title: Newar people

text: Mohani (Dasain) is one of the greatest annual celebrations which is observed for several days with feasts, religious services, and processions. During Swanti (Tihar), Newars celebrate New Year's Day of Nepal Sambat by doing Mha Puja, a ritual in which our own body is worshipped, which is believed to purifies and strengthens one spiritually for the coming year. Similarly, Bhai Tika is also done during Swanti. It is a ritual observed to worship and respect a woman's brothers, with or without blood relation. Another major festival is Sā Pāru when people who have lost a family member in the past year dress up as cows and saints, and parade through town, following a specific route. In some cases, a real cow may also be a part of the parade. People give such participants money, food and other gifts as a donation. Usually, children are the participants of the parade.


title: Newar people

text: In Kathmandu, the biggest street festival is Yenya (Indra Jatra) when three cars bearing the living goddess Kumari and two other child gods are pulled through the streets and masked dance performances are held. The two godchildren are Ganesh and Bhairav. Another major celebration is Pahan Charhe when portable shrines bearing images of mother goddesses are paraded through Kathmandu. During the festival of Jana Baha Dyah Jatra, a temple car with an image of Karunamaya is drawn through central Kathmandu for three days. A similar procession is held in Lalitpur known as Bunga Dyah Jatra which continues for a month and climaxes with Bhoto Jatra, the display of the sacred vest. The biggest outdoor celebration in Bhaktapur is Biska Jatra (Bisket Jatra) which is marked by chariot processions and lasts for nine days. Sithi Nakha is another big festival when worship is offered and natural water sources are cleaned. In addition, all Newar towns and villages have their particular festival which is celebrated by holding a chariot or palanquin procession.


title: Newar people

text: Paanch Chare is one of the many occasions or festivals celebrated by the Newa community, natives from Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.


title: Newar people

text: This is celebrated on the Chaturdasi (Pisach Chaturdashi) day according to new lunar calendar on the month of Chaitra.


title: Newar people

text: And also the longest jatra of Nepal Rato Machindra Nath Janka is celebrated by Newars mostly on Patan. This Jatra is 1 month long and contains various celebration


title: Newar people

text: Western wear is the norm as in urban areas in the rest of the country. Traditionally men wear tapuli (cap), long shirt (tapālan) and trousers (suruwā), also called Daura-Suruwal. Woman wear cheeparsi (sari) and gaa (long length shawl) while younger girls wear ankle-length gowns (bhāntānlan). Ritual dresses consist of pleated gowns, coats and a variety of headresses. Jyapu women have a distinctive sari called Hāku Patāsi which is a black sari with distinctive red border. Jyapu men also have a distinctive version of the tapālan suruwā. Similarly, a shawl (gā) is worn by men and women. Traditionally, Newar women wear a shoe made out of red cloth, Kapa lakaan. It is decorated with glitters and colorful beads (potya). One of the major parts of Newar dress ups is bracelets (chūra) and mala(necklaces).


title: Newar people

text: Meals can be classified into three main categories: the daily meal, the afternoon snack and festival food. The daily meal consists of boiled rice, lentil soup, vegetable curry, relish and Meat are served. The snack generally consists of beaten rice, roasted and curried soybeans, curried potato and roasted meat mixed with spices.


title: Newar people

text: Food is also an important part of the ritual and religious life of the Newars, and the dishes served during festivals and feasts have symbolic significance. Different sets of ritual dishes are placed in a circle around the staple Bawji (rice flakes or Flattened) to represent and honour different sets of deities depending on the festival or life-cycle ceremony.


title: Newar people

text: Kwāti (क्वाति soup of different beans), kachilā (कचिला spiced minced meat), chhoyalā (छोयला water buffalo meat marinated in spices and grilled over the flames of dried wheat stalks), pukālā (पुकाला fried meat), wo (वः lentil cake), paun kwā (पाउँक्वा sour soup), swan pukā (स्वँपुका stuffed lungs), syen (स्येँ fried liver), mye (म्ये boiled and fried tongue), sapu mhichā (सःपू म्हिचा leaf tripe stuffed with bone marrow), sanyā khunā (सन्या खुना jellied fish soup) and takhā (तःखा jellied meat) are some of the popular festival foods. Dessert consists of dhau (धौ yogurt), sisābusā (सिसाबुसा fruits) and mari (मरि sweets). Thwon (थ्वँ rice beer) and aylā (अयला local alcohol) are the common alcoholic liquors that Newars make at home.


title: Newar people

text: Traditionally, at meals, festivals and gatherings, Newars sit on long mats in rows. Typically, the sitting arrangement is hierarchical with the eldest sitting at the top and the youngest at the end. Newar cuisine makes use of mustard oil and a host of spices such as cumin, sesame seeds, turmeric, garlic, ginger, mint, bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, chilli and mustard seeds. Food is served in laptya (लप्त्य plates made of special leaves, held together by sticks). Similarly, any soups are served in botā (बोटा bowls made of leaves). Liquors are served in Salinchā (सलिंचाः bowls made of clay) and Kholchā (खोल्चाः small metal bowls).


title: Newar people

text: Newar people are much innovative in terms of cuisine. They have a tradition to prepare various foods according to the festivals. Some of the popular cuisines that are prepared with the festivals are:


title: Newar people

text: Elaborate ceremonies chronicle the life cycle of a Newar from birth till death. Newars consider life-cycle rituals as a preparation for death and the life after it. Hindus and Buddhists alike perform the "Sorha Sanskaar Karma" or the 16 sacred rites of passage, unavoidable in a Hindu person's life. The 16 rites have been shortened to 10 and called "10 Karma Sanskar" (). These include important events of a person's life like "Jatakarma" () (Childbirth), "Namakaran" () (Naming the child), "Annapraasan" () (First rice feeding ceremony), "Chudakarma" or "Kaeta Puja" (first hair shaving and loin cloth ceremony), "Vivaaha" () (Wedding), among others.


title: Newar people

text: Once such important rite of passage ceremony among the male Newars is performing the loin-cloth and head-shaving ceremony called Chudākarma () followed by the Bratabandha or Kaeta Puja () which is traditionally performed for boys aged five to thirteen according to the religious affiliation Newars identify with.


title: Newar people

text: In this ceremony, Buddhist Newars – Gubhāju-Baré (Bajracharya-Shakya), Urāy, Jyapu and few artisan castes like Chitrakār – perform their Pravrajyā () ceremony by mimicking Gautama Buddha's ascetic and medicant lifestyle and the steps to attain monkhood and "nirvana" where the boy stays in a Buddhist monastery, Vihara, for three days, living the life of a monk and abandoning all material pleasures. On the fourth day, he disrobes and returns to his family and henceforth becomes a householder Buddhist for the rest of his life. The Buddhist priestly clan Gubhāju-Baré (Bajracharya and Shakya) go through an additional initiation ceremony called "Bare Chuyegu" (becoming a "Baré") while Bajracharya boys are further required to go through "Acharyabhisheka" () which is a Tantric initiation rite that qualifies a Bajracharya to perform as a purohita.


title: Newar people

text: Hindu Newars perform the male initiation ceremony called Kaeta Puja as a ritual observance of the "brahmachārya" – the first stage in the traditional four stages of life. During the ritual, the young boy renounces family and lineage for the celibate religious life. His head is fully shaved except a tuft in the top, he must don yellow/orange robes of the mendicant, he must beg rice from his relatives and prepare to wander out into the world. Having this symbolically fulfilled the ascetic ideal, he can be called back by his family to assume the life of a householder and his eventual duty as a husband and a father. Twice-born (Brahmin and Kshatriya) Newars – Rajopādhyāyas and Chatharīyas – additionally perform the Upanayana initiation where the boy receives his sacred thread () and the secret Vedic mantras – RV.3.62.10 (Gāyatrī mantra) for Brahmins and RV.1.35.2 (Shiva mantra) for Chatharīyas. The boy is then fully inducted into his caste status as a Dvija with the obligation to observe henceforth all commensal rules and other caste obligations().


title: Newar people

text: This is the rice feeding ceremony, "Annapraasan" (). It is performed at the age of six or eight months for boys and at the age of five or seven months for girls.


title: Newar people

text: For a female child, Ihi (Ehee)() short for "Ihipaa" (Eheepā)() (Marriage) is performed between the ages of five to nine. It is a ceremony in which pre-adolescent girls are "married" to the bael fruit (wood apple), which is a symbol of the god Vishnu. It is believed that if the girl's husband dies later in her life, she is not considered a widow because she is married to Vishnu, and so already has a husband that is believed to be still alive.


title: Newar people

text: Girls have yet another ceremonial ritual called "Bahra Chuyegu"() when a girl approaches puberty. This is done in her odd number year like 7,9 or 11 before menstruation. She is kept in a room for 12 days hidden and is ceremonially married to the sun god Surya.


title: Newar people

text: Jankwa or Janku is an old-age ceremony which is conducted when a person reaches the age of 77 years, seven months, seven days, seven hours, seven minutes, seven-quarter. Three further Janku ceremonies are performed at similar auspicious milestones at age 83, 88 and 99. The first Janwa is called "Bhimratharohan", the second "Chandraratharohan", the third "Devaratharohan", and the fourth "Divyaratharohan". After the second Jankwa, the person is accorded deified status.


title: Newar people

text: The next ceremony common to both men and women is marriage. The Newar custom, similar to that of Hindus, is that the bride almost always leaves home at marriage and moves into her husband's home and adopts her husband's family name as her own. Cross-cousin and parallel-cousin marriage is forbidden. Marriage is usually arranged by parents who use a gobetween(lamee). Marriage by elopement is popular in some peripheral villages.


title: Newar people

text: The games which had been played by prasanga people from their ancient time can be classified as Newa games.


title: Newar people

text: Kana kana picha (Blindfold game), Piyah (a game played with stone by pushing stone within the marks drawn in the ground), Gatti ( another game played with stone by hand), pasa are some games played by Newar people since ancient time.


title: Newar people

text: The Kirantas settled in different places of Nepal, especially in the eastern Himalayas in the seventh century B.C. They were brave. They attacked Kathmandu during the reign of King Bhuwan Singh and defeated him. They founded the Kiranti rule in the Kathmandu Valley. Yalambar was the first Kiranti King. The seventh Kiranti King, Jitedasit and the fourteenth King, Sthunko were very famous. During the rule of Jitedasti, Gautam Buddha Visited Nepal. During the rule of Sthunko, Indian Emperor Ashok visited Kathmandu.


title: Newar people

text: About 32 kings of Kirant dynasty continued their rule in the valley. During that period, Nepal made great progress. Trade and industry developed. Wool, wood and herbs were sent from Nepal to other countries. Nepali blandets were very famous in pataliputra (patina). Kautily, an Indian economist, has written this. The laws were very strict. There were justice courts in the country. The kirantas worshipped kiranteshwar Mahadev, serpents and trees. They made stupas and chaityas. They had their own culture. They made several settlements like matatirtha, Shankhmul, Thankot, Khopung, Kurpasi, Sanga, Tenkhu etc. these settlements still exist with a little change in their names.


title: Newar people

text: Lichchhavi kings, After the downfall of the Kiranti rule, Som dynasty came into power. Only five kings of this dynasty ruled over Nepal. Bhaskerverma was the last king. After that, Lichchhavi rule began in Nepal. The Lichchhavis had come to Nepal from India.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: Tyson Apostol (born June 17, 1979) is an American reality television personality, best known for his appearances on multiple seasons of the CBS reality television show "Survivor". Apostol originally competed on "" in 2009, finishing in 8th place. He returned as a villain on "" in 2010 and came in 15th place. In 2013, he returned again and was eventually crowned the winner of "". Apostol competed for a fourth time on the show's 40th season "", finishing in 11th place. He also competed on "", a CBS spinoff of the MTV franchise.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: Apostol is a former professional cyclist and also appeared on with his partner, Rachel Foulger. He co-hosts three podcasts: "News AF" on Rob Has A Podcast, "The Pod Has Spoken" on The Ringer and PicklePod.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: Apostol was born in Provo, Utah, on June 17, 1979, and raised in Lindon, Utah. He spent two years in the Philippines as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He attended Brigham Young University on a swimming scholarship, but did not graduate. Apostol cycled professionally in Switzerland, Belgium, and Austria, including for between 2005 and 2007. Once back in the United States, he managed a Utah bicycle shop.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: Apostol proposed to his girlfriend of six and a half years, Rachel Foulger, during the finale of . The episode aired on March 13, 2015. On March 15, 2015, Apostol and Foulger confirmed that in the time since filming "Marriage Boot Camp", they had gotten married. Apostol's "Survivor: Tocantins" co-star, Stephen Fishbach, performed the private ceremony on February 8, 2015 in Utah.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: Foulger and Apostol have two daughters, Bergen (b. 2015) and Marlowe (b. 2018). He currently lives in Mesa, Arizona.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: On the of "Survivor", Apostol was placed on the Timbira tribe, initially sticking with the majority alliance and forming a particularly close bond with Benjamin "Coach" Wade, who dubbed Apostol his "assistant coach". Early on, Apostol wanted to blindside fellow contestant Erinn Lobdell; however, he eventually sided with the majority and voted out the ill Jerry Sims. At the merge, Apostol won the first individual immunity by outlasting former tribemate Debbie Beebe. He went on to win immunity again with nine contestants left as well. Wade and Apostol aligned with Stephen Fishbach, James "J.T." Thomas, Jr., and Beebe, blindsiding Brendan Synnott with the cooperation of Lobdell and Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George. Sierra Reed became the target, but Thomas, Lobdell, and Fishbach joined the other group, deciding that Apostol was a bigger threat than Reed; Apostol was voted out and became the second juror. He eventually voted for Thomas to win the game.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: Jeff Probst stated that Apostol was one of his favorites of the season because he was maniacal and unpredictable.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: Apostol accepted an offer to participate again, in the show's , where he was assigned to the Villains tribe. His tribe dominated the initial immunity challenges. He formed an alliance with Jerri Manthey and fellow "Tocantins" participant Benjamin "Coach" Wade. Apostol appeared to be safe after joining the alliance of "Boston Rob" Mariano, Sandra Diaz-Twine, and Courtney Yates, along with Wade and Manthey. This group held a majority over the bloc of Russell Hantz, Parvati Shallow, and Danielle DiLorenzo. When both the Heroes and Villains tribes had to vote someone out consecutively, Mariano directed his alliance to split their votes due to Hantz's possession of a hidden immunity idol. The plan was to have him, Mariano and Diaz-Twine vote to eliminate Hantz and Yates, Manthey and Wade vote to eliminate Shallow. If Hantz gave Shallow the idol or if Hantz did not play the idol at all, on the revote, Hantz would be eliminated. If Hantz played the idol for himself, on the revote, Shallow would be eliminated 4-3-0. Hantz manipulated Apostol into disobeying Mariano's plan, and instead of forcing a tie, Apostol switched his vote to Shallow. After Hantz gave Shallow the hidden immunity idol and she played it, Apostol was the sixth contestant eliminated by a vote of 3–2, with Hantz's idol negating four votes against Shallow.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: If Apostol voted along Mariano's plan, he and Hantz would have tied 3–3, and Hantz would have been eliminated on the revote. Thus Apostol was the sixth survivor and the second Villain to be voted out of the season. His switching votes has been called "one of the dumbest moves in Survivor history." His vote switch caused huge ramifications on the game as Hantz and Shallow both would make it to the Final Tribal Council despite both losing to the more heroic, Diaz-Twine.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: Apostol returned for "Survivor"s 27th season, "". This time, he and his longtime girlfriend, Rachel Foulger, were both cast as contestants. He was assigned to the Galang tribe, while she went to Tadhana. Foulger was the third person eliminated from the game after being the second contestant to be voted out in a Tribal Council.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: Later on, a tribe switch put Apostol on a tribe with fellow former Galang members Gervase Peterson and Aras Baskauskas, as well as former Tadhana members Hayden Moss, Ciera Eastin, and Caleb Bankston. Using the clues to the hidden immunity idol's location, given to him verbally by Moss and Bankston, Apostol found the first idol by himself and kept it a secret. He also formed an alliance with Peterson, Moss, Eastin, and Bankston. At the merge, this alliance joined with Monica Culpepper and Eastin's mother, Laura Morett, to take out Baskauskas and his brother, Vytas, as well as Tina Wesson. From here, Apostol began looking further past this alliance of seven, orchestrating Morett's return to Redemption Island and voting out Bankston, who was conspiring to blindside him. In this Tribal Council, Apostol used his idol, even though no votes were cast against him and Bankston still received the majority of votes.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: With the sudden revelation that he had had the idol all along, Apostol began facing rebellion within his alliance from Moss and Eastin, who continuously appealed to Culpepper to switch her vote and go with them to vote against Apostol and Peterson. However, Apostol maintained control of Peterson and Culpepper, and even found the idol a second time, utilizing the clue that Eastin was given. Apostol later won the final two immunity challenges, thus guaranteeing himself a spot in the final three.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: He then decided to vote out former Survivor winner Wesson, who had just returned from Redemption Island, recognizing she was his only remaining threat for jury votes. Thus he went to the finals alongside the less-liked Peterson and Culpepper, who were both widely viewed by the jury as riding Apostol's coattails, letting him make all the decisions, and doing little to play their own games, with Culpepper especially being criticized for failing to make a big blindside move against Apostol and Peterson despite numerous opportunities to do so. Culpepper was also razzed for her lack of social bonds with any of the other players outside of her alliance, and she broke down crying during Final Tribal Council. Though Apostol was responsible for most of the jury members' eliminations, his method of playing the game was praised, and he was voted the $1 million winner, receiving seven of the eight jury votes (with Culpepper receiving the dissenting vote, from Vytas Baskauskas).


title: Tyson Apostol

text: Apostol once again came back for the show's 40th season, "". He was a member of the Dakal tribe. He was targeted by Yul Kwon early in the game for having close ties with other players outside the game, such as Rob Mariano and Kim Spradlin-Wolfe. After Dakal lost the fifth immunity challenge, Apostol became the fifth person voted off and went to the Edge of Extinction. He rejoined the game at the merge after winning the return challenge against the other Edge of Extinction contestants. However, Apostol was voted off again on day 25 and returned to the Edge of Extinction. He was defeated in the second return challenge by Natalie Anderson, for whom he later voted to win the season, though she would lose to Tyson's former Dakal tribemate Tony Vlachos, who won the season and became the second-ever two-time winner in "Survivor" history.


title: Tyson Apostol

text: In 2018, Apostol appeared on the CBS Sports show Poker Night Live where he played a session of $5/$5 NLHE cash game with fellow Survivor cast members Boston Rob Mariano, Kim Spradlin, and Jeremy Collins.


title: The Marais

text: The Marais (Le Marais ; "the marsh") is a historic district in Paris, France. Having once been an aristocratic district, it is home to many buildings of historic and architectural importance. It spreads across parts of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements in Paris on the Rive Droite, or Right Bank, of the Seine. After a long period of decay the district has undergone a transformation in recent years and is now once again among the more fashionable areas of the city.


title: The Marais

text: In 1240, the Knights Templar built a fortified church just outside the walls of Paris, in the northern part of the Marais. The Temple turned this district into an attractive area which became known as the Temple Quarter, and many religious institutions were built nearby: the convents des Blancs-Manteaux, de Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie and des Carmes-Billettes, as well as the church of Sainte-Catherine-du-Val-des-Écoliers.


title: The Marais

text: During the mid-13th century, Charles I of Anjou, King of Naples and Sicily, and brother of King Louis IX of France built his residence near the current n°7 rue de Sévigné. In 1361 the King Charles V built a mansion known as the Hôtel Saint-Pol, in which the Royal Court settled during his reign as well as his son's.


title: The Marais

text: From that time to the 17th century and especially after the Royal Square ("Place Royale", current "place des Vosges") was designed under King Henri IV of France in 1605, the Marais was the favored place of residence for the French nobility. Among the many urban mansions—hôtels particuliers, in French—they built there were the Hôtel de Sens, the Hôtel de Sully, the Hôtel de Beauvais, the Hôtel Carnavalet, the Hôtel de Guénégaud and the Hôtel de Soubise.


title: The Marais

text: During the late 18th century, the district was no longer considered the most fashionable district for the nobility, yet it still kept its reputation of being an aristocratic area. By that time, only minor nobles and a few higher ranking nobles, such as the Prince de Soubise, lived there. The Place des Vosges remained a place for nobles to meet. The district fell into disrepair after the French Revolution and was abandoned by the nobility completely. It would remain unfashionable until the late 20th century.


title: The Marais

text: After the French Revolution, the district was no longer the aristocratic district it had been during the 17th and 18th centuries. Because of this, the district became a popular and active commercial area, hosting one of Paris' main Jewish communities. At the end of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th, the district around the rue des Rosiers, referred to as the "Pletzl", welcomed many Eastern European Jews (Ashkenazi) who reinforced the district's clothing specialization. During World War II the Jewish community was targeted by the Nazis who were occupying France. As of today, the rue des Rosiers remains a major center of the Paris Jewish community, which has made a comeback since the 1990s. Public notices announce Jewish events, bookshops specialize in Jewish books, and numerous restaurants and other outlets sell kosher food.


title: The Marais

text: The synagogue on 10 rue Pavée is adjacent to the rue des Rosiers.It was designed in 1913 by Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard, who designed several Paris Metro stations. The Marais houses the Museum of Jewish Art and History, the largest French museum of Jewish art and history. The museum conveys the extensive history and culture of Jews in Europe and North Africa from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.


title: The Marais

text: In 1982, Palestinian extremists murdered 6 people and injured 22 at a Jewish restaurant in the Marais, Chez Jo Goldenberg, an attack which evidenced ties to the Abu Nidal Organization.


title: The Marais

text: By the 1950s, the district had become a working-class area and most of its architectural masterpieces were in a state of neglect. In 1964, General de Gaulle's Culture Minister, Andre Malraux, made the Marais the first "secteur sauvegardé" (literally translated as "safeguarded sector"). That was meant to protect and conserve places deemed to be of special cultural significance. In the following decades, the government and the city led an active restoration and Rehabilitation Policy.


title: The Marais

text: The main hôtels particuliers have been restored and turned into museums: the Hôtel Salé hosts the Picasso Museum, the Hôtel Carnavalet hosts the Paris Historical Museum, the Hôtel Donon hosts the Cognacq-Jay Museum, the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan hosts the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme. The site of Beaubourg, the western part of Marais, was chosen for the Centre Georges Pompidou, France's national Museum of Modern Art, which is widely considered one of the world's most important cultural institutions. The building was completed in 1977 with advanced modern architectural features by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.


title: The Marais

text: The Marais is now one of Paris' most frequented localities for art galleries. Following its restoration, the Marais has become a popular and culture-defining district, home to many upscale restaurants, fashion houses, and galleries.


title: The Marais

text: The Marais is also known for its Chinese community. The community began to form during World War I. At that time, France needed workers on the home front to perform the duties previously filled by men who were now soldiers on the front lines. China sent a few thousand of its citizens, on the condition that they would not take part in the war. After the 1918 Allied victory, some of them stayed in Paris, living around the current rue au Maire. Today, most work in jewellery and leather-related products. The Marais' Chinese community has settled in the north of the district, particularly in the surrounding of Place de la République. Next to it, on the Rue du Temple, is the Chinese Church of Paris.


title: The Marais

text: Other features of the neighborhood include the Musée Picasso, the house of Nicolas Flamel, the Musée Cognacq-Jay, and the Musée Carnavalet.


title: The Marais

text: The Marais became a center of LGBT culture, beginning in the 1980s. Florence Tamagne, author of "Paris: 'Resting on its Laurels'?", wrote that the Marais "is less a 'village' where one lives and works than an entrance to a pleasure area" and that this differentiates it from Anglo-American gay villages. Tamagne added that like US gay villages, the Marais has "an emphasis on 'commercialism, gay pride and coming-out of the closet'"."Le Dépôt", one of the largest cruising bars in Europe as of 2014 (per Tamagne), is in the Marais area.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: Inaara Aga Khan, formerly Begum Inaara Aga Khan (born Gabriele Renate Homey; formerly Thyssen; 1 April 1963), also previously known as Princess Inaara Aga Khan, was the second wife of the Aga Khan IV, the 49th Imam of the Nizari branch of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims; from May 1998 to March 2014, she held the title "Begum Aga Khan".


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: Inaara Aga Khan, born as Gabriele Renate Homey, is the daughter of a family of successful German entrepreneurs, ("née" Kerkhoff) and Helmut Friedhelm Homey. Early in life she adopted the surname "Thyssen" from her stepfather Bodo Thyssen (a member of the Thyssen family).


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: After attending the Schloss Salem School on Lake Constance and the École des Roches () in Normandy she read jurisprudence at the Universities of Munich and Cologne. In 1990, Inaara graduated magna cum laude with a doctorate in international law after completing her thesis on German-American commercial law. Her early career included working, whilst still at university, in the management of her mother's company (at the time Austria's largest hotel and restaurant chain) and later as an associate attorney for a German law firm.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: After interrupting her career prior to the birth of her daughter, Inaara became a consultant for UNESCO in Paris, advising on the promotion of equality and improved conditions for women.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: The marriage between Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen and Gabriele Thyssen was dissolved early in 1998.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: In May 1998, she married Prince Karim Aga Khan (subsequently Aga Khan IV), the 49th hereditary Imam of the Nizari branch of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims and became the Begum Aga Khan. Prior to her marriage to the Aga Khan and her conversion to Islam, the couple jointly chose the Muslim name "Inaara" for the bride. The marriage took place at the Aga Khan's walled compound and chateau, Aiglemont, in Gouvieux, France, on May 30, 1998.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: However, a little over six years after the marriage - on October 8, 2004 - an announcement was made that the Aga Khan and Inaara were to seek a divorce. In September 2011, a divorce settlement was reached and Inaara was to receive a settlement amount of £50 million. However, the £50 million settlement was contested by the Aga Khan in France's highest court, shortly after being announced. As a result, divorce proceedings continued while the Aga Khan was said to remain legally married to his second wife. The divorce was finalized in 2014 with the final financial settlement not revealed.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: In April 2016, it was announced that part of Inaara's jewellery collection was to be auctioned by Christie's.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: Since 1999, Inaara has been supporting micro-loans and third world development projects through the German foundation Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe. The foundation funds micro-loans to families and single parents to promote self-reliance and to end the cycle of poverty in developing countries, which include Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Romania, Thailand and Vietnam.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: Inaara has committed time to charitable causes; in particular those involving women's rights, educational projects and the improvement of opportunities and living conditions for people of all faiths and origins in developing countries. In January 2002, Inaara became the honorary president of Focus Humanitarian Assistance, the crisis response agency that is an affiliate of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and which provides relief and support services during and following natural and man-made disasters, primarily in Asia and Africa. In this capacity, Inaara supported a number of projects for the repatriation of Afghan refugees to their homeland and rebuilding civil society in Afghanistan.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: In addition she continued to contribute to numerous UNESCO projects, particularly in the area of welfare for women and children, for example UNESCO's "Passport for Equality" project. Amongst others, she accepted the patronage of the Innocence in Danger Gala event for 2003 in Berlin in order to help victims of child sexual abuse.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: Together with her mother and stepfather, Ernst-Theodor Henne, Inaara founded in 2003 the German aid organization "SOS Projects for People and Animals" to help mentally-ill, handicapped and traumatized children with the support of animals, particularly dogs, to bring fun and joy into the children's lives, and to overcome their pain and suffering.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: Since 2004, Inaara has become intensively involved in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic and supports the German AIDS Foundation.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: In order to respond in a more effective way to the above-mentioned humanitarian programmes Inaara founded an umbrella organization, The "Princess Inaara Foundation", in 2004. The purpose of the foundation is to provide philanthropic assistance to the causes and charitable organizations whose work represents the humanitarian goals that Inaara has long supported.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: In 2009, Inaara became an ambassador for FIFA Football for Hope to promote a high-quality, sustainable social and humanitarian development programme, centred on football, which focuses on the fields of health promotion, peace building, children's rights and education, anti-discrimination, social integration and the environment.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: In September, 2006, Inaara was awarded "Reminders Day" award for her commitment, dedication and relentless effort in the fight against HIV and AIDS. The award was presented to her at Berlin's red-brick City Hall by Mayor Klaus Wowereit during the "Reminders Day" ceremony.


title: Inaara Aga Khan

text: In January, 2007, she was named the "No.1" person of German Society by the German magazine "Gala", which wrote "Whereas other women, following separation from their influential husbands, often disappear from society without a trace, Her Highness has catapulted from last year's 19th position to first position. She has maintained her commitment to charitable work and stylish appearance and not said a single unkind word about her husband, the Aga Khan."


title: Murder of Tammy Homolka

text: Tammy Lyn Homolka (January 1, 1975 – December 24, 1990) was a Canadian murder victim who was killed by her older sister Karla Homolka and Karla's partner Paul Bernardo. On December 24 1990, a week and one day before Tammy's 16th birthday, Karla and Bernardo plied Tammy with alcoholic drinks laced with the sedative Halcion. When she became unconscious, the two raped her. Tammy became sick while sedated and died. After failed attempts to revive her, Karla covered up evidence of the assault and called an ambulance. Her official cause of death was listed as choking to death on her own vomit, and was believed at the time to have been an accident. After the killers were arrested for the murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, Tammy Homolka's body was exhumed. She is interred at Victoria Lawn Cemetery in St. Catharines, Ontario.


title: Murder of Tammy Homolka

text: Tammy Homolka grew up in the neighbourhood of Port Credit. She was known for her athletic abilities and she avidly participated in a variety of sports, including track and field, cross country running, and soccer, with soccer being her favourite. She was a grade 10 student at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in St. Catharines at the time of her death.


title: Murder of Tammy Homolka

text: From the beginning of their relationship, Karla noticed that Bernardo had taken a particular liking to Tammy. He would often pay special attention to her, and even went so far as to have his girlfriend pretend to be her sister during sex.


title: Murder of Tammy Homolka

text: In September 1990, Karla agreed to allow Paul to have sex with Tammy. She obtained a bottle of Halothane (a liquid general anesthetic) from the veterinary clinic where she worked, which would later be used to sedate Tammy while the two raped her. On December 24, 1990, Tammy was drugged with a combination of Halcion and alcohol, passing out in the family room in the basement of the Homolka house. Tammy's parents and sister Lori were upstairs asleep at the time.


title: Murder of Tammy Homolka

text: They filmed the entire rape, taking turns holding the camera while using the Halothane to keep Tammy unconscious.


title: Murder of Tammy Homolka

text: Three weeks after Tammy Homolka's death, Karla and Bernardo filmed a video called "The Fireside Chat" within the Homolka residence. The video was eventually viewed as court evidence. It started in the basement recreation room and at some point the filming moved into Tammy's bedroom. While they were in the recreation room, Karla admitted to Bernardo that she enjoyed Bernardo's rape of Tammy. She also said in the video that she would like to leave a rose at Tammy's grave site. When they were in Tammy's bedroom, Karla dressed up in Tammy's clothing as well as acting like her sister. They had sex on Tammy's bed.


title: Murder of Tammy Homolka

text: In 2001, the magazine "Elm Street" published an article in which it implied that forensic evidence proved that Tammy's death was not an accident and that her sister had deliberately administered an overdose of Halothane. The magazine described Karla as a "malignant narcissist" who was so incensed by her fiancé's attraction to her sister that she took steps to remove Tammy from his affections permanently.


title: Murder of Tammy Homolka

text: On February 26, 1993, the defence lawyer and the Crown began negotiations on a 10-year sentence for Karla in exchange for her testimony and full disclosure of all crimes. At the time of the negotiations, the role she and Bernardo had played in Tammy's death was not known. When she was admitted for psychiatric assessment in March 1993, Karla confessed in a letter to her parents about her involvement in Tammy's death. When the plea agreement was finalized, the initial 10-year sentence was still intact, with two years added for Tammy's death. Karla was officially sentenced to 12 years on July 6, 1993.


title: Murder of Tammy Homolka

text: On July 20, 1993, Tammy's body was exhumed. Inside her casket was a wedding invitation for Karla and Bernardo's wedding, as well as some notes. Other members of the Homolka family asked that the items be removed before Tammy's re-interment.


title: Murder of Tammy Homolka

text: In 2006, the American film "Karla" premiered. It was told from Karla Homolka's point of view. In the film, Tammy Homolka's death is featured in one of the scenes. Laura Prepon portrayed Karla, Misha Collins portrayed Paul Bernardo, and Cherilyn Hayres portrayed Tammy Homolka.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Pellet fuels (or pellets) are biofuels made from compressed organic matter or biomass. Pellets can be made from any one of five general categories of biomass: industrial waste and co-products, food waste, agricultural residues, energy crops, and untreated lumber. Wood pellets are the most common type of pellet fuel and are generally made from compacted sawdust and related industrial wastes from the milling of lumber, manufacture of wood products and furniture, and construction. Other industrial waste sources include empty fruit bunches, palm kernel shells, coconut shells, and tree tops and branches discarded during logging operations. So-called "black pellets" are made of biomass, refined to resemble hard coal and were developed to be used in existing coal-fired power plants. Pellets are categorized by their heating value, moisture and ash content, and dimensions. They can be used as fuels for power generation, commercial or residential heating, and cooking. Pellets are extremely dense and can be produced with a low moisture content (below 10%) that allows them to be burned with a very high combustion efficiency.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Further, their regular geometry and small size allow automatic feeding with very fine calibration. They can be fed to a burner by auger feeding or by pneumatic conveying. Their high density also permits compact storage and transport over long distance. They can be conveniently blown from a tanker to a storage bunker or silo on a customer's premises.


title: Pellet fuel

text: A broad range of pellet stoves, central heating furnaces, and other heating appliances have been developed and marketed since the mid-1980s. In 1997 fully automatic wood pellet boilers with similar comfort level as oil and gas boilers became available in Austria. With the surge in the price of fossil fuels since 2005, the demand for pellet heating has increased in Europe and North America, and a sizable industry is emerging. According to the International Energy Agency Task 40, wood pellet production has more than doubled between 2006 and 2010 to over 14 million tons. In a 2012 report, the Biomass Energy Resource Center says that it expects wood pellet production in North America to double again in the next five years.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Pellets are produced by compressing the wood material which has first passed through a hammer mill to provide a uniform dough-like mass. This mass is fed to a press, where it is squeezed through a die having holes of the size required (normally 6 mm diameter, sometimes 8 mm or larger). The high pressure of the press causes the temperature of the wood to increase greatly, and the lignin plasticizes slightly, forming a natural "glue" that holds the pellet together as it cools.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Pellets can be made from grass and other non-woody forms of biomass that do not contain lignin. A 2005 news story from Cornell University News suggested that grass pellet production was more advanced in Europe than North America. It suggested the benefits of grass as a feedstock included its short growing time (70 days), and ease of cultivation and processing. The story quoted Jerry Cherney, an agriculture professor at the school, stating that grasses produce 96% of the heat of wood and that "any mixture of grasses can be used, cut in mid- to late summer, left in the field to leach out minerals, then baled and pelleted. Drying of the hay is not required for pelleting, making the cost of processing less than with wood pelleting." In 2012, the Department of Agriculture of Nova Scotia announced as a demonstration project conversion of an oil-fired boiler to grass pellets at a research facility.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Rice-husk fuel-pellets are made by compacting rice-husk obtained as by-product of rice-growing from the fields. It also has similar characteristics to the wood-pellets and more environment-friendly, as the raw material is a waste-product. The energy content is about 4-4.2 kcal/kg and moisture content is typically less than 10%. The size of pellets is generally kept to be about 6 mm diameter and 25 mm length in the form of a cylinder; though larger cylinder or briquette forms are not uncommon. It is much cheaper than similar energy-pellets and can be compacted/manufactured from the husk at the farm itself, using cheap machinery. They generally are more environment-friendly as compared to wood-pellets. In the regions of the world where wheat is the predominant food-crop, wheat husk can also be compacted to produce energy-pellets, with characteristics similar to rice-husk pellets.


title: Pellet fuel

text: A report by CORRIM (Consortium On Research on Renewable Industrial Material) for the Life-Cycle Inventory of Wood Pellet Manufacturing and Utilization estimates the energy required to dry, pelletize and transport pellets is less than 11% of the energy content of the pellets if using pre-dried industrial wood waste. If the pellets are made directly from forest material, it takes up to 18% of the energy to dry the wood and additional 8% for transportation and manufacturing energy. An environmental impact assessment of exported wood pellets by the Department of Chemical and Mineral Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy and the Clean Energy Research Centre, at the University of British Columbia, published in 2009, concluded that the energy consumed to ship Canadian wood pellets from Vancouver to Stockholm (15,500 km via the Panama Canal), is about 14% of the total energy content of the wood pellets.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Pellets conforming to the norms commonly used in Europe (DIN 51731 or Ö-Norm M-7135) have less than 10% water content, are uniform in density (higher than 1 ton per cubic meter, thus it sinks in water)(bulk density about 0.6-0.7 ton per cubic meter), have good structural strength, and low dust and ash content. Because the wood fibres are broken down by the hammer mill, there is virtually no difference in the finished pellets between different wood types. Pellets can be made from nearly any wood variety, provided the pellet press is equipped with good instrumentation, the differences in feed material can be compensated for in the press regulation. In Europe, the main production areas are located in south Scandinavia, Finland, Central Europe, Austria, and the Baltic countries.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Pellets conforming to the European standards norms which contain recycled wood or outside contaminants are considered Class B pellets. Recycled materials such as particle board, treated or painted wood, melamine resin-coated panels and the like are particularly unsuitable for use in pellets, since they may produce noxious emissions and uncontrolled variations in the burning characteristics of the pellets.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Standards used in the United States are different, developed by the Pellet Fuels Institute and, as in Europe, are not mandatory. Still, many manufacturers comply, as warranties of US-manufactured or imported combustion equipment may not cover damage by pellets non-conformant with regulations. Prices for US pellets surged during the fossil fuel price inflation of 2007–2008, but later dropped markedly and are generally lower on a price per energy amount basis than most fossil fuels, excluding coal.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Regulatory agencies in Europe and North America are in the process of tightening the emissions standards for all forms of wood heat, including wood pellets and pellet stoves. These standards will become mandatory, with independently certified testing to ensure compliance. In the United States, the new rules initiated in 2009 have completed the EPA regulatory review process, with final new rules issued for comment on June 24, 2014. The American Lumber Standard Committee will be the independent certification agency for the new pellet standards.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Wood pellets can emit large quantities of poisonous carbon monoxide during storage. Fatal accidents have taken place in private storerooms and onboard marine vessels.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Wood pellets are typically stored in bulk in large silos. Pellets may self-heat, ignite and give rise to a deep-seated smoldering fire that is very difficult to extinguish. The smoldering fire produces toxic carbon monoxide and flammable pyrolysis gases that can lead to silo explosions.


title: Pellet fuel

text: There are three general types of pellet heating appliances: free standing pellet stoves, pellet stove inserts and pellet boilers.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Pellet stoves work like modern furnaces, where fuel, wood, or other biomass pellets, is stored in a storage bin called a hopper. The hopper can be located on the top of the appliance, the side of it or remotely. A mechanical auger automatically feeds pellets into a burn pot. From there, they burn at high temperatures with minimal emissions. Heat-exchange tubes send air heated by fire into room. Convection fans circulate air through heat-exchange tubes and into room. Pellet stoves have circuit boards inside that act like a thermostat and to regulate temperature.


title: Pellet fuel

text: A pellet stove insert is a stove that is inserted into an existing masonry or prefabricated wood fireplace, similar to a fireplace insert.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Pellet boilers are standalone central heating and hot water systems designed to replace traditional fossil fuel systems in residential, commercial and institutional applications. Automatic or auto-pellet boilers include silos for bulk storage of pellets, a fuel delivery system that moves the fuel from the silo to the hopper, a logic controller to regulate temperature across multiple heating zones and an automated ash removal system for long-term automated operations.


title: Pellet fuel

text: The energy content of wood pellets is approximately 4.7 – 5.2 MWh/tonne (~7450 BTU/lb), 14.4-20.3 MJ/kg.


title: Pellet fuel

text: High-efficiency wood pellet stoves and boilers have been developed in recent years, typically offering combustion efficiencies of over 85%. The newest generation of wood pellet boilers can work in condensing mode and therefore achieve 12% higher efficiency values. Wood pellet boilers have limited control over the rate and presence of combustion compared to liquid or gaseous-fired systems; however, for this reason they are better suited for hydronic heating systems due to the hydronic system's greater ability to store heat. Pellet burners capable of being retrofitted to oil-burning boilers are also available.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Emissions such as NO, SO and volatile organic compounds from pellet burning equipment are in general very low in comparison to other forms of combustion heating. A recognized problem is the emission of fine particulate matter to the air, especially in urban areas that have a high concentration of pellet heating systems or coal or oil heating systems in close proximity. This PM emissions of older pellet stoves and boilers can be problematic in close quarters, especially in comparison to natural gas (or renewable biogas), though on large installations electrostatic precipitators, cyclonic separators, or baghouse particle filters can control particulates when properly maintained and operated.


title: Pellet fuel

text: There is uncertainty to what degree making heat or electricity by burning wood pellets contributes to global climate change, as well as how the impact on climate compares to the impact of using competing sources of heat. Factors in the uncertainty include the wood source, carbon dioxide emissions from production and transport as well as from final combustion, and what time scale is appropriate for the consideration.


title: Pellet fuel

text: A report by the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, "Biomass Sustainability and Carbon Policy Study" issued in June 2010 for the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, concludes that burning biomass such as wood pellets or wood chips releases a large amount of into the air, creating a "carbon debt" that is not retired for 20–25 years and after which there is a net benefit. In June 2011 the department was preparing to file its final regulation, expecting to significantly tighten controls on the use of biomass for energy, including wood pellets. Biomass energy proponents have disputed the Manomet report's conclusions, and scientists have pointed out oversights in the report, suggesting that climate impacts are worse than reported.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Until ca. 2008 it was commonly assumed, even in scientific papers, that biomass energy (including from wood pellets) is carbon neutral, largely because regrowth of vegetation was believed to recapture and store the carbon that is emitted to the air. Then, scientific papers studying the climate implications of biomass began to appear which refuted the simplistic assumption of its carbon neutrality. According to the Biomass Energy Resource Center, the assumption of carbon neutrality "has shifted to a recognition that the carbon implications of biomass depend on how the fuel is harvested, from what forest types, what kinds of forest management are applied, and how biomass is used over time and across the landscape."


title: Pellet fuel

text: In 2011 twelve prominent U.S. environmental organization, including as Greenpeace USA and the Southern Environmental Law Center, adopted policy setting a high bar for government incentives of biomass energy, including wood pellets. It states in part that, "[b]iomass sources and facilities qualifying for (government) incentives must result in lower life-cycle, cumulative and net GHG and ocean acidifying emissions, within 20 years and also over the longer term, than the energy sources they replace or compete with."


title: Pellet fuel

text: On 11 February 2021 five hundred scientists and economists wrote a letter regarding the use of forests for bioenergy to world leaders. It warns that "The burning of wood will increase warming for decades to centuries. That is true even when the wood replaces coal, oil or natural gas". The letter calls for an end to subsidies for the burning of wood and an end to the treatment of the burning of biomass as carbon neutral in renewable energy standards and emissions trading systems.


title: Pellet fuel

text: The wood products industry is concerned that if large-scale use of wood energy is instituted, the supply of raw materials for construction and manufacturing (lumber) will be significantly curtailed.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Due to the rapid increase in popularity since 2005, pellet availability and cost may be an issue. This is an important consideration when buying a pellet stove, furnace, pellet baskets or other devices known in the industry as Bradley Burners. However, current pellet production is increasing and there are plans to bring several new pellet mills online in the US in 2008–2009.


title: Pellet fuel

text: The cost of the pellets can be affected by the building cycle leading to fluctuations in the supply of sawdust and offcuts.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Per the New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning release on Fuel Prices updated on 5 Oct 2015, the cost of #2 fuel oil delivered can be compared to the cost of Bulk Delivered Wood Fuel Pellets using their BTU equivalent: 1 ton pellets = 118.97 gallon of #2 Fuel Oil. This assumes that one ton of pellets produces 16,500,000 BTU and one gallon of #2 Fuel Oil produces 138,690 BTU. Thus if #2 Fuel Oil delivered costs $1.90/Gal, the breakeven price for pellets is $238.00/Ton delivered.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Usage across Europe varies due to government regulations. In the Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK, pellets are used mainly in large-scale power plants. The UK's largest power plant, the Drax power station, converted some of its units to pellet burners starting in 2012; by 2015 Drax had made the UK the largest recipient of exports of wood pellets from the US. In Denmark and Sweden, pellets are used in large-scale power plants, medium-scale district heating systems, and small-scale residential heat. In Germany, Austria, Italy, and France, pellets are used mostly for small-scale residential and industrial heat.


title: Pellet fuel

text: The UK has initiated a grant scheme called the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) allowing non-domestic and domestic wood pellet boiler installations to receive payments over a period of between 7 and 20 years. It is the first such scheme in the world and aims to increase the amount of renewable energy generated in the UK, in line with EU commitments. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate but similar schemes. From Spring 2015, any biomass owners—whether domestic or commercial—must buy their fuels from BSL (Biomass Suppliers List) approved suppliers in order to receive RHI payments. The Renewable Heat Incentive scandal also referred to as the "cash for ash scandal", was a political scandal in Northern Ireland that centred on a failed renewable energy (wood pellet burning) incentive scheme.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Pellets are widely used in Sweden, the main pellet producer in Europe, mainly as an alternative to oil-fired central heating. In Austria, the leading market for pellet central heating furnaces (relative to its population), it is estimated that 2/3 of all new domestic heating furnaces are pellet burners. In Italy, a large market for automatically fed pellet stoves has developed. Italy's main usage for pellets is small-scale private residential and industrial boilers for heating.


title: Pellet fuel

text: In 2014 in Germany, the overall wood pellet consumption per year comprised 2,2 million tonnes. These pellets are consumed predominantly by residential small-scale heating sector. The co-firing plants which use pellet sector for energy production are not widespread in the country. The largest amount of wood pellets is certified with DINplus, and these are the pellets of the highest quality. As a rule, the pellets of lower quality are exported.


title: Pellet fuel

text: In 2019, India started co-firing biomass pellets in coal fired power stations around its capital city Delhi to reduce the air pollution caused by the stubble/biomass burning in open fields to clear the fields for sowing next crop. Plans are made to use biomass pellets for power generation throughout the country to utilize nearly 145 million tonnes of agricultural residue to replace equal quantity of imported coal in power generation.


title: Pellet fuel

text: The total sales of wood pellets in New Zealand was 3–500,000 tonnes in 2013. Recent construction of new wood pellet plants has given a huge increase in production capacity. Nature's Flame wood pellet processing plant, in Taupo, is due in late 2019 to double its annual production capacity to 85,000 tonnes. Azwood Energy operates a wood pellet processing plant in Nelson, utilising more than 1.2 million cubic metres of forestry residue each year to provide carbon neutral fuel for domestic use, hospitals, schools and industrial processes, including milk-processing.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Some companies import European-made boilers. , about 800,000 Americans were using wood pellets for heat. It was estimated that 2.33 million tons of wood pellets would be used for heat in the US in 2013. The US wood pellet export to Europe grew from 1.24 million ton in 2006 to 7 million ton in 2012, but forests grew even more.


title: Pellet fuel

text: When small amounts of water are added to wood pellets, they expand and revert to sawdust. This makes them suitable to use as a horse bedding. The ease of storage and transportation are additional benefits over traditional bedding. However, some species of wood, including walnut, can be toxic to horses and should never be used for bedding.


title: Pellet fuel

text: In Thailand, rice husk pellets are being produced for animal bedding. They have a high absorption rate which makes them ideal for the purpose.


title: Pellet fuel

text: The biomass pellets made from edible matter can also be used as cattle fodder by importing from far away fodder surplus places to overcome the fodder shortage.


title: Pellet fuel

text: Wood pellet grills have gained popularity as a versatile way to grill, bake, and smoke. The size of the pellets makes it useful for creating a wood fired grill that still controls its temperature precisely.


title: Mayfair Witches

text: Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches, or simply Mayfair Witches, is an upcoming American supernatural thriller drama television series created by Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford, based on the novel trilogy "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" by Anne Rice. The series stars Alexandra Daddario as Dr. Rowan Fielding, Harry Hamlin as Cortland Mayfair, Tongayi Chirisa as Ciprien Grieve and Jack Huston as Lasher. It is set to premiere on AMC on January 8, 2023, and will be the second television series in Rice's Immortal Universe.


title: Mayfair Witches

text: Neurosurgeon Dr. Rowan Fielding learns she is the heiress to a dynasty of powerful witches haunted by a sinister spirit.


title: Mayfair Witches

text: Development rights to Anne Rice's "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" book series were still held by Warner Bros in December 2019, when Rice began shopping a package combining film and TV rights to both "The Vampire Chronicles" and "Mayfair Witches". Rice was reportedly asking around $30 to $40 million, plus a $2.5 million buyout of Warner Bros.' rights, and the new owner would hold the rights in perpetuity, not just as an option. In May 2020, it was announced that AMC had acquired the rights to "The Vampire Chronicles" and "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" for developing film and television projects. Anne and Christopher Rice would serve as executive producers on any projects developed. Rice said, "It's always been my dream to see the worlds of my two biggest series united under a single roof so that filmmakers could explore the expansive and interconnected universe of my vampires and witches. That dream is now a reality, and the result is one of the most significant and thrilling deals of my long career."


title: Mayfair Witches

text: In December 2021, "Deadline Hollywood" reported that "Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches" had been given an eight-episode series order by AMC, with another Rice series, "Interview with the Vampire", already in production at the network. "Mayfair Witches" will be written and executive produced by Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford, and executive produced by Mark Johnson. Spalding and Ashford said, "The world of witches has fascinated and terrified for centuries, and yet Anne Rice's particular lens on witches explored something new altogether—women who are powerful, and often brutal, and always committed to subverting our current power structures." Johnson added, "My good fortune as an executive producer of "Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire" has now been more than doubled with what Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford are imagining with "The Mayfair Witches". While both shows couldn't be more different, they nevertheless find themselves bound under the same bewitching and engaging umbrella."


title: Mayfair Witches

text: In March 2022, "Variety" reported that Alexandra Daddario had been cast in the lead role of Dr. Rowan Fielding. Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks, said "Alexandra is a singular talent who has lit up the screen in everything she's been in and we couldn't be happier to have her on board, leading the cast of a series that will be a centerpiece of an expanding Anne Rice universe on AMC+ and AMC. We found our Rowan and can't wait for her to meet viewers later this year". Harry Hamlin joined the cast that same month as patriarch Cortland Mayfair. In April 2022, AMC announced the casting of series regular Tongayi Chirisa as Ciprien Grieve, as well as Annabeth Gish as Deirdre Mayfair, Beth Grant as Carlotta Mayfair, Erica Gimpel as Ellie Mayfair and Jen Richards as Jojo, in recurring roles. In May 2022, Jack Huston was cast as Lasher, described as one of Rice's "most mysterious and sensual characters—a powerful, shape-shifting entity who has been bound to the Mayfair witches for hundreds of years."


title: Mayfair Witches

text: As of May 2022, filming for "Mayfair Witches" was under way in New Orleans. Showrunner Esta Spalding announced that filming for the first season had wrapped at the beginning of September 2022.


title: Mayfair Witches

text: Like "Interview with the Vampire", the series was originally set to premiere on AMC+ and the AMC linear network, with an intended release of late 2022, and then on January 5, 2023. The series is scheduled to premiere on AMC and AMC+ on January 8, 2023.


title: Bada (singer)

text: Choi Sung-hee (born February 28, 1980), known professionally as Bada, is a South Korean singer, composer, musical actress and television presenter. She debuted as a member of the South Korean girl group S.E.S. in 1997. After S.E.S. disbanded in December 2002, she released her first solo studio album, "A Day of Renew", in October 2003. Since then, she continued her active singing career with songs such as "Aurora", "Eyes", "V.I.P", "GoGoGo", "Queen", and "Mad".


title: Bada (singer)

text: Apart from recording and performing songs, she has established herself as an actress, notably through her participation in the original and Korean versions of stage musicals including "Notre-Dame de Paris", "200 Pounds Beauty", "Legally Blonde", and "Mozart!". She won Best Actress at the third Musical Awards and has starred in ten musicals to date.


title: Bada (singer)

text: Choi Sung-hee was born February 28, 1980. Her father is Choi Sae-wol, a trot singer with a background in Korean "pansori". Due to financial struggle during her childhood, especially after her father fell ill, she lived in a container home provided by a local church for nine years until her debut. In a series of lectures for youth, she has addressed her beginning and has encouraged students to not let their background become an obstacle in obtaining their dreams.


title: Bada (singer)

text: Bada was scouted by Lee Soo-man and entered SM Entertainment. She debuted as the leader and lead vocal of S.E.S., the first successful female K-pop idol group.


title: Bada (singer)

text: Bada made her debut with S.E.S. in 1997. The group released their debut album "I'm Your Girl" on November 1, 1997. The group later became the top-selling K-pop girl group. Since their debut, the group has released five Korean albums, two Japanese albums as well as a Japanese compilation album.


title: Bada (singer)

text: The group released a Korean compilation album, "Friend" before breaking up at the end of 2002. Members Bada and Eugene parted ways from SM Entertainment, while Shoo stayed with SM Entertainment until 2006.


title: Bada (singer)

text: Bada signed an exclusive contract with WoongJin entertainment. In 2003, Bada released her debut solo album "A Day of Renew" that has sold approximately 130,000 records, according to the Music Industry Association of Korea. Bada became the first Korean idol singer to venture onto the musical stage in 2003 with the musical "Peppermint", a love story about a singer named Bada. It was written for her by creator and producer Lee Yu-ri, who is also responsible for other musical projects such as "Typhoon", "Mother" and "Winter Sonata".


title: Bada (singer)

text: In 2006, her third album, "Made in Sea", was a big success. In 2007, Bada was cast in the role of Denise in the Korean version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Tell Me on a Sunday". Right afterward, she took on the role of Esmeralda as a part of the original Korean cast of "Notre-Dame de Paris". Her widely praised portrayal of Esmeralda gained her acceptance as a musical actress and won her the Best Newcomer Actress award and others at The Musical Awards and the Korea Musical Daesangs in 2008; she reprised the role in 2009.


title: Bada (singer)

text: The following year, "200 Pounds Beauty", a musical based on the popular movie of the same name, cast Bada in the titular role of Kang Han-byul, an overweight ghost singer who aspires to become a star and undergoes extensive plastic surgery. Bada's turn as Kang earned her the Best Actress honor at the third The Musical Awards. She was recast in 2011 for the project.


title: Bada (singer)

text: In June 2013, she was cast as Elle Woods in "Legally Blonde". During "Legally Blonde", her mother died. Despite the loss, Bada continued performances for the musical until its final run and famously sang Secret Garden's "You Raise Me Up" on KBS's Open Music Concert just two days after her mother's death. She has since stated that this loss was the reason for her relative inactivity in both her music and musical career from 2011 to mid-2013. She also cast as Marguerite in the first Korean adaptation of Frank Wildhorn's "The Scarlet Pimpernel". That same year, Bada appeared as a vocalist for the song "City Life" on American musician Brian Transeau's album "A Song Across Wires".


title: Bada (singer)

text: She returned as Esmeralda in the 2013 production of "Notre-Dame de Paris". She then signed on to depict Carmen in the first Korean production of the musical "Carmen".


title: Bada (singer)

text: On May 28, Bada, along with S.E.S. members Eugene and Shoo, attended a charity event, Green Heart Bazaar. Bada released a special album titled "Flower" on June 13, 2016, to celebrate her 20th debut anniversary. The album contains four tracks with lead single "Flower" featuring popular rapper Kanto. She released double music video for "Flower" on June 13 and "Amazing" on June 15. A few weeks later, Bada released a special summer album titled "Summertime" on June 26. Bada later released collaboration single "Cosmic" with Super Junior's Ryeowook on September 22, as a part of SM Entertainment project SM Station.


title: Bada (singer)

text: In October 2016, Bada, along with Eugene and Shoo re-formed S.E.S. to celebrate their 20 years debut. They started their project of the 20th anniversary debut with released digital single "Love[Story]", a remake of their 1999 single "Love", through SM Entertainment's digital project SM Station on November 28 and its music video released on December 29.


title: Bada (singer)

text: In early December 2016, they aired their ten episode reality show "Remember, I'm Your S.E.S.", which broadcast through mobile app Oksusu. To accompany their 20th anniversary debut, they held a concert Remember, the Day, on December 30 and 31 at Sejong University's Daeyang Hall in Seoul.


title: Bada (singer)

text: On January 2, the special album of their 20th anniversary debut "Remember" was released. The album consists of double lead singles. "Remember" was digitally released on January 1 and "Paradise" was released along with the album on January 2. They held a fanmeet as their last project of their 20th anniversary debut called I Will Be There, Waiting for You on March 1, 2017.


title: Bada (singer)

text: Bada successfully held her solo concert for the 20th anniversary debut, Twenty Steps, on December 31, 2017, at the grand hall of Unjeong Green Campus at Sungshin Women's University.


title: Bada (singer)

text: On October 14, 2019, Wave Nine announced Bada's comeback with a single title "Off The Record" set to release for October 24.


title: Bada (singer)

text: On April 19, 2020, Bada teamed up with 33 singers to release a remake song of Yang Hee-eun's "Evergreen" for the medical professionals around the world fighting COVID-19 and also to mark the 60th anniversary of the April 19 Revolution.


title: Bada (singer)

text: On January 13, 2017, her agency confirmed that she would marry a franchise restaurant owner nine years her junior. Her wedding was held in Seoul on March 23, 2017. On August 30, 2020, Bada posted a letter on her fancafe announcing her pregnancy. On September 7, 2020, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: HMS "Illustrious" was the lead ship of her class of aircraft carriers built for the Royal Navy before World War II. Her first assignment after completion and working up was with the Mediterranean Fleet, in which her aircraft's most notable achievement was sinking one Italian battleship and badly damaging two others during the Battle of Taranto in late 1940. Two months later the carrier was crippled by German dive bombers and was repaired in the United States. After sustaining damage on the voyage home in late 1941 by a collision with her sister ship , "Illustrious" was sent to the Indian Ocean in early 1942 to support the invasion of Vichy French Madagascar (Operation Ironclad). After returning home in early 1943, the ship was given a lengthy refit and briefly assigned to the Home Fleet. She was transferred to Force H for the Battle of Salerno in mid-1943 and then rejoined the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean at the beginning of 1944. Her aircraft attacked several targets in the Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies over the following year before "Illustrious" was transferred to the newly formed British Pacific Fleet (BPF). The carrier participated in the early stages of the Battle of Okinawa until mechanical defects arising from accumulated battle damage became so severe she was ordered home early for repairs in May 1945.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: The war ended while she was in the dockyard and the Admiralty decided to modify her for use as the Home Fleet's trials and training carrier. In this role she conducted the deck-landing trials for most of the British post-war naval aircraft in the early 1950s. She was occasionally used to ferry troops and aircraft to and from foreign deployments as well as participating in exercises. In 1951, she helped to transport troops to quell rioting in Cyprus after the collapse of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936. She was paid off in early 1955 and sold for scrap in late 1956.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: The Royal Navy's 1936 Naval Programme authorised the construction of two aircraft carriers. Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy, was determined not to simply modify the previous unarmoured design. He believed that carriers could not be successfully defended by their own aircraft without some form of early-warning system. Lacking that, there was nothing to prevent land-based aircraft from attacking them, especially in confined waters like the North Sea and Mediterranean. This meant that the ship had to be capable of remaining in action after sustaining damage and that her fragile aircraft had to be protected entirely from damage. The only way to do this was to completely armour the hangar in which the aircraft would shelter, but putting so much weight high in the ship allowed only a single-storey hangar due to stability concerns. This halved the aircraft capacity compared with the older unarmoured carriers, exchanging offensive potential for defensive survivability.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: "Illustrious" was in length overall and at the waterline. Her beam was at the waterline and she had a draught of at deep load. She displaced at standard load as completed. Her complement was approximately 1,299 officers and enlisted men upon completion in 1940. By 1944, she was severely overcrowded with a total crew of 1,997. After post-war modifications to convert her into a trials carrier, her complement was reduced to 1,090 officers and enlisted men.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: The ship had three Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one shaft, using steam supplied by six Admiralty 3-drum boilers. The turbines were designed to produce a total of , enough to give a maximum speed of at deep load. On 24 May 1940 "Illustrious" ran her sea trials and her engines reached . Her exact speeds were not recorded as she had her paravanes streamed, but it was estimated that she could have made about under full power. She carried a maximum of of fuel oil which gave her a range of at or at or at .


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: The armoured flight deck had a usable length of , due to prominent "round-downs" at each end designed to reduce the effects of air turbulence caused by the carrier's structure on aircraft taking-off and landing, and a maximum width of . A single hydraulic aircraft catapult was fitted on the forward part of the flight deck. The ship was equipped with two unarmoured lifts on the centreline, each of which measured . The hangar was long and had a maximum width of . It had a height of which allowed storage of Lend-Lease Vought F4U Corsair fighters once their wingtips were clipped. The hangar was designed to accommodate 36 aircraft, for which of aviation spirit was provided.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: The main armament of the "Illustrious" class consisted of sixteen quick-firing (QF) dual-purpose guns in eight twin-gun turrets, four in sponsons on each side of the hull. The roofs of the gun turrets protruded above the level of the flight deck to allow them to fire across the deck at high elevations. Her light antiaircraft defences included six octuple mounts for QF 2-pounder ("pom-pom") antiaircraft guns, two each fore and aft of her island, and two in sponsons on the port side of the hull.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: The completion of "Illustrious" was delayed two months to fit her with a Type 79Z early-warning radar; she was the first aircraft carrier in the world to be fitted with radar before completion. This version of the radar had separate transmitting and receiving antennas which required a new mainmast to be added to the aft end of the island to mount the transmitter.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: The "Illustrious"-class ships had a flight deck protected by of armour and the internal sides and ends of the hangars were thick. The hangar deck itself was thick and extended the full width of the ship to meet the top of the 4.5-inch waterline armour belt. The underwater defence system was a layered system of liquid- and air-filled compartments backed by a splinter bulkhead.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: While under repair in 1941, "Illustrious"s rear "round-down" was flattened to increase the usable length of the flight deck to . This increased her aircraft complement to 47 aircraft by use of a permanent deck park of 6 aircraft. Her light AA armament was also augmented by the addition of 10 Oerlikon 20 mm autocannon in single mounts. In addition the two steel fire curtains in the hangar were replaced by asbestos ones. After her return to the UK later that year, her Type 79Z radar was replaced by a Type 281 system and a Type 285 gunnery radar was mounted on one of the main fire-control directors. The additional crewmen, maintenance personnel and facilities needed to support these aircraft, weapons and sensors increased her complement to 1,326.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: During her 1943 refits, the flight deck was modified to extend its usable length to , and "outriggers" were probably added at this time. These were 'U'-shaped beams that extended from the side of the flight deck into which aircraft tailwheels were placed. The aircraft were pushed back until the main wheels were near the edge of the flight deck to allow more aircraft to be stored on the deck. Twin Oerlikon mounts replaced most of the single mounts. Other twin mounts were added so that by May she had a total of eighteen twin and two single mounts. The Type 281 radar was replaced by an upgraded Type 281M, and a single-antenna Type 79M was added. Type 282 gunnery radars were added for each of the "pom-pom" directors, and the rest of the main directors were fitted with Type 285 radars. A Type 272 target-indicator radar was mounted above her bridge. These changes increased her aircraft capacity to 57 and caused her crew to grow to 1,831.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: A year later, in preparation for her service against the Japanese in the Pacific, one starboard octuple "pom-pom" mount, directly abaft the island, was replaced by two 40 mm Bofors AA guns. Two more twin Oerlikon mounts were added, and her boilers were retubed. At this time her complement was 1,997 officers and enlisted men. By 1945, accumulated wear-and-tear as well as undiagnosed shock damage to "Illustrious"s machinery caused severe vibrations in her centre propeller shaft at high speeds. In an effort to cure the problem, the propeller was removed, and the shaft was locked in place in February; these radical measures succeeded in reducing, but not eliminating, the vibrations and reduced the ship's speed to about .


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: "Illustrious" had been badly damaged underwater by a bomb in April 1945, and was ordered home for repairs the following month. She began permanent repairs in June that were scheduled to last four months. The RN planned to fit her out as a flagship, remove her aft 4.5-inch guns in exchange for increased accommodation, and replace some of her Oerlikons with single two-pounder AA guns, but the end of the war in August caused the RN to reassess its needs. In September, it decided that the "Illustrious" would become the trials and training carrier for the Home Fleet and her repairs were changed into a lengthy refit that lasted until June 1946. Her complement was sharply reduced by her change in role and she retained her aft 4.5-inch guns. Her light AA armament now consisted of six octuple "pom-pom" mountings, eighteen single Oerlikons, and seventeen single and two twin Bofors mounts. The flight deck was extended forward, which increased her overall length to . The high-angle director atop the island was replaced with an American SM-1 fighter-direction radar, a Type 293M target-indication system was added, and the Type 281M was replaced with a prototype Type 960 early-warning radar. The sum total of the changes since her commissioning increased her full-load displacement by . In 1947 she carried five 8-barrel pom-poms, 17 Bofors and 16 Oerlikons. A five-bladed propeller was installed on her centre shaft although the increasing wear on her outer shafts later partially negated the reduction in vibration. While running trials in 1948, after another refit, she reached a maximum speed of from . Two years later, she made 29.2 knots from . At some point after 1948, the ship's light AA armament was reduced to two twin and nineteen single 40 mm guns and six Oerlikons.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: "Illustrious", the fourth ship of her name, was ordered as part of the 1936 Naval Programme from Vickers-Armstrongs on 13 April 1937. Construction was delayed by slow deliveries of her armour plates because the industry had been crippled by a lack of orders over the last 15 years as a result of the Washington Naval Treaty. As a consequence, her flight-deck armour had to be ordered from Vítkovice Mining and Iron Corporation in Czechoslovakia. She was laid down at their Barrow-in-Furness shipyard two weeks later as yard number 732 and launched on 5 April 1939. She was christened by Lady Henderson, wife of the recently retired Third Sea Lord. "Illustrious" was then towed to Buccleuch Dock for fitting out and Captain Denis Boyd was appointed to command her on 29 January 1940. She was commissioned on 16 April 1940 and, excluding her armament, she cost £2,295,000 to build.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: While "Illustrious" was being moved in preparation for her acceptance trials on 24 April, the tugboat "Poolgarth" capsized with the loss of three crewmen. The carrier conducted preliminary flying trials in the Firth of Clyde with six Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers that had been craned aboard earlier. In early June, she loaded the personnel from 806, 815, and 819 Squadrons at Devonport Royal Dockyard; 806 Squadron was equipped with Blackburn Skua dive bombers and Fairey Fulmar fighters, and the latter two squadrons were equipped with Swordfish. She began working up off Plymouth, but the German conquest of France made this too risky, and "Illustrious" sailed for Bermuda later in the month to continue working up. This was complete by 23 July, when she arrived in the Clyde and flew off her aircraft. The ship was docked in Clydeside for a minor refit the following day; she arrived in Scapa Flow on 15 August, and became the flagship of Rear Admiral Lumley Lyster. Her squadrons flew back aboard, and she sailed for the Mediterranean on 22 August with 15 Fulmars and 18 Swordfish aboard.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: After refuelling in Gibraltar, "Illustrious" and the battleship were escorted into the Mediterranean by Force H as part of Operation Hats, during which her Fulmars shot down five Italian bombers and her AA guns shot down two more. Now escorted by the bulk of the Mediterranean Fleet, eight of her Swordfish, together with some from the carrier , attacked the Italian seaplane base at Rhodes on the morning of 3 September. A few days after the Italian invasion of Egypt, "Illustrious" flew off 15 Swordfish during the moonlit night of 16/17 September to attack the port of Benghazi. Aircraft from 819 Squadron laid six mines in the harbour entrance while those from 815 Squadron sank the destroyer and two freighters totalling . The destroyer later struck one of the mines and sank. During the return voyage to Alexandria, the made an unsuccessful attack on the British ships. While escorting a convoy to Malta on 29 September, the carrier's Fulmars broke up attacks by Italian high-level and torpedo bombers, shooting down one for the loss of one fighter. While returning from another convoy escort mission, the Swordfish of "Illustrious" and "Eagle" attacked the Italian airfield on the island of Leros on the evening of 13/14 October.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: Upon his arrival in the Mediterranean, Lyster proposed a carrier airstrike on the Italian fleet at its base in Taranto, as the Royal Navy had been planning since the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935, and Admiral Andrew Cunningham, commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, approved the idea by 22 September 1940. The attack, with both available carriers, was originally planned for 21 October, the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, but a hangar fire aboard "Illustrious" on 18 October forced its postponement until 11 November when the next favourable phase of the moon occurred. The fire destroyed three Swordfish and heavily damaged two others, but they were replaced by aircraft from "Eagle", whose contaminated fuel tanks prevented her from participating in the attack.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: Repairs were completed before the end of the month, and she escorted a convoy to Greece, during which her Fulmars shot down one shadowing CANT Z.506B floatplane. She sailed from Alexandria on 6 November, escorted by the battleships , , and "Valiant", two light cruisers, and 13 destroyers, to provide air cover for another convoy to Malta. At this time her air group was reinforced by several of "Eagle"s Gloster Sea Gladiators supplementing the fighters of 806 Squadron as well as torpedo bombers from 813 and 824 Squadrons. The former aircraft were carried "...as a permanent deck park..." and they shot down a CANT Z.501 seaplane two days later. Later that day seven Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 medium bombers were intercepted by three Fulmars, which claimed to have shot down one bomber and damaged another. In reality, they heavily damaged three of the Italian aircraft. A Z.501 searching for the fleet was shot down on 10 November by a Fulmar and another on the 11th. A flight of nine SM.79s was intercepted later that day and the Fulmars claimed to have damaged one of the bombers, although it actually failed to return to base. Three additional Fulmars had been flown aboard from "Ark Royal" a few days earlier, when both carriers were near Malta; that brought its strength up to 15 Fulmars, 24 Swordfish, and two to four Sea Gladiators. Three Swordfish crashed shortly after take-off on 10 and 11 November, probably due to fuel contamination, and the maintenance crewmen spent all day laboriously draining all the fuel tanks and refilling them with clean petrol. This left only 21 aircraft available for the attack.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: Now augmented by reinforcements from the UK, the Mediterranean Fleet detached "Illustrious", four cruisers, and four destroyers to a point south-east of Taranto. The first wave of a dozen aircraft, all that the ship could launch at one time, flew off by 20:40 and the second wave of nine by 21:34. Six aircraft in each airstrike were armed with torpedoes and the remainder with bombs or flares or both to supplement the three-quarter moon. The Royal Air Force (RAF) had positioned a Short Sunderland flying boat off the harbour to search for any movement to or from the port and this was detected at 17:55 by acoustic locators and again at 20:40, alerting the defenders. The noise of the on-coming first airstrike was heard at 22:25 and the anti-aircraft guns defending the port opened fire shortly afterwards, as did those on the ships in the harbour. The torpedo-carrying aircraft of the first wave scored one hit on the battleship and two on the recently completed battleship while the two flare droppers bombed the oil storage depot with little effect. The four aircraft loaded with bombs set one hangar in the seaplane base on fire and hit the destroyer with one bomb that failed to detonate. The destroyer , or "Conte di Cavour", shot down the aircraft that put a torpedo into the latter ship, but the remaining aircraft returned to "Illustrious".


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: One torpedo-carrying aircraft of the second wave was forced to return when its long-range external fuel tank fell off, but the others hit the "Littorio" once more and the was hit once when they attacked beginning at 23:55. The two flare droppers also bombed the oil storage depot with minimal effect, and one bomb penetrated through the hull of the heavy cruiser without detonating. One torpedo bomber was shot down, but the other aircraft returned. A follow on airstrike was planned for the next night based on the pessimistic assessments of the aircrews, but it was cancelled due to bad weather. Reconnaissance photos taken by the R.A.F. showed three battleships with their decks awash and surrounded by pools of oil. The two airstrikes had changed the balance of power in the Mediterranean by rendering the "Conte di Cavour" unavailable for the rest of the war, and badly damaging the "Littorio" and the "Duilio".


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: While en route to Alexandria the ship's Fulmars engaged four CANT Z.506Bs, claiming three shot down and the fourth damaged, although Italian records indicate the loss of only two aircraft on 12 November. Two weeks later, 15 Swordfish attacked Italian positions on Leros, losing one Swordfish. While off Malta two days later, six of the carrier's fighters engaged an equal number of Fiat CR.42 Falco biplane fighters, shooting down one and damaging two others. One Fulmar was lightly damaged during the battle. On the night of 16/17 December, 11 Swordfish bombed Rhodes and the island of Stampalia with little effect. Four days later "Illustrious"s aircraft attacked two convoys near the Kerkennah Islands and sank two merchant ships totalling . On the morning of 22 December, 13 Swordfish attacked Tripoli harbour, starting fires and hitting warehouses multiple times. The ship arrived back at Alexandria two days later.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: On 7 January 1941, "Illustrious" set sail to provide air cover for convoys to Piraeus, Greece and Malta as part of Operation Excess. For this operation, her fighters were reinforced by a detachment of three Fulmars from 805 Squadron. During the morning of 10 January, her Swordfish attacked an Italian convoy without significant effect. Later that morning three of the five Fulmars on Combat Air Patrol (CAP) engaged three SM.79s at low altitude, claiming one shot down. One Fulmar was damaged and forced to return to the carrier, while the other two exhausted their ammunition and fuel during the combat and landed at Hal Far airfield on Malta. The remaining pair engaged a pair of torpedo-carrying SM.79s, damaging one badly enough that it crashed upon landing. They were low on ammunition and out of position, as they chased the Italian aircraft over from "Illustrious". The carrier launched four replacements at 12:35, just when 24–36 Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers of the First Group/Dive Bomber Wing 1 (I. Gruppe/Sturzkampfgeschwader (StG) 1) and the Second Group/Dive Bomber Wing 2 (II. Gruppe/StG 2) began their attack, led by Paul-Werner Hozzel. Another pair were attempting to take off when the first bomb struck just forward of the aft lift, destroying the Fulmar whose engine had failed to start and detonating high in the lift well; the other aircraft took off and engaged the Stukas as they pulled out of their dive.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: The ship was hit five more times in this attack, one of which penetrated the un-armoured aft lift and detonated beneath it, destroying it and the surrounding structure. One bomb struck and destroyed the starboard forward "pom-pom" mount closest to the island, while another passed through the forwardmost port "pom-pom" mount and failed to detonate, although it did start a fire. One bomb penetrated the outer edge of the forward port flight deck and detonated about above the water, riddling the adjacent hull structure with holes which caused flooding in some compartments and starting a fire. The most damaging hit was a large bomb that penetrated through the deck armour forward of the aft lift and detonated 10 feet above the hangar deck. The explosion started a severe fire, destroyed the rear fire sprinkler system, bent the forward lift like a hoop and shredded the fire curtains into lethal splinters. It also blew a hole in the hangar deck, damaging areas three decks below. The Stukas also near-missed "Illustrious" with two bombs, which caused minor damage and flooding. The multiple hits at the aft end of the carrier knocked out her steering gear, although it was soon repaired.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: Another attack by 13 Ju 87s at 13:20 hit the ship once more in the aft lift well, which again knocked out her steering and reduced her speed to . This attack was intercepted by six of the ship's Fulmars which had rearmed and refuelled ashore after they had dropped their bombs, but only two of the dive bombers were damaged before the Fulmars ran out of ammunition. The carrier, steering only by using her engines, was attacked several more times before she entered Grand Harbour's breakwater at 21:04, still on fire. The attacks killed 126 officers and men and wounded 91. Nine Swordfish and five Fulmars were destroyed during the attack. One additional Swordfish, piloted by Lieutenant Charles Lamb, was attempting to land when the bombs began to strike and was forced to ditch when it ran out of fuel; the crew was rescued by the destroyer . The British fighters claimed to have shot down five Ju 87s, with the fleet's anti-aircraft fire claiming three others. Germans records show the loss of three Stukas, with another forced to make an emergency landing.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: While her steering was being repaired in Malta, the "Illustrious" was bombed again on 16 January by 17 Junkers Ju 88 medium bombers and 44 Stukas. The pilots of 806 Squadron claimed to have shot down two of the former and possibly damaged another pair, but a 500 kg bomb penetrated her flight deck aft of the rear lift and detonated in the captain's day cabin; several other bombs nearly hit the ship but only caused minor damage. Two days later, one of three Fulmars that intercepted an Axis air raid on the Maltese airfields was shot down with no survivors. Only one Fulmar was serviceable on 19 January, when the carrier was attacked several times and it was shot down. "Illustrious" was not struck during these attacks but was near-missed several times and the resulting shock waves from their detonations dislodged enough hull plating to cause an immediate 5-degree list, cracked the cast-iron foundations of her port turbine, and damaged other machinery. The naval historian J. D. Brown noted that "There is no doubt that the armoured deck saved her from destruction; no other carrier took anything like this level of punishment and survived."


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: Without aircraft aboard, she sailed to Alexandria on 23 January escorted by four destroyers, for temporary repairs that lasted until 10 March. Boyd was promoted to rear admiral on 18 February and relieved Lyster as Rear Admiral Aircraft Carriers. He transferred his flag to "Formidable" when she arrived at Alexandria on 10 March, just before "Illustrious" sailed for Port Said to begin her transit of the Suez Canal. The Germans had laid mines in the canal earlier. Clearing the mines and the ships sunk by them was a slow process and "Illustrious" did not reach Suez Bay until 20 March. The ship then sailed for Durban, South Africa, to have the extent of her underwater damage assessed in the drydock there. She reached Durban on 4 April and remained there for two weeks. The ship ultimately arrived at the Norfolk Navy Yard in the United States on 12 May for permanent repairs.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: Some important modifications were made to her flight deck arrangements, including the installation of a new aft lift and modification of the catapult for use by American-built aircraft. Her light antiaircraft armament was also augmented during the refit. Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten relieved her acting captain on 12 August, although he did not arrive aboard her until 28 August. He was almost immediately sent on a speaking tour to influence American public opinion, until he was recalled home in October and relieved by Captain A. G. Talbot on 1 October. The work was completed in November and "Illustrious" departed on 25 October, for trials off Jamaica and to load the dozen Swordfish of 810 and 829 Squadrons. She returned to Norfolk on 9 December, to rendezvous with "Formidable", which had also been repaired there, and the carriers sailed for home three days later. On the night of 15/16 December, "Illustrious" collided with "Formidable" in a moderate storm. Neither ship was seriously damaged, but "Illustrious" had to reduce speed to shore up sprung bulkheads in the bow and conduct temporary repairs to the forward flight deck. She arrived at Greenock on 21 December and permanent repairs were made from 30 December to late February 1942 at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead. While working up her air group in March, reinforced by the Grumman Martlet fighters (the British name of the F4F Wildcat) of 881 and 882 Squadrons, she conducted trials of a "hooked" Supermarine Spitfire fighter, the prototype of the Seafire.


title: HMS Illustrious (87)

text: The conquest of British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies in early 1942 opened the door for Japanese advances into the Indian Ocean. The Vichy French-controlled island of Madagascar stood astride the line of communication between India and the UK and the British were worried that the French would accede to occupation of the island as they had to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina in 1940. Preventing this required a preemptive invasion of Diego Suarez scheduled for May 1942. "Illustrious" had her work up cut short on 19 March to prepare to join the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean and participate in the attack. She sailed four days later, having embarked twenty-one Swordfish, nine Martlet IIs of 881 Squadron and six Martlet Is of 882 Squadron, and two Fulmar fighters prior to escorting a troop convoy carrying some of the men allocated for the assault. A hangar fire broke out on 2 April that destroyed 11 aircraft and killed one crewman, but failed to cause any serious damage to the ship. Repairs were made in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where her destroyed aircraft were replaced and augmented by twelve additional Martlet II fighters from HMS "Archer", while two Martlet I aircraft were, in turn, transferred to "Archer", bringing "Illustrious"s total aircraft complement to 47. After her stay at Freetown, "Illustrious" proceeded to Durban; during the voyage her staff also fitted ASV radar to the replacement Swordfish. One Martlet I was fitted with folding wings.