizumab has been shown to significantly decrease itch severity and hive count.


title: Omalizumab

text: The main adverse effect is anaphylaxis (a life-threatening systemic allergic reaction), with a rate of occurrence of 1 to 2 patients per 1,000.


title: Omalizumab

text: Limited studies are available to confirm whether omalizumab increases the risk of developing cardiovascular (CV) or cerebrovascular disease (CBV). Cohort and randomised controlled studies have shown that the risk of developing CV/CBV disease is around 20-32% higher in patients taking omalizumab compared to those not taking omalizumab. Additional multi-national, longitudinal studies with increased subject numbers are required to provide further clarification into the relationship and clinical significance between omalizumab and CV/CBV disease. Due to the severity of CV/CBVs side effects, clinicians and health care providers should continue to remain vigilant and monitor side effects when treating patients with omalizumab.


title: Omalizumab

text: IgE may play an important role in the immune system's recognition of cancer cells. Therefore, indiscriminate blocking of IgE-receptor interaction with omalizumab may have unforeseen risks. The data pooled in 2003 from the earlier phase I to phase III clinical trials showed a numeric imbalance in malignancies arising in omalizumab recipients (0.5%) compared with control subjects (0.2%). A 2012 study found that a causal link with cancer was unlikely.


title: Omalizumab

text: The rationale for designing the anti-IgE therapeutic antibodies and the pharmacological mechanisms of anti-IgE therapy have been summarized in review articles by the inventor of the anti-IgE therapy, Tse Wen Chang, and his colleagues.


title: Omalizumab

text: Perhaps the most dramatic effect, which was not foreseen at the time when the anti-IgE therapy was designed and which was discovered during clinical trials, is that as the free IgE in patients is depleted by omalizumab, the FcεRI receptors on basophils, mast cells, and dendritic cells are gradually down-regulated with somewhat different kinetics, rendering those cells much less sensitive to stimulation by allergens. Thus, therapeutic anti-IgE antibodies such as omalizumab represent a new class of potent mast cell stabilizers. This is now thought to be the fundamental mechanism for omalizumab's effects on allergic and non-allergic diseases involving mast cell degranulation. Many investigators have identified or elucidated a host of pharmacological effects, which help bring down the inflammatory status in omalizumab-treated patients.


title: Omalizumab

text: In conjunction with achieving the practical goal to investigate the applicability of the anti-IgE therapy as a potential treatment for allergic diseases, the many corporate-sponsored clinical trials of TNX-901 and omalizumab on asthma, allergic rhinitis, peanut allergy, chronic idiopathic urticaria, atopic dermatitis, and other allergic diseases, have helped define the role of IgE in the pathogenesis of these prevalent allergic diseases. For example, the clinical trial results of omalizumab on asthma have unambiguously settled the long debate on whether IgE plays a central role in the pathogenesis of asthma.


title: Omalizumab

text: Numerous investigator-initiated case studies or small-scale pilot studies of omalizumab have been performed on various allergic diseases and several non-allergic diseases, especially inflammatory skin diseases. These diseases include atopic dermatitis, various subtypes of physical urticaria (solar, cold-induced, local heat-induced, or delayed pressure-induced), and a spectrum of relatively less prevalent allergic or non-allergic diseases or conditions, such as allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, cutaneous or systemic mastocytosis, bee venom sensitivity (anaphylaxis), idiopathic anaphylaxis, eosinophil-associated gastrointestinal disorder, bullous pemphigoid, interstitial cystitis, nasal polyps, and idiopathic angioedema.


title: Omalizumab

text: Several groups have reported clinical trial results that omalizumab may be effective in patients with non-allergic asthma. This seems to be contrary to the general understanding of the pharmacological mechanisms of the anti-IgE therapy discussed above. Furthermore, among the diseases in which omalizumab has been studied for efficacy and safety, some are not allergic diseases, because hypersensitivity reactions toward external antigens is not involved. For example, a portion of the cases of chronic idiopathic urticaria and all cases of bullous pemphigoid are clearly autoimmune diseases. For the remaining cases of chronic idiopathic urticaria and those of the different subtypes of physical urticaria, the internal abnormalities leading to the disease manifestation have not been identified. Notwithstanding these developments, it is apparent that many of those diseases involve inflammatory reactions in the skin and the activation of mast cells. An increasing series of papers have shown that IgE potentiates the activities of mast cells and omalizumab can function as a mast cell-stabilizing agent, rendering these inflammatory cells to be less active.


title: Omalizumab

text: Omalizumab is a glycosylated IgG1 monoclonal antibody produced by cells of an adapted Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line. The antibody molecules are secreted by the host cells in a cell culture process employing large-scale bioreactors. At the end of culturing, the IgG contained in the medium is purified by an affinity-column using Protein A as the adsorbent, followed by chromatography steps, and finally concentrated by UF/DF (paired ultra filtration/depth filtration). Omalizumab is manufactured at the Novartis' Huningue manufacturing site (France) through a partnership agreement with Genentech.


title: Omalizumab

text: Omalizumab was for several years provided only in a dry powder formulation, which requires the reconstitution with a prepacked solvent with the help of a shaker at the treating clinician's office before injection. A prefilled syringe liquid formulation has become available in many countries.


title: Omalizumab

text: The product concept of anti-IgE antibodies against autologous IgE epitopes was discovered by perinatal monoclonal IgE immunization in rodents prior to the emergence of endogenous self IgE by Swey-Shen Chen at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and in Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), and later confirmed by Dr. Alfred Nisonoff at Brandeis University using monoclonal IgE in incomplete Freund's adjuvant in perinates. Immunized or vaccinated rodents will develop low or undetectable levels of circulating IgE in a long-term IgE tolerance. Consequently, the passive monoclonal antibodies against human IgE can be tested for neutralizing pathological levels circulating IgE in allergic patients. Swey-Shen Chen was later an advisory consultant of Tanox, Inc.


title: Omalizumab

text: Tanox, a biopharmaceutical company based in Houston, Texas, started the anti-IgE program, created antibody drug candidates, and filed its first patent application on the anti-IgE therapeutic approach in 1987. In the next year, the company converted one candidate antibody to a chimeric antibody (which was later named CGP51901 and further developed into a humanized antibody, TNX-901 or talizumab). The anti-IgE therapeutic concept was not well received in the early period of the program. In order to seek funding for the anti-IgE program, the two scientist founders of Tanox, Nancy T. Chang and Tse Wen Chang, visited about 25 pharmaceutical and larger biotech companies in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, and other countries to discuss collaboration throughout 1989. Representatives of Ciba-Geigy (which merged with Sandoz to form Novartis in 1996) thought the anti-IgE program scientifically interesting and executives from Tanox and Ciba-Geigy signed a collaborative agreement in 1990 to develop the anti-IgE program.


title: Omalizumab

text: In 1991, after several rounds of pre-IND ("investigational new drug") meetings with officials/scientists of the FDA, the FDA finally gave a nod for CGP51901 to be tested in human subjects. This approval of IND for an anti-IgE antibody for the first time was regarded a brave demonstration of professionalism for both the FDA officials and the Tanox/Ciba-Geigy team. The scientists participating in the pre-IND discussion comprehended that an ordinary anti-IgE antibody (i.e., one without the set of the binding specificity of CGP51901) would invariably activate mast cells and basophils and cause anaphylactic shocks and probably deaths among injected persons. Notwithstanding this concern, they came to the same view that based on the presented scientific data, CGP51901 should have an absolutely required clean distinction from an ordinary anti-IgE antibody in this regard. In 1991–1993, researchers from Ciba-Geigy and Tanox and a leading clinical research group (headed by Stephen Holgate) in the asthma/allergy field ran a successful Phase I human clinical trial of CGP51901 in Southampton, England and showed that the tested antibody is safe. In 1994–1995, the Tanox/Ciba-Geigy team conducted a Phase II trial of CGP51901 in patients with severe allergic rhinitis in Texas and showed that CGP51901 is safe and efficacious in relieving allergic symptoms.


title: Omalizumab

text: While the Tanox/Ciba-Geigy anti-IgE program was gaining momentum, Genentech announced in 1993 that it also had an anti-IgE program for developing antibody therapeutics for asthma and other allergic diseases. Scientists in Genentech had made a mouse anti-IgE monoclonal antibody with the binding specificity similar to that of CGP51901 and subsequently humanized the antibody (the antibody was later named "omalizumab"). This caused great concerns in Tanox, because it had disclosed its anti-IgE technology and sent its anti-IgE antibody candidate, which was to become CGP51901 and TNX-901, to Genentech in 1989 for the latter to evaluate for the purpose of considering establishing a corporate partnership. Having failed to receive reconciliation from Genentech, Tanox filed a lawsuit against Genentech for trade secret violation. Coincidentally, Tanox started to receive major patents for its anti-IgE invention from the European Union and from the U.S. in 1995. After a 3-year legal entanglement, Genentech and Tanox settled their lawsuits out-of-court and Tanox, Novartis, and Genentech formed a tripartite partnership to jointly develop the anti-IgE program in 1996. Omalizumab became the drug of choice for further development, because it had a better developed manufacturing process than TNX-901. A large number of corporate-sponsored clinical trials and physician-initiated case series studies on omalizumab have been planned and performed since 1996 and a large number of research reports, especially those of clinical trial results, have been published since around 2000, as described and referenced in other sections of this article.


title: Omalizumab

text: Due to the high cost of an omalizumab, and the concern over long-term safety, treatment is not yet very common, especially in developing countries. Another barrier to wide use is its injectable dosage form. In August 2010, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom ruled that omalizumab should not be prescribed on the National Health Service (NHS) to children under 12. NICE concluded that the high costs of the compound, over £250 per vial, did not represent a sufficiently high increase in quality of life. However, on March 7, 2013, NICE issued “final draft guidance” about the allowance of omalizumab. It recommended the medication as an option for treating severe, persistent allergic asthma in adults, adolescents and children following additional analyses and submission of a patient access scheme (PAS) by Novartis, the manufacturer.


title: Omalizumab

text: In August 2013, a researcher at Leiden University Medical Center responsible for the TIGER trial was fired for unrelated research fraud. The TIGER trial was halted as a result.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: Joyeux Noël "("Merry Christmas")" is a 2005 war drama film based on the Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, British, and German soldiers. It was written and directed by Christian Carion, and screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: The film, which includes one of the last appearances of Ian Richardson before his death, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards. It is a fictionalised account of an actual event that took place in December 1914, when Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, sent the lead singer of the Berlin Imperial Opera company on a solo visit to the front line. Singing by the tenor, Walter Kirchhoff, to the 120th and 124th Württemberg regiments led French soldiers in their trenches to stand up and applaud.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: The story centres mainly upon six characters: Gordon (a Lieutenant of the Royal Scots Fusiliers); Audebert (a French Lieutenant in the 26th Infantry and reluctant son of a general); Horstmayer (a Jewish German Lieutenant of the 93rd Infantry); Father Palmer (a Scottish priest working as a chaplain and stretcher-bearer); and two famous opera stars, German tenor Nikolaus Sprink - Walter Kirchoff - and his Danish fiancée, mezzo-soprano Anna Sørensen.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: The film begins with scenes of schoolboys reciting patriotic speeches that both praise their countries and condemn their enemies. In Scotland, two young brothers, Jonathan and William, join up to fight, followed by their priest, Father Palmer, who becomes a chaplain. In Germany, Sprink is interrupted during a performance by a German officer announcing a reserve call up. French soldier Audebert looks at a photograph of his pregnant wife, whom he has had to leave behind (in the occupied part of France, just in front of his trench), and prepares to exit into the trenches for an Allied assault on German lines. However, the assault fails, with the French and Scottish taking many casualties while William loses his life.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: In Germany, Anna gets permission to perform for Crown Prince Wilhelm, and Sprink is allowed to accompany her. They spend a night together and then perform. Afterward, Sprink expresses bitterness at the comfort of the generals at their headquarters and resolves to go back to the front to sing for the troops. Sprink initially opposes Anna's decision to go with him, but he agrees shortly afterward.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: The unofficial truce begins when the Scots begin to sing festive songs and songs from home, accompanied by bagpipes. Sprink and Sørensen arrive on the German front line, and Sprink sings for his comrades. As Sprink sings "Silent Night", he is accompanied by Father Palmer's bagpipes from the Scottish front line. Sprink responds to Palmer and exits his trench with a small Christmas tree, singing "Adeste Fideles". Following Sprink's lead Audebert, Horstmayer, and Gordon meet in no-man's-land and agree on a cease-fire for the evening.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: The various soldiers meet and wish each other "Joyeux Noël", "Frohe Weihnachten", and "Merry Christmas". They exchange chocolate, champagne, and photographs of loved ones. Horstmayer gives Audebert back his wallet containing a photograph of his wife, which was lost in the attack a few days prior, and they connect over pre-war memories. Father Palmer celebrates a brief Mass for the soldiers (in Latin as was the practice in the Catholic Church at that time), and the soldiers retire deeply moved. However, Jonathan remains totally unmoved by the events around him, choosing to grieve for his brother. The following morning, the Lieutenants agree to extend the truce to allow each side to bury their dead, followed by cordial fraternisation for the rest of the day. As their soldiers play football, Audebert and Horstmayer sympathise, speaking in French of their memories of Paris and Lens, and their families. Horstmayer offers to take a letter to Lens for Audebert's wife. The next day, as the German forces shell the Allied position, Horstmayer offers to shelter the French and Scottish soldiers in his trench, an offer Audebert and Gordon return to protect the Germans from their own retaliatory bombing. Before parting, aware that the truce has now truly ended, Audebert and Horstmayer lament that they cannot be friends, and hope that they both survive the war. As Audebert compliments Horstmayer on his French, the German reveals that his wife is French.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: Prior to the bombing, Horstmayer learns that Anna and Sprink left without the German superior's assent to entertain fellow front soldiers and informs both that Sprink is going to be arrested for disobedience. As the Germans regain their trenches, Anna and Sprink remain behind and ask Audebert to take them as captives, in order to avoid separation. Letters that they hand over to him from the German soldiers (who had been hoping Anna would deliver them when she returned to Berlin), as well as letters from soldiers all across the front, are intercepted by military authorities, revealing that the truce had occurred.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: Father Palmer is being sent back to his own parish and his battalion is disbanded as a mark of shame. Despite emphasising the humanity and goodwill of the truce, he is rebuked by the bishop, who then preaches an anti-German sermon to new recruits, in which he describes the Germans as inhumane and commands the recruits to kill every one of them. Father Palmer overhears the sermon and removes his cross as he leaves.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: Back in the trenches, the Scots are ordered by a furious major (who is angered by the truce) to shoot a German soldier who is entering no-man's-land and crossing towards French lines. All of the soldiers deliberately miss in response, except the bitter Jonathan, who shoots the targeted German soldier. Audebert, hearing the familiar alarm clock ringing outside, rushes out and discovers that the soldier is a disguised Ponchel, his batman. With his dying words, Ponchel reveals he gained help from the German soldiers, visited his mother, and had coffee with her. He also informs Audebert that he has a young son named Henri.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: Audebert is punished by being sent to Verdun, and he receives a dressing down from his father, a general. In a culminating rant, young Audebert upbraids his father, expressing no remorse at the fraternisation at the front, and his disgust for civilians and superiors who talk of sacrifice but know nothing of the struggle in the trenches. He also informs the general about his new grandson Henri. Moved by this revelation, the general then recommends they "both try and survive this war for him".


title: Joyeux Noël

text: Horstmayer and his troops, who are confined in a train, are informed by the German Crown Prince that they are to be shipped to the Eastern Front, without permission to see their families as they pass through Germany. He then stomps on Jörg's harmonica and says that Horstmayer does not deserve his Iron Cross. As the train departs, the Germans start humming a Scottish carol they learned from the Scots, ""L'Hymne des Fraternisés"/ I'm Dreaming of Home".


title: Joyeux Noël

text: Carion's youth was spent in his parents' farm fields in Northern France, where he was constantly reminded of World War I as the family often found dangerous unexploded shells left over from the conflicts in the fields. He had also heard of the stories in which French soldiers would leave their trenches at night to meet with their wives in the surrounding German-occupied towns and return to fight the next morning. Carion stated that he'd never heard of the actual Christmas truce incidents while growing up in France, as the French Army and authorities suppressed them, having been viewed as an act of disobedience. He was introduced to the stories via a historian who showed him photos and documents archived in France, Great Britain, and Germany, and became fascinated. He tried to portray all of the soldiers with equal sympathy, as "the people on the frontline can understand each other because they are living the same life and suffering the same way", so he could understand how the truce could have come about. He endeavored to stay true to the real stories, but one of the things he had to change was the fate of the cat that crossed into various trenches. In reality, the cat was accused of spying, arrested by the French Army and then shot by a firing squad, as an actual traitor would have been. The extras in the movie refused to participate in this scene, so it was amended to have the cat imprisoned.


title: Joyeux Noël

text: "Joyeux Noël" has an approval rating of 74% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 112 reviews, and an average rating of 6.77/10.The website's critical consensus states, "The poignant humanity on display in "Joyeux Noël" makes its sentimentality forgivable". Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Joyeux Noël

text: Stephen Holden, film critic for "The New York Times," liked the motion picture and wrote, "If the film's sentiments about the madness of war are impeccably high-minded, why then does "Joyeux Noël" ...feel as squishy and vague as a handsome greeting card declaring peace on earth? Maybe it's because the kind of wars being fought in the 21st century involve religious, ideological and economic differences that go much deeper and feel more resistant to resolution than the European territorial disputes and power struggles that precipitated World War I... Another reason is that the movie's cross-section of soldiers from France, Scotland and Germany are so scrupulously depicted as equal-opportunity peacemakers that they never come fully to life as individuals."


title: Joyeux Noël

text: Critic Roger Ebert also wrote about the sentimentality of the film, ""Joyeux Noël" has its share of bloodshed, especially in a deadly early charge, but the movie is about a respite from carnage, and it lacks the brutal details of films like "Paths of Glory" ...Its sentimentality is muted by the thought that this moment of peace actually did take place, among men who were punished for it, and who mostly died soon enough afterward. But on one Christmas, they were able to express what has been called, perhaps too optimistically, the brotherhood of man."


title: Bridges to Babylon

text: Bridges to Babylon is the 21st British and 23rd American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released by Virgin Records on 29 September 1997. Released as a double album on vinyl and as a single CD, it was supported by the year-long worldwide Bridges to Babylon Tour that was met with much success.


title: Bridges to Babylon

text: Unlike the prior several albums, which the production and songwriting team of vocalist Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards had co-produced alongside a single outside producer, the Stones brought in an eclectic mix of superstar producers, including the Dust Brothers, Don Was, and Rob Fraboni among others. Similarly, a wide array of guest musicians appeared on each of the tracks alongside band members Jagger, Richards, Ronnie Wood on guitar and Charlie Watts on drums. The sprawling album features a wide range of genres, including the Stones-standard blues rock, sample-laden hip hop and rap. The band was once again not on speaking terms during the recording of the album, with Jagger and Richards each recording their parts separately and rarely appearing in the studio together. However, they had repaired their relationship well enough to embark on a wildly successful tour to support the album.


title: Bridges to Babylon

text: Though critics gave the album mixed reviews, it sold well, reaching platinum or gold status in many markets, and produced the worldwide Top 40 single "Anybody Seen My Baby?".


title: Bridges to Babylon

text: Following the Voodoo Lounge Tour from 1994 to 1995, and the album "Stripped", the Stones afforded themselves a brief respite before Mick Jagger and Keith Richards began composing new songs together in the summer of 1996, with demos to follow as they met in New York in November and London the following month. Another writing session took place in Barbados in January 1997.


title: Bridges to Babylon

text: In March 1997, the band arrived in Los Angeles to start the recording sessions at Ocean Way Studios. After many albums recorded in isolated islands, working in a big city allowed for the contribution of various musician friends of the band. "Bridges to Babylon" was recorded until July, and the four-month production made it one of their most concise periods of recording in years. The sessions were frequently all-nighters that lasted until Richards got tired by the morning.


title: Bridges to Babylon

text: Although Don Was produced again, Jagger arrived before the other members of the Stones to seek local producers. First were The Dust Brothers, who had impressed Jagger with their work on Beck's "Odelay" and the Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique". The Dust Brothers' contributions were initially five, but were reduced to three, which marked the only Stones songs to feature sampling. Danny Saber and Babyface were also brought in by Jagger, though the latter's contributions to the track "Already Over Me" were eventually discarded. Richards was not keen on the idea of working with 'loop gurus', going as far as expelling Saber from the studio once he found him overdubbing guitars. Richards brought in Rob Fraboni for his solo material, and Was made sure to work with Richards and Jagger in separate rooms. Drummer Charlie Watts would relieve the tense environment by working with percussionist Jim Keltner, whom he later drafted for a solo project. By the final week of recording, the Stones were not on speaking terms, with Jagger boycotting sessions arranged by Richards' crew and Watts leaving Los Angeles as soon as he finished his contributions.


title: Bridges to Babylon

text: During the album's mastering, the chorus of the projected lead single, "Anybody Seen My Baby?", was found to resemble the 1992 hit "Constant Craving" by k.d. lang, a discovery brought to Richards' attention by his daughter Angela. Seeking to avoid possible future legal entanglements, Lang and her co-writer Ben Mink were credited along with Jagger and Richards on the new tune. It reached No. 22 in the UK and also became a U.S. radio rock hit.


title: Bridges to Babylon

text: A total of eight different musicians played bass on the sessions for the album: Jeff Sarli, Jamie Muhoberac, Pierre de Beauport, Don Was, Danny Saber, Darryl Jones, Me'shell Ndegeocello, and Doug Wimbish.


title: Bridges to Babylon

text: Once the Rolling Stones had picked Stefan Sagmeister to be the album's art director, Jagger told him to seek inspiration from Babylonian art exhibited at the British Museum. Sagmeister was most impressed by a Lamassu sculpture, featuring a lion with a human head and beard, and commissioned artist Kevin Murphy to paint a similar Assyrian lion in an attack stance. The first million units of "Bridges to Babylon" were encased in a special manufactured filigree slipcase, that gave the impression that the lion was embedded into the design. The desert background of the cover was extended throughout the booklet, featuring ruins that were the basis for the stage design of the Bridges to Babylon Tour.


title: Bridges to Babylon

text: "Bridges to Babylon", containing an unprecedented three solo vocals by Richards, was released to mixed reviews. It reached No. 6 in the UK, No. 2 in France and No. 3 in the US, where it was certified platinum by the RIAA in November 1997. As of January 2010, "Bridges to Babylon" had sold 1.1 million copies in the U.S. Further singles "Saint of Me" and concert staple "Out of Control" were also minor hits.