title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: During the first four months of 2019, Siniaková did not have any significant results in singles, but she was more successful in doubles. She started year with the semifinal of the Premier-level Brisbane International, followed with title at the another Premier-level tournament, Sydney International with Krejcikova. Then, at the Australian Open, alongside Krejčíková, she reached the quarterfinal and completed reaching the quarterfinals at all four Grand Slam tournaments. She did not stop there, reaching quarterfinal of the Premier 5 Dubai Championships and soon after that the final of the Premier Mandatory Indian Wells Open. Then, on clay court, she started with better results in singles, first reaching quarterfinal of the Prague Open, followed by semifinal at Nuremberg. At the Madrid Open and Italian Open, she lost early in singles, but reached quarterfinal and semifinal, respectively, in doubles. Siniaková then made progress at the French Open, reaching her first Grand Slam singles round of 16, after defeating world No. 1,Naomi Osaka. She then lost to Madison Keys in the quarterfinal-match. The following month, she continued to struggle with results in singles, but reached the semifinal of Wimbledon in doubles, alongside Krejčíková. In late August, she reached another WTA Tour singles semifinal at the Bronx Open. However, by the end of the year, she continued to struggle in singles, but in doubles she and Krejcikova won the Canadian Open and Linz Open. At the WTA Finals, alongside Krejčíková, she exited in the round-robin stage, after winning one match and losing two others. She finished year as world No. 58 in singles and No. 7 in doubles, after spending the whole year inside the top 60 in singles and top 10 in doubles.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: During the 2020 season, Siniaková continued to struggle with results in singles. Her first stand out result was when she defeated former world No. 1, Angelique Kerber, in the first round of the Premier 5 Italian Open, in straight sets. In the following round, she lost to Daria Kasatkina. After that, she reached the quarterfinal of the Internationaux de Strasbourg and then the third round of the French Open. In doubles, she had strong start, winning the title at the Shenzhen Open in the opening week. She followed this with a strong performance at the Australian Open, where alongside Krejčíková, she reached the semifinal. With this result, she completed the achievement of reaching the quarter finals all four Grand Slam tournaments. Siniakova then reached the semifinal of the Premier 5 Qatar Open.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: Then, after six months absence of the WTA Tour due to COVID-19 outbreak, Siniaková started slow with the semifinal of the Prague Open, first round of Cincinnati Open, second round at the US Open, but then reached the quarterfinals of the Italian Open and semifinal of the French Open. The end of the year saw her reach the doubles final of the Linz Open, alongside Lucie Hradecká. Siniaková spent the whole year inside top 70 in singles, while in doubles inside top 10. She finished the season as the world No. 64 in singles, and No. 8 in doubles.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: There was a positive start to 2021, when Siniaková and Krejčíková reached the doubles final at the Australian Open, before losing to Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: At the Madrid Open, Siniaková and Krejčíková won the title, defeating Demi Schuurs and Gabriela Dabrowski in the final for their biggest title since Wimbledon 2018.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: At the French Open in doubles, Siniaková and Krejčíková defeated the Plíšková twins in an all Czech quarterfinals and Bernarda Pera & Magda Linette in the semifinals to reach their second French Open final. They then beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Iga Świątek in straight sets to claim their second title at Roland Garros, while Siniakova’s partner Barbora Krejcikova won her first grand slam singles title at the same event. . As a result, Krejčíková and Siniaková reclaimed the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the doubles rankings, respectively.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: At the Olympics, the pair won the gold medal in women's doubles, defeating the Swiss pair of Belinda Bencic and Viktoria Golubic in the gold medal match. The pair unexpectedly lost in the first round of the US Open. However, the season ended on a high for Siniaková as she partnered with Jeļena Ostapenko to win the doubles title in Moscow, and then reteamed with Krejčíková to win the WTA Finals doubles title in Guadalajara, going through the tournament unbeaten. Consequently, Siniaková rose to the top of the rankings and ended the year as the world No. 1 doubles player.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: In singles, Siniaková had a few significant wins. She reached the quarterfinals at the WTA 250 in Istanbul, in April before losing to Elisa Mertens. In May, she beat Clara Tauson, Serena Williams and Caroline Garcia at the WTA 250 Parma Open, before losing to Coco Gauff in the semifinals. Siniaková had a good run to the third round at the French Open, before losing to Tamara Zindansek. Siniaková then reached her first WTA singles final in several years at the Bad Homburg Open where she lost to Angelique Kerber.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: With her summer singles form she reached third round at Wimbledon, before losing to eventual champion Ashleigh Barty. Siniaková then reached the quarterfinal of the Prague Open in July, being beaten heavily by her double partner Barbora Krejčíková who would also go in to take the title. Siniaková beat former world No. 1, Garbine Muguruza, at the WTA-1000 tournament in Montreal in August and then in October 2021, defeated returning former No. 1, Kim Clijsters, at the Indian Wells Open. She ended the year ranked number 49 for singles.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: Siniaková began the 2022 season by winning the doubles title at the Melbourne Summer Set 2 with Bernarda Pera.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: As the top seed at the Australian Open, Siniaková reached the doubles final with Krejčíková, in which they defeated Anna Danilina and Beatriz Haddad Maia to claim their first Australian Open women's doubles title.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: Siniaková’s season in doubles was affected by an elbow injury to Krejčíková in Doha in February that meant they did not play together again until Wimbledon. Siniaková herself was affected by an abdominal injury that forced her to withdraw in matches in Miami and Madrid. However, she won the doubles title at the German Open with Storm Sanders in June.<br>


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: In singles, her grass-court season did not go well as she had tough draws against Simona Halep and Bianca Andreescu in Bad Homburg and Berlin.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: At Wimbledon, she lost in the first round in singles to first-time qualifier Maja Chwalińska in straight sets. At the same tournament in doubles, she reached the final with her partner Barbora Krejcikova and won the title for a second time at this major defeating top seeds Elise Mertens and Zhang Shuai, in straight sets.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: After poor results in singles, Siniaková dropped down to play an ITF tournament in Poland in August, which she won beating Magda Linette.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: Siniaková followed up this success in doubles a week later, with her third singles title at the Portoroz Open in Slovenia, defeating 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the final, in three sets.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: She had another good win in singles to beat top-20 player Haddad Maia in the first round of the last WTA 1000 of the year at the Guadalajara Open and made the semifinals in doubles alongside Krejčíková.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: The pair then played the 2022 WTA Finals - Doubles in Fort Worth, Texas. The Czechs went undefeated in the round robin stage but were defeated in the final by Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: In February 2017, she was nominated to the Fed Cup team for the first time by the captain Petr Pála as she was the third best ranked woman Czech tennis player (considering Petra Kvitová's injury) after Karolína Plíšková and Barbora Strýcová. Anyway, the captain announced eventually that Siniaková would first of all collect experience.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: Siniaková along with Barbora Krejčíková made history for Czech Republic as they won the gold medal in the women's tennis double at the 2020 Summer Olympics.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: Siniakova was part of the Czech team at the 2020-21 Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Prague, where she played doubles alongside Lucie Hradecká.


title: Kateřina Siniaková

text: She was also part of the Czech team at the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup Finals held in Glasgow, Scotland. In the group stage she teamed up with Markéta Vondroušová to win a doubles tie against Poland and earned the winning point by beating Coco Gauff in singles.


title: Latin dance

text: Latin dance is a general label, and a term in partner dance competition jargon. It refers to types of ballroom dance and folk dance that mainly originated in Latin America.


title: Latin dance

text: The category of Latin dances in the international dancesport competitions consists of the cha-cha-cha, rumba, samba, paso doble, and also the jive of United States origin.


title: Latin dance

text: Social Latin dances (Street Latin) include salsa, mambo, merengue, rumba, bachata, bomba and plena. There are many dances which were popular in the first part of the 20th century, but which are now of only historical interest. The Cuban danzón is a good example.


title: Latin dance

text: Perreo is a Puerto Rican dance associated with reggaeton music with Jamaican and Caribbean influences. Argentinian folk dances are chacarera, escondido and zamba, also tango used to be a popular dance until the mid-20th century. Cueca is Chilean folk dance. Uruguayan folk dances are pericón, polka, ranchera, etc, also candombe is a common street and parade dance in the cities. Typical Bolivian folk dances are the morenada, kullawada, caporales and the recently created tinku. In Colombia, one of the typical dances is the cumbia.


title: Latin dance

text: Latin dance draws from indigenous American, Iberian, and West African influences. The earliest native roots for Latin dance came from the Aztecs, Guarani, Aymara, Incas and Tehuelches among others. When sixteenth-century seagoing explorers returned home to Portugal and Spain, they brought along tales of the native peoples. According to Rachel Hanson, no one knows how long these dance traditions were established, but they were already being developed and ritualized when they were observed by the Europeans. This suggests that these Native influences became the foundation for Latin dancing. Indigenous dance often told stories of everyday activities such as hunting, agriculture, or astronomy. When European settlers and conquistadors began to colonize South America in the early sixteenth century, they reinvented the local dance traditions, but still kept the styles of the natives. Catholic settlers merged the native culture with their own and incorporated catholic saints and stories to the dance. The Europeans were captivated by the highly structured, large member dance working together in a precise manner.


title: Latin dance

text: After the Europeans brought home the Aztec/Inca influences in the sixteenth century, they incorporated their own styles to the dance. Since the Aztec/Inca dances were performed in a group, many of the European dances were performed by a male and female. This was a new practice because European dances prohibited male and female dance partners from touching each other. The benefits of such a dance style allowed musical appreciation and social integration, which became the form of Latin dance. However, “much of the storytelling element disappeared from the genre as the focus moved toward the rhythm and steps,” Hanson explains. The movement evolved differently because it brought a certain element of daintiness to the Aztec dances since the steps were smaller and the movements were less forceful. Combining African styles along with the Native and European influences is what truly makes Latin possible.


title: Latin dance

text: The movement and rhythms of African influences left a permanent mark in Latin dance. When the African slaves were forced to Europe in the 1500s, their culture brought styles such as basic, simple movements (putting emphasis on the upper body, torso, or feet) and intricate movements like the coordination of different body parts and complex actions such as “fast rotation, ripples of the body, and contraction and release, as well as variations in dynamics, levels, and use of space.” The difference between the African and European styles was that it included bent knees and a downward focus (grounded to the earth) rather than a straight-backed upward focus like the Europeans, and whole-foot steps than toes and heels. These influences from African roots have allowed Latin dance to become what it is today.


title: Latin dance

text: Latin dance is a perfect mix of various dance styles from cultures around the world, creating a dance style encompassing this new age of Latin culture. Influences deriving from West African, African American, and European dance styles were all comprised in the making of many of these latin dances such as: Salsa, Mambo, Merengue, Rumba, Cha Cha Cha, Bachata, and Samba. Not only has these cultures shaped this style of dance, but as well in the music made in Latin America. Music became the engine for Latin dancing because it guided the dance steps with its measure, speed, and the feeling it evoked, from energetic to sensual. Many of these beats come from European folk music, West African beats, and African American Jazz. Various Latin American regions developed independent styles, and from each genre, or combination of styles, a different genre was born. For example, the Mambo which was created in the 1940s emerged through the combination of American swing and Cuban "Son" music. Another example is the Romani and Egyptian cultural dance of belly dancing, which has traveled its way to Spain and gained its influence in the repertoire of the latin dance known as flamenco due to the Moorish conquest of Iberia (Spain) in the Eighth-Century. Though Latin dance is a social dance that can be seen in Quinceañeras, parties, and in any social gathering there is no required cultural clothing required for these style of dancing. On the other hand, in the dance sport competition world of "latin dance" each categories in Latin dance has its own unique styled costumes along with it. From short rimmed dresses, fringe hems, a skirt or dress, braided hems, and boa feathers and flowers can be seen throughout each costume designs.


title: Latin dance

text: Following the music, movement history, and the rhythms, Latin dance evolved over time and individual steps slowly shifted the repertoire of each dance. It has several different forms and many modernized styles which creates a problem because it is shifting away from its Native, European, and African roots. A popular aerobic dance class known as Zumba is said to be influenced by Latin rhythm and steps. However, there are disagreements among Latin dancers about whether Zumba is a true Latin dance.


title: Katabasis

text: A katabasis or catabasis (, from "down" and "go") is a journey to the underworld. Its original sense is usually associated with Greek mythology and Classical mythology more broadly, where the protagonist visits the Greek underworld, also known as Hades. The term is also used in a broad sense of any journey to the realm of the dead in other mythological and religious traditions. A katabasis is similar to a "nekyia" or necromancy, where someone experiences a vision of the underworld or its inhabitants; a "nekyia" does not generally involve a physical visit, however. One of the most famous examples is that of Odysseus, who performs something on the border of a "nekyia" and a katabasis in book 11 of "The Odyssey"; he visits the border of the realms before calling the dead to him using a blood ritual, with it being disputed whether he was at the highest realm of the underworld or the lowest edge of the living world where he performed this.


title: Katabasis

text: The trip to the underworld is a mytheme of comparative mythology found in a diverse number of religions from around the world. The hero or upper-world deity journeys to the underworld or to the land of the dead and returns. The nature of the quest differs; sometimes an object or the rescue of a loved one is sought, while in other stories knowledge and secret revelations is the goal. The ability to enter the realm of the dead while still alive, and to return, is proof of the classical hero's exceptional status as more than mortal. A deity who returns from the underworld demonstrates eschatological themes such as the cyclical nature of time and existence, or the defeat of death and the possibility of immortality.


title: Katabasis

text: A katabasis is arguably a specific type of the famous Hero's journey. In the Hero's journey, the hero travels to a forbidden, unknown realm; a katabasis is when that place is specifically the underworld. Pilar Serrano uses the term to encompass brief or chronic stays in the underworld as well, such as those of Lazarus, and Castor and Pollux.


title: Katabasis

text: A katabasis is in general followed by an "anabasis" (a going up) to distinguish itself from death; very rarely does a living hero decide to stay in the Underworld forever.


title: Katabasis

text: Famous examples of katabases in Greek mythology include Orpheus, who enters the underworld in order to bring Eurydice back to the world of the living, and Odysseus, who seeks to consult with the prophet Tiresias for knowledge. In Roman mythology, Aeneas seeks out his father Anchises to learn of prophecies of his fate and that of the Roman Empire.


title: Katabasis

text: In the 11th book of the "Odyssey", Odysseus follows the advice of Circe to consult Tiresias in Hades, the land of the dead. Odysseus sets out an offering of honey, milk, wine, water, and barley before slaughtering two sheep to add fresh blood to the meal. The souls of many then appear to him. The first to appear to Odysseus is Elpenor, his crew member who died prior to leaving Circe's island. Elpenor asks Odysseus to give him a proper burial, and Odysseus agrees. The next to appear to Odysseus is his mother, Anticlea. As Odysseus has been away fighting the Trojan War for nearly 20 years, he is surprised and saddened by the sight of her soul.


title: Katabasis

text: Tiresias, the soul whom Odysseus came to see, next appears to him. Tiresias gives him several pieces of information concerning his "nostos" (homecoming) and his life after. Tiresias details Poseidon's anger at Odysseus' blinding of Polyphemos (and the coming troubles as a consequence), warns Odysseus not to eat the livestock of the god Helios, and prophesies Odysseus' return home to Ithaca and his eventual death at sea at an old age. After Tiresias instructs Odysseus to allow the spirits he wants to talk to drink the sacrificial blood he used to find Tiresias, he is again given the chance to see his mother, and she tells him of the suffering of his family as they await his return home. As his mother leaves, Odysseus is then visited by a string of souls of past queens. He first sees Tyro, the mother of Pelias and Neleus by Poseidon.


title: Katabasis

text: He next talks to Antiope, the mother of Amphion and Zethus (the founders of Thebes) by Zeus. Then, he is visited by Alcmene, the mother of Heracles by Zeus, and Heracle's wife Megara. He is also visited by Epicaste, the mother of Oedipus, and Chloris, the queen of Pylos. Odysseus is then visited by Leda, the mother of Castor and Polydeuces and Iphimedeia, mother of the Aloadae by Poseidon. Odysseus then sees a list of women whom he only briefly mentions: Phaedra, Procris, Ariadne, Maera, Clymene, and Eriphyle, all also lovers of gods or heroes. Next to visit Odysseus is Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae. Agamemnon tells Odysseus of his death by his wife, Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. He warns Odysseus to return to Ithaca in secret and be wary of his own wife.


title: Katabasis

text: Odysseus then encounters Achilles, who asks after the wellbeing of his father, Peleus, and his son, Neoptolemus. Odysseus reassures Achilles of his son's bravery in fighting the Trojans. Odysseus then begins seeing figures of dead souls who do not talk directly to him: Ajax, Minos, Orion, Tityos, Tantalus, and Sisyphus. Odysseus ends his visit with Heracles, who asks about Odysseus' intention in Hades. Odysseus begins to get fearful as he waits for more heroes and leaves.


title: Katabasis

text: The "katabasis" of Virgil's "Aeneid" occurs in book 6 of the epic. Unlike Odysseus, Aeneas seeks to enter the Underworld, rather than bring the spirits of the dead to him through sacrifice. He begins his journey with a visit to the Cumaean Sibyl (a priestess of Apollo) and asks for her assistance to journey to the Underworld and visit his father. The priestess tells him to find the Golden Bough, and if the branch breaks off in his hands, he is fated to go to the Underworld. She also tells Aeneas to bury his dead friend and prepare cattle for sacrifice. When Aeneas reaches the forest to find the golden branch, he is guided by birds to the tree, and the branch breaks into his hand. The branch, however, does not easily break off as the Sibyl said would happen to a person fated to go to the Underworld - the branch is described as ""cunctantem"" ("hesitant"). The implications of this have been debated by scholars - some arguing that it means that Aeneas is not as heroic as he needs to be, others arguing that Aeneas has not yet fulfilled his destiny, and several arguing that he is still a hero, with this section added purely for drama. Aeneas buries Misenus and he and the Sibyl prepare a sacrifice to enter the Underworld.


title: Katabasis

text: Aeneas first encounters several beings and monsters as he enters: Sorrows, Heartaches, Diseases, Senility, Terror, Hunger, Evil, Crime, Poverty, Death, Hard Labor, Sleep, Evil Pleasures of Mind, War, Family Vengeance, Mad Civil Strife, Scylla, Briareus, the Hydra, the Chimaera, the Gorgons, the Harpies, and Cerberus. Next, Aeneas encounters Charon, the ferryman who leads souls into the Underworld, and the mass of people who are unburied. His first conversation is with Palinurus, a man of his crew who fell overboard and died on their journey. Palinurus begs Aeneas to bury him so he can enter the Underworld. The Sibyl convinces Charon to carry them across the river Styx in exchange for the golden bough. Aeneas encounters Minos pronouncing judgment on souls and the souls that died for love: Phaedra, Procris, Eriphyle, Evadne, Pasiphae, Laodamia, Caeneus, and Dido. Next, Aeneas sees heroes of battle: Tydeus, Parthenopaeus, Adrastus, Glaucus, Medon, Thersilochus, Polyboetes, Idaeus, Agamemnon, and Deiphobus. The Sibyl then leads Aeneas to Elysium, the place for the blessed. On the way, they pass the place for tortured souls and the Sibyl describes some of the tortured's fates. Tityos has his liver eaten by a vulture daily. Pirithous and Ixion have a rock constantly hanging over them at all times. Many others face the punishment of moving rocks, being stretched, and being tied to wheels. The two then enter the Estates of the Blessed, where they see a utopian land where heroes and good people reside. There, Aeneas finds his father, who tells him of the rich history of Rome to come.


title: Katabasis

text: In Ovid's poetic collection of mythological stories, he includes accounts of "katabasis" as well. In book 4, he includes an account of Juno's descent to Hades to bring her perceived justice to Ino. Ovid describes Juno's path to the underworld, noting Cerberus' presence. Juno seeks the Furies (Tisiphone, Megara, and Alecto) to destroy the house of Cadmus, namely Ino and her husband Athamas. While in the underworld, Juno passes several souls who are being punished in Hades. Hades is also a person, and he needs to get rid of those souls because he needs them to fully recover. –Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion, and the Belides. When the Furies agree to Juno's request, she happily returns to the heavens, where she is purified by Iris.


title: Katabasis

text: The next major "katabasis" in the "Metamorphoses" occurs in book 5 by Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres who is kidnapped by Dis. As Proserpina is picking flowers, Pluto falls in love with her and decides to grab her and take her to the underworld in his chariot. Worried about her now-missing daughter, Ceres becomes distraught and searches for Proserpina.


title: Katabasis

text: When Ceres discovers the kidnapping, she goes to Jove to attempt to get Proserpina back. He agrees that she should be returned as long as Proserpina has not touched any food in the underworld. However, she has eaten pomegranate seeds, and cannot be returned to Ceres. To ensure compromise between Ceres and Dis, Jove divides the year into halves and commands that Proserpina must spend equal parts of the year between her mother and her husband. From that point on, Proserpina makes annual trips to the underworld, spending half the year there.


title: Katabasis

text: Ovid also briefly mentions the "katabasis" of Hercules in book 7. Ovid is telling the etiological story of Medea's poison for Theseus. When Hercules traveled to the Underworld to capture Cerberus as one of his 12 Labours, Cerberus spread white foam from his mouths, which grew poisonous plants.


title: Katabasis

text: The "katabasis" of Orpheus in book 10 is the last major inclusion of the theme by Ovid in the "Metamorphoses". Orpheus is distraught by the death of his wife, Eurydice. He enters the Underworld through the Spartan Gates and visits Dis and Proserpina to beg for the return of his bride. Overcome by the heartfelt song of Orpheus, Proserpina calls Eurydice to leave with her husband–on the condition that he does not look back until he reaches the exit. When he looks back, his wife disappears, and he is pained by grief for her death a second time.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: Official relations between Moldova and NATO began in 1992 when Moldova joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. However, as Moldova's neutrality is enshrined in its Constitution, there are no official plans for Moldova to join the organization.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: Article 11 of the Constitution of Moldova states: "The Republic of Moldova proclaims its permanent neutrality. The Republic of Moldova does not allow the deployment of armed forces of other states on its territory."


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: Thus, since Moldova's neutrality is enshrined in its constitution, the country has no plans to join either NATO or CSTO.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: In 1992, Moldova joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, renamed the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) in 1997. Relations expanded when Moldova joined the Partnership for Peace programme (PfP) in 1994. The Partnership for Peace was signed by Mircea Snegur and Manfred Wörner, on 16 March 1994, with Moldova becoming the 12th signatory country and the second of the Commonwealth of Independent States after Ukraine.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: On July 8, 1997, Petru Lucinschi and Mihai Popov, the Foreign Minister of Moldova attended the NATO summit in Madrid.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: The Mission of Moldova to NATO was established in 1997 with the appointment of the first Moldovan representative to the EAPC. The mission is located within the Embassy of Moldova in Brussels and has a liaison office in the premises of NATO headquarters in Brussels.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: Vladimir Voronin visited NATO headquarters in Brussels on 23 June 2003, 7 June 2005, 22 June 2006, 18 June 2007, and 5 December 2007.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: At the 2004 Istanbul summit, NATO accepted Russia's military presence in Moldova and Georgia (the withdrawal of these troops was an obligation Russia had assumed at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's 1999 Istanbul summit). US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stopped, en route to Istanbul, in Moldova, where he called for the withdrawal of Russian forces from the country.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: On 23 September 2004, the NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, traveled to Chişinău where he met with President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin, with Foreign Minister of Moldova Andrei Stratan and Minister of Defence Victor Gaiciuc.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: With the support of NATO's Public Diplomacy Division, an Information and Documentation Centre on NATO was inaugurated at the Moldova State University in October 2007.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: On 3 April, at the 2008 Bucharest summit, NATO announced its support for the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Moldova. Voronin participated to the Working Lunch of the Heads of State and Government of countries Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in Bucharest.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: On 18 November 2008, NATO Parliamentary Assembly adopted Resolution 371 on the future of NATO–Russia relations, with among other things, "urges the government and the parliament of Russia to respect its commitments which were taken at the Istanbul OSCE Summit in 1999 and has to withdraw its illegal military presence from the Transdnestrian region of Moldova in the nearest future."


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: In 2009, Moldova cancelled its attendance of the Cooperative 09 in response to a troop mutiny in Georgia.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: The former communist government, which lost its majority in parliament in 2009 elections, was seen as more allied with Russia and was already a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In April 2009, Moldova announced it would not participate in the June NATO military exercises.ref></ref> The new ruling party, the Alliance for European Integration, declined to take any action to either move towards membership, or withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States, and denied plans to do either.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: Some Moldovan politicians, such as former Minister of Defence Vitalie Marinuța, have suggested joining NATO as part of a larger European integration. The current Prime Minister of Moldova, Natalia Gavrilița, and her Party of Action and Solidarity support European Union membership, but not NATO membership. The second largest alliance in the parliament of Moldova, the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists, strongly opposes NATO membership.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: Following the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, NATO officials warned that Russia might seek to annex Transnistria, a breakaway Moldovan region. This separatist issue could preclude Moldova from joining NATO.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: Some Moldovan politicians, including former Prime Minister Iurie Leancă, have also supported the idea of unifying with neighboring NATO member Romania, which Moldova shares a language and much of its history with. A poll in April 2021 found that 43.9% of those surveyed supported that idea.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: A poll in June 2018 found that 22% of Moldovans would vote in favour of joining NATO, while 43% would oppose.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: Another poll in December 2018 found that, if given the choice in a referendum, 22% of Moldovans would vote in favor of joining NATO, while 32% would vote against it and 21% would be unsure.


title: Moldova–NATO relations

text: In May 2022, shortly after Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine had begun, a poll in Moldova found that 24.5% supported NATO membership.


title: Fandango!

text: Fandango! is the fourth album by the American rock band ZZ Top, released in 1975. The album's first side consists of selections from live shows, with the second side being new studio recordings. A remastered and expanded edition of this album was released on February 28, 2006.


title: Fandango!

text: Frontman Billy Gibbons said of the album: The live capture wound up being in the can first. We had enough live material to make up one side of the disc, so we decided to go with the unusual move of making the album half live, half studio. It turned out to be a winning combination for us.


title: Fandango!

text: The album's opening song "Thunderbird", despite having ZZ Top writing credit, was originally written and performed by The Nightcaps, a band formed in the 1950s when the members were teenagers.<ref name="Dabou/sb v. Gibbons">Dabou/sb v. Gibbons, 42 F.3d 285, 287 (5th Cir. 1995).</ref> The Nightcaps performed the song and distributed it on their album "Wine, Wine, Wine" but never applied for copyright. ZZ Top began performing the song as early as 1974, and has conceded that their version is lyrically and musically identical to the Nightcaps' song. The Nightcaps sued ZZ Top for copyright infringement but their claims were dismissed as ZZ Top had registered a copyright on the song in 1975.


title: Fandango!

text: The song "Heard It on the X" was written about the influence of Mexican border blaster radio stations (so-called "X Stations") on Texas and other parts of the United States, namechecking "Dr. B," an alias of Dr. John R. Brinkley.


title: Fandango!

text: The only single released from the album was "Tush". The single peaked at #20 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, making it the band's first top 40 single in the US. The song "Heard It on the X" also received heavy rotation on classic rock radio.


title: Fandango!

text: In the late 1980s the album was released on CD with the studio recordings being digitally remixed and the original 1975 mix version was discontinued. The remix version created controversy among fans because it significantly changed the sound of the instruments, especially the drums. The remix version was used on all early CD copies and was the only version available for over 20 years.


title: Fandango!

text: A remastered and expanded edition of the album was released on February 28, 2006, containing three bonus live tracks. The 2006 edition is the first CD version to use Terry Manning's original 1975 mix.


title: Fandango!

text: The album was re-released in 2009 on 180 gram vinyl using the original master tapes. It appears exactly the same except that it had a 180 gram vinyl LP sticker, by Back to Vinyl records.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The history of Southeast Asia covers the people of Southeast Asia from prehistory to the present in two distinct sub-regions: Mainland Southeast Asia (or Indochina) and Maritime Southeast Asia (or Insular Southeast Asia). Mainland Southeast Asia comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (or Burma), Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam whereas Maritime Southeast Asia comprises Brunei, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The earliest "Homo sapiens" presence in Mainland Southeast Asia can be traced back to 70,000 years ago and to at least 50,000 years ago in Maritime Southeast Asia. Since 25,000 years ago, East Asian-related (Basal East Asian) groups expanded southwards into Maritime Southeast Asia from Mainland Southeast Asia. As early as 10,000 years ago, Hoabinhian settlers from Mainland Southeast Asia had developed a tradition and culture of distinct artefact and tool production. During the Neolithic, Austroasiatic peoples populated Indochina via land routes, and sea-borne Austronesian immigrants preferably settled in Maritime Southeast Asia. The earliest agricultural societies that cultivated millet and wet-rice emerged around 1700 BCE in the lowlands and river floodplains of Indochina.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The Phung Nguyen culture (modern northern Vietnam) and the Ban Chiang site (modern Thailand) account for the earliest use of copper by around 2,000 BCE, followed by the Dong Son culture, which by around 500 BCE had developed a highly sophisticated industry of bronze production and processing. Around the same time, the first Agrarian Kingdoms emerged where territory was abundant and favourable, such as Funan at the lower Mekong and Van Lang in the Red River delta. Smaller and insular principalities increasingly engaged in and contributed to the rapidly expanding sea trade.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The wide topographical diversity of Southeast Asia has greatly influenced its history. For instance, Mainland Southeast Asia with its continuous but rugged and difficult terrain provided the basis for the early Cham, Khmer, and Mon civilizations. The sub-region's extensive coastline and major river systems of the Irrawaddy, Salween, Chao Phraya, Mekong and Red River have directed socio-cultural and economic activities towards the Indian Ocean and South China Sea.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: In Maritime Southeast Asia, apart from exceptions such as Borneo and Sumatra, the patchwork of recurring land-sea patterns on widely dispersed islands and archipelagos admitted moderately sized thalassocratic states indifferent to territorial ambitions, where growth and prosperity were associated with sea trade. Since around 100 BCE, Maritime Southeast Asia has occupied a central position at the crossroads of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea trading routes, immensely stimulating its economy and influencing its culture and society. Most local trading polities selectively adopted Indian Hindu elements of statecraft, religion, culture and administration during the early centuries of the common era, which marked the beginning of recorded history in the area and the continuation of a characteristic cultural development. Chinese culture diffused into the region more indirectly and sporadically, as trade was mostly based on land routes like the Silk Road. Long periods of Chinese isolationism and political relations that were confined to ritualistic tribute procedures prevented deep acculturation.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Buddhism, particularly in Indochina, began to affect political structures beginning in the 8th to 9th centuries CE. Islamic ideas arrived in insular Southeast Asia as early as the 8th century, and the first Muslim societies in the area emerged by the 13th century. The era of European colonialism, early Modernity and the Cold War era revealed the reality of limited political significance for the various Southeast Asian polities. Post-World War II national survival and progress required a modern state and a strong national identity. Most modern Southeast Asian countries enjoy a historically unprecedented degree of political freedom and self-determination and have embraced the practical concept of intergovernmental co-operation within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Though there are numerous ancient historic Asian designations for Southeast Asia, none are geographically consistent with each other. Names referring to Southeast Asia include "Suvarnabhumi" or "Sovannah Phoum" ("Golden Land") and "Suvarnadvipa" ("Golden Islands") in Indian tradition, the "Lands below the Winds" in Arabia and Persia, "Nanyang" (Chinese: 南洋; ) in China and "Nan’yō" (南洋) in Japan. A 2nd-century world map created by Ptolemy of Alexandria names the Malay Peninsula as "Chersonesus Aurea" ().


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The term "Southeast Asia" was first used in 1839 by American pastor Howard Malcolm in his book "Travels in South-Eastern Asia". Malcolm only included the Mainland section and excluded the Maritime section in his definition of Southeast Asia. The term was officially used to designate the area of operation (the South East Asia Command, SEAC) for Anglo-American forces in the Pacific Theater of World War II from 1941 to 1945.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The region was already inhabited by "Homo erectus" from approximately 1,500,000 years ago during the Middle Pleistocene age. Data analysis of stone tool assemblages and fossil discoveries from Indonesia, Southern China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and more recently Cambodia and Malaysia has established "Homo erectus" migration routes and episodes of presence as early as 120,000 years ago, with even older isolated finds dating back to 1.8 million years ago. Java Man ("Homo erectus erectus") and "Homo floresiensis" attest to a sustained regional presence and isolation, long enough for notable diversification of the species' specifics. Rock art (parietal art) dating from 40,000 years ago (which is currently the world's oldest) has been discovered in the caves of Borneo. "Homo floresiensis" also lived in the area up until at least 50,000 years ago, after which they became extinct. Distinct "Homo sapiens" groups, ancestral to East-Eurasian (East Asian-related) populations, and South-Eurasian (Papuan-related) populations, reached the region by 50,000BCE to 70,000BCE, with some arguing earlier. These immigrants might have, to some extent, merged and reproduced with members of the archaic population of "Homo erectus", as the fossil discoveries in the Tam Pa Ling Cave suggest. During much of this time the present-day islands of western Indonesia were joined into a single landmass known as Sundaland due to lower sea levels.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Ancient remains of hunter-gatherers in Maritime Southeast Asia, such as one Holocene hunter-gatherer from South Sulawesi, had ancestry from both the South-Eurasian lineage (represented by Papuans and Aboriginal Australians), and the East-Eurasian lineage (represented by East Asians). The hunter-gatherer individual had approximately 50% "Basal-East Asian" ancestry and was positioned in between modern East Asians and Papuans of Oceania. The authors writing about the individual concluded that East Asian-related ancestry expanded from Mainland Southeast Asia into Maritime Southeast Asia much earlier than previously suggested, as early as 25,000BCE, long before the expansion of Austroasiatic and Austronesian groups.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Distinctive Basal-East Asian (East-Eurasian) ancestry was recently found to have originated in Mainland Southeast Asia at ~50,000BCE, and expanded through multiple migration waves southwards and northwards respectively. Geneflow of East-Eurasian ancestry into Maritime Southeast Asia and Oceania is estimated to ~25,000BCE (possibly as early as 50,000BCE). The pre-Neolithic South-Eurasian populations of Maritime Southeast Asia were largely replaced by the expansion of various East-Eurasian populations, beginning about 25,000BCE from Mainland Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia was dominated by East Asian-related ancestry already in 15,000BCE, predating the expansion of Austroasiatic and Austronesian peoples.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Ocean drops of up to below the present level during Pleistocene glacial periods revealed the vast lowlands known as Sundaland, enabling hunter-gatherer populations to freely access insular Southeast Asia via extensive terrestrial corridors. Modern human presence in the Niah cave on East Malaysia dates back to 40,000 years BP, although archaeological documentation of the early settlement period suggests only brief occupation phases. However, author Charles Higham argues that despite glacial periods, modern humans were able to cross the sea barrier beyond Java and Timor, who around 45,000 years ago left traces in the Ivane Valley in eastern New Guinea "at an altitude of exploiting yams and pandanus, hunting and making stone tools between 43,000 and 49,000 years ago."


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The oldest habitation discovered in the Philippines is located at the Tabon Caves and dates back to approximately 50,000 years BP. Items found there such as burial jars, earthenware, jade ornaments and other jewellery, stone tools, animal bones and human fossils date back to 47,000 years BP. Unearthed human remains are approximately 24,000 years old.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Signs of an early tradition are discernible in the Hoabinhian, the name given to an industry and cultural continuity of stone tools and flaked cobble artefacts that appear around 10,000 BP in caves and rock shelters first described in Hòa Bình, Vietnam, and later documented in Terengganu, Malaysia, Sumatra, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Yunnan, southern China. Research emphasises considerable variations in quality and nature of the artefacts, influenced by region-specific environmental conditions and proximity and access to local resources. The Hoabinhian culture accounts for the first verified ritual burials in Southeast Asia.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The Neolithic was characterized by several migrations into Mainland and Island Southeast Asia from southern China by Austronesian, Austroasiatic, Kra-Dai and Hmong-Mien-speakers.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The most widespread migration event, was the Austronesian expansion, which began at around 5,500 BP (3500 BC) from Taiwan and coastal southern China. Due to their early invention of ocean-going outrigger boats and voyaging catamarans, Austronesians rapidly colonized Island Southeast Asia, before spreading further into Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, Madagascar and the Comoros. They dominated the lowlands and coasts of Island Southeast Asia, intermarrying with the indigenous Negrito and Papuan peoples to varying degrees, giving rise to modern Islander Southeast Asians, Micronesians, Polynesians, Melanesians and Malagasy.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The Austroasiatic migration wave centred around the Mon and the Khmer, who originate in North-Eastern India arrive around 5000 BP and are identified with the settlement on the broad riverine floodplains of Burma, Indochina and Malaysia.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The Neolithic Age, the Brak Stone, is the last and third part of the Stone Age. In India, lasted from about 2100 BC to 4000 BC the Neolithic Age. Told by the development of agriculture all weapons equipment, tables, chairs and so on are made of stone. The main crops grown during this period were taro, rice, coffee, yeast, cotton and berley. The first pottery in the Neolithic era starting from 1,000 BC two other parts are the Paleolithic Age (10,000 BC to 500,000 BC) and the Mesolithic Age (7,000 BC to 9,000 BC).


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Territorial principalities in both Insular and Mainland Southeast Asia, characterised as "Agrarian kingdoms" had by around 500 BCE developed an economy based on surplus crop cultivation and moderate coastal trade of domestic natural products. Several states of the Malayan-Indonesian "thalassian" zone shared these characteristics with Indochinese polities like the Pyu city-states in the Irrawaddy river valley, Van Lang in the Red River delta and Funan around the lower Mekong. Văn Lang, founded in the 7th century BCE endured until 258 BCE under the rule of the Hồng Bàng dynasty, as part of the Đông Sơn culture eventually sustained a dense and organised population, that produced an elaborate Bronze Age industry.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Intensive wet-rice cultivation in an ideal climate enabled the farming communities to produce a regular crop surplus, that was used by the ruling elite to raise, command and pay work forces for public construction and maintenance projects such as canals and fortifications.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Though millet and rice cultivation was introduced around 2000 BCE, hunting and gathering remained an important aspect of food provision, in particular in forested and mountainous inland areas. Many tribal communities of the aboriginal Australo-Melanesian settlers continued the lifestyle of mixed sustenance until the modern era. Many areas in Southeast Asia participated in the Maritime Jade Road, a diverse sea-based trade network which functioned for 3,000 years, mostly in Southeast Asia, between 2000 BCE to 1000 CE.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Earliest known copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia has been found at the site of Ban Chiang in North-east Thailand and among the Phung Nguyen culture of northern Vietnam around 2000 BCE.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The Dong Son culture established a tradition of bronze production and the manufacture of ever more refined bronze and iron objects, such as plows, axes and sickles with shaft holes, socketed arrow and spearheads and small ornamented items. By about 500 BCE large and delicately decorated bronze drums of remarkable quality, that weighed more than were produced in the laborious lost-wax casting process. This industry of highly sophisticated metal processing has been developed locally bare of Chinese or Indian influence. Historians relate these achievements to the presence of well organised, centralised and hierarchical communities and a large population.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Between 1,000 BCE and 100 CE the Sa Huỳnh culture flourished along the south-central coast of Vietnam. Ceramic jar burial sites, that included grave goods have been discovered at various sites along the entire territory. Among large, thin-walled, terracotta jars, ornamented and colourised cooking pots, glass items, jade earrings and metal objects had been deposited near the rivers and at the coast.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The Buni culture is the name given to another early independent centre of refined pottery production that has been well documented on the basis of excavated burial gifts, deposited between 400 BCE and 100 CE in coastal north-western Java. The objects and artefacts of the Buni tradition are known for their originality and remarkable quality of incised and geometric decors. Its resemblance to the Sa Huỳnh culture and the fact that it represents the earliest "Indian Rouletted Ware" recorded in Southeast Asia are subject of ongoing research.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The first true maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean was the Austronesian maritime trade network by the Austronesian peoples of Island Southeast Asia. They established trade routes with Southern India and Sri Lanka as early as 1500 BC, ushering an exchange of material culture (like catamarans, outrigger boats, sewn-plank boats and paan) and cultigens (like coconuts, sandalwood, bananas and sugarcane); as well as connecting the material cultures of India and China. They constituted the majority of the Indian Ocean component of the spice trade network. Indonesians, in particular were trading in spices (mainly cinnamon and cassia) with East Africa using catamaran and outrigger boats and sailing with the help of the Westerlies in the Indian Ocean. This trade network expanded to reach as far as Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar by the first half of the first millennium AD. It continued up to historic times, later becoming the Maritime Silk Road. This trade network also included smaller trade routes within Island Southeast Asia, including the lingling-o jade network and the trepanging network.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: In eastern Austronesia, various traditional maritime trade networks also existed. Among them was the ancient Lapita trade network of Island Melanesia; the Hiri trade cycle, Sepik Coast exchange and the Kula ring of Papua New Guinea; the ancient trading voyages in Micronesia between the Mariana Islands and the Caroline Islands (and possibly also New Guinea and the Philippines); and the vast inter-island trade networks of Polynesia.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Since around 500 B.C. Asia's expanding land and maritime trade had led to socio-economic interaction and cultural stimulation and diffusion of mainly Hindu beliefs into the regional cosmology of Southeast Asia. Iron Age trade expansion caused regional geostrategic remodelling. Southeast Asia was now situated in the central area of convergence of the Indian and the East Asian maritime trade routes, the basis for economic and cultural growth. The concept of the "Indianised kingdoms", a term coined by George Coedès, describes Southeast Asian principalities that since the early common era as a result of prolonged interaction had incorporated central aspects of Indian institutions, religion, statecraft, administration, culture, epigraphy, writing and architecture.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The earliest Hindu kingdoms emerged in Sumatra and Java, followed by mainland polities such as Funan and Champa. Selective adoption of Indian civilisation elements and individual suitable adaption stimulated the emergence of centralised states and development of highly organised societies. Ambitious local leaders realised the benefits of Hindu worship. Rule in accord with universal moral principles represented in the concept of the devaraja was more appealing than the Chinese concept of intermediaries.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The exact nature, process and extent of Indian influence upon the civilizations of the region is still fiercely debated by contemporary scholars. Debated are most claims over whether it was Indian merchants, Brahmins, nobles or Southeast Asian mariner-merchants who played a central role in bringing Indian conceptions to Southeast Asia. Debated is the depth of the influence of traditions for the people. Whereas early 20th-century scholars emphasized the thorough Indianisation of Southeast Asia, more recent authors argued that this influence was very limited and affected only a small section of the elite.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Sea trade from China to India passed Champa, Funan at the Mekong Delta, proceeded along the coast to the Isthmus of Kra, portaged across the narrow and transhipped for distribution in India. This trading link boosted the development of Funan, its successor Chenla and the Malayan states of Langkasuka on the eastern and Kedah on the western coast.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Numerous coastal communities in maritime Southeast Asia adopted Hindu and Buddhist cultural and religious elements from India and developed complex polities ruled by native dynasties. Early Hindu kingdoms in Indonesia are 4th century Kutai that rose in East Kalimantan, Tarumanagara in West Java and Kalingga in Central Java.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Earliest attested trading contacts existed between Southeast Asia and the Chinese Shang dynasty (around 1600 BCE to around 1046 BCE), when cowry shells served as currency. Various natural products, such as ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shells, pearls and birds' feathers found their way to Luoyang the capital of the Zhou dynasty, that lasted from 1050 to 771 BCE. Although knowledge about port localities and shipping lanes is very limited, it is assumed that most of this exchange took place on land routes and only a small percentage was shipped "on coastal vessels crewed by Malay and Yue traders".


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Military conquests during the Han dynasty brought a number of foreign peoples within the Chinese empire when the Imperial Chinese tributary system began to evolve under Han rule. This tributary system was based on the Chinese worldview, that had developed under the Shang dynasty, in which China is deemed the center and apogee of culture and civilization, the "Middle kingdom" (Zhōngguó), surrounded by several layers of increasingly barbarous peoples. Contact with Southeast Asia steadily increased by the end of the Han period.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Between the 2nd-century BCE and 15th-century CE, the Maritime Silk Road flourished, connecting China, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Arabian peninsula, Somalia and all the way to Egypt and finally Europe. Despite its association with China in recent centuries, the Maritime Silk Road was primarily established and operated by Austronesian sailors in Southeast Asia, and by Persian and Arab traders in the Arabian Sea.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The Maritime Silk Road developed from the earlier Austronesian spice trade networks of Islander Southeast Asians with Sri Lanka and Southern India (established 1000 to 600 BCE), as well as the jade industry trade in "lingling-o" artifacts from the Philippines in the South China Sea (c. 500 BCE). For most of its history, Austronesian thalassocracies controlled the flow of the Maritime Silk Road, especially the polities around the Strait of Malacca and Bangka, the Malay peninsula and the Mekong delta; although Chinese records misidentified these kingdoms as being "Indian" due to the Indianization of these regions. Prior to the 10th century, the route was primarily used by Southeast Asian traders, although Tamil and Persian traders also sailed them. The route was influential in the early spread of Hinduism and Buddhism to the east.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: China later built its own fleets starting from the Song dynasty in the 10th century, participating directly in the trade route up until the end of the Colonial Era and the collapse of the Qing dynasty.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Local rulers have most benefited from the introduction of Hinduism during the early common era as it greatly enhanced the legitimacy of their reign. Historians increasingly argue, that the process of Hindu religious diffusion must be attributed to the initiative of the local chieftains. Buddhist teachings, that almost simultaneously arrived in Southeast Asia developed during the subsequent centuries an exalted distinction and eventually came to be more appealing to the demands of the general population, a belief system and philosophy that addresses concrete human affairs. Emperor Ashoka initiated the missionary efforts to send trained monks and missionaries abroad in order to propagate Buddhism, that includes a sizeable body of literature, oral traditions, iconography, art and offers guidance as it seeks to solve central existential questions with emphasis on individual effort and conduct.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Between the 5th and the 13th century, Buddhism flourished in Southeast Asia. By the 8th century, the Buddhist Srivijaya kingdom emerged as a major trading power in central Maritime Southeast Asia and around the same period the Shailendra dynasty of Java extensively promoted Buddhist art that found its strongest expression in the vast Borobudur monument. After the establishment of a new royal dynasty of provincial origin in the Khmer Empire, the first Buddhist kings emerged during the 11th century. Mahayana Buddhist ideas from India where the original Theravada Buddhism had already been replaced centuries ago took hold first in Southeast Asia. However, a pure form of Theravada Buddhist teachings had been preserved in Sri Lanka since the 3rd century. Pilgrims and wandering monks from Sri Lanka introduced Theravada Buddhism in the Pagan Empire of Burma, the Siamese Sukhothai Kingdom in Laos, the Lower Mekong Basin during Cambodia's dark ages and further into Vietnam and Insular Southeast Asia.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: In the mid-16th century, the First Toungoo Empire was the largest and strongest empire as well as one of the richest empires in Southeast Asia. The empire was the dominant power in mainland Southeast Asia and succeeded in creating a gigantic empire that included Mon and Shan states and annexed territories in the Kingdom of Lanna, Kingdom of Laos, and the Ayutthaya kingdom. Early European accounts describe the lower part of the Toungoo Empire as having possessed 3-4 excellent ports that facilitated considerable trade in a variety of goods. The empire supplied the port of Malacca with rice and other foodstuffs, along with luxury goods such as rubies, sapphires, musk, lac, benzoin, and gold to trade. In return, the lower part of the empire imported Chinese manufactures and Indonesian spices. Additionally, merchants from West Asia and India exchanged large quantities of Indian textiles for Burmese luxury products and for eastern goods. The arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century further strengthened the empire's position both commercially and militarily.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Meanwhile, the Srivijaya kingdom on Sumatra island had developed into the dominant power of Maritime Southeast Asia by the 5th century CE. Its capital Palembang became a major seaport and functioned as an entrepot on the Spice Route between India and China. Srivijaya was also a notable center of Vajrayana Buddhist learning and influence. Around the 6th century CE Malay merchants began sailing to Srivijaya, where goods were transported directly on Sumatran ports. The winds of the Northeast Monsoon during October to December prevented sailing ships from proceeding directly from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea, as did the Southwest Monsoon during July to September, forcing the trade route to pass through Srivijaya. However, the kingdom's wealth and influence began to fade when advancements in nautical technology in the 10th century enabled Chinese and Indian merchants to ship cargo directly between their countries and aided the Chola dynasty of Tamilakam in carrying out a series of destructive attacks on Srivijaya, effectively ending Palembang's entrepot position in the Indo-Chinese trade route. As the influence of the Srivijaya kingdom faded by about the 13th century, Sumatra came to be ruled by a kaleidoscope of Buddhist kingdoms for the next two centuries, including the Malayu, Pannai, and Dharmasraya kingdoms.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: To the southeast of Sumatra, West Java was ruled by the Sunda Kingdom after the fall of the Tarumanagara, while Central and Eastern Java were dominated by a myriad of competing agrarian kingdoms including the Shailendra dynasty, Mataram Kingdom, Kediri Kingdom, Singhasari, and Majapahit. In the 8th and 9th centuries, the Sailendra dynasty that ruled the Mataram kingdom built numbers of massive monuments in Central Java, including Sewu and Borobudur Buddhist temples.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: In the Philippines, the Laguna Copperplate Inscription dating from 900 CE relates a granted debt from a "Maginoo" caste nobleman named "Namwaran" who lived in the historic Tondo which is now part of Manila area. This document mentions a leader of Mataram in Java.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The Khmer Empire covered much of mainland Southeast Asia from the early 9th until the 15th century, during which time a sophisticated architecture was developed, exemplified in the structures of the capital city Angkor. Situated in modern-day Vietnam, the kingdoms of Đại Việt and Champa were rivals to the Khmer Empire in the region. The kingdom of Dvaravati was another major regional presence, first appearing in records around the 6th century CE. By the 10th century, however, Dvaravati had come under the influence of the Khmer. Nearby, Thai tribes conquered the Chao Phraya River valley of modern-day central Thailand around the 12th century and established the Sukhothai Kingdom in the 13th century and the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 14th century.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: According to the Nagarakṛtāgama, an Old Javanese document from around the 13th century, vassal states of the Majapahit Empire spread throughout much of today's Indonesia, making it the largest empire ever to exist in Southeast Asia. The empire declined in the 15th century after the rise of Islamic states in coastal Java, the Malay peninsula, and Sumatra.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: By the 8th century CE, less than 200 years after the establishment of Islam in Arabia, the first Islamic traders and merchants who adhered to Mohammad's prophecies began to appear in maritime Southeast Asia. However, Islam did not play a notable role anywhere in mainland Southeast Asia until the 13th century. As it happened, widespread and gradual replacement of Hinduism by Theravada Buddhism reflected a shift to a more personal, introverted spirituality acquired through individual ritual activities and effort.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: In addressing the issue of how Islam was introduced into Southeast Asia, historians have elaborated various routes from Arabia to India and then from India to Southeast Asia. Of these, two seem to take prominence: either Arabian traders and scholars who did not live or settle in India spread Islam directly to maritime Southeast Asia, or Arab traders that had been settling in coastal India and Sri Lanka for generations did. Muslim traders from India (Gujarat) and converts of South Asian descent are variously considered to play a major role.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: A number of sources propose the South China Sea as another route of Islamic introduction to Southeast Asia. Arguments for this hypothesis include the following:


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: In a 2013, the European Union published the "European Commission Forum", which maintains an inclusive attitude on the matter: "Islam spread in Southeast Asia via Muslims of diverse ethnic and cultural origins, from Middle Easterners, Arabs and Persians, to Indians and even Chinese, all of whom followed the great commercial routes of the epoch."


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Research has several answers as to what caused the distinct syncretic (its modern expression is cultural Islam, as opposed to Middle Eastern and North African political Islam) Islam in Southeast Asia, that allowed the continuation and inclusion of elements and ritual practices of Hinduism, Buddhism and ancient Pan-East Asian Animism. Most principalities had developed highly distinctive cultures as a result of centuries of active participation in the cultural interchange and by borrowing from the flow of ideas that criss-crossed the archipelago, coming from across the Indian Ocean in the west and the South China Sea in the east. Cultural and institutional adoption was a creative and selective process, in which foreign elements were incorporated into a local synthesis.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Unlike some other "Islamised" regions like North Africa, Iberia, the Middle East and later northern India, Islamic faith in Southeast Asia was not enforced in the wake of victorious territorial conquests, but followed trade routes as with the Islamisation of Turkic Central Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, southern India and northwest China.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The idea of equality (before God) for the "Ummah" (the people of God) and a personal religious effort through regular prayer in Islam could have been more appealing than a perceived fatalism in Hinduism at the time. However, Islam also taught obedience and submission, which could have helped guarantee that the social structure of a converted people or political entity saw less fundamental changes.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: There are various records of lay Muslim missionaries, scholars, and mystics, particularly Sufis, who were active in peacefully proselytizing in Southeast Asia. Java, for example, received Islam by nine men, referred to as the "Wali Sanga" or "Nine Saints," although the historical identity of such people is almost impossible to determine. The foundation of the first Islamic kingdom in Sumatra, the Samudera Pasai Sultanate, took place during the 13th century.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Islam and its notion of exclusivity and finality is incompatible with all other religions and the Chinese concept of heavenly harmony and the Son of Heaven as the enforcer. The integration in the traditional East Asian tributary system with China at the centre Muslim Malays and Indonesians exacted a pragmatic approach of cultural Islam in diplomatic relations with China.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The conversion of the remnants of the Buddhist Srivijaya empire that once controlled trade in much of Southeast Asia, in particular the Strait of Malacca, marked a strategic turning point by turning the strait into an Islamic water. With the fall of Srivijaya, the way was open for effective and widespread proselytization and the establishment of Muslim trading centers. Many modern Malays view the Sultanate of Malacca, which existed from the 15th to the early 16th century, as the first political entity of contemporary Malaysia.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: By the end of the 14th century, Ming China had conquered Yunnan in the South, yet it had lost control of the Silk Road after the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty. The ruling Yongle Emperor resolved to focus on the Indian Ocean sea routes, seeking to consolidate the ancient Imperial Tributary System, establish greater diplomatic and military presence, and widen the Chinese sphere of influence. He ordered the construction of a huge trade and representation fleet that, between 1405 and 1433, undertook several voyages into Southeast Asia, India, the Persian Gulf, and as far as East Africa. Under the leadership of Zheng He, hundreds of naval vessels of then unparalleled size, grandeur, and technological advancement and manned by sizeable military contingents, ambassadors, merchants, artists and scholars repeatedly visited major Southeast Asian principalities. The individual fleets engaged in a number of clashes with pirates and occasionally supported various royal contenders. However, pro-expansionist voices at the court in Beijing lost influence after the 1450s, and the voyages were discontinued. The protraction of the ritualistic ceremonies and scanty travels of emissaries in the Tributary System alone was not sufficient to develop firm and lasting Chinese commercial and political influence in the region, especially during the impending onset of highly competitive global trade. During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Daxia, who later became the Shangshu of the Ministry of War, hid or burned the archives of Ming treasure voyages.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The earliest Europeans to have visited Southeast Asia were Marco Polo during the 13th century in the service of Kublai Khan and Niccolò de' Conti during the early 15th century. Regular and momentous voyages only began in the 16th century after the arrival of the Portuguese, who actively sought direct and competitive trade. They were usually accompanied by missionaries, who hoped to promote Christianity.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Portugal was the first European power to establish a bridgehead on the lucrative maritime Southeast Asia trade route, with the conquest of the Sultanate of Malacca in 1511. The Netherlands and Spain followed and soon superseded Portugal as the main European powers in the region. In 1599, Spain began to colonise the Philippines via the Mexico-governed Viceroyalty of New Spain, which the Philippines was territory of. In 1619, acting through the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch took the city of Sunda Kelapa, renamed it Batavia (now Jakarta) as a base for trading and expansion into the other parts of Java and the surrounding territory. In 1641, the Dutch took Malacca from the Portuguese. Economic opportunities attracted Overseas Chinese to the region in great numbers. In 1775, the Lanfang Republic, possibly the first republic in the region, was established in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, as a tributary state of the Qing Empire; the republic lasted until 1884, when it fell under Dutch occupation as Qing influence waned.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The British, in the guise of the East India Company led by Josiah Child, had little interest or impact in the region, and were effectively expelled following the Anglo-Siamese War. Britain later turned their attention to the Bay of Bengal following the Peace with France and Spain (1783). During the conflicts, Britain had struggled for naval superiority with the French, and the need of good harbours became evident. Penang Island had been brought to the attention of the Government of India by Francis Light. In 1786, the settlement of George Town was founded at the northeastern tip of Penang Island by Captain Francis Light, under the administration of Sir John Macpherson; this marked the beginning of British expansion into the Malay Peninsula.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The British also temporarily possessed Dutch territories during the Napoleonic Wars; and Spanish areas in the Seven Years' War. In 1819, Stamford Raffles established Singapore as a key trading post for Britain in their rivalry with the Dutch. However, their rivalry cooled in 1824 when an Anglo-Dutch treaty demarcated their respective interests in Southeast Asia. British rule in Burma began with the first Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826).


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Early United States entry into what was then called the East Indies (usually in reference to the Malay Archipelago) was low key. In 1795, a secret voyage for pepper set sail from Salem, Massachusetts on an 18-month voyage that returned with a bulk cargo of pepper, the first to be so imported into the country, which sold at the extraordinary profit of seven hundred per cent. In 1831, the merchantman "Friendship" of Salem returned to report the ship had been plundered, and the first officer and two crewmen murdered in Sumatra.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 obligated the Dutch to ensure the safety of shipping and overland trade in and around Aceh, who accordingly sent the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army on the punitive expedition of 1831. President Andrew Jackson also ordered America's first Sumatran punitive expedition of 1832, which was followed by a punitive expedition in 1838. The "Friendship" incident thus afforded the Dutch a reason to take over Ache; and Jackson, to dispatch diplomatist Edmund Roberts, who in 1833 secured the Roberts Treaty with Siam. In 1856 negotiations for amendment of this treaty, Townsend Harris stated the position of the United States:The United States does not hold any possessions in the East, nor does it desire any. The form of government forbids the holding of colonies. The United States therefore cannot be an object of jealousy to any Eastern Power. Peaceful commercial relations, which give as well as receive benefits, is what the President wishes to establish with Siam, and such is the object of my mission.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: From the end of the 1850s onwards, while the attention of the United States shifted to maintaining their union, the pace of European colonisation shifted to a significantly higher gear. This phenomenon, denoted New Imperialism, saw the conquest of nearly all Southeast Asian territories by the colonial powers. The Dutch East India Company and British East India Company were dissolved by their respective governments, who took over the direct administration of the colonies.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Only Thailand was spared the experience of foreign rule, though Thailand, too, was greatly affected by the power politics of the Western powers. The Monthon reforms of the late 19th Century continuing up till around 1910, imposed a Westernised form of government on the country's partially independent cities called Mueang, such that the country could be said to have successfully colonised itself. Western powers did, however, continue to interfere in both internal and external affairs.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: By 1913, the British had occupied Burma, Malaya and the northern Borneo territories, the French controlled Indochina, the Dutch ruled the Netherlands East Indies while Portugal managed to hold on to Portuguese Timor. In the Philippines, the 1872 Cavite Mutiny was a precursor to the Philippine Revolution (1896–1898). When the Spanish–American War began in Cuba in 1898, Filipino revolutionaries declared Philippine independence and established the First Philippine Republic the following year. In the Treaty of Paris of 1898 that ended the war with Spain, the United States gained the Philippines and other territories; in refusing to recognise the nascent republic, America effectively reversed her position of 1856. This led directly to the Philippine–American War, in which the First Republic was defeated; wars followed with the Republic of Zamboanga, the Republic of Negros and the Republic of Katagalugan, all of which were also defeated.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Colonial rule had had a profound effect on Southeast Asia. While the colonial powers profited much from the region's vast resources and large market, colonial rule did develop the region to a varying extent. Commercial agriculture, mining and an export based economy developed rapidly during this period. The introduction Christianity bought by the colonist also have profound effect in the societal change.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Increased labour demand resulted in mass immigration, especially from British India and China, which brought about massive demographic change. The institutions for a modern nation state like a state bureaucracy, courts of law, print media and to a smaller extent, modern education, sowed the seeds of the fledgling nationalist movements in the colonial territories. In the inter-war years, these nationalist movements grew and often clashed with the colonial authorities when they demanded self-determination.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: In September 1940, following the Fall of France and pursuant to the Pacific war goals of Imperial Japan, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Vichy French Indochina, which ended in the abortive Japanese coup de main in French Indochina of 9 March 1945. On 5 January 1941, Thailand launched the Franco-Thai War, ended on 9 May 1941 by a Japanese-imposed treaty signed in Tokyo. On 7/8 December, Japan's entry into World War II began with the invasion of Thailand, the only invaded country to maintain nominal independence, due to her political and military alliance with the Japanese—on 10 May 1942, her northwestern Payap Army invaded Burma during the Burma Campaign. From 1941 until war's end, Japanese occupied Cambodia, Malaya and the Philippines, which ended in independence movements. Japanese occupation of the Philippines led to the forming of the Second Philippine Republic, formally dissolved in Tokyo on 17 August 1945. Also on 17 August, a proclamation of Indonesian Independence was read at the conclusion of Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies since March 1942.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: With the rejuvenated nationalist movements in wait, the Europeans returned to a very different Southeast Asia after World War II. Indonesia declared independence on 17 August 1945 and subsequently fought a bitter war against the returning Dutch; the Philippines was granted independence by the United States in 1946; Burma secured their independence from Britain in 1948, and the French were driven from Indochina in 1954 after a bitterly fought war (the Indochina War) against the Vietnamese nationalists. The United Nations provided a forum for nationalism, post-independent self-definition, nation-building and the acquisition of territorial integrity for many newly independent nations.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: During the Cold War, countering the threat of communism was a major theme in the decolonisation process. After suppressing the communist insurrection during the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960, Britain granted independence to Malaya and later, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak in 1957 and 1963 respectively within the framework of the Federation of Malaysia. In one of the most bloody single incidents of violence in Cold War Southeast Asia, General Suharto seized power in Indonesia in 1965 and initiated a massacre of approximately 500,000 alleged members of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI).


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Following the independence of the Indochina states with the battle of Dien Bien Phu, North Vietnamese attempts to conquer South Vietnam resulted in the Vietnam War. The conflict spread to Laos and Cambodia and heavy intervention from the United States. By the war's end in 1975, all these countries were controlled by communist parties. After the communist victory, two wars between communist states—the Cambodian–Vietnamese War of 1975–89 and the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979—were fought in the region. The victory of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia resulted in the Cambodian genocide.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: In 1975, Portuguese rule ended in East Timor. However, independence was short-lived as Indonesia annexed the territory soon after. However, after more than 20 years of fighting Indonesia, East Timor won its independence and was recognised by the UN in 2002. Finally, Britain ended its protectorate of the Sultanate of Brunei in 1984, marking the end of European rule in Southeast Asia.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: Modern Southeast Asia has been characterised by high economic growth by most countries and closer regional integration. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have traditionally experienced high growth and are commonly recognised as the more developed countries of the region. As of late, Vietnam too had been experiencing an economic boom. However, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the newly independent East Timor are still lagging economically.


title: History of Southeast Asia

text: On 8 August 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was founded by Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. Since Cambodian admission into the union in 1999, East Timor is the only Southeast Asian country that is not part of ASEAN, although plans are under way for eventual membership. The association aims to enhance co-operation among Southeast Asian community. ASEAN Free Trade Area has been established to encourage greater trade among ASEAN members. ASEAN has also been a front runner in greater integration of Asia-Pacific region through East Asia Summits.


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: Prem Kumar Dhumal (pronounced ; born 10 April 1944) is an Indian politician and has twice served as the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, from March 1998 to March 2003 and again from 1 January 2008 to 25 December 2012. He was the Bharatiya Janata Party's Chief Ministerial candidate for the 2017 Himachal Assembly Election, in which he lost his seat.


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: Prem Kumar Dhumal was born on 10 April 1944 in Samirpur village, Hamirpur district. His father's name was Capt. Mahant Ram and mother Phulmu Devi. He has M.A. (Eng), and LL.B. degrees following his education at Doaba College in Jalandhar and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. He became a lecturer at a private college in Punjab.


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: Dhumal married Sheela on 23 May 1972, with whom he has two sons, Arun Singh Dhumal and Anurag Thakur. The latter is also a politician and has been a member of the 14th and 15th Lok Sabhas, as well as Minister of State Ministry of Finance (India) but was elevated to the rank of Cabinet Minister for Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs and Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the July 2021.


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: Dhumal became vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in 1982. In 1984, he was selected as the candidate for the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency when the sitting Member of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly (MLA), and state stalwart Jagdev Chand, refused to stand. Dhumal lost that election but won in 1989 and 1991, and before losing the seat to Major General Bikram Singh in the 1996 Indian general election.


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: After the sudden death of Jagdev Chand in 1993, Dhumal became active in state politics. Dhumal was elected president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Himachal Pradesh and became the state's Chief Minister following the March 1998 state assembly elections. He won the Bamsan constituency of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly with a margin of 18,000 votes.


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: He headed the BJP-Himachal Vikas Congress coalition government for its full statutory term of five years, from 1998 to 2003 and became Leader of the Opposition when the BJP lost power in the 2003 elections, winning only 16 seats despite support from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Union government.


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: His tenure as the chief minister saw significant infrastructure developments, particularly of roads, and gave rise to Dhumal being called the "Sadak walla Chief Minister".


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: Dhumal resigned his seat in the Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly upon winning the Hamirpur constituency in a 2007 by-election for the Lok Sabha. The by-election came about because of the expulsion of Suresh Chandel, a BJP Member of Parliament who had been involved in a cash-for-questions scandal. A further by-election in May 2008 saw Dhumal replaced as MP by his son, Anurag Thakur.


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: Dhumal became Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh for a second time after being sworn in on 30 December 2007 after the BJP won that year's assembly elections. The BJP lost power in the 2012 elections.


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: In the state assembly elections of 2017, Dhumal stood as a BJP candidate in the Sujanpur constituency and was the party's proposed candidate for the Chief Ministerial office. Even though the BJP gained majority in the elections, Dhumal lost to Rajinder Rana from the Indian National Congress, thwarting his chances to lead the government for the third time in Himachal Pradesh.


title: Prem Kumar Dhumal

text: He has written large number of articles which have been published in different leading newspapers on political, cultural, sports and other national issues from time to time and he was the general secretary of the Doaba College literary society and editor of college magazine. His social and cultural interests include helping the poor sections of the society in getting good education free of cost or at cheaper cost and helping the poorer sections of society in getting their daughters married. He has special interest in the field of rural development, employment generation, involvement of youth in constructive work and activities, development of tourism, Hydel power in the state, inspire agriculturists to switch over to horticulture, floriculture and heliculture so that they can increase their income. He has interest in reading and listening to good music in free time. He had also been captain of the college volleyball team for three consecutive years and played it up to his university level.


title: Choi Kyu-hah

text: Choi Kyu-hah (; ; July 16, 1919 – October 22, 2006), also spelled Choi Kyu-ha or Choi Gyu-ha, was a South Korean politician who served as the fourth president of South Korea from 1979 to 1980.


title: Choi Kyu-hah

text: Choi was born in Wonju-myeon, Wonju, Gangwon-do (South Korea), Korea. This area today is part of South Korea. Choi was born into a Yangban family; his grandfather had been a scholar at the Sungkyunkwan. During the period of Japanese rule, Choi used the name .


title: Choi Kyu-hah

text: After graduating from Kyunggi High School and the (today ) with diplomas in English language and literature, Choi briefly worked as a teacher at the Taikyū Public Junior High School, before moving to Manchukuo for studies at the . Choi graduated in 1943; two years later he became a professor at the Keijō Normal School.


title: Choi Kyu-hah

text: Choi served as Ambassador to Malaysia from 1964 to 1967, foreign minister from 1967 to 1971; and as prime minister from 1975 to 1979.


title: Choi Kyu-hah

text: After the assassination of Park Chung-hee in 1979, Choi became acting president; the prime minister stood next in line for the presidency under "Article 48" of the Yushin Constitution. Due to the unrest resulting from Park's authoritarian rule, Choi promised democratic elections, as under Park elections had been widely seen as rigged. Choi also promised a new constitution to replace the highly authoritarian Yushin Constitution. Choi was the sole candidate in an election on 6 December for the balance of Park's term, becoming the country's fourth president.


title: Choi Kyu-hah

text: In December 1979, Major General Chun Doo-hwan and close allies within the military staged a coup d'état against Choi's government. They quickly removed the army chief of staff and virtually controlled the government by early 1980.


title: Choi Kyu-hah

text: In April 1980, due to increasing pressure from Chun and other politicians, Choi appointed Chun head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. In May, Chun declared martial law and dropped all pretense of civilian government, becoming the "de facto" ruler of the country. By then, student protests were escalating in Seoul and Gwangju. The protests in Gwangju resulted in the Gwangju uprising in which about 987 civilians were killed within a five-day period by Chun's military.


title: Choi Kyu-hah

text: Choi was forced to resign soon after the uprising. Prime Minister Park Chung-hoon became acting president, until Chun's election as President on September 1, 1980.


title: Choi Kyu-hah

text: After his resignation, Choi lived quietly out of the public eye and died on October 22, 2006. His funeral was held on October 26, 2006, and was attended by President Roh Moo-hyun, first lady Kwon Yang-sook, Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook, former presidents Chun Doo-hwan, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung. Choi was buried in Daejeon National Cemetery.


title: Ancestor

text: An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). "Ancestor" is "any person from whom one is descended. In law, the person from whom an estate has been inherited."


title: Ancestor

text: Two individuals have a genetic relationship if one is the ancestor of the other or if they share a common ancestor. In evolutionary theory, species which share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of common descent. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some bacteria and other organisms capable of horizontal gene transfer. Some research suggests that the average person has twice as many female ancestors as male ancestors. This might have been due to the past prevalence of polygynous relations and female hypergamy.


title: Ancestor

text: Assuming that all of an individual's ancestors are otherwise unrelated to each other, that individual has 2 ancestors in the "n"th generation before her/him and a total of 2 − 2 ancestors in the "g" generations before him/her. In practice, however, it is clear that most ancestors of humans (and any other species) are multiply related (see pedigree collapse). Consider "n" = 40: the human species is more than 40 generations old, yet the number 2, approximately 10 or one trillion, dwarfs the number of humans who have ever lived.


title: Ancestor

text: Some cultures confer reverence to ancestors, both living and dead; in contrast, some more youth-oriented cultural contexts display less veneration of elders. In other cultural contexts, some people seek providence from their deceased ancestors; this practice is sometimes known as "ancestor worship" or, more accurately, "ancestor veneration".


title: A Killing in a Small Town

text: A Killing in a Small Town, also known as Evidence of Love, is a 1990 American crime drama television film directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal and written by Cynthia Cidre. The film is based on the 1984 non-fiction book "Evidence of Love" by John Bloom and Jim Atkinson, and stars Barbara Hershey and Brian Dennehy. It premiered on CBS on May 22, 1990. Hershey won the 1990 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie.


title: A Killing in a Small Town

text: Candy Morrison is a well-respected member of her church and community. After teaching a children’s Bible study, she leaves to pick up a bathing suit at her friend, Peggy Blankenship’s home for Peggy’s daughter, Meg. Candy fails to show up for the children’s pageant show later that morning and returns several hours later, claiming she lost track of time.


title: A Killing in a Small Town

text: Later that night, Peggy’s husband, Stan, who is away on a business trip, becomes worried when Peggy fails to answer the phone and asks his neighbors to check on her. When the neighbors enter the Blankenship home, they discover blood in the bathroom and Peggy’s infant daughter crying in her crib. Eventually, they make their way into the utility room, where they find Peggy’s bloodied and mutilated body.


title: A Killing in a Small Town

text: It is revealed that Peggy was murdered with an axe, which shocks the entire town. The police begin questioning various persons of interest, including Stan, who confesses to having had an affair with Candy prior to the murder.


title: A Killing in a Small Town

text: When questioned, Candy admits to the affair but says their relationship ended mutually. Detectives notice inconsistencies in Candy’s story and eventually come to believe she committed the murder. After an intense interrogation, Candy and her husband hire attorney Ed Reivers. As the investigation intensifies, Peggy confesses to Ed that she murdered Peggy, but in self-defense, and subsequently turns herself into the police. Desperate to build a defense and to uncover how Candy was able to calmly resume her daily life after the killing, he has Candy undergo hypnosis. During the session, Candy recovers a repressed childhood memory in which she was rushed to the emergency after an accident, where her mother forced her to be quiet as she was screaming in pain.


title: A Killing in a Small Town

text: As the trial ensues, Ed becomes concerned with Candy’s flat affect and feels that her demeanor will negatively affect the outcome of the case. He has Candy testify on the witness stand, and the events of the murder are shown from Candy’s point of view:


title: A Killing in a Small Town

text: Candy arrives at Peggy’s home to ask if Meg can spend the night and go to the movies. Peggy agrees, and the two share a pleasant conversation. Peggy abruptly asks Candy if she is having an affair with Stan, and Candy reluctantly admits to it but assures her their relationship has been over for a long time. Peggy briefly leaves the room and returns with an axe and orders her not to see Stan again. As Candy prepares to leave, she goes to the utility room to get Meg’s swimsuit, where Peggy ambushes her wish the axe. The two engage in a violet struggle. Candy manages to overpower Peggy and hits her with the axe repeatedly. She then showers in the bathroom and leaves.


title: A Killing in a Small Town

text: After recounting the events, Ed, in an effort make Candy express emotion, deliberately produces the axe, causing her to cry and scream hysterically. Candy is found not guilty, which outrages several people in the courtroom. Despite her acquittal, Candy struggles to move on with her life.


title: A Killing in a Small Town

text: Portions of the film, including interior and exterior scenes of Candy Morrison's home, were filmed in Plano, Texas.


title: Damion Poitier

text: Damion Poitier (; born June 4, 1976) is an American actor and stuntman, best known for his role as Chains in "Payday 2". He made an uncredited appearance as Thanos in "The Avengers" (2012), the character's first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (in future appearances, Josh Brolin would take over the role). He has also had roles in "", "Star Trek", "Jarhead", and "Never Die Alone".


title: Damion Poitier

text: Poitier was born in Philadelphia, and moved to Massachusetts in his early childhood. He became interested in acting after watching a man who looked "just like [his] grandfather" appear on television talk about acting. He acted through school, but got his first "professional" job as a scare actor at Spooky World. Poitier's first real acting job was a stunt performer on "Sheena".


title: Damion Poitier

text: Poitier practices Universalism. He is unsure if he is related to Sidney Poitier, but knows that their ancestors "hail from the same island".


title: Queen's Pawn Game

text: Queen's Pawn Game broadly refers to any chess opening starting with the move , which is the second most popular opening move after 1.e4 (King's Pawn Game).


title: Queen's Pawn Game

text: The term "Queen's Pawn Game" is usually used to describe openings beginning with 1.d4 where White does not play the Queen's Gambit. The most common Queen's Pawn Game openings are:


title: Queen's Pawn Game

text: In the "Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings" ("ECO"), Closed Games (1.d4 d5) are classified under codes D00–D69. Openings where Black does not play 1...d5 are called Semi-Closed Games and classified as:


title: Queen's Pawn Game

text: In the 19th century and early 20th century, was by far the most common opening move by White , while the different openings starting with 1.d4 were considered somewhat unusual and therefore classed together as "Queen's Pawn Game".


title: Queen's Pawn Game

text: As the merits of 1.d4 started to be explored, it was the Queen's Gambit which was played most often—more popular than all other 1.d4 openings combined. The term "Queen's Pawn Game" was then narrowed down to any opening with 1.d4 which was not a Queen's Gambit. Eventually, through the efforts of the hypermodernists, the various Indian Defences (such as the King's Indian, Nimzo-Indian, and Queen's Indian) became more popular, and as these openings were named, the term "Queen's Pawn Game" narrowed further.


title: Queen's Pawn Game

text: The Black responses given below are ranked in order of popularity according to ChessBase for FIDE-rated games.