title: Stephen Decatur

text: Now that Decatur was Naval Commissioner he had settled into a routine life in Washington working at the Navy Department during the day, with many evenings spent as an honorary guest at social gatherings, as both he and his wife were the toast of Washington society. Decatur's first home in Washington was 1903 Pennsylvania Avenue (one of the "Seven Buildings"), purchased in 1817. In 1818, Decatur built a three-story red brick house in Washington on Lafayette Square, designed by the famous English architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the same man who designed the U.S. Capitol building and Saint John's Church. Decatur specified that his house had to be suitable for "impressive entertainments". The house was the first private residence to be built near the White House. Decatur House is now a museum that exhibits a large collection of Decatur memorabilia and is managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Located on President's Square (Lafayette Square), it was built in grand style to accommodate large social gatherings, which in the wake of Decatur's many naval victories were an almost routine affair in the lives of Decatur and his wife.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: In October 1818, at the request of Oliver Hazard Perry, a very close friend, Decatur arrived at New York to act as his second in a duel between Perry and Captain John Heath, commander of Marines on . The two officers were involved in a personal disagreement while aboard that ship, that resulted in Heath challenging Perry to a duel. Perry had written to Decatur nearly a year previously, revealing that he had no intention of firing any shot at Heath. After the two duelists and their seconds assembled the duel took place. One shot was fired; Heath missed his opponent while Perry, keeping his word, returned no fire. At this point Decatur approached Heath with Perry's letter in hand, relating to Heath that Perry all along had no intention of returning fire and asking Heath if his honor had thus been satisfied. Heath admitted that it had. Decatur was relieved to finally see the matter resolved with no loss of life or limb to either of his friends, urging both to now put the matter behind them.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: Decatur's life and distinguished service in the U.S. Navy came to an early end when in 1820 Commodore James Barron challenged Decatur to a duel, related in part to comments Decatur had made over Barron's conduct in the "Chesapeake"–"Leopard" affair of 1807. Because of Barron's loss of "Chesapeake" to the British he faced a court-martial and was barred from command for a term of five years. Decatur had served on the court-martial that had found Barron guilty of "unpreparedness". Barron had just returned to the United States from Copenhagen after being away for six years and was seeking reinstatement. He was met with much criticism among fellow naval officers, among whom Decatur was one of the most outspoken. Decatur, who was now on the board of naval commissioners, strongly opposed Barron's reinstatement and was notably critical about the prospect in communications with other naval officers and government officials. As a result, Barron became embittered towards Decatur and challenged him to a duel. Barron's challenge to Decatur occurred during a period when duels between officers were so common that it was creating a shortage of experienced men, forcing the Department of the Navy to threaten to discharge those who attempted to pursue the practice.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: Barron's second was Captain Jesse Elliott, known for his jaunty mannerisms and antagonism toward Decatur. Decatur first asked his friend Thomas Macdonough to be his second, but Macdonough declined the request because he had always opposed dueling. Decatur then turned to his supposed friend Commodore William Bainbridge to act as his second, to which Bainbridge consented. However, according to naval historian Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Decatur made a poor choice: Bainbridge, who was five years his senior, had long been jealous of the younger and more famous Decatur.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: The seconds met on March 8 to establish the time and place for the duel and the rules to be followed. The arrangements were exact. The duel was to take place at nine o'clock in the morning on March 22, at Bladensburg Dueling Grounds, near Washington, at a distance of only eight paces. Decatur, an expert pistol shot, planned only to wound Barron in the hip.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: Decatur did not tell his wife, Susan, about the forthcoming duel but instead wrote to her father asking that he come to Washington to stay with her, using language that suggested that he was facing a duel and that he might lose his life. On the morning of the 22nd the dueling party assembled. The conference between the two seconds lasted three-quarters of an hour. Just before the duel, Barron spoke to Decatur of conciliation; however, the men's seconds did not attempt to halt the proceedings.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: The duel was arranged by Bainbridge with Elliott in a way that made the wounding or death of both duelists very likely. The shooters would be standing close to each other, face to face; there would be no back-to-back pacing away and turning to fire, a procedure that often resulted in the missing of one's opponent. Upon taking their places the duelists were instructed by Bainbridge, "I shall give the word quickly – 'Present, one, two, three' – You are neither to fire before the word 'one', nor after the word 'three'." Now in their positions, each duelist raised his pistol, cocked the flintlock and, while taking aim, stood in silence. Bainbridge called out, 'One' and Decatur and Barron both fired before the count of 'two'. Decatur's shot hit Barron in the lower abdomen and ricocheted into his thigh. Barron's shot hit Decatur in the pelvic area, severing arteries. Both of the duelists fell almost at the same instant. Decatur, mortally wounded and clutching his side, exclaimed, "Oh, Lord, I am a dead man." Lying wounded, Commodore Barron (who ultimately survived) declared that the duel was carried out properly and honorably and told Decatur that he forgave him from the bottom of his heart.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: By then other men who had known about the duel were arriving at the scene, including Decatur's friend and mentor, the senior officer John Rodgers. In excruciating pain, Decatur was carefully lifted by the surgeons and placed in Rodgers' carriage and was carried back to his home on Lafayette Square. Before they departed, Decatur called out to Barron that he should also be taken along, but Rodgers and the surgeons calmly shook their heads in disapproval. Barron cried back "God bless you, Decatur" – and with a weak voice Decatur called back "Farewell, farewell, Barron." Upon arrival at his home, Decatur was taken into the front room just left of the front entrance, still conscious. Before allowing himself to be carried in, he insisted that his wife and nieces be taken upstairs, sparing them the sight of his grave condition. A Dr. Thomas Simms arrived from his home nearby to give his assistance to the naval physicians. However, for reasons not entirely clear to historians, Decatur refused to have the ball extracted from his wound. At this point Decatur requested that his will be brought forward so as to receive his signature, granting his wife all his worldly possessions, with directives as to who would be the executors of his will. Decatur died at approximately 10:30 pm that night. While wounded, he is said to have cried out, "I did not know that any man could suffer such pain!"


title: Stephen Decatur

text: Washington society and the nation were shocked upon learning that Decatur had been killed at the age of forty-one in a duel with a rival navy captain. Decatur's funeral was attended by Washington's elite, including President James Monroe and the justices of the Supreme Court, as well as most of Congress. Over 10,000 citizens of Washington and the surrounding area attended to pay their last respects to a national hero. The pallbearers were Commodores Rodgers, Chauncey, Tingey, Porter and Macdonough; captains Ballard and Cassin; and Lieutenant Macpherson. Following were naval officers and seamen. At the funeral service a grieving seaman unexpectedly came forward and proclaimed, "He was the friend of the flag, the sailor's friend; the navy has lost its mainmast." Stephen Decatur died childless. Though he left his widow $75,000, a fortune at the time, she died virtually penniless in 1860. She received an annuity of $630/year from her $7,000 donation to Georgetown College (part of Georgetown University) in 1834 and later a $50/month pension from Congress.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: Decatur's body was interred in the Barlow family vault at Kalorama in accordance with Susan's request. It was later moved to Philadelphia, where he was buried at St. Peter's Churchyard in 1846, alongside his mother and father.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: After the funeral, rumors circulated of a last-minute conversation between the duelists that could have avoided the deadly outcome of the duel and, moreover, that the seconds involved might have been planning for such an outcome and accordingly made no real attempts to stop the duel. Decatur's wife Susan held an even more damning view of the matter and spent much of her remaining life pursuing justice for what she termed "the assassins" involved.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: Decatur's widow, Susan, tried for several years to obtain a pension from the U.S. Government. By an act of Congress on March 3, 1837, she was granted a pension retroactive to Decatur's death.


title: Stephen Decatur

text: Although he died at a relatively young age, Decatur helped determine the direction of the young nation playing a significant role establishing its identity. For his heroism in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812, Decatur emerged as an icon of American naval history and was roundly admired by most of his contemporaries as well as the citizenry:


title: Robert Earl Hughes

text: Robert Earl Hughes (June 4, 1926 – July 10, 1958) was an American man who was, during his lifetime, the heaviest human being recorded, weighing . He remains the heaviest human in the world able to walk without the need of assistance.


title: Robert Earl Hughes

text: Robert Hughes was born in Monticello, Missouri, the son of Abraham Guy Hughes (1878–1957) and Georgia Alice Weatharby (1906–1947). He was born "weighing a hefty but not abnormal" and was a "fairly average-size baby until he contracted whooping cough at about five months old." The whooping cough was believed to have played a role in his extraordinary weight gain. At age six, he weighed ; at ten, he weighed .


title: Robert Earl Hughes

text: The family moved to Fishhook, Illinois, when Robert was six months old. He had two younger brothers, Guy B. Hughes (1927–2006) and Donald Hughes (1929–2012).


title: Robert Earl Hughes

text: During his lifetime, he was the heaviest human on earth. Unlike most people of great weight, he was not bed-bound, and he holds to this day the record of the heaviest human to walk. Hughes's extreme weight was attributed to a ruptured thyroid gland. He reached a peak weight of , with a chest measured at .


title: Robert Earl Hughes

text: Hughes made some income from selling photographs of himself. During his adult life, Hughes made guest appearances at carnivals and fairs. At age 27, he joined a travelling roadshow, often accompanied by some of his family. Plans to appear on "The Ed Sullivan Show" variety television program were announced but never materialised.


title: Robert Earl Hughes

text: In 1957, travelling with his brother Guy and Guy's wife Lillian, Robert had bookings throughout the country. Walking, even with his massive cane, had started to be difficult for the 31-year-old. Word reached him at a carnival that his father had died at age 79. Guy and Lillian returned to Illinois for the funeral, but Robert stayed on, believing it was his duty to honour his commitments. At season's end, he returned to Guy's farm, unable to walk more than without the assistance of family members, who would follow closely, lugging a 5-foot- (1.5 meter-) wide, steel-reinforced chair in case of exhaustion.


title: Robert Earl Hughes

text: While travelling with the roadshow in Nappanee, Indiana, Hughes developed a rash, and the flesh under his fingernails turned blue. Because he was unable to be moved to the nearest hospital in Bremen, Indiana, doctors treated him at his trailer, and determined he was suffering from measles. He developed uremia.


title: Robert Earl Hughes

text: He died on July 10, 1958 at the age of 32. He was buried in a small church cemetery in Benville, Illinois, in Brown County near his hometown, Fishhook. About 2,000 people attended the funeral.


title: Robert Earl Hughes

text: He is erroneously said to have been buried in a piano case. This error stemmed from a sentence that appeared in the "Guinness Book of World Records": "He was buried in a coffin the size of a piano case." His headstone notes that he was the world's heaviest man at a confirmed .


title: Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

text: Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken is a 1991 American drama film directed by Steve Miner. It concerns Sonora Webster Carver, a rider of diving horses. Gabrielle Anwar stars as Carver alongside Michael Schoeffling and Cliff Robertson. It is based on events in her life as told in her memoir "A Girl and Five Brave Horses".


title: Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

text: In 1932 Sonora Webster lives with her sister, Arnette, and abusive Aunt Helen during the Great Depression. After a series of troubles, which involve her accidentally letting the cows loose, punching another girl for making fun of her poor economic background, and getting suspended from school, Aunt Helen sells her treasured horse, Lightning. Helen then tells Sonora that she will be sent to an orphanage the following day. Instead, Sonora slips out of the house during the night. She ends up at a county fair and sees a performance by Marie, a diving girl who rides a horse off a platform, and aspires to do so too. Marie's employer, Doc Carver, tells her she is too young but gives her a job as a stable hand due to her ability with horses, and she begins traveling with them. Doc's son, Al, wins a wild horse in a card game and Sonora names him Lightning. She later surprises Doc by taming and riding him, so he promises to train her to be a diving girl if she can mount it while it's moving, which she succeeds after multiple attempts.


title: Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

text: Marie's regular horse gets sick, therefore Al decides to use Lightning in the shows. Sonora warns Marie not to kick him, but she ignores her and he causes her to fall off and dislocate her shoulder. With her unable to perform, Al asks Sonora if she can do the stunts. Although she has never dove with Lightning, their first jump is successful. Marie becomes jealous, and as Doc tires of her diva-like behavior, she quits rather than share billing with Sonora. Al develops a romance with her that strains his relationship with Doc, and he leaves home after a particularly bad fight. He promises to write to Sonora, but Doc hides all his letters and she thinks that he has forgotten about her. When Doc and the new stable hand, Clifford, are away from the farm in search of jobs for the show, Lightning falls ill with colic. Al returns, and he and Sonora work together to heal Lightning. Doc hasn't found any places for them to perform at, but then Al announces he has arranged a six-month contract to do so at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This reconciles Doc and Al, but then the former passes away of a heart attack on the way to Atlantic City, and Al assumes Doc's role as the show presenter. Sonora searches for Doc's jacket to give Al confidence on his first show, and finds one of his letters in it that confesses his love for her, and she lets him know that she feels the same.


title: Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

text: Al proposes to Sonora just before a performance in front of their biggest crowd, which she accepts. The horse is a jittery stallion instead of Lightning, and he falters and trips off the end of the diving board after shying from cymbals crashing below. Not expecting it, Sonora has her eyes open as they land in the pool. Both are alive, but Sonora can't see properly. However, she hides this from Al, not wanting him to stop her from doing the shows. She wakes the next morning to discover she is permanently blind from detached retinas in both eyes. She has to learn to find her way around, and Al is always by her side to help her. To avoid a breach of contract lawsuit, he must find another diving girl within a week, so he calls Marie, who returns. Meanwhile, Sonora misses diving terribly, especially as she has to stay home while she knows Al and Marie are out performing. She tells Al of her desire to dive with Lightning again, and they work together to try to train her to mount him blind, but it proves fruitless and Al gives up.


title: Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

text: The next day, Clifford locks Marie in her dressing room, and Sonora performs in her place with Lightning. Al shouts at her to come back down, but she continues and the jump is successful. Her voiceover tells you that she continued diving for eleven more years with the audience never learning of her blindness, and of her happy marriage to Al.


title: Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

text: Upon the film's release, Sonora Webster Carver and her sister, Arnette French, watched it together. Sonora was dissatisfied with its embellishments and felt that it bore little resemblance to her life. She told Arnette that, "the only thing true in it was that I rode diving horses, I went blind, and I continued to ride for another 11 years." Arnette said that the movie "made a big deal about having the courage to go on riding after she lost her sight. But the truth was that riding the horse was the most fun you could have and we just loved it so."


title: Wythenshawe

text: Wythenshawe () is a district of the city of Manchester, England. Historically in Cheshire, Wythenshawe was transferred in 1931 to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the 1920s. With an area of approximately , Wythenshawe became the largest council estate in Europe.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Wythenshawe includes the estates of Baguley, Benchill, Brooklands, Peel Hall, Newall Green, Woodhouse Park, Moss Nook, Northern Moor, Northenden and Sharston.


title: Wythenshawe

text: The name of Wythenshawe seems to come from the Old English "wiðign" = "withy tree" and "sceaga" = "wood" (compare dialectal word shaw). The three ancient townships of Northenden, Baguley and Northen Etchells formally became the present-day Wythenshawe when they were merged with Manchester in 1931. Until then, the name had referred only to Wythenshawe Hall and its grounds.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Due to spending cuts, the hall was temporarily closed to the public in 2010. One proposition was that Manchester City Council could sell the building to the National Trust.


title: Wythenshawe

text: A Friends Group was formed to support monthly open days and events at the hall. In March 2016, the roof of the hall and an upper floor were severely damaged by a fire in an arson attack, with the clock tower also damaged.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Immediately south of Wythenshawe is Manchester Airport, formerly called Ringway Airport. Before Ringway Airport was laid out, three farm fields between Rackhouse Road and Wythenshawe Road in Northern Moor, in what is now the north edge of Wythenshawe, were used as Manchester (Wythenshawe) Aerodrome. This was the UK's first municipal airfield, operating between April 1929 and early 1930. A barn was converted to act as the hangar and a farmhouse as the administration building. Temporary fuel pumps were installed. The last recorded flight from Wythenshawe Airport was on 19 June 1930.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Wythenshawe was in the Church of England Diocese of Chester until 1933, when it was transferred to the neighbouring Diocese of Manchester.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Wythenshawe is Manchester's largest district, a massive housing estate that was started in the 1920s intended as a "garden city" where people could be rehoused away from industrial Manchester. In 1920, town planner Patrick Abercrombie identified the area as the most suitable undeveloped land for a housing estate close to the city, and of land were purchased.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Part of Benchill (not the area southwest of Gladeside Road) and some areas in the north were built before World War II and called the Wythenshawe Ward of the City of Manchester. The rest was built after the Second World War, starting in the late 1940s as wartime building restrictions were relaxed. Parts of Baguley were still semi-rural in the 1960s, but now there is very little open country left.


title: Wythenshawe

text: The estate was built initially without many shops, amenities or services, and there was very little employment directly to hand. Although Northenden already had a shopping area on Palatine Road, the earliest new shops were built in the 1930s and included parades on Hollyhedge Road, and on Altrincham Road in Sharston (the latter was demolished in 1973 to make way for the M56 Sharston bypass). There were smaller local shops, usually a grocers—selling general household provisions, at Minsterly Parade (Woodhouse Park) and Haveley Circle (Benchill). However, it took decades for some areas of Wythenshawe to get their own neighbourhood shops, which meant residents had to travel or visit a mobile shop van when it visited their area. Various residents' associations were set up to address those problems, but progress was very slow.


title: Wythenshawe

text: After the Second World War, Wythenshawe eventually expanded, with several further shops being built (such as Haveley Circle, built in the early 1950s but demolished in the 1990s) and businesses were attracted to the area with the expansion of the Sharston Industrial Estate and, later, the Moss Nook and Roundthorn industrial complexes. Wythenshawe gradually acquired all the amenities and facilities that the original planners had neglected to include with the building of several new schools, shops, pubs and churches. The area also got its own hospital, and Wythenshawe Hospital grew out of the earlier Baguley Hospital in 1948. The largest shopping area was built in the 1960s in the town centre, known as the Wythenshawe Civic Centre, which has been expanded further since it was first built. In 1971, the Wythenshawe Forum was opened there, which included a library, a swimming pool, a restaurant, a bar and a theatre.


title: Wythenshawe

text: From the 1990s to the 2000s, the houses that were built and owned by the council were transferred to the control of local housing associations, such as Willow Park in east Wythenshawe and Parkway Green in west Wythenshawe. Both associations merged in 2013 to form the Wythenshawe Community Housing Group which is now responsible for around 14,000 homes in Wythenshawe.


title: Wythenshawe

text: In 2007, "The New York Times" described the housing estates in Wythenshawe as representing an "extreme pocket of social deprivation and alienation".


title: Wythenshawe

text: Most of the farm buildings in the Wythenshawe area were demolished when the estate was built. Some of them, like Hollyhedge Farm and Floats Hall, were left among the houses but suffered from vandalism and had to be demolished later. Some of the present housing estates were named after former farms.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Peel Hall Farm (which had a moat) survived for over 20 years as its occupant lived on the proceeds of selling his land, but soon after he left, the property was vandalised and had to be demolished.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Newall Green Farm survived on the edge of the Newall Green housing estate area and was still occupied and run as a farm until the early 21st century when its last occupant died, when it was abandoned and fenced off. The buildings are listed. In 2006, a firm bought Newall Green Farm's buildings from Manchester Corporation. On 21 June 2014, vandals set fire to Newall Green Farm, and its roof was destroyed, but there are plans to turn the buildings into a care home for adults with learning disabilities, a working farm and a horse-riding centre.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Wythenshawe has twelve parks and 18 woodland areas including Wythenshawe Park, which was designated a Local Nature Reserve in 2011. It covers over of green space and is home to Manchester's only community farm, Wythenshawe community farm. At the centre of the park is the historic Wythenshawe Hall with its Civil War and Tatton heritage. The park also has riding stables, a horticulture centre, children's play area, athletics track, football pitches, tennis courts, bowls and golfing facilities.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Other parks include Hollyhedge Park, Peel Hall Park, Painswick Park and Baguley Park. Northenden's Riverside Park is the first new park to be established in the city in the 21st century.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Manchester Wythenshawe was a parliamentary constituency created in 1950 and represented by Alf Morris of the Labour Party between 1964 and 1997. Before the 1997 election, the boundaries were redrawn and part of the neighbouring area of Sale included in the seat. The new constituency is called Wythenshawe and Sale East. In the same year, Alf Morris stepped down and was replaced by Paul Goggins. It is still considered a safe Labour seat, with Labour securing over 50% of the vote (and more than twice as many votes as its nearest rival) in the 1997, 2001 and 2005 elections. Labour kept the seat in the 2010 elections, though their share of the vote was decreased to 44.1%. In early 2014, following the death of Paul Goggins, a by-election was held. Labour candidate Mike Kane (a former Northenden councillor until 2008) won the seat with 55.3% of the vote, though voter turnout was low (28%). The 2017 general election saw the largest vote share for Labour in the history of both the current and former Wythenshawe seat with 62.2% of the vote and a 15,000 majority, though the 2019 election saw this fall back to approximate previous levels with a majority of 10,396 and a 53.3% share of the vote.


title: Wythenshawe

text: At the time of the 2001 UK Census, Wythenshawe was divided into six local government wards: Baguley, Benchill, Northenden, Sharston, Woodhouse Park and Brooklands (the latter being an area divided with the neighbouring borough of Trafford). Each ward was represented by three local councillors, giving Wythenshawe 21 of the 99 seats on Manchester City Council. Following a review by the Boundary Committee for England published in 2003, the ward of Benchill was abolished, and its former territory was divided between the wards of Northenden, Sharston, and Woodhouse Park.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Wythenshawe typically returns all Labour councillors in local elections, although in the 2008 elections the Liberal Democrats gained a seat in Northenden and a second seat (in the same area) in the 2010 elections. Labour regained these seats in the 2012 and 2014 elections. The Green Party have gained councillors in the Woodhouse Park ward in both the 2021 and 2022 elections.


title: Wythenshawe

text: It is surrounded by some of the most affluent areas in the UK. Altrincham and Hale lie to the south-west, Sale to the north-west and the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport to the east, with the suburbs of Gatley and Heald Green bordering onto Wythenshawe's eastern side. Manchester Airport, the third largest in the UK, is immediately to the south.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Shadow Moss is an area south of Ringway Road in the southeast corner of Wythenshawe. On it is roughly the rectangular area between three country lanes with Heyhead at its northwest corner. On modern maps, its north edge is the southern branch of Ringway Road. It was partly in Northen Etchells township and partly in Styal parish. For many centuries it was a peat bog which was dug for peat fuel, locally called "turf"; local manorial law said that after digging peat the top living plant layer had to be lodged back to let more peat form afterwards. Each man's allocated part of the Moss was called his "moss room".


title: Wythenshawe

text: In the 19th century, manorial control was lost over what people used their moss rooms for, and an 1839 tithe map of Northen Etchells shows Northen Etchells's part of Shadow Moss as about 2/3 arable, about 1/3 meadow, one field as pasture, and one field as "uncultivated moors".


title: Wythenshawe

text: Later, the fertile lowland peat soil led to the area being much used for market gardening, with large areas under greenhouses. Of the people who worked there, many lived in Heyhead.


title: Wythenshawe

text: As of around 1970, Heyhead was a small settlement at the south end of Woodhouse Lane and the nearby part of Ringway Road. It comprised several terrace houses, a small shop, two or more old cottages, a chapel, and the Ringway Haulage Company. Manchester Airport's ground level car parking has been displaced from other areas and car parks have been formed to the north and south of the runways and under the approach path. The Heyhead area has been progressively replaced by level car parks, and by 2011 all of Heyhead's buildings had vanished (see History of Manchester Airport#Expansion).


title: Wythenshawe

text: Some greenhouses remain at the far east of the Shadow Moss area as of June 2012, but are used by private car parking operators (not associated with the airport company) and not for growing any crop. The last market gardener there, who grew tomatoes, closed his business in 2011 due to competition from highly mechanized enormous greenhouse establishments elsewhere.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Wythenshawe is policed by the city of Manchester Division of Greater Manchester Police. Wythenshawe's fire and rescue services are the responsibility of the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, and are based at a fire station on Brownley Road.


title: Wythenshawe

text: The M56 motorway, constructed in the 1970s as a continuation of the A5103 road (Princess Parkway), bisects east and west Wythenshawe. A bypass connecting it to the nearby M60 motorway was built through Sharston and opened in 1974.


title: Wythenshawe

text: The nearest railway station to Wythenshawe was located adjacent to Longley Lane at the edge of Sharston on the Cheshire Lines Railway from Stockport to Liverpool. Named "Northenden for Wythenshawe", Northenden railway station was closed on 30 November 1964. Wythenshawe did not then have a public railway service for several decades, with the nearest stations being located in the neighbouring areas of Gatley, Heald Green and Altrincham. A station at Manchester Airport was opened in 1993.


title: Wythenshawe

text: The Airport Line branch of the Manchester Metrolink tram service includes twelve stops throughout Wythenshawe. The line opened on 3 November 2014, a year ahead of schedule. In addition to the building of the new Metrolink lines and stations, a new public transport hub was built in Wythenshawe Town Centre which opened in June 2015 and includes a new bus station and tram stop.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Approximately 43,000 people work in Wythenshawe. There are four areas of industrial activity (estates)—Moss Nook, Ringway (Airport Cargo Centre), Roundthorn and Sharston. It is home to Manchester Airport and Wythenshawe Hospital (part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust), which are two of the largest employers in the area. Many national and international companies have premises or main offices in Wythenshawe, including Timpson Ltd, HellermannTyton, Virgin Media, Vodafone and F. Duerr & Sons.


title: Wythenshawe

text: In 1934, George Hamer Scholes built the Wylex Works to produce electrical accessories. The company was later acquired by Electrium, which is now under Siemens' ownership.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Several greenfield and greyfield sites have been opened up to developers and there are several new housing developments within the area.


title: Wythenshawe

text: The town centre, known as the Civic Centre, was originally built in the 1960s. It expanded over the years and was renovated between 1999 and 2002 to include new stores and other new features, when the city council relinquished ownership and transferred it to St. Modwen Properties. The main shopping area now includes gates that are locked at night to prevent the vandalism that was seen in previous years. The Forum centre, which opened in 1971, houses a library, leisure centre, swimming pool, cafe and other amenities, has also been renovated in a more modern style. For thirty years it also housed the Forum Theatre, but this closed in 2002 and a health clinic and an adult education facility now occupy its space.


title: Wythenshawe

text: In 2007, Asda opened a new superstore on the site of the old Co-operative store (originally built by Woolco in the mid-1970s, which also features a multi-storey car park). A walkway going between the multi-storey car park and the large supermarket building now features a wall mosaic depicting various aspects of the town. After the demolition of two 1960s blocks of multi-storey flats in 2007, new buildings were constructed on the site including a new Wilko shop, office premises and a local authority services hub that provides a new frontage for the town centre from its north-facing aspect.


title: Wythenshawe

text: In June 2022, Manchester City Council announced the purchase of Wythenshawe town centre from St. Modwen Properties as part of wider plans to transform the town centre.


title: Wythenshawe

text: Wythenshawe is the outdoor filming location for the Channel 4 series "Shameless", which shows various shots of the local tower-blocks, housing estates and other architecture unique to this area. Wythenshawe also housed the outdoor sets for the show, which were built on private property. Production moved from West Gorton (in East Manchester) in early 2007, following disruption to filming caused by local youths.


title: Wythenshawe

text: In 2009, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York (former wife of Prince Andrew) went to Wythenshawe to make a television documentary for ITV1 entitled "The Duchess on the Estate". In it, she visited the Northern Moor area of Wythenshawe to meet locals and discuss their way of life, and to open a new local community centre. Both before and after its transmission, the documentary was criticised for being a self-serving publicity stunt by Ferguson and she was also criticised for her patronising attitude towards the local people.


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: Best of the Best is a 1989 American martial arts film directed by Bob Radler, and produced by Phillip Rhee, who also co-wrote the story and co-stars in the film. The film also starred Eric Roberts, James Earl Jones, Sally Kirkland, Simon Rhee and Chris Penn.


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: The plot revolves around a team of American martial artists facing a team of South Korean martial artists in a martial arts tournament. Several subplots pop up in the story — moral conflicts, the power of the human spirit triumphing over adversity and the meaning of life are some themes.


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: Set and filmed in Los Angeles, California, and Seoul, South Korea, between February 13 and April 6, 1989, "Best of the Best" was released on November 10, 1989.


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: The film has spawned three sequels: "Best of the Best 2" (1993), "" (1995), and "" (1998). Phillip Rhee portrays Tommy Lee in all four films, produced all of them, directed the third and fourth films, and co-wrote the first and fourth films.


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: Alexander Grady, a widower and father from Portland, Oregon is chosen to represent the United States of America in an international martial arts tournament against Team Korea. Once a rising star in the martial arts world, he suffered a shoulder injury that forced him into retirement. Also chosen for the team are Tommy Lee, a highly skilled martial arts instructor from Fresno, California; Travis Brickley, an extremely brash fighter with a short fuse from Miami, Florida; Virgil Keller, a devout Buddhist from Providence, Rhode Island; and Sonny Grasso, a streetwise fighter from Detroit, Michigan. Despite being coached by veteran trainer Frank Couzo, their chances of winning are virtually non-existent, as the Koreans train all year long, enjoy full financial support from their nation, and have—on at least one occasion—killed a competitor in the ring. To win, they will need to be the best technically, physically, and mentally.


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: As training begins, the team struggles to bond as Travis antagonizes them. Given the pressure, the American team hires a second assistant coach, Catherine Wade, whose spiritual approach to training clashes with Couzo's more rigorous coaching techniques. Tommy is disturbed when his opponent is revealed to be Dae Han Park, Team Korea's best fighter and veteran martial artist who was responsible for killing Tommy's brother David Lee in a similar tournament. Couzo hopes that Tommy's desire for revenge will give him the necessary aggression to win, while Wade is more concerned about Tommy's mental state. With time and training, the team begins to bond and to earn each other's respect.


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: Couzo cuts Alex from the team when he breaks the rigid training regimen to visit his son, who had been hit by a car; later, Tommy quits after knocking out Virgil with a powerful spinning side kick during practice. Conflicted by his desire for revenge, Tommy confesses to Alex his fear of fighting Dae Han, but Alex strongly urges him to do the right thing and face his brother's killer. Travis and the others persuade Couzo to reinstate Alex, and Tommy eventually rejoins the team after a change of heart.


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: In the first two matches of the tournament, Sonny and Virgil are out-classed by their Korean opponents Yung Kim and Han Cho. Travis does his best to psyche up the team with his brash attitude, going point for point with his Korean counterpart Tung Sung Moon, but gets beaten in a tie-breaker brick-breaking competition. Alex dominates his match with his opponent, Sae Jin Kwon, but takes a devastating axe-kick to his shoulder which dislocates it. Instead of giving up, he implores Tommy to "pop" the shoulder back into place and resumes the fight, ultimately defeating his opponent with one arm and winning the match. Finally, Tommy faces Dae Han. After a slow start, Tommy gets the upper hand and delivers a series of blows that forces Dae Han solely on the defensive. As the match nears its end, Tommy has brought the American team within two points of outright victory, and Dae Han can barely stand. Tommy prepares to finish the fight, but knowing that Dae Han would not survive the attack, his coaches and teammates dissuade him. Tommy hesitates and lets the clock run out, saving the man's life but forfeiting the overall victory. Couzo consoles Tommy afterwards, telling him, "You won that match. Don't ever forget that".


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: At the medal ceremony, Dae Han unexpectedly approaches Tommy and praises him for his honorable act. He tearfully apologizes for the death of Tommy's brother, and in return offers himself as a brother. Tommy accepts, and Dae Han places his medal around Tommy's neck before the two men embrace. Sae Jin Kwon then walks up to Alex and states his long-time admiration for him as a fighter, before also handing over his medal. The other members of Team Korea then follow suit, awarding their medals to their respective American opponents.


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: Professional critics were universally negative about the film, although it inspired several sequels and has gained a following over the years. On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 26 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". In his book "Iceman: My Fighting Life", UFC champion Chuck Liddell cites "Best of the Best" as his personal favorite martial arts film. Movie historian Leonard Maltin, on the other hand, dismissed the picture as "Yet another "Rocky" clone" and "An appalling waste of talent...a top-drawer cast in search of a script."


title: Best of the Best (1989 film)

text: Rhee revealed in an interview with The Action Elite that he's planning on rebooting the franchise with a new cast and Rhee will produce the new film.


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: Listowel is an unincorporated community in Ontario, Canada, located in the Municipality of North Perth. Incorporated as the Town of Listowel in 1875, it was dissolved in 1998 following amalgamation with several other communities in the northern section of Perth County. Its population was 9,539 at the Canada 2021 Census in a land area of 6.73 square kilometres; at the time there were 3,910 occupied dwellings.


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: In 1871 the Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway extended its line to Listowel. It was joined in 1873 by a second railway, the Stratford and Huron Railway, and Listowel soon became an important shipping point. The arrival of the railway hastened development and Listowel became a Town with a population of 2,054 in 1875 in what is now North Perth in Perth County, Ontario.


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: Electricity came to Listowel in 1897, and in 1900 the Listowel Furniture Company opened. By 1902 the population had increased to 2,661, and a woolen mill, a planing mill, a flour mill, a brewery and a dairy products exporting company were operating in the town.


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: On February 28, 1959, the roof of the Listowel Memorial Arena collapsed under heavy snow, burying a boys' hockey team playing a scrimmage game. Seven players, along with a referee and recreation director, were killed in the collapse in what was described by the "Waterloo Region Record" as "Listowel's darkest day". The arena was rebuilt and closed in 2017 following the construction of the Steve Kerr Memorial Complex. The arena was demolished on February 2, 2021.


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: On March 17, 2011, the local dollar store caught fire and its roof collapsed, killing volunteer firefighters Ray Walter (30) and Ken Rea (56). Listowel mourned the loss, closing major streets and posting black ribbons all over town in honour of the fallen firefighters. Paddyfest festivities continued to honour Kinsman Ray Walter, but in a somber fashion.


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: Between the 2016 and 2021 Censuses, Listowel's population grew by 26.7 percent, helping drive North Perth's population growth to 18.3 percent.


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: Public education in Listowel is administered by the Avon Maitland District School Board, who manage Listowel District Secondary School and elementary schools Listowel Eastdale Public School and North Perth Westfield Elementary School. North Perth Westfield Elementary School, an amalgamation of Wallace Public School and Listowel Central School, accepted its first cohort of students in September 2016.


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: The Bookery (now the Salvation Army Thrift Store) is located across from Veky's International Cuisine Restaurant. This Celtic-inspired book store stocks about 25,000 books and traditional Celtic, Irish and Scottish jewellery in silver. In addition, they provide gallery space for local artists to display their work. Listowel has also raised musicians from many genres, such as Thirteen O'Clock, and Brian Vollmer (lead singer of Helix).


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: The official spokesperson for Paddyfest is chosen yearly in the Paddyfest Ambassador Competition. Contestants must perform a speech, impromptu question and interview with the judges and receive the overall highest score to be awarded this position. A separate award of Talent is given out to the contestant with the highest score in the talent competition. Runner-up and Congeniality are also awards which are available. The Paddyfest Ambassador Competition changed its name and official status from being Miss Paddyfest when first created.


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: Listowel has a Jr. "B" hockey team from the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (Mid-West Conference). They are called the Listowel Cyclones. The town also hosts a baseball team, the Listowel Jr. Legionnaires. Part II Bistro Ladies Classic, a curling bonspiel takes place in Listowel Curling Club.


title: Listowel, Ontario

text: The Campbell Soup Company was a major local employer for 48 years, operating a frozen, foodservice and specialty food plant in Listowel. This relationship ended abruptly with the announcement of the factory's pending closure on April 28, 2008. In 2010 the former Campbell Soup plant was purchased by Erie Meat Products and expected to ship 50-60 million pounds of poultry to world markets on an annual basis.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: Mian Mikaal Patras Zulfiqar (born 5 September 1981), commonly known as Mikaal Zulfiqar (), is a British-Pakistani actor and former model. He has appeared in a number of Pakistani television series. He has also acted in a few Indian films and is currently active in Pakistani films. He is one of the highest paid Pakistani actors. In 2015, he won the Best Actor (Popular) Award at Hum TV Awards due to his performance in television series "Mohabat Subh Ka Sitara Hai."


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: Born in London, he moved to Pakistan and initially began his career as a model in early 2000s, and caught attention of the team of Abrar-ul-Haq who cast him in the singer's music video for "Sanu Tere Naal Pyar Ho Gya". He made his film debut in 2007 with Bollywood crime thriller film "Godfather", followed by starring roles in "Shoot on Sight" (2008), "U R My Jaan" (2011) and "Baby" (2015). He also began his film career in Pakistan with a supporting character in critically acclaimed film "Cake" (2018). Zulfiqar has since played leading roles in "Na Band Na Baraati" (2018) and "Sherdil" (2019).


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: He entered the Pakistani television industry with drama series "Saiqa" (2009)"." The hit series "Pani Jaisa Piyar" (2011) stabilize his position in television medium, and he went on to appear in a number of big-budget dramas, with most notable of them include "Shehr-e-Zaat" (2012), "Saat Pardon Mein" (2012), "Mirat-ul-Uroos" (2012–2013), "Mohabat Subh Ka Sitara Hai" (2013–2014), "Diyar-e-Dil" (2015), "Sang-e-Mar Mar" (2016–2017) and "Alif Allah Aur Insaan" (2017–2018).


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: Zulfiqar was born on 5 September 1981 in London, United Kingdom and has six siblings. After spending his early years in London, he moved to Pakistan and attended the Lahore Lyceum school in Lahore. Additionally, he also began his career as a model and started modelling for commercials and videos which were relevant to acting.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: After several advertising campaigns, Zulfiqar appeared in "Sanu Tere Naal Pyar Ho Gya", a song from Bay Ja Cycle Tay music album by Abrar-ul-Haq.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: Zulfiqar is known for his appearance in comedy commercials for Ufone. He has also performed in Bollywood films; crime thriller film "Godfather" in 2007, the drama film "Shoot on Sight" in 2008, the musical-romantic "U R My Jaan" in 2011, and the spy thriller "Baby" in 2015. However, in an interview, he stated that he didn't dream of working in Bollywood further.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: After having a successful career in modelling, Zulfiqar stepped into the television industry. Some of his early screenwork includes "Saiqa", "Kaisay Kahoon", "Pani Jaisa Piyar", and "Jal Pari", among others.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: He won Best Actor title in Hum TV Awards held in Dubai in April, 2015, for his role in the drama serial "Mohabat Subh Ka Sitara Hai." He also acted in popular show "Shehr-e-Zaat" opposite Mahira Khan.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: He has performed in many dramas opposite actress Saba Qamar as protagonist, including "Pani Jaisa Piyar", "Sangat", and "Mein Sitara."


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: In 2015, he played the role of Behroz Bakhtiyar Khan in romantic drama "Diyar-e-Dil." "Dawn" praised Zulfiqar's performance and wrote, <nowiki>"</nowiki>Meekal has finally chosen a role with depth as Behroz after a series of pot boilers. He looks amazing and reminds viewers again that he is the talented actor who could play the devil-may-care Shamraiz from "Kuch Pyar ka Pagalpan" or the self-absorbed, brooding Salman Ansar from "Sheher-e-Zaat".<nowiki>"</nowiki> "Diyar-e-Dil" was also well received by viewers.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: In 2017, he was highly appreciated for his performance in spiritual television series "Alif Allah Aur Insaan." The series became one of the most-watched shows of 2017.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: In March 2018, he made a special appearance in film "Cake", co-starring Aamina Sheikh, Adnan Malik and Sanam Saeed. The film was highly lauded by critics. His next film "Na Band Na Baraati" was released in June 2018. He said in an interview that doing that film was his way to support foreign investment in local cinema.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: In 2019, he was seen in Pakistani war film "Sherdil" opposite Armeena Khan. The film and Zulfiqar's performance received mostly unfavourable reviews from critics. Nevertheless, the film became Zulfiqar's first major box-office success, and grossed Rs. 5.17 crore in the first five days of its release.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: Mikaal's full birth name is Mian Muhammad Mikaal Patras Aziz Zulfiqar. His father is a retired Pakistani diplomat and his mother is British. His parents separated when Zulfiqar was 17 years old. He has two older sisters, one of whom lives in Australia and a younger brother, Jamal Andreas Zulfiqar, who is a prominent theatre actor in London.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: Zulfiqar got engaged to model Sara Bhatti in 2010. They got married in 2012 and have two daughters. In March 2017, Zulfiqar announced on his Facebook page that he and Bhatti had officially divorced.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: Mikaal is listed among the ″top 10 most beautiful men of Pakistan″. In 2017, he was one of the highest-paid television actors in the country.


title: Mikaal Zulfiqar

text: In 2017, he was one of the most in-demand actors of Pakistani films and was offered a number of films. He signed five films that year.


title: Plantago

text: Plantago is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a few are subshrubs growing to tall.


title: Plantago

text: The leaves are sessile or have a poorly defined petiole. They have three or five parallel veins that diverge in the wider part of the leaf. Leaves are broad or narrow, depending on the species. The inflorescences are borne on stalks typically tall, and can be a short cone or a long spike, with numerous tiny wind-pollinated flowers.


title: Plantago

text: The boundaries of the genus "Plantago" have been fairly stable, with the main question being whether to include "Bougueria" (one species from the Andes) and "Littorella" (2–3 species of aquatic plants).


title: Plantago

text: The genus name "Plantago" descends from the classical Latin name , which in classical Latin meant some "Plantago" species, including "Plantago major" and "Plantago media". In Latin the name was formed from the classical Latin word = "sole of the foot". The name was so formed in Latin because the leaves of these species grow out near flat at ground level. The suffix in Latin means "a sort of".


title: Plantago

text: The species are found all over the world, including the Americas, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Europe. Many species in the genus are cosmopolitan weeds. They are found in many different habitats, most commonly in wet areas like seepages or bogs. They can also be found in alpine and semi-alpine or coastal areas. The cosmopolitan weeds can be frequently seen at the side of roads.


title: Plantago

text: Plantain has been consumed as human food since prehistory. For example, archaeological recovery along California's Central Coast has demonstrated use of this species as a food since the Millingstone Horizon. The broad-leaved varieties are sometimes used as a leaf vegetable for salads, green sauce, and so on. Tender young plantain leaves can be eaten raw and older leaves can be cooked. The seeds can be cooked like rice.


title: Plantago

text: "Plantago" species have been used since prehistoric times as herbal remedies. The herb is astringent, anti-toxic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine, as well as demulcent, expectorant, styptic and diuretic. Externally, a poultice of the leaves is useful for insect bites, poison-ivy rashes, minor sores, and boils. In folklore it is even claimed to be able to cure snakebite and was used by the Dakota Indian tribe of North America for this. Internally, it is used for coughs and bronchitis, as a tea, tincture, or syrup. Tea made from the leaves may help cure diarrhea.


title: Plantago

text: Plantain seed husks expand and become mucilaginous when wet, especially those of "P. psyllium", which is used in common over-the-counter bulk laxative and fiber supplement products such as Metamucil. "P. psyllium" seed is useful for constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, dietary fiber supplementation, and diverticular disease. Mucilage from desert indianwheat ("P. ovata") is obtained by grinding off the husk. This mucilage, also known as psyllium, is commonly sold as Isabgol, a laxative which is used to control irregular bowel syndrome and constipation. It has been used as an indigenous Ayurvedic and Unani medicine for a whole range of bowel problems. Psyllium supplements are typically used in powder form, along with adequate amounts of fluids. A dose of at least 7 grams daily taken with adequate amounts of fluid (water, juice) is used by some for management of elevated cholesterol. There are a number of psyllium products used for constipation. The usual dose is about 3.5 grams twice a day. Psyllium is also a component of several ready-to-eat cereals.


title: Plantago

text: In Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Russia, leaves from "Plantago major" are used as a folk remedy to preventing infection on cuts and scratches because of its antiseptic properties. In Slovenia and other Central European regions, the leaves were traditionally used topically as a cure for blisters resulting from friction (such as caused by tight shoes etc.).


title: Plantago

text: There may also be a use for plantains in the abatement of enteric methane from ruminants, as the natural compounds present (e.g. condensed tannins; ~14 g/kg DM), affect the acetate-propionate ratio in the rumen, which is a primary mechanism by which methanogenesis is restricted. Currently this is not a viable option in any significant scale due to agronomic difficulties.


title: Plantago

text: As Old English "Wegbrade" the plantago is one of the nine plants invoked in the pagan Anglo-Saxon "Nine Herbs Charm", recorded in the 10th century.


title: FaceApp

text: FaceApp is a photo and video editing application for iOS and Android developed by FaceApp Technology Limited, a company based in Cyprus. The app generates highly realistic transformations of human faces in photographs by using neural networks based on artificial intelligence. The app can transform a face to make it smile, look younger, look older, or change gender.


title: FaceApp

text: FaceApp was launched on iOS in January 2017 and on Android in February 2017. There are multiple options to manipulate the photo uploaded such as editor options of adding an impression, make-up, smiles, hair colors, hairstyles, glasses, age or beards. Filters, lens blur and backgrounds along with overlays, tattoos, and vignettes are also a part of the app. The gender change transformations of FaceApp have attracted particular interest from the LGBT and transgender communities, due to their ability to realistically simulate the appearance of a person as the opposite gender.


title: FaceApp

text: In 2019, FaceApp attracted criticism in both the press and on social media over the privacy of user data. Among the concerns raised were allegations that FaceApp stored users' photos on their servers, and that their terms of use allowed them to use users' likenesses and photos for commercial purposes. In response to questions, the company's founder, Yaroslav Goncharov, stated that user data and uploaded images were not being transferred to Russia but instead processed on servers running in the Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services. According to Goncharov, user photos were only stored on servers to save bandwidth when applying multiple filters, and were deleted shortly after being uploaded. US senator Chuck Schumer expressed "serious concerns regarding both the protection of the data that is being aggregated as well as whether users are aware of who may have access to it" and called for an FBI investigation into the app. The specific section of the apps terms of service that drew concern were as follows:


title: FaceApp

text: A "hot" transformation was available in the app in 2017 supposedly making its users appear more physically attractive, but this was accused of racism for lightening the skin color of black people and making them look more European. The feature was briefly renamed "spark" before being removed. Founder and chief executive Yaroslav Goncharov apologised, describing the situation as "an unfortunate side-effect of the underlying neural network caused by the training set bias, not intended behaviour" and announcing that a "complete fix" was being worked on. In August that year, FaceApp once again faced criticism when it featured "ethnicity filters" depicting "White", "Black", "Asian", and "Indian". The filters were immediately removed from the app.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: Operation Ocean Shield was NATO's contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA), an anti-piracy initiative in the Indian Ocean, Guardafui Channel, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea. It follows the earlier Operation Allied Protector. Naval operations began on 17 August 2009 after being approved by the North Atlantic Council, the program was terminated on 15 December 2016 by NATO. Operation Ocean Shield focused on protecting the ships of Operation Allied Provider, which transported relief supplies as part of the World Food Programme's mission in the region. The initiative also helped strengthen the navies and coast guards of regional states to assist in countering pirate attacks. Additionally, China, Japan and South Korea sent warships to participate in these activities.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: The US Navy was the largest contributor of ships, followed by the Indian Navy. The taskforce was composed of ships from the contributing navies, led by a designated leadship. The role of leadship was rotated among the various countries involved. In October 2015 this was the Turkish frigate TCG "Gediz".


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: Pirate attacks off the vast coastline of Somalia declined from 236 in 2011 to two reportedly unsuccessful attacks in 2014, thanks to international counter-piracy cooperation efforts as well as armed guards now stationed on most large ships that traverse the region's waters. NATO has indicated that while it will be ending its mission in the Indian Ocean, the organization "will remain engaged in the fight against piracy by maintaining maritime situational awareness and continuing close links with other international organisation's counter-piracy actors." NATO has been supporting international efforts to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean, as well as in the Gulf of Aden and off the Horn of Africa since 2008, at the request of the United Nations. It had been working alongside other missions including the European's Union's Operation Atalanta, the US-led Combined Task Force 151 and other individual countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea."


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: NATO's success in the area was due in part to the co-operation of other foreign states with interests in the region. A lot of these informal connections took place at SHADE (Shared Awareness and Deconfliction) meetings. These meetings allowed for shared tactics among a large number of international entities, including China, Japan, Russia, India and South Korea but is definitely not limited to them. With NATO promoting co-operation amongst these foreign entities, Operation Ocean Shield could effectively protect the area. They also utilized EUNAVFOR’s innovative electronic network called Mercury which shared anti-piracy tactics with other task forces and operations. Since this was an informal system, it wasn't weighed down with bureaucracy and could be spread amongst other coalitions and governmental organisations and could effectively help anyone that needed precise information in the area.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: On 10 January 2010, Admiral Pereira da Cunha, of the Portuguese Navy held a meeting regarding piracy with the Puntland coast guard. It was held aboard the frigate near Bosaso, Somalia and focused on human intelligence gathering, capacity building and counter piracy co-operation between NATO and Puntland authorities.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: Pirates attacked the Panamanian flagged merchantman MV "Almezaan" on 25 March. One pirate was killed by "Almezaan"s crew during the boarding, and shortly afterwards the Spanish Navy frigate arrived and launched a helicopter. Warning shots were then fired and the pirates surrendered without further conflict. Six pirates were taken prisoner for a short time before being released in two skiffs; the mother ship was sunk by gunfire.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: The small Seychelles Coast Guard patrol boat "Topaz" engaged in another battle with pirates five days later on 30 March. While patrolling just off the coast of Somalia, "Topaz" encountered a captured dhow. After warning shots were fired, the dhow seemed to ignore the patrol boat and its occupants eventually opened up with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. The Seychellois then engaged and after shooting off 10,000 rounds of machine gun fire, the dhow was burning and eventually sank. Twenty-seven members of the dhow's crew were rescued and the "Topaz" was returning to base when she was attacked by a trawler and two skiffs. Again the Seychellois responded with counter battery and the trawler exploded. One of the skiffs was sunk as well. Pirate casualties are unknown and one member of the dhow's crew was wounded.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: The frigate was attacked by small arms from a pirate skiff while steaming off the coast of Kenya and the islands of Seychelles. "Nicholas" returned fire with a 50-caliber deck gun and disabled the vessel and three pirates surrendered. Commander Mark Kesselring ordered the skiff sunk and proceeded to attack the nearby pirate mother ship from which the skiff was operating. After a chase the mothership was captured and two more pirates were taken into United States Navy custody. The pirate mothership was likely a small steam powered vessel fitted out as a naval trawler which are regularly used by Somali pirates. The ship was confiscated by the Americans according to news reports and pirates were put in "Nicholas" brig, to await court either in Kenya or the United States.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: That same day, the destroyer , as flagship of Combined Task Force 151, was involved in a pirate attack on a Sierra Leone-flagged tanker, MV "Evita". The incident also occurred in waters north-west of the Seychelles. "Evita" was fired on by three skiffs but was able to escape and increase speed and due to her crew who shot flares at the rifle and rocket-propelled grenade-armed pirates. The attack was reported to the nearby USS "Farragut" which arrived in the battle area and began operations. The vessels were boarded by American personnel and a SH-60B Seahawk covered the mission from the air. The pirate mother skiff was sunk later on by gunfire or explosives and after the pirates were stripped of their means to commit piracy, they were loaded onto the other two skiffs and freed. Eleven pirates were captured in total. Several fuel drums and grappling hooks were found aboard the boats. The pirate weapons, ammunition and other equipment such as ladders were seen thrown overboard by the Americans before the pirates were captured. Nobody is believed to have been injured during the engagements.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: The captured pirates from the first incident were detained by the United States Navy until it was determined that they would be transferred to the United States to stand trial for piracy. After capture, the pirates were identified as Mohammed Modin Hasan, Gabul Abdullahi Ali, Abdi Wali Dire, Abdi Mohammed Gurewardher, and Abdi Mohammed Umar. The five pirates, were put in the custody of the United States Marshal Service and charged with a variety of piracy and weapons related charges. The pirates were charged and tried in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk, Virginia where they were convicted and sentenced to serve in prison for life.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden was launched by Republic of Korea Navy Special Warfare Brigade commandos with support from Oman and the United States in January 2011. Following the capture of the Norwegian owned chemical tanker MV "Samho Jewelry" on 15 January off Muscat with its crew of twenty-one, a failed boarding action was carried out on 18 January which resulted in the wounding of three commandos. A second attempt on 21 January succeeded in freeing the ship and the captives while eight pirates were killed altogether.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: A failed rescue operation was carried out by the Danish frigate and a Seychellois Coast Guard patrol boat on 26 January. MV "Beluga Nomination" was taken over four days before, and the attackers cut into the freighter's citadel with a blow torch to get at the crew. The Seychelles patrol boat and "Esbern Snare" were dispatched and when they found the pirates, an engagement began. Boarding teams from the patrol boat were repulsed but the Seychellois were able to kill one or two of the pirates. Two of "Beluga Nomination"s crew managed to escape in a lifeboat and were rescued by the Danish though four others were killed either by drowning or the pirates. Ultimately the operation was aborted and the pirates sailed away with the tanker and seven remaining hostages.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: The "Quest" incident occurred in February 2011. In the first attack on an American private ship since the "Maersk Alabama" hijacking in 2009, the yacht SV "Quest" was taken over by nineteen pirates on 4 February. The United States Navy responded by dispatching the aircraft carrier , the guided missile cruiser and the guided missile destroyers and to release the four captives. The ships found "Quest" on or about 21 February off the coast of Oman and negotiations to free the hostages began. However, on the following day, the pirates opened fire on USS "Sterret" with rocket-propelled grenades and shortly thereafter small arms fire was heard. The American commander then ordered a team to board the yacht and after doing so, all four of the prisoners were found to have been killed by the pirates. Fifteen pirates were taken into custody and two of them were killed in the boarding action. The bodies of two other pirates were also found, but American officials have no explanation for the cause of their deaths.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: On 5 May 2011, as part of Operation Ocean Shield, the aircraft carrier , the guided-missile cruiser , and the Turkish frigate TCG "Giresun" responded to a distress call from the Panamanian-flagged, Chinese-owned bulk carrier MV "Full City". An Indian Navy Tu-142 maritime patrol aircraft located "Full City", and while TCG "Giresun" boarded the merchant vessel, USS "Bunker Hill" and its embarked helicopters intercepted a dhow believed to be the mother ship for the pirate attack. "Bunker Hill"s VBSS boarding party seized weapons and other equipment commonly used in piracy, and the boarding party also sank a small skiff being towed by the dhow. "Giresun"s boarding party found "Full City"s Chinese crew safe and in control of their ship.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: NATO's vehicles have a specific mandate to provide protection and deterrence of piracy in its territorial waters. All members of NATO help make the operation a success via funding or through ships. NATO Allies provide ships and maritime patrol aircraft to NATO Standing Maritime Groups, which in turn assigns a number of ships, on a rotational basis, to Ocean Shield. "In January 2013, there were no attacks, approaches or disruptions in the area. In comparison, in January 2012, there were four pirate attacks in which all were unsuccessful. Additionally, out of 80 suspected pirates captured by counter piracy forces, 59 were captured by NATO ships. In January 2011, there were 29 attacks and six ships were captured." Arguably the operation has succeeded in decreasing piracy in the region while the task force was in power.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: The conclusion of Operation Ocean Shield occurred on 16 December 2016. The final operation was led by Danish pilots in an attempt to map the Somali coastline and the gulf of Aden. The Danes' task was to map the inlets, camps and large cities of the coast for an intelligence report. "The detachment covered 1.800 km of coastline in which intelligence specialists reviewed and disseminated photographs and video files to produce the intelligence picture."


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: NATO is reallocating resources to the Mediterranean to deal with the immigrant crisis and human smuggling but believes that the efforts put into the gulf of Aden will help stem the tide of returning piracy or prevent it altogether. As with the change in the political environment and world new problems have arisen where NATO has had to allocate resources. Therefore, it justifies the funding of the Mediterranean operation.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: Through the use of the NATO shipping centre and the private sector, the Ocean Shield task force could effectively reduce the response time of counterattacks and spent less time having to warn businesses about potential threats in their shipping lanes. Through this coordination, the impact to the shipping industry was lessened; for instance, ships were not required to take indirect routes through other less safe international waters.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: Piracy attacks have occurred since Operation Ocean Shield has ended. Gunmen hijacked the "Aris 13", a small oil tanker, on 13 March 2017 and have demanded a ransom for the crew. Industrial shipping companies are trying to determine if there has been a resurgence in piracy activity in the region, or if it will be a rare occurrence, as this was the first case of Somali piracy in half a decade. More attempts to steal cargo via piracy occurred in 2017.


title: Operation Ocean Shield

text: In addition to the frigate , Norway has previously had a Lockheed P-3 Orion involved in the operation.


title: Pilosa

text: The order Pilosa is a clade of xenarthran placental mammals, native to the Americas. It includes the anteaters and sloths (which includes the extinct ground sloths). The name comes from the Latin word for "hairy".


title: Pilosa

text: The biogeographic origins of the Pilosa are still unclear, but they can be traced back in South America as far as the early Paleogene (about 60 million years ago, only a short time after the end of the Mesozoic Era). The presence of these animals in Central America and their former presence in North America is a result of the Great American Interchange. A number of sloths were also formerly present on the Antilles, which they reached from South America by some combination of rafting or floating with the prevailing currents.


title: Pilosa

text: Together with the armadillos, which are in the order Cingulata, pilosans are part of the larger superorder Xenarthra, a defining characteristic of which is the presence of xenarthrals (extra formations between lumbar vertebrae). In the past, Pilosa was regarded as a suborder of the order Xenarthra, while some more recent classifications regard Pilosa as an order within the superorder Xenarthra. Earlier still, both armadillos and pilosans were classified together with pangolins and the aardvark as the order Edentata (meaning toothless, because the members do not have front incisor teeth or molars, or have poorly developed molars). Edentata was subsequently realized to be polyphyletic; it contained unrelated families and was thus invalid.


title: Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport

text: Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport is an international airport serving Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located at Babatpur, northwest of Varanasi. Formerly known as Varanasi Airport, it was officially renamed after Lal Bahadur Shastri, the 2nd Prime Minister of India, in October 2005. It is the 20th-busiest airport in India in terms of passenger movement, and the second-busiest airport in Uttar Pradesh. The airport is awarded as the best airport in Asia-Pacific in 2020 (2 to 5 million passengers per annum) by Airports Council International.


title: Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport

text: An integrated terminal serves both domestic and international flights, with a floor area of . The terminal features 16 check-in counters with CUTE (common-user terminal equipment), four immigration counters that double up as emigration counters, and two baggage-claim belts. Besides an upper-level seating area for the aero-bridge gates, the terminal features a ground-level gate to reach other aircraft on the apron on foot, or via shuttle bus. The apron can simultaneously park five narrow-body aircraft. The waiting area features essential services for the passengers, besides snack stalls, a travellers' convenience store, a bookstore with a newsstand, and stores selling merchandise indigenous to Varanasi, such as Banarasi Saris; and a VIP waiting lounge.


title: Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport

text: The airport features a single asphalt runway bearing 09/27. It is 9,006 feet (2,745 m) in length, with turnarounds on both ends, and two exits to the main apron. A third, seldom-used exit leads to an isolated apron for use in emergency.


title: Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport

text: Due to increasing passenger traffic and aircraft movements the Airports Authority of India is planning to extend the runway to from the existing . An underpass will be constructed as the expansion will intersect with National Highway 31.


title: Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport

text: In November 2019, the Airports Authority of India came up with a proposal for a new second terminal, which will be completed by 2024. The total area of the terminal will be 58,691 m² with passenger capacity of 4.5 million per year.


title: Thebaine

text: Thebaine (paramorphine), also known as codeine methyl enol ether, is an opiate alkaloid, its name coming from the Greek Θῆβαι, "Thēbai" (Thebes), an ancient city in Upper Egypt. A minor constituent of opium, thebaine is chemically similar to both morphine and codeine, but has stimulatory rather than depressant effects. At high doses, it causes convulsions similar to strychnine poisoning. The synthetic enantiomer (+)-thebaine does show analgesic effects apparently mediated through opioid receptors, unlike the inactive natural enantiomer (−)-thebaine. While thebaine is not used therapeutically, it is the main alkaloid extracted from "Papaver bracteatum" (Iranian opium / Persian poppy) and can be converted industrially into a variety of compounds, including hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxycodone, oxymorphone, nalbuphine, naloxone, naltrexone, buprenorphine, butorphanol and etorphine.


title: Thebaine

text: Thebaine is controlled under international law, is listed as a Class A drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 in the United Kingdom, is controlled as an analog of a Schedule II drug per the Analog Act in the United States, and is controlled with its derivatives and salts, as a Schedule I substance of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in Canada. The 2013 US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) aggregate manufacturing quota for thebaine (ACSCN 9333) was unchanged from the previous year at 145 metric tons.


title: Thebaine

text: In 2012 there was an amounted 146,000 kilograms of thebaine produced. In 2013, Australia was the main producer of poppy straw rich in thebaine, followed by Spain and then France. By 2017, worldwide thebaine production dropped to 2,008 kg. Together, those three countries accounted for about 99 per cent of global production of such poppy straw. The Papaver bracteatum seed capsules are the primary source of thebaine, with the stem additionally yielding a significant amount.


title: Thebaine

text: The Canberra Times of 16 November 2022 reported that four batches of Hoyts brand poppy seeds were being recalled due to unusually high levels of thebaine, and that at least twelve people in New South Wales had required medical attention after ingesting them. As of 15 November 2022, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is coordinating a national recall of a number of poppy seed products due to the potential presence of thebaine.


title: Political violence

text: Political violence is violence which is perpetrated in order to achieve political goals. It can include violence which is used by a state against other states (war), violence which is used by a state against civilians and non-state actors (forced disappearance, psychological warfare, police brutality, state terrorism, targeted assassinations, torture, ethnic cleansing, or genocide), and violence which is used by violent non-state actors against states and civilians (kidnappings, targeted assassinations, terrorist attacks, torture, psychological and/or guerrilla warfare). It can also describe politically-motivated violence which is used by violent non-state actors against a state (rebellion, rioting, treason, or coup d'etat) or it can describe violence which is used against other non-state actors and/or civilians. Non-action on the part of a government can also be characterized as a form of political violence, such as refusing to alleviate famine or otherwise denying resources to politically identifiable groups within their territory.


title: Political violence

text: Due to the imbalances of power which exist between state and non-state actors, political violence often takes the form of asymmetric warfare where neither side is able to directly assault the other, instead relying on tactics such as terrorism and guerrilla warfare. It can often include attacks on civilian or otherwise non-combatant targets. People may be targeted collectively based on perception of being part of a social, ethnic, religious, or political group; or selectively, targeting specific individuals for actions that are perceived as challenging someone or aiding an opponent.


title: Political violence

text: Many politically-motivated militant, insurgent, extremist, and/or fundamentalist groups and individuals are convinced that the states and political systems under which they live will never respond to their demands, and they thus believe that the only way to overthrow and/or reshape the government or state accordingly to their political and/or religious worldview is through violent means, which they regard as not only justified but also necessary in order to achieve their political and/or religious objectives. Similarly, many governments around the world believe that they need to use violence in order to intimidate their populaces into acquiescence. At other times, governments use force in order to defend their countries from outside invasions or other threats of force and coerce other governments or conquer territory.


title: Political violence

text: Political violence varies widely in form, severity, and practice. In political science, a common organizing framework is to consider the types of violence which are used by the relevant actors: violence between non-state actors, one-sided violence which is perpetrated by a state actor against civilians, and violence between states.


title: Political violence

text: Stathis Kalyvas identifies eleven types of political violence: Interstate war, Civil war, Terrorism, Political assassination, Military coup, Mass protest/Rebellion, Intercommunal violence, Organized crime/Cartels, Ethnic cleansing, Genocide, and State repression.


title: Political violence

text: Fighting between non-state actors without state security forces playing a direct role in the conflict.


title: Political violence

text: An ethnic conflict is fought between ethnic groups. While at times a specific ethnic group may have the backing (whether formal or informal) of the state (or conversely, a specific ethnic group may be targeted by the state), ethnic conflict can also take place between two groups without the direct intervention of the state, or despite the state's attempts to mediate between groups.


title: Political violence

text: Terrorism can be directed by non-state actors against political targets other than the state (e.g. Stabbing attacks at gay pride parades in Jerusalem, Charlie Hebdo shooting). Because terrorism is a tactic often used by the weaker side of a conflict, it may also fall under violence between a state and non-state actor.


title: Political violence

text: While there lacks a concrete definition of terrorism, the United States Department of Defense however defines terrorism as, "the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." What is and is not considered terrorism is itself a controversial political question, as states have often used the label of terrorism to exclusively demonize the actions of their enemies while obscuring "legal" violence administered by the state (e.g. The Troubles, communist rebellion in the Philippines, 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict).


title: Political violence

text: The use of force by an organized armed group, be it a government or a non-state group, which results in the deaths of civilians is considered one-sided. According to the Human Security Report Project, a campaign of one-sided violence is recorded whenever violence against civilians committed by one group results in at least 25 reported deaths in a calendar year.


title: Political violence

text: One form of political violence is genocide. "Genocide" is commonly defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", although what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars. Genocide is typically carried out with either the overt or covert support of the governments of those countries where genocidal activities take place. The Holocaust is the most cited historical example of genocide.


title: Political violence

text: Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain (whether physical or psychological) as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Torture is prohibited under international law and the domestic laws of most countries in the 21st century. It is considered a human rights violation and is declared unacceptable by Article 5 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Signatories of the Third Geneva Convention and Fourth Geneva Convention have officially agreed not to torture prisoners in armed conflicts. National and international legal prohibitions on torture derive from a consensus that torture and similar ill-treatment are immoral, as well as impractical. Despite international conventions, torture cases continue to arise such as the 2004 Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal committed by military police personnel of the United States Army. Organizations such as Amnesty International and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims monitor abuses of human rights and reports widespread violations of human torture by states in many regions of the world. Amnesty International estimates that at least 81 world governments currently practice torture, some of them openly.


title: Political violence

text: Capital punishment is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offense. This does not include extrajudicial killing, which is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process. The use of capital punishment by country varies, but according to Amnesty International 58 countries still actively use the death penalty, and in 2010, 23 countries carried out executions and 67 imposed death sentences. Methods of execution in 2010 included beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.


title: Political violence

text: Famine can be initiated or prolonged in order to deny resources, compel obedience, or to depopulate a region with a recalcitrant or untrusted populace.


title: Political violence

text: Police brutality is another form of political violence. It is most commonly described in juxtaposition with the term excessive force. Police brutality can be defined as "a civil rights violation that occurs when a police officer acts with excessive force by using an amount of force with regards to a civilian that is more than necessary". Police brutality and the use of excessive force are present throughout the world and in the United States alone, 4,861 incidences of police misconduct were reported during 2010. Of these, there were 6,826 victims involved and 247 fatalities.


title: Political violence

text: A riot can be described as a violent disturbance by a group of individuals formed to protest perceived wrongs and/or injustice. These can range from poverty and inequality to unemployment and government oppression. They can manifest themselves in a number of ways but most commonly in the form of property damage. Riots are characterized by their lack of predictability and the anonymity of their participants. Both make it difficult for authorities to identify those participating.


title: Political violence

text: Riots have been analyzed in a number of ways but most recently in the context of the frustration-aggression model theory, expressing that the aggression seen in most riots is a direct result of a groups frustration with a particular aspect of their lives. Widespread and prolonged rioting can lead to and/or produce rebellion or revolution. There are also a number of different types of riots including but not limited to police riots, race riot, prison riots, and sport riot.


title: Political violence

text: In political science, a revolution is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due to perceived oppression (political, social, economic) or political incompetence.


title: Political violence

text: In a revolution political violence is usually common. The use of political violence is usually to fulfill a revolutionary objective, and in times of civil strife to challenge the status quo. The goals of political violence can be varied such as to strengthen the position of a group, or to weaken an opposing side.


title: Political violence

text: A civil war, also known as an intrastate war, is a war fought within the same state or country between organized groups. Less commonly, it can also be fought between two countries that have been created from one previously unified state. Often these conflicts involve one group wishing to take control of a region or expressing dissatisfaction with the government. There is typically a desire to overthrow the existing power or at least change some of their policies. In many cases, an outside power may intervene on behalf of one side if they share their ideology or condemn the methods/motives of their opponents.


title: Political violence

text: Counter-insurgency, another form of political violence, describes a spectrum of actions taken by the recognized government of a state to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it. There are many different doctrines, theories, and tactics espoused regarding counter-insurgency that aim to protect the authority of the government and to reduce or eliminate the supplanting authority of the insurgents. Because it may be difficult or impossible to distinguish between an insurgent, a supporter of an insurgency who is a non-combatant, and entirely uninvolved members of the population, counter-insurgency operations have often rested on a confused, relativistic, or otherwise situational distinction between insurgents and non-combatants. Counter-insurgency operations are common during war, occupation and armed rebellions.


title: Political violence

text: Electoral violence includes any acts or threats of coercion, intimidation, or physical harm perpetrated to affect an electoral process or that arise in the context of electoral competition. It is used to influence the outcome of elections; to delay, disrupt or derail polls; and to protest election results or suppress protests against election results. Electoral violence is used to influence the outcome of elections because parties cannot win through fraud alone and because candidates cannot rely on fraud agents to perpetuate fraud for them because fraud is hidden and violence is not.


title: Political violence

text: War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities, and therefore is defined as a form of political violence. Three of the ten most costly wars, in terms of loss of life, have been waged in the last century: the death toll of World War II, estimated at more than 60 million, surpasses all other war death tolls by a factor of two. It is estimated that 378,000 people died due to war each year between 1985 and 1994.


title: Political violence

text: Based on battle deaths, one of the most frequently used measures of the Intensity of armed conflict, there was a decline in conflict from 1946 to 2013. Another indicator, the number of civil conflicts, has gradually declined since the Cold War ended.


title: Political violence

text: However, more recent scholarship questions the conclusion that violence is decreasing world-wide, based on the measures used and the statistical basis for such interpretations. In addition indicators show a rise in violence in the 2010s, heavily driven by conflicts involving transnational jihadist groups in the Middle East. The numbers of active conflicts in 2016 and 2019 were the highest recorded.


title: Political violence

text: Following World War II, there was a decline in worldwide battle deaths. Since 1946, battle death rates have not matched World War II levels. However, there have been oscillations, with sizable peaks in deaths corresponding the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Iran–Iraq War and Soviet–Afghan War. Longer term statistical analysis suggests that this pattern is not unusual given the variability involved in a long-term datasets of historical wars, and that conclusions of a downward trend are premature.


title: Political violence

text: The Center for Systemic Peace reports that armed conflict in the post-World War II era was at its peak when the Soviet Union collapsed.


title: Political violence

text: Following the Cold War, from the 1990s to the early 2000s, there was a decline in this measure of conflict. Between 1992 and 2005, violent conflict around the world dropped by 40 percent.


title: Political violence

text: Other datasets on political violence have shown similar trends. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), another project that collects armed conflict data, defines armed conflict as conflict that involves the government of a state which "results in at least 25 battle-related deaths in one calendar year." In their overview of data on armed conflict, UCDP also found that the number of armed conflicts in the world decreased following the end of the Cold War.


title: Political violence

text: In "The Better Angels of Our Nature" (2011), Steven Pinker argued that this decline has not occurred over the past 60 years, but has been going on for over the past millennia.


title: Political violence

text: However, more recent upward trends show that armed conflict is increasing as political violence in the Middle East and Africa increases. In the past ten years, the UCDP has found an upward trend in the number of internationalized armed conflicts, "a conflict between a government of a state and internal opposition groups with intervention from other states."


title: Political violence

text: The conventional wisdom that violent conflict has declined is being challenged. Some scholars argue that data focusing on the number of battle deaths per country per year are misleading.


title: Political violence

text: Tanisha Fazal argues that wars have become less fatal because of medical advancements that help keep more people alive during wars. Therefore, the battle death threshold used by the UCDP and other organizations to determine cases of armed conflict is misleading. A conflict "that produced 1,000 battle deaths in 1820 will likely produce many fewer overall casualties (where casualties, properly understood, include the dead and wounded) than a conflict with 1,000 battle deaths today." The current data makes it seem like war is becoming less frequent, when it is not.


title: Political violence

text: Bear F. Braumoeller argues that looking at data on per-capita death is a "misleading and irrelevant statistic" because it does not tell us how wars actually happen. A decrease in battle-related deaths can mean that population growth is outpacing war deaths or that "fewer people are exposed to risk of death from war". Instead, we should examine the willingness of a state to go to war. Braumoeller creates a new metric for conflicted called the "use of force", which is the number of militarized disputes that reach at least a level 4 on the 5-point Correlates of War Militarized Interstate Dispute scale. He finds that use of force has held steady from the 1800s through the First World War, but after World War I the use of force has steadily increased.


title: Political violence

text: Braumoeller creates another metric called "uses of force per relevant dyad", which is the use of force between neighboring states or states with one major power. Using this metric he finds that there is no downward trend in the rates of conflict initiation since the post-World War II period. Additionally, he finds that the rates of conflict have remained steady over the past two hundred years and the slight increases and decreases in use of force are random.


title: Political violence

text: Based on data from the UCDP, there were 221 intrastate armed conflicts in the period from 1946 to 2019, involving more than 100 countries worldwide. White there has been a general decline in fatalities from such conflicts, the number of active conflicts in 2019 matched its highest record from 2016. In 2019, UCDP recorded 54 state-based conflicts, 28 of which involved transnational jihadist groups. This compares to 40 active armed conflicts in 2014. The three countries with the highest total fatalities in the 1989–2019 period were Rwanda, Syria and Afghanistan, with Afghanistan accounting for 40% of all fatalities worldwide in 2019.


title: Political violence

text: As of 2014, regionally, Asia had the largest number of violent conflicts at 14, followed by Africa at 12, Europe at six, Middle East at six, and the Americas at two.


title: Political violence

text: In 2014, four new conflicts began, all of them in Ukraine. Three conflicts were restarted by new actors in  Egypt, Lebanon, and Libya. Additionally, six conflicts were restarted by previously registered actors in "Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh), India (Garoland), India–Pakistan, Israel (Palestine), Mali (Azawad), and Myanmar (Kokang)". Finally, seven conflicts in 2013 were no longer active in 2014. The conflicts were in Central African Republic, Ethiopia (Oromiya), Malaysia (Sabah), Myanmar (Karen), Myanmar (Shan), Mozambique, and Turkey (Kurdistan).


title: Political violence

text: Out of the 40 conflicts in 2014, 11 have been classified at the level of war, which means that there were at least 1,000 deaths in one calendar year. The conflict between India and Pakistan was the only interstate conflict, conflict between two or more states. Out of the remaining 39 conflicts, 13 were internationalized, a conflict between a government and internal opposition group where other states intervene. The percentage of internationalized conflict is 33% (13/39), which is the largest proportion of external actors in intrastate conflicts since the post-World War II era.


title: Political violence

text: Just like armed conflict, there was an increase in fatalities associated with terrorism. In 2014, the United States State Department reported 13,463 terrorist attacks in the world. These attacks resulted in at least 32,700 deaths and 34,700 injuries. In addition, more than 9,400 people were kidnapped or taken hostage. Compared to 2013, the number of terrorist attacks increased by 35% and the total fatalities increased by 81%.


title: Political violence

text: In 2014, the five countries that experienced the most terrorist attacks were Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Nigeria. In 2013, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and the Philippines were the countries that experienced the most terrorist attacks.