title: Aztec warfare

text: Merchants, called pochteca (singular: pochtecatl), were perhaps the most valued source of intelligence to the Aztec empire. As they traveled throughout the empire and beyond to trade with groups outside the Aztec's control, the king would often request that the pochteca return from their route with both general and specific information. General information, such as the perceived political climate of the areas traded in, could allow the king to gauge what actions might be necessary to prevent invasions and keep hostility from culminating in large-scale rebellion. As the Aztec's empire expanded, the merchant's role gained increasing importance. Because it became harder to obtain information about distant sites in a timely way, especially for those outside the empire, the feedback and warning received from merchants were invaluable. Often, they were the key to the Aztec army's successful response to external hostility. If a merchant was killed while trading, this was a cause for war. The Aztecs' rapid and violent retaliation following this event is testament to the immense importance that the merchants had to the Aztec empire.


title: Aztec warfare

text: Merchants were very well respected in Aztec society. When merchants traveled south, they transported their merchandise either by canoe or by slaves, who would carry a majority of the goods on their backs. If the caravan was likely to pass through dangerous territory, Aztec warriors accompanied the travelers to provide much-needed protection from wild animals and rival cultures. In return, merchants often provided a military service to the empire by spying on the empire's many enemies while trading in the enemy's cities. They were able to earn their protection while further helping their empire.


title: Aztec warfare

text: Once the Aztecs had decided to conquer a particular city (Altepetl), they sent an ambassador from Tenochtitlan to offer the city protection. They would showcase the advantages cities would gain by trading with the empire. The Aztecs, in return, asked for gold or precious stones for the Emperor. They were given 20 days to decide their request. If they refused, more ambassadors were sent to the cities. However, these ambassadors were used as up front threats. Instead of trade, these men would point out the destruction the empire could and would cause if the city were to decline their offer. They were given another 20 days. If they refused the Aztec army was sent immediately. There were no more warnings. The cities were destroyed and their people were taken as prisoners.


title: Aztec warfare

text: The Aztecs used a system in which men stationed approximately apart along main roads relayed messages from the empire to armies in the field or to distant cities and vice versa. For example, the runners might be sent by the king to inform allies to mobilize if a province began to rebel. Messengers also alerted certain tributary cities of the incoming army and their food needs, carried messages between two opposing armies, and delivered news back to Tenochtitlan about the outcome of the war. While messengers were also used in other regions of Mesoamerica, it was the Aztecs who apparently developed this system to a point of having impressive communicative scope.


title: Aztec warfare

text: Prior to mobilization, formal spies called "quimichtin"(lit. Mice) were sent into the territory of the enemy to gather information that would be advantageous to the Aztecs. Specifically, they were requested to take careful note of the terrain that would be crossed, fortification used, details about the army, and their preparations. These spies also sought out those who were dissidents in the area and paid them for information. The "quimichtin" traveled only by night and even spoke the language and wore the style of clothing specific to the region of the enemy. Due to the extremely dangerous nature of this job (they risked a torturous death and the enslavement of their family if discovered), these spies were amply compensated for their work.


title: Aztec warfare

text: The Aztecs also used a group of trade spies, known as the "naualoztomeca". The "naualoztomeca" were forced to disguise themselves as they traveled. They sought after rare goods and treasures. The "naualoztomeca" were also used for gathering information at the markets and reporting the information to the higher levels of "pochteca".


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Ahtlatl:" (perhaps lit. "non-sling") This weapon was meant to represent the Aztec God Opochtli. The Aztec dart thrower (known by the Spanish as "estólica") was a weapon used to hurl small darts called ""tlacochtli"" with greater force and from greater range than they could be thrown by hand. This weapon was considered by the Aztecs to be suited only for royalty and the most elite warriors in the army, and was usually depicted as being the weapon of the Gods. Murals at Teotihuacan show warriors using this effective weapon and it is characteristic of the Mesoamerican cultures of central Mexico. Warriors at the front lines of the army would carry the ahtlatl and about three to five tlacochtli, and would launch them after the waves of arrows and sling projectiles as they advanced into battle before engaging into melee combat. The "ahtlatl" could also throw spears as its name implies "spear thrower".


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Tlacochtli": The "darts" launched from an Atlatl, not so much darts but more like big arrows about long. Tipped with obsidian, fish bones, or copper heads.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Tlahhuītōlli": The Aztec war bow, constructed in a self bow fashion from the wood of the tepozan tree, about long and stringed with animal-sinew. Archers in the Aztec army were designated as Tequihua.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Mīcomītl": The Aztec arrow quiver, usually made out of animal hide, it could hold about twenty arrows.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Yāōmītl:" War arrows with barbed obsidian, chert, flint, or bone points. Typically fletched with turkey or duck feathers.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Tēmātlatl": A sling made from maguey fiber. The Aztecs used oval shaped rocks or hand molded clay balls filled with obsidian flakes or pebbles as projectiles for this weapon. Bernal Diaz del Castillo noted that the hail of stones flung by Aztec slingers was so furious that even well armored Spanish soldiers were wounded.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Tlacalhuazcuahuitl": A blowgun consisting of a hollow reed using poisoned darts for ammunition. The darts used for this weapon were made out of sharpened wood fletched with cotton and usually doused in the neurotoxic secretions from the skin of tree frogs found in jungle areas of central Mexico. This was used primarily for hunting rather than warfare.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Mācuahuitl:" (lit. "hand-wood", or "wood at hand") This weapon was supposed to represent the Aztec God Tezcatlipoca. Essentially a wooden sword with sharp obsidian blades embedded into its sides (similar in appearance and build to a modern cricket bat). This was the standard armament of the elite cadres. Also known in Spanish by the Taino word "macana". A blow from such a weapon was reputedly capable of decapitating a horse.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Cuahuitl":(Lit. Wood) A baton made out of hardwood (more than likely oak), reminiscent of the agave plant's leaves in its shape.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Quauholōlli:" A mace-like weapon, the handle was made out of wood topped with a wooden, rock, or copper ball or sphere.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Tlāximaltepōztli:"This weapon was meant to represent the Aztec God Tepoztecatl. Basically an axe, comparable to a tomahawk, the head of which was made out of either stone, copper or bronze and had a two side design, one side had a sharp bladed edge while the other one a blunt protrusion.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Huitzauhqui:" This weapon was meant to represent the Aztec God Huitzilopochtli. A wooden club, somewhat resembling a baseball bat. This weapon was used for melee attacks just as it was made, but other designs were studded with flint or obsidian cutting elements on its sides.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Tecpatl": This weapon was meant to represent the Aztec God Xiuhtecuhtli. A dagger with a double sided blade made out of flint or obsidian with an elaborate stone or wooden handle, overall in length. Although this would have been an effective side arm, this weapon was more commonly used in Aztec sacrifice ceremonies which may point to it being wielded mostly by Aztec warrior priests.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Chīmalli": Shields made with different materials such as the wooden shield "cuauhchimalli" or maize cane "otlachimalli". There were also ornamental shields decorated with motifs made in featherwork, these were called māhuizzoh chimalli.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Ichcahuīpīlli": Quilted cotton armor which was soaked in salt water brine and then hung to dry in shade so that the salt would crystallize inside of it. One or two fingers thick, this material was resistant to obsidian swords and atlatl darts.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Ēhuatl": (lit. "skin") The tunic that some noble warriors wore over their cotton armour or tlahuiztli, known in Spanish as "tilma".


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Tlahuiztli": The distinctively decorated suits of prestigious warriors and members of warrior societies. These suits served as a way to identify warriors according to their achievements in battle as well as rank, alliance, and social status like priesthood or nobility. Usually made to work as a single piece of clothing with an opening in the back, they covered the entire torso and most of the extremities of a warrior, and offered added protection to the wearer. Made with elements of animal hide, leather, and cotton, the tlahuiztli was most effective by enhancing the Ichcahuipilli.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Cuacalalatli": The Aztec war helmet, carved out of hardwood. Shaped to represent different animals like howler monkeys, predatory cats, birds, coyotes, or Aztec deities. These helmets protected most of a warriors head down to the jawline, the design allowed the warrior to see through the animal's open jaw and they were decorated according to the wearer's tlahuiztli.


title: Aztec warfare

text: "Pāmitl": The identifying emblems that officers and members of prestigious warrior societies wore on their backs. Similar to the Japanese sashimono. These were frequently unique to their wearers, and were meant to identify the warrior at a distance. These banners allowed officers to coordinate the movement of their units.


title: Aztec warfare

text: Once the decision of going to war was made the news were proclaimed in the plazas calling for mobilization of the army for several days or weeks in advance. When the troops were ready and any allied cities had been alerted and had given their consent to partake in the campaign the march began. Usually the first to march were the priests carrying the effigies, the next day the nobles marched led by the Tlacochcalcatl and Tlacateccatl. And on the third day the main bulk of the army set out with the Tenochca marching first followed by the warriors from the other cities in the alliance (Tepanecas and Texcocas) and lastly the allied forces from other cities, some of these subject cities would also join in gradually during the march as the army passed by their cities. Thanks to the efficient system of roads maintained throughout central Mexico the army marched an estimated average of 19–32 kilometers per day. The size of the Aztec army varied considerably from small contingents of a few thousand warriors to large armies with tens to hundreds of thousands of warriors. In the war against Coixtlahuacan the Aztec army numbered 200,000 warriors and 100,000 porters. Other sources mention Aztec armies of up to 700,000 men.In 1506, an Aztec army numbering 400,000 men conquered Tututepec, a Mixtec kingdom.


title: Aztec warfare

text: Battles (sometimes called in Nahuatl by the metaphorical diphrasism "ātl tlachinolli" - literally "water fire") usually started at dawn but sometimes during the middle of the day — smoke signals were used to show that a battle was beginning and to coordinate attacks between different divisions of the army. The signal to attack was given by the drums (Teponaztli) and the conch shell trumpet (quiquiztli) blown by the trumpeter. Usually, the battle began with projectile fire — the bulk of the army was composed of commoners often armed with bows or slings. Then the warriors advanced into melee combat and during this phase, the "atlatl" was used — this missile weapon was more effective over shorter distances than slings and bows, and much more lethal. The first warriors to enter into melee were the most distinguished warriors of the "Cuachicque" and the "Otontin" societies; then came the Eagles and Jaguars, and lastly the commoners and unpracticed youths. Until entering into melee order rank was maintained and the Aztecs would try to surround or outflank the enemy, but once the melee began the ranks dissolved into a fray of individual hand-to-hand fighting. Youths participating in battle for the first time would usually not be allowed to fight before the Aztec victory was ensured, after which they would try to capture prisoners from the fleeing enemy. It is said that, particularly during flower wars, Aztec warriors would try to capture rather than kill their foes, sometimes striving to cut a hamstring or otherwise incapacitate their opponents. This has been used as an argument to explain the defeat of the Aztecs by the Spanish but this argument has been rejected by many historians — since sources clearly state that Aztecs did kill their Spanish opponents whenever they had the chance, and quickly adapted their combat strategies to their new opponents. Other Aztec tactical maneuvers included feigned retreats and ambushes where small portions of Aztec forces would attack and then fall back and lure the enemy into a trap where many more warriors were hidden in the terrain. If a defending enemy retreated into their city the battle was continued there — but normally the objective was to conquer a city rather than destroy it. Once the city was conquered the main temple would be set on fire signaling far and wide, to all concerned, the Aztec victory. If enemies still refused to surrender the rest of the city could be burned as well, but this was uncommon.


title: Aztec warfare

text: Some captives were sacrificed to Tonatiuh in ritual gladiatorial combat (as was the case of the famous warrior Tlahuicole). In this rite, the victim was tethered in place to a large carved circular "stone" (temalacatl) and given a mock weapon. The captive was supposed to die fighting against up to four or seven fully armed jaguar and eagle knights, whereupon falling he would be promptly disemboweled by a priest, but if the captive survived he was granted freedom.


title: Aztec warfare

text: Death was an essential part of Aztec culture from sacrifice to burial. Warriors were especially a part of this cycle and cultural aspect. When a warrior died either from battle or sacrifice, a ceremony was involved. Captured warriors would be sacrificed to the sun god and in some cases, the warrior would do the sacrifice. If a warrior died in battle his corpse would be burned there on the battlefield rather than at his city-state. An arrow from the fallen warrior on the battlefield would be brought back, dressed in the Sun god insignia and burned, which is curious since arrows were little-used weapons in Mexica armies.


title: Aztec warfare

text: It was believed by the Aztecs that the same place for the afterlife of warriors was also the place for women who died during childbirth. Mourning for fallen warriors was a long and sacred process. The mourners would not bathe and groom themselves for eighty days, believing this allowed time for the fallen warrior's soul to reach the Sky of the Sun. Women had a unique role in the mourning of their dead husbands. These women would carry the cloaks of their dead husbands around with them wherever they would go. They would also let down their hair and dance in lament to the sound of beating drums. Sons would also mourn for their dead fathers. They would carry around a small box which contained the jewelry and earplugs from his father. If an eagle warrior died their burial would be in the eagle warrior hall. They would be cremated and placed in the hall. In addition to their cremated bodies, they would be buried with jewelry, jaguar clays, and gold artifacts.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: Oscar Natalio "Ringo" Bonavena (September 25, 1942 – May 22, 1976) was an Argentine heavyweight professional boxer with a career record of 58 wins, 9 losses and 1 draw. A rugged, wild-swinging puncher, he was nicknamed "Ringo" because of his Beatles haircut, and enjoyed professional success in both Argentina and the United States. He is remembered for giving Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali hard fought bouts.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: Oscar Natalio Bonavena was born in Buenos Aires to two Italian immigrants. He was a professional boxer, Argentinian and South American champion. He also participated in several Argentinian TV programs such as the Pepe Biondi Show.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: Bonavena began his early career in New York City under the management of World War II hero and dentist Marvin Goldberg.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: His pro debut was on February 1, 1964. He soon racked up a quick string of early knockouts, but was overmatched early, sometimes fighting twice a month, and lost by a decision in February 1965 to then-highly rated Zora Folley. Bonavena was in only his 15th contest, and was far too inexperienced to then really tackle a top veteran like Folley. It was a one-sided contest, with Bonavena getting up off the deck from a wicked right hand. Even courageous Oscar looked discouraged and shaken at times in the later rounds. However, three years later -- with far more experience and training -- he won their rematch by decision.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: After that, he returned to Argentina, where his winning and knockout streak continued. But in mid-1966 he was enticed back to New York, and the free-swinging Bonavena soon ran into trouble outside the ring. He called Muhammad Ali a black kangaroo and even a chicken for draft dodging. Ali was furious. Oscar was one of the few people to upstage Ali in pre-fight press conferences. When, much later, he saw Ali seated ringside at the George Foreman–Ken Norton fight, he went over and started a big slanging match. In his pre-fight press conference with Frazier, Bonavena needled effectively by implying that Frazier had a personal hygiene problem. He would start sniffing and grimace. Lawsuits were brought about by reporters with broken cameras; and other such "colorful" behavior. He was always volatile, as trainers soon discovered.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: Bonavena first came to wide public attention after a fine performance: defeating rated contender and Canadian champion George Chuvalo, boxing technically better than expected, and later going the distance against the young hard-hitting great Joe Frazier. In this, their first fight, Bonavena had the future champion down twice in the second round.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: In 1967, after the World Boxing Association stripped Muhammad Ali of the title for refusing to be inducted into the U.S. military, Bonavena participated in that sanctioning body's 1967 tournament to crown a new heavyweight champion. In a strong performance he decked favoured European champion Karl Mildenberger four times, winning by a decision in Frankfurt, West Germany. But he was himself knocked down twice and clearly outboxed by eventual tournament winner Jimmy Ellis in the semi-finals in Louisville, losing by unanimous decision in an upset. Many deemed it the best win of Ellis's career.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: The following year, in 1968, after outpointing Leotis Martin, he got a rematch with Frazier for the heavyweight title in Philadelphia. After a grueling fifteen rounds Bonavena lost the rematch by decision, fighting more defensively than previous. He left with a seriously battered face, as photographed in the Ring magazine. In 1969, he got a draw in a rematch with talented Gregorio Peralta, who he'd outpointed four years earlier for the Argentine title.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: In December 1970, he fought Ali at Madison Square Garden, in the former champ's second bout after his three-year layoff. Bonavena absorbed punishment throughout but fought well, getting through with various head and body punches. With just under 1:30 left in the 15th and final round, Ali caught Oscar rushing in and decked him with a perfectly placed left hook. Bonavena got up, but was clearly not fully recovered. Ali decked him twice more, and the fight was automatically stopped under the three knockdown rule, giving Ali a TKO (technical knockout). The ending was somewhat controversial, as Ali stood over Bonavena as Bonavena was getting up, never going to a neutral corner as the rules of boxing require, which allowed Ali to quickly knockdown Bonavena twice more and automatically end the fight. After the second knockdown, the referee appears to be attempting to guide Ali to a neutral corner, but Ali brushes the referee's arm away and pursues a wobbly Bonavena.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: After the loss to Ali in 1970, he had a brutally tough match with underrated Alvin Lewis, being decked multiple times but eventually winning by disqualification. Bonavena fought intermittently for the next few years. A gregarious party man, he enjoyed life fully, at the cost of his professional boxing career.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: Eventually losses to Floyd Patterson in 1972 and Ron Lyle in 1974 effectively put him to lower ranking contender status, although he did well enough in both these matches. In the Patterson fight he broke his left hand early, possibly after decking Patterson in the fourth, and remained an advancing threat to the final bell. It was around 1973 a possible match with a then on the rise Ken Norton was being planned but, unfortunately for fans, it never materialised.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: On February 26, 1976, overweight and sluggish Bonavena fought what would be his last fight, winning a ten-round decision over the unranked Billy Joiner in Reno.


title: Oscar Bonavena

text: On 22 May 1976 Bonavena was shot dead at the age of 33 by a security guard at the Mustang Ranch near Reno, Nevada, after having become involved in a conflict with its owner. His body was returned to Argentina to lie in state at the Luna Park sports arena in Buenos Aires, where 150,000 people filed by, afterwards being buried in La Chacarita Cemetery in Buenos Aires.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: The Bulgarian Socialist Party (, BSP), also known as The Centenarian (), is a centre-left, social democratic political party in Bulgaria. The BSP is a member of the Socialist International, Party of European Socialists, and Progressive Alliance. Although founded in 1990 in its modern form, it traces its political heritage back to the founding of the BRDSP in 1891. It is also Bulgaria's largest party by membership numbers.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: The Centenarian moniker comes from the fact that the BSP is recognized as the successor of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, which was founded on 2 August 1891 on Buzludzha peak by Dimitar Blagoev, designated in 1903 as the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Narrow Socialists), and later as the Bulgarian Communist Party. After the political changes brought by the Revolutions of 1989, it abandoned Marxism–Leninism and refounded itself as the BSP in April 1990.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: The party formed a government after the 1990 Bulgarian Constitutional Assembly election but was forced to resign after a general strike that December. A non-partisan government led by Dimitar Iliev Popov took over until the 1991 Bulgarian parliamentary election later in October. In the aftermath, the party was confined to opposition. As part of the Democratic Left coalition, a forerunner of the BSP for Bulgaria, it helped form a new government in 1995, headed by BSP leader Zhan Videnov as the prime minister of Bulgaria. Large-scale demonstrations in the cities and a general strike prevented the formation of a new socialist government after its term ended at the end of 1996. The country had entered into a spiral of hyperinflation, the most serious economic and financial crisis in its recent history, after the shock therapy and privatization policies, also followed to various degrees by other post-Communist countries.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: In the 2001 Bulgarian presidential election, party chairman Georgi Parvanov was elected the president of Bulgaria on the second round, defeating on the second ballot incumbent candidate Petar Stoyanov from the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS). Parvanov resigned as party chairman and was succeeded by Sergey Stanishev. It was a break of the two-party system between the BSP and the SDS.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: After two full terms out of power (1997–2001), the BSP-led Coalition for Bulgaria won the 2005 Bulgarian parliamentary election with 31.0% of the vote but without a governing majority, and formed the Stanishev Government, headed by the prime minister and BSP chairman Stanishev, with the centrist and social-liberal parties National Movement Simeon II and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), respectively. In the 2006 Bulgarian presidential election, Parvanov was re-elected in a landslide, becoming the first Bulgarian president to do so in direct elections. In 2007, Bulgaria joined the European Union. The governing BSP-led coalition lost millions of euros of financial aid in the wake of allegations of widespread political corruption. The cabinet was also unable to react to the encroaching global financial crisis of 2007–2008 and its term ended with a budget deficit after several successive surplus years.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: In the 2009 Bulgarian parliamentary election, the BSP was defeated by the new conservative party GERB, obtaining 37 out of 240 parliamentary seats (18%), and went into opposition. GERB assumed power through an anti-communist and anti-Turkish platform, calling the previous BSP-led government "communist" even though, as written in "Jacobin" by sociologist Jana Tsoneva, that government "had introduced some of the most radical neoliberal policies." In the 2013 Bulgarian parliamentary election, the party took 26.6% of the votes, second behind GERB with 30.5%. Plamen Oresharski, the party's candidate for prime minister, and the Oresharski Government were elected with the parliament support of the BSP and the DPS. The appointment of the controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski as head of the state security agency DANS sparked large-scale protests on 14 June. Protests against the Oresharski cabinet continued until the government resigned in July 2014. In the 2017 Bulgarian parliamentary election, the BSP made big gains but not enough to govern, as GERB made smaller gains as well, and the party remained in opposition to the Third Borisov Government, which included the far right United Patriots.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: The BSP supported the 2020–2021 Bulgarian protests and led the left-wing opposition for a failed non-confidence vote. The protests ended when the prime minister Boyko Borisov resigned, but results after the April 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election proved to be fragmented. After failed attempts from the BSP to form a government in the aftermath of an inconclusive July 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election, the political crisis continued, as no government without the participation of Borissov could be formed, despite an anti-GERB majority. In addition, Korneliya Ninova, the party leader since 2016, has faced internal struggle, as the party has not been in government since 2013; the BSP has hesitated, depending on public opinion, between backing and rejecting There Is Such a People, the populist party created ahead of the anti-government protests and with the most seats. A third snap election for November 2021, this time also at the presidential level (2021 Bulgarian general election), ensued to solve the crisis. Following the election, Ninova decided to step down again although she will remain the chairman of BSP until the next party congress which will be held in January.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: Founded as the legal successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party, the BSP describes itself as a democratic socialist party, espousing socialist policies and values, while supporting a social market economy. It has also been described as a populist, and social-democratic party. The party's policies have oscillated during its existence from a customary understanding of socialism during the Videnov era, to a social-liberal worldview under Stanishev, to a socially conservative strain of socialism under Ninova.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: Like most Party of European Socialists (PES) member parties, the BSP has a pro-European stance, although it has taken some Eurosceptic positions and called for an end to sanctions against Russia. Some news outlets, such as Novinite, "The Wall Street Journal", and "The Washington Post", have described its orientation as soft Russophilia.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: In recent times under the leadership of Korneliya Ninova and unlike the majority of PES parties, the BSP has been described as more conservative on social issues, and like European Union politics it is more divided, with some leaders, such as Korneliya Ninova, opposing same-sex marriage in Bulgaria. Many party leaders opposed the Istanbul Convention because they were against educating children about sexuality if it also meant same-sex relationships, and after a long debate decided to vote against it, despite internal division about it. Former BSP leader and then-PES head Sergey Stanishev strongly supported the Istanbul Convention.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: The party is the largest in Bulgaria by number of members, having 105,000 members as of 2016, down from 130,000 in 2013, 150,000 in 2012, 210,000 in 2009, 250,000 in 1996, and around 1 million members during the late period of the People's Republic of Bulgaria. In 2020, it had 80,236 members.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: During the chairmanship of Zhan Videnov, the party followed the customary line for socialist parties – it rejected the large-scale privatization efforts of the SDS and instead moved toward a "mass" or "social" privatization campaign, which was intended to allow working and middle-class individuals ("the masses") to obtain stocks in various enterprises earmarked for privatization, as opposed to those shares only being sold to private investors on the stock market. The party under Videnov opposed what was perceived as the strong political and economic over-reliance on the United States, and instead sought to foster more friendly relations with the neighbouring PASOK-ruled Greece and SPS-ruled FR Yugoslavia.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: Parvanov, who had also been on the Bulgarian-Greek Parliamentary Friendship Committee, and was later elected as president of Bulgaria, chose to keep a degree of public distancing between party and state institutions and instead resigned his membership in the party following his elections. Though the Bulgarian constitution requires the President to resign any leadership positions within political parties, it does not require the officeholder to give up his party membership completely. He instead hand-picked Sergey Stanishev as his successor for the position. During his chairmanship, however, he opposed the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. He stated that this was not a position against NATO, but only against its military operation. He stated that he would support Bulgaria's entry into NATO, but insisted that such an accession should only happen after negotiations with Russia. Though he was considered a member of the party's liberal wing, Parvanov also reached out to its more left-wing members and restored the party membership of Todor Zhivkov, who ruled the country for over 30 years during the socialist period and who was still very popular among socialists.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: After having successfully completed two presidential terms, he re-joined the socialist party and initially put himself forward for another mandate as chairman, but withdrew it before the party's congress in 2012. Two years later, he was expelled from the party for "damaging its prestige", which he condemned as an authoritarian decision by the party's authorities. He then became the first former chairman to found his own separate party - the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: Sergey Stanishev was noted in his policy shift away from the traditional understanding of the left, and toward a more pro-Western, pro-European and social-liberal worldview. Having formed what was dubbed a 'liberal' tripartite coalition, he signed the accords for Bulgaria's entry into the European Union and NATO, while also implementing economic reforms that were criticised as being neoliberal and contrary to socialism, such as the flat tax that replaced progressive taxation in the country. Because of this, he became highly polarizing within the socialist party, generating harsh internal opposition and leading to the defection of the party's leftmost wing - the 'Marxist platform'. Having decisively lost in the 2009 election, he was successful in managing to form a government after the 2013 election, however his approach backfired, as it required the parliamentary support of the pro-Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms and nationalist Attack, both of which proved incredibly controversial. This led to protests, culminating in the resignations of both Stanishev and the government. Following the end of his chairmanship, the party adopted what was popularly dubbed the "anti-Stanishev amendment", which effectively barred him from returning to this position in the future. Stanishev then left Bulgarian politics and instead moved to the European level, where he was elected as the chairman for the Party of European Socialists.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: Mihail Mikov entered into his chairmanship under a promise to "consolidate and modernise" the party, as well as "protect its socialist and social democratic ideals", adding that the party's foremost responsibility was "the rehabilitation of the social state". However the unpopularity of the government led to a major decrease in support for the BSP, due to its association with the pro-Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms and nationalist Attack. In the 2014 Bulgarian parliamentary election the party obtained its worst result on record by that point. Mikov accepted responsibility for the result and chose to go into opposition. He nevertheless ran for re-election as Chairman of the Socialist Party, but lost to Korneliya Ninova, thus becoming the first incumbent socialist chairman to lose his bid for re-election. Ninova then became the first woman to be elected as the party's chairperson.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: Ninova's initial approach to managing the party was to present for election independent popular candidates, who nevertheless shared much of the socialists' worldview, as the party's candidates. This was exemplified by her decision to back Rumen Radev, previously the non-partisan head of the Bulgarian Air Force in the 2016 Bulgarian presidential election. Radev, though nominally running as an independent candidate, was still nominated by the socialists and ran with Iliana Iotova, a leading socialist, as Vice president. This proved to be a recipe for success, as Radev convincingly defeated GERB candidate Tsetska Tsacheva in the election and was elected as President of Bulgaria. Ninova then managed moderate improvements in the party's electoral performance during the 2019 European Parliament election in Bulgaria. Despite this, the socialists were not able to overtake GERB and Ninova handed in her resignation, only to withdraw it shortly before it was due to be voted. The party also improved its results in the 2019 Bulgarian local elections, increasing its support across the board in the Bulgarian local scene and even winning some districts of the capital Sofia, a city known as a bastion of centre-right and right-wing politics. The socialists even nearly managed to win the position of Mayor of Sofia, with the party's candidate Maya Manolova narrowly losing out to the incumbent Yordanka Fandakova.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: However and much more controversially, around this time Ninova began to shift the party's orientation toward traditionalism and social conservatism, advocating against same-sex marriage and the Istanbul Convention, as well as taking a harsh stance against perceived 'gender ideology'.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: These changes to the party's philosophy also proved very internally divisive, and many factions formed to oppose Ninova within her own party, further galvanized by the fact that Ninova had taken part in privatization deals during the 90s. This internal opposition also accused Ninova of acting in a very authoritarian manner in attempting to crush internal dissent, comparing her to SDS leader Ivan Kostov. Because of this, the party suffered numerous defections. Several party branches disassociated themselves from the party, Maya Manolova refused to renew her membership and instead went on to form her own party Stand Up.BG, a significant portion of the party's parliamentary caucus left to form the Bulgarian Progressive Line, while a portion of the party's old-school membership left to form the Left Union for a Clean and Holy Republic, a broad left-wing alliance led by former BSP Chairman Zhan Videnov. Tatyana Doncheva's Movement 21 also refused to align itself with its former mother party, the BSP, and instead chose to join Stand Up.BG in creating the Stand Up.BG! We are coming! alliance. A faction of those within the internal opposition that still remained in the party formed the 'Socialism of the 21st century platform', which stated that it would fight Ninova's 'usurpation' of the party and work to 'restore the public image of socialism as the path to a more just and secure society'. According to this internal platform, the party under Ninova had become a leaderist power broker party, separated from its 150-year history.


title: Bulgarian Socialist Party

text: Due to these and other reasons, the BSP obtained poor results during three consecutive snap parliamentary elections held in 2021, with the party obtaining its worst electoral result in its history. Due to this bad electoral performance, Ninova was asked, but refused to resign from her post. However, many party organizations, including the BSP's own youth wing demanded that she resign, which she agreed to do the following day. However, Ninova later stated that her resignation was not yet valid and she would remain the party's chairperson until a congress approved it at an undefined later date. Nevertheless, the BSP's national council gave Ninova its approval for her to negotiate the BSP's support for a government led by We Continue the Change, the new pro-Radev party that had won the November election.


title: Beretta M12

text: The Beretta M12 (Model 12) is a 9×19mm Parabellum caliber submachine gun designed by Beretta. Production started in 1959, the first users were the Italian Carabinieri, Italian State Police and the Guardia di Finanza, though in limited number, it was only widely issued beginning in 1978, replacing the old Beretta MAB. In 1962 the Italian Army bought a limited number of Franchi LF-57 submachine guns, judged better than the M12 but never issued to the troops, and only in 1992 the M12S2 variant was introduced, in very limited number. The Italian Air Force, instead bought many M12S and M12S2 for the airport security units. However the weapon had a higher initial success in the Arab countries and South America.


title: Beretta M12

text: The weapon was first seen during the Tet Offensive in 1968 when the US Marines guarding the U.S. embassy in Saigon repelled the assault by the Viet Cong using the Beretta M12. It is also used by various South American, African and Asian countries, and made under licence in Brazil by Taurus, in Belgium by FN Herstal and in Indonesia by PT Pindad.


title: Beretta M12

text: In 1959, Beretta weapons designer Domenico Salza revisited an old project, the Armaguerra Cremona OG44 submachine gun, in order to make a new submachine gun to replace the old MAB model 1938. The Model 12 was the final production model, and was followed ten years later by the M12S with differences in the safety and other mechanics.


title: Beretta M12

text: The Model 12 weighs 3.48 kilograms empty (about 3.820 kg loaded) and is 660 millimeters in length with stock extended (418 mm when retracted). Its short length is achieved by use of a barrel recessed into the bolt head, known as a telescoping bolt. This reduces length without reducing barrel length or bolt weight. It fires from an open bolt and has a cyclic rate of fire of 550 rounds per minute.


title: Beretta M12

text: The barrel and rifling are chromium-plated to prevent fouling. The bolt housing has grooves to allow bolt movement, even in extremely adverse conditions such as exposure to mud, dust, or sand. The exterior surfaces of the firearm are finished with epoxy resin coating for protection against corrosion and damage.


title: Beretta M12

text: The weapon has three safeties: a manual safety which blocks the trigger; an automatic safety on the rear grip which immobilizes the trigger and blocks the bolt in a closed position; and a safety on the cocking handle locking the bolt in case it does not retract sufficiently.


title: Beretta M12

text: The weapon is provided with a front sight (adjustable for elevation and windage) and a rear sight with a two-position flip aperture (up to 100 m and up to 200 m).


title: Beretta M12

text: 20-, 32-, and 40-round box magazines were available for the original Model 12, which was chambered for the 9mm Parabellum cartridge.


title: Beretta M12

text: The first variant was introduced, in limited number, at the end of the '60s for the Italian Navy special forces and is easily recognizable from the longer barrel, about one inch, and the presence of a birdcage-type flash suppressor. It has been replaced by the Heckler & Koch MP5.


title: Beretta M12

text: The Model 12 was redesigned as the Beretta Model 12S in 1978. The Model 12s uses a 32-round box magazine, and is chambered for the 9×19 mm NATO cartridge.


title: Beretta M12

text: A novel feature is the grip safety, which locks the trigger and the bolt in the closed position, thus safeguarding against accidental firing if the grip is not held firmly or if the gun is dropped. The safety and fire-selector switch, which in the original Model 12 were two separate push-pin button (with the fire-selector being a button that activated single-fire or burst fire whether it was pushed on the right side or the left side) have been re-engineered in a modern lever-type selector with three positions (S for "Sicura" or Safety, 1 for Single-fire, R for "Raffica" or Burst fire). The fixed firing pin on the face of the bolt can strike the primer only when the cartridge is chambered fully, and this also avoids accidental firing, according to its designers.


title: Beretta M12

text: The PM12S was also designed with easy field-stripping and reassembly in mind, which has been simplified and can be accomplished without tools. It can be equipped with a suppressor, but this requires a slight modification of the barrel by a competent gunsmith.


title: Beretta M12

text: Minus the suppressor and other optional features, the Beretta PM12S is made up of 84 discrete components.


title: Beretta M12

text: The current version of the Beretta Model 12, is called the PM12-S2. In the mid-1980s the Italian Carabinieri, after a misfire accident, asked for a modification, in the form of a further safety device, which allowed both to keep the bolt of the weapon in half-cocked position and acted as an interceptor preventing accidental fire should the bolt or the firing pin suddenly disengage. This modification was implemented as a standard factory feature, and the denomination of the submachine gun changed to PM12-S2; this is the only Model 12 variant currently manufactured by Beretta.


title: Principality of Albania

text: The Principality of Albania ( or ) refers to the short-lived monarchy in Albania, headed by Wilhelm, Prince of Albania, that lasted from the Treaty of London of 1913 which ended the First Balkan War, through the invasions of Albania during World War I and the subsequent disputes over Albanian independence during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, until 1925, when the monarchy was abolished and the Albanian Republic declared.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Albania had been under Ottoman rule from around 1478. The Great Powers recognized the independence of Albania in the Treaty of London in May 1913 and the Principality was established on February 21, 1914. The Great Powers selected Prince Wilhelm of Wied, a nephew of Queen Elisabeth of Romania, to become the sovereign of the newly independent Albania. A formal offer was made by 18 Albanian delegates representing the 18 districts of Albania on February 21, 1914, an offer which he accepted. Outside of Albania Wilhelm was styled prince, but in Albania he was referred to as king so as not to seem inferior to the king of Montenegro. The first government under the rule of the House of Wied was a kind of "princes privy council" because of its members, who were representatives of the Albanian nobility: Prince Turhan Pasha Përmeti (former Governor of Crete and ambassador of the Ottoman Empire at Saint Petersburg), Aziz Pasha Vrioni, Prince Bib Doda of Gjomarkaj-Mirdita, Prince Essad Pasha Toptani, Prince George Adamidi bey Frashëri, Mihal Turtulli bey Koritza, and others.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Prince Wilhelm arrived in Albania at his provisional capital of Durrës on March 7, 1914, along with the Royal family. The security of Albania was to be provided by an International Gendarmerie commanded by Dutch officers. Wilhelm left Albania on September 3, 1914, following a pan-Islamic revolt initiated by Essad Pasha and later headed by Haxhi Qamili, the latter the military commander of the "Muslim State of Central Albania" centered in Tirana. Wilhelm never renounced his claim to the throne.


title: Principality of Albania

text: World War I interrupted all government activities in Albania, and the country was split into a number of regional governments. Political chaos engulfed Albania after the outbreak of World War I. Surrounded by insurgents in Durrës, Prince Wilhelm departed the country in September 1914, just six months after arriving, and subsequently joined the German army and served on the Eastern Front. The Albanian people split along religious and tribal lines after the prince's departure. Muslims demanded a Muslim prince and looked to Ottoman Empire as the protector of the privileges they had enjoyed, hence many beys and clan chiefs recognized no superior authority. In late October 1914, Greek forces entered Albania in the Protocol of Corfu's recognized Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus. Italy occupied Vlorë, and Serbia and Montenegro occupied parts of northern Albania until a Central Powers offensive scattered the Serbian army, which was evacuated by the French to Thessaloniki. Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces then occupied about two-thirds of the country.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Under the secret Treaty of London signed in April 1915, Triple Entente powers promised Italy that it would gain Vlorë and nearby lands and a protectorate over Albania in exchange for entering the war against Austria-Hungary. Serbia and Montenegro were promised much of northern Albania, and Greece was promised much of the country's southern half. The treaty was to leave a tiny Albanian state that would be represented by Italy in its relations with the other major powers, thus basically would have no foreign policy. In September 1918, the Entente forces broke through the Central Powers' lines north of Thessaloniki, and within days Austro-Hungarian forces began to withdraw from Albania. When the war ended on November 11, 1918, Italy's army had occupied most of Albania, Serbia held much of the country's northern mountains, Greece occupied a sliver of land within Albania's 1913 borders; and French forces occupied Korçë and Shkodër as well as other regions with sizable Albanian populations such as Kosovo, remained part of Serbia.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Albania's political confusion continued in the wake of World War I. The country lacked a single recognized government, and Albanians feared, with justification, that Italy, Yugoslavia, and Greece would succeed in extinguishing Albania's independence and carve up the country. Italian forces controlled Albanian political activity in the areas they occupied. The Serbs, who largely dictated Yugoslavia's foreign policy, strove to take over northern Albania, and the Greeks sought to control southern Albania.


title: Principality of Albania

text: A delegation sent by a postwar Albanian National Assembly that met at Durrës in December 1918 defended Albanian interests at the Paris Peace Conference, but the conference denied Albania official representation. The National Assembly, anxious to keep Albania intact, expressed willingness to accept Italian protection and even an Italian prince as a ruler so long as it would mean Albania did not lose territory. Serbian troops conducted actions in Albanian-populated border areas, while Albanian guerrillas operated in both Serbia and Montenegro.


title: Principality of Albania

text: In January 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference, negotiators from France, Britain, and Greece agreed to divide Albania among Yugoslavia, Italy, and Greece as a diplomatic expedient aimed at finding a compromise solution to the territorial conflict between Italy and Yugoslavia. The deal was done behind the Albanians' backs and in the absence of a United States negotiator.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Members of a second Albanian National Assembly held at Lushnjë in January 1920 rejected the partition plan and warned that Albanians would take up arms to defend their country's independence and territorial integrity. The Lushnjë National Assembly appointed a four-man regency to rule the country. A bicameral parliament was also created, in which an elected lower chamber, the Chamber of Deputies (with one deputy for every 12,000 people in Albania and one for the Albanian community in the United States), appointed members of its own ranks to an upper chamber, the Senate. In February 1920, the government moved to Tirana, which became Albania's capital.


title: Principality of Albania

text: One month later, in March 1920, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson intervened to block the Paris agreement. The United States underscored its support for Albania's independence by recognizing an official Albanian representative to Washington, and on December 17, 1920, the League of Nations recognized Albania's sovereignty by admitting it as a full member. The country's borders, however, remained unsettled.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Albania's new government campaigned to end Italy's occupation of the country and encouraged peasants to harass Italian forces. In September 1920, after the Battle of Vlora, where Italian-occupied Vlorë was besieged by Albanian forces, Rome abandoned its claims on Albania under the Treaty of London and withdrew its forces from all of Albania except Sazan Island at the mouth of Vlorë Bay.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Yugoslavia continued to pursue a predatory policy toward Albania, and after Albanian tribesmen clashed with Yugoslav forces occupying the northern part of the country, Yugoslav troops escalated their campaign in the area. Belgrade then backed a disgruntled Geg clan chief, Gjon Markagjoni, who led his Roman Catholic Mirditë tribesmen in a rebellion against the regency and parliament. Markagjoni proclaimed the founding of an independent "Republic of Mirdita".


title: Principality of Albania

text: Finally, in November 1921, Yugoslav troops invaded Albanian territory beyond the areas they were already occupying. The League of Nations dispatched a commission composed of representatives of Britain, France, Italy, and Japan that reaffirmed Albania's 1913 borders. Yugoslavia complained bitterly but had no choice but to withdraw its troops. The Republic of Mirdita disappeared.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Interwar Albanian governments appeared and disappeared in rapid succession. Between July and December 1921 alone, the premiership changed hands five times.


title: Principality of Albania

text: The Congress of Lushnjë () was held in five sessions on January 27-January 31, 1920, in Lushnjë by Albanian nationalists and had as its goal the study of the Albanian situation and the measures to be adopted in order to save Albania from being partitioned among other countries after World War I. The Congress was held in the house of Kaso Fuga and it comprised delegates from all of Albania. Aqif Pashë Elbasani was elected as speaker of the Congress as he was held in high regard as a great patriot. It established the High Council ("Këshilli i Lartë"), the National Council ("Këshillin Kombëtar"), and moved the capital from Lushnjë to Tirana.


title: Principality of Albania

text: The High Council was made up of Luigj Bumçi, Aqif Pashë Elbasani, Abdi Toptani, and Dr. Mihal Turtulli who would perform the function of the leaders of the new Albanian state, whereas the National Council would function as the Parliament.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Ahmet Zogu was elected Minister of Internal AffairsMehmed Konica - Minister of Foreign AffairsHoxha Kadri - Minister of JusticeNdoc Çoba - Minister of Finance, Sotir Peçi - Minister of EducationAli Riza Kolonja - Minister of WarEshref Frashëri - General Director of World AffairsIdhomen Kosturi - General Director of the Post-Telegraph Agency.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Albania's first political parties emerged only after World War I. Even more than in other parts of the Balkans, political parties were evanescent gatherings centered on prominent persons who created temporary alliances to achieve their personal aims. The major conservative party, the Progressive Party, attracted some northern clan chiefs and prominent Muslim landholders of southern Albania whose main platform was firm opposition to any agricultural reform program that would transfer their lands to the peasantry.


title: Principality of Albania

text: The country's biggest landowner, Shefqet Bej Vërlaci, led the Progressive Party. The Popular Party's ranks included the reform-minded Orthodox bishop of Durrës, Fan Noli, who was imbued with Western ideas at his alma mater, Harvard University, and had even translated Shakespeare and Ibsen into Albanian. The Popular Party also included Ahmed Zogu, the twenty-four-year-old son of the chief of the Mati, a Northern Albanian clan. The future King Zog drew his support from some northern clans and kept an armed gang in his service , but many Geg clan leaders refused to support either main party.


title: Principality of Albania

text: The Popular Party's head, Xhafer Ypi, formed a government in December 1921 with Noli as foreign minister and Zogu as internal affairs minister, but Noli resigned soon after Zogu resorted to repression in an attempt to disarm the lowland Albanians despite the fact that bearing arms was a traditional custom.


title: Principality of Albania

text: When the government's enemies attacked Tirana in early 1922, Zogu stayed in the capital and, with the support of the British ambassador, repulsed the assault. He took over the premiership later in the year and turned his back on the Popular Party by announcing his engagement to the daughter of the Progressive Party leader, Shefqet Verlaci.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Zogu's protégés organized themselves into the Government Party. Noli and other Western-oriented leaders formed the Opposition Party of Democrats, which attracted all of Zogu's many personal enemies, ideological opponents, and people left unrewarded by his political machine. Ideologically, the Democrats included a broad sweep of people who advocated everything from conservative Islam to Noli's dreams of rapid modernization.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Opposition to Zogu was formidable. Orthodox peasants in Albania's southern lowlands loathed Zogu because he supported the Muslim landowners' efforts to block land reform; Shkodër's citizens felt shortchanged because their city did not become Albania's capital, and nationalists were dissatisfied because Zogu's government did not press Albania's claims to Kosovo or speak up more energetically for the rights of the ethnic Albanian minorities in former Yugoslavia (Kosovo, southern Serbia and Vardar Macedonia) and Greece.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Zogu's party handily won elections for a National Assembly in early 1924. Zogu soon stepped aside, however, handing over the premiership to Verlaci in the wake of a financial scandal and an assassination attempt by a young radical that left Zogu wounded. The opposition withdrew from the assembly after the leader of a radical youth organization, Avni Rustemi, was murdered in the street outside the parliament building.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Noli's supporters blamed the murder on Zogu's Mati clansmen, who continued to practice blood vengeance. After the walkout, discontent mounted, and in June 1924 a peasant-backed insurgency had won control of Tirana. Noli became prime minister, and Zogu fled to Yugoslavia.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Fan Noli, an idealist, rejected demands for new elections on the grounds that Albania needed a "paternal" government. In a manifesto describing his government's program, Noli called for abolishing feudalism, resisting Italian domination, and establishing a Western-style constitutional government. Scaling back the bureaucracy, strengthening local government, assisting peasants, throwing Albania open to foreign investment, and improving the country's bleak transportation, public health, and education facilities filled out the Noli government's overly ambitious agenda. Noli encountered resistance to his program from people who had helped him oust Zogu, and he never attracted the foreign aid necessary to carry out his reform plans. Noli criticized the League of Nations for failing to settle the threat facing Albania on its land borders.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Under Fan Noli, the government set up a special tribunal that passed death sentences, in absentia, on Zogu, Verlaci, and others and confiscated their property. In Yugoslavia Zogu recruited a mercenary army, and Belgrade furnished the Albanian leader with weapons, about 1,000 Yugoslav army regulars, and Russian White émigrés to mount an invasion that the Serbs hoped would bring them disputed areas along the border. After Noli's regime decided to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, a bitter enemy of the Serbian ruling family, Belgrade began making wild allegations that the Albanian regime was about to embrace Bolshevism. On December 13, 1924, Zogu's Yugoslav-backed army crossed into Albanian territory. By Christmas Eve, Zogu had reclaimed the capital, and Noli and his government had fled to Italy.


title: Principality of Albania

text: But his government lasted just six months, and Ahmet Zogu returned with another coup d'état and regained the control, changing the political situation and abolishing principality.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Upon termination of Albania from Turkey in 1912, as in all other fields, the customs administration continued its operation under legislation approved specifically for the procedure. With the new laws were issued for the operation of customs duty was 11% of the value of goods imported and 1% on the value of those exported.


title: Principality of Albania

text: At the time of the interim government of Vlora, in 1912–1913 there has been no other change on this duty, except the import tax on tobacco, which at the time was added up to 30%, which became an order of the Ministry of Finance at the time, but that does not say that on which the law rested. For the period 1913–1914, when the government was in power Durrës, although lacking formal notices to all customs fees, it is known that there was nothing changed from that of 1912–1913. So, until 1914 there was no change in customs regulations. Similarly, from 1914 until 1918 that the First World War continued and Albania was occupied sections by foreign powers, customs regulations functioned under laws that implement the relevant commands to foreign armies that were present in Albania ( Italians, French, Austro-Hungarians, etc..), which occasionally modified. Commands Austro-Hungarian armies and French (with the exception of any modification), made no change in the applicable customs legislation inherited from the government of Durrës 1914, while the Austro-Hungarian command center in Shkodra, in 1916 brought a decision on the curb, which consisted of eight articles. In the first article stated: "The word contraband, we learn that the sale of cntrabanded things, causes damage on the Treasury or the people. Damtime trigger ". Likewise, the French command of Korca took a decision to increase the fee (trails) customs. This decision, which was printed in Albanian and French, consisting of 11 articles and was signed by French General H. Salle, commander of troops in who were installed on Maliq. According to the state archives found in Korca, after two years (15 March 1920), this command issued another regulation, known as "Regulation Oktrovës" and was signed by the commander of the Albanian borders, Cretin. To regulate the customs service, after 1920, began functioning as separate offices in Vlora (Director customs), Korçë (Director of Oktrovës) in Shkodra and Lezha with customs Kryedrejtori. The latter, in 1920, moved to Durrës and Tirana later. It kryedrejtori customs headed by Ahmed Boriçi and operated independent from the Ministry of Finance, was abolished in 1923. Since 1920, when the government came to power out of Lushnjes Congress until 1934 (at which time the study was done Hajj Shkoza author), Albanian national administration, along with the development of all its activities in different branches economy, was also involved in the organization of the customs system. As originally drafted specific provisions on exports of grain and other products to local products, something which once made the decisions of the Council of Ministers and times of special laws decree issued by the government (in cases when the country needed bread due to the lack of grain). But when the products were successful and met all the needs of the country, farmers and grain traders were selling these exported out of them. From 1912 to 1939, the Albanian customs legislation was constantly being improved, reaching the most advanced countries of the West. It did at the time of our trade with foreign countries take the unprecedented growth. This continued well into the war years 1939–1944, after Italy, for propaganda purposes, liberalized trade with Albania, enabling you to our country pouring wholesale goods. As a result, even to this day remember the phrase: "as long Abundance of Italy".


title: Principality of Albania

text: Extraordinarily undeveloped, the Albania that emerged after World War I was home to something fewer than a million people divided into three major religious groups and two distinct classes: those people who owned land and claimed semifeudal privileges and those who did not. The landowners had always held the principal ruling posts in the country's central and southern regions, but many of them were steeped in the same conservatism that brought decay to the Ottoman Empire. The landowning elite expected that they would continue to enjoy precedence, but the country's peasants were beginning to dispute the landed aristocracy's control.


title: Principality of Albania

text: In northern Albania, the government directly controlled only Shkodër and its environs. The highland clans were suspicious of a constitutional government claiming to legislate in the interests of the country as a whole, and the Roman Catholic Church became the principal link between Tirana and the tribesmen despite the Muslim religious affiliation of most of the population. In many instances, administrative communications were addressed to priests for circulation among their parishioners.


title: Principality of Albania

text: The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople recognized the autocephaly of the Albanian Orthodox Church after a meeting of the country's Albanian Orthodox congregations in Berat in August 1922. The most energetic reformers in Albania came from the Orthodox population who wanted to see Albania move quickly away from its Turkish-ruled past, during which Christians made up the underclass.


title: Principality of Albania

text: Albania's conservative Sunni Muslim community broke its last ties with Constantinople in 1923, formally declaring that there had been no caliph since Muhammad himself and that Muslim Albanians pledged primary allegiance to their native country. The Muslims also banned polygamy and allowed women to choose whether or not to wear a veil.


title: Tikrit

text: Tikrit ( "Tikrīt" , Syriac: ܬܲܓܪܝܼܬܼ "Tagrīṯ") is a city in Iraq, located northwest of Baghdad and southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. , it had a population of approximately 160,000.


title: Tikrit

text: Originally a fort during the Assyrian empire, Tikrit became the birthplace of Muslim military leader Saladin. It also is the birthplace of Saddam Hussein and also the city from where a significant portion of those he appointed in government roles originated during the time of Ba'athist Iraq until the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. After the invasion, the city has been the site of conflict, culminating in the Second Battle of Tikrit from March through April 2015, which resulted in the displacement of 28,000 civilians. The Iraqi government regained control of the city from the Islamic State on March 31, 2015 and has been at peace since then.


title: Tikrit

text: As a fort along the Tigris (Akkadian: "Idiqlat"), the city is first mentioned in the "Fall of Assyria Chronicle" as being a refuge for the Babylonian king Nabopolassar during his attack on the city of Assur in 615 BC.


title: Tikrit

text: Until the 6th century, Christianity within the Sasanian Empire was predominantly dyophysite under the Church of the East, however, as a result of Miaphysite missionary work, Tikrit became a major Miaphysite (Orthodox Christian) centre under its first bishop, Ahudemmeh, in 559. Under Marutha of Tikrit, the bishopric was elevated into a maphrianate and the city's ecclesiastical jurisdiction extended as far as Central Asia.


title: Tikrit

text: The city remained predominantly Syriac Orthodox Christian in the early centuries of Islamic rule and gained fame as an important centre of Syriac and Christian Arab literature. Some famous Christians from the city include its bishop Quriaqos of Tagrit who ascended to become the patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, theologians Abu Zakariya Denha and Abu Raita, and translator Yahya ibn Adi.


title: Tikrit

text: From the ninth century Christians of Tikrit began to migrate northwards due to restrictive measures taken by some Muslim governors. Many settled in Mosul and villages in the Nineveh Plains, especially Bakhdida, as well as Tur Abdin. The Christian community received a setback when the governor ordered the destruction of the main cathedral known popularly as the "Green Church" in 1089. The maphrian and some of the Christians of Tikrit had to relocate to the Mar Mattai Monastery, where a village named Merki was established in the valley below the monastery. A later governor permitted the reconstruction of the cathedral. However, instability returned and the maphrian moved indefinitely to Mosul in 1156.


title: Tikrit

text: Regardless, the city remained an important center of the Syriac Orthodox Church until its destruction by Timur in the late 14th century. A Christian presence has not existed in the city since the 17th century.


title: Tikrit

text: The town was also home to the Arab Christian tribe of Iyad. The Arabs of the town secretly assisted the Muslims when they besieged the town. The Muslims entered Tikrit in 640; it was from then considered as part of the Jazira province. It was later regarded as belonging to Iraq by Arab geographers.


title: Tikrit

text: Tikrit was briefly controlled by the Nizari Ismailis. After a failed Seljuk campaign against it, the Nizaris handed it over to the local Shia Arabs there.


title: Tikrit

text: Saladin was born there around 1138. The modern province of which Tikrit is the capital is named after him.


title: Tikrit

text: The city was devastated in 1393 by Timur. During the Ottoman period Tikrit existed as a small settlement that belonged to the Rakka Eyalet; its population never exceeded 4,000–5,000.


title: Tikrit

text: In September 1917, British forces captured the city during a major advance against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.


title: Tikrit

text: The Tikriti Jewish community was mostly gone by 1948. By the time Saddam Hussein rose to power there were only two Jewish families in the city.


title: Tikrit

text: The city is the birthplace of Saddam Hussein. Many senior members of the Iraqi government during his rule were drawn from Saddam's own Tikriti tribe, the Al-Bu Nasir, as were members of his Iraqi Republican Guard, chiefly because Saddam apparently felt that he was most able to rely on relatives and allies of his family. The Tikriti domination of the Iraqi government became something of an embarrassment to Hussein and, in 1977, he abolished the use of surnames in Iraq to conceal the fact that so many of his key supporters bore the same surname, "al-Tikriti" (as did Saddam himself). Saddam Hussein was buried near Tikrit in his hometown of Al-Awja following his hanging on December 30, 2006.


title: Tikrit

text: In the opening weeks of the 2003 US-led invasion, many observers speculated that Saddam would return to Tikrit as his "last stronghold". The city was subjected to intense aerial bombardment meant to throw Saddam's elite Republican Guard troops out of the city. On April 13, 2003 several thousand U.S. Marines and other coalition members aboard 300 armored vehicles converged on the town, meeting little or no resistance. With the fall of Tikrit, U.S. Army Major General Stanley McChrystal said, "I would anticipate that the major combat operations are over."


title: Tikrit

text: However, during the subsequent occupation, Tikrit became the scene of a number of insurgent attacks against Coalition forces. It is commonly regarded as being the northern angle of the "Sunni Triangle" within which the insurgency was at its most intense. In June 2003, Abid Hamid Mahmud, Saddam Hussein's Presidential Secretary and the Ace of Diamonds on the most wanted 'Deck of Cards,' was captured in a joint raid by special operations forces and the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division.


title: Tikrit

text: After the fall of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein was in and around Tikrit. He was hidden by relatives and supporters for about six months. During his final period in hiding, he lived in a small hole just outside the town of ad-Dawr, 15 kilometres (9 mi) south of Tikrit on the eastern bank of the Tigris, a few kilometers southeast of his hometown of Al-Awja. The missions which resulted in the capture of Saddam Hussein were assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Teams of the 4th Infantry Division, commanded by Colonel James Hickey of the 4th Infantry Division. The U.S. Army finally captured Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003 during Operation Red Dawn.


title: Tikrit

text: During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, AFN Iraq ("Freedom Radio") broadcast news and entertainment within Tikrit, among other locations.


title: Tikrit

text: On November 22, 2005, HHC 42nd Infantry Division New York Army National Guard, handed over control of Saddam Hussein's primary palace complex in Tikrit to the governor of Saladin Province, who represented the Iraqi government. Discontinuing the existence of what once was FOB Danger. The palace complex had served as a headquarter for U.S. 4th Infantry Division, U.S. 1st Infantry Division, and 42nd Infantry Division. The palace complex now serves several purposes for the Iraqi police and army, including headquarters and jails. The U.S. military subsequently moved their operations to al Sahra Airfield, later known as Camp Speicher, northwest of Tikrit.


title: Tikrit

text: Saddam Hussein's primary palace complex contained his own palace, one built for his mother and his sons and also included a man-made lake, all enclosed with a wall and towers. Plans for the palace grounds when originally returned to the Iraqi people included turning it into an exclusive and lush resort. However, within weeks of turning over the palace, it was ravaged, and its contents, (furniture, columns, even light switches), were stolen and sold on the streets of Tikrit.


title: Tikrit

text: The 402nd Civil Affairs Detachment of the U.S. Army, and the government of Salah ad Din province, began plans to improve local economic conditions. One of the many projects they are working on is building an industrial vocational school in the Tikrit area. The school will teach local people skills in different fields of technology, which will help to build and improve Iraq's economic stability. The curriculum will educate men and women in multiple occupational fields such as the production of high-tech products, plastic production technology, masonry, carpentry, petroleum equipment maintenance and repair, farm machinery and automotive repair. This self-supporting educational institution owns a textile mill where many of the graduates will work producing uniforms. The mill is scheduled to begin producing and selling products within the year, with the profits from the mill going to fund the school. The vocational school's operation, support and funding are modeled after a system South Korea used in another part of Iraq.


title: Tikrit

text: On April 18, 2010, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi were killed in a raid southwest of Tikrit in a safe house.


title: Tikrit

text: The Islamic State of Iraq launched an attack on March 29, 2011 that killed 65 people and wounded over 100. Reuters news agency included the attack in its list of deadliest attacks in 2011.


title: Tikrit

text: On June 11, 2014, during the Northern Iraq offensive, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took control of the city. Hours later, the Iraqi Army made an attempt to recapture the city, which resulted in heavy fighting. On June 12, ISIL executed at least 1,566 Iraqi Air Force cadets from Camp Speicher at Tikrit. At the time of the attack there were between 4,000 and 11,000 unarmed cadets in the camp. The Iraqi government blamed the massacre on both ISIL and members of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region. By July 2014, government forces had withdrawn from Tikrit.


title: Tikrit

text: On September 25, 2014, Islamist militants destroyed the Assyrian Church there that dated back to 700 AD. The historic Al-Arba'een Mosque was detonated as well, damaging the cemetery surrounding it.


title: Tikrit

text: In March 2015, the Iraqi Army along with the "Hashd Shaabi" popular forces launched an operation to retake Tikrit. On March 31, the Iraqi government claimed the city had been recaptured.


title: Tikrit

text: The city is located within the semi-undulating area. It penetrates the branch and valleys and ends with very sloping slopes towards the Tigris River, with a height ranging between 45–50 meters.


title: Tikrit

text: Tikrit Stadium is a multi-use facility used mostly for football matches and serves as the home stadium of Salah ad Din FC. It holds 10,000 people.


title: Tikrit

text: There is also a new world-class stadium that meets FIFA standards with a capacity of 30,000 seats being built in Tikrit.


title: Tikrit

text: The Iraqi Air Force has had several air bases at Tikrit: the Tikrit South Air Base, the Tikrit East Air Base and Al Sahra Airfield (Tikrit Air Academy, formerly Camp Speicher).


title: Quannah Chasinghorse

text: Quannah Rose Chasinghorse-Potts (born June 6, 2002) is a Native American model. She appeared on the 2020 "Teen Vogue" list of Top 21 under 21.


title: Quannah Chasinghorse

text: Born on Navajo Nation territory in Tuba City, Arizona where her mother was studying at the time, Chasinghorse is Hän Hwëch'in of Eagle Village, Alaska, on her mother's side and Sicangu-Oglala Lakota of the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota on her father's side. Chasinghorse spent her early childhood in Arizona, Mongolia, and New Mexico before returning to her maternal homelands in Alaska at the age of six. She lived in Kenny Lake and then Fairbanks. She attended Effie Kokrine Charter School.


title: Quannah Chasinghorse

text: Chasinghorse is a fourth-generation land protector for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as part of the Alaska Wilderness League. She said she does not want future generations to have to keep fighting. At age 17, she sat on the International Gwich’in Youth Council, traveling to Washington, D.C., New York, and Colorado. She lobbied against oil leasing that would damage the refuge and supported HR 11-46, a bill that would permanently protect the land. She participated in climate rallies both locally and in Denver. She has spoken on climate action and indigenous rights at a number of events and panels.


title: Quannah Chasinghorse

text: Chasinghorse was interested in modeling and fashion from a young age but, due to the lack of indigenous representation she found in magazines and fashion shows, did not think it was feasible as a career. In 2020, she landed a gig with Calvin Klein for their "one future #ckone" youth campaign. She then signed with IMG Models. She has since featured on the covers of "Vogue Mexico", "Vogue Japan", "V Magazine," "Elle", and "Porter". She became recognised for her traditional face tattoos called Yidįįłtoo.


title: Quannah Chasinghorse

text: Chasinghorse makes a point of celebrating indigenous fashion and promoting sustainable indigenous brands. Her red carpet look at the Gilded Age themed Met Gala in May 2022 went viral on social media. The Navajo-inspired outfit was put together by Peter Dundas, Tabitha Simmons, Gucci Westman, and 2006 Miss Navajo Nation Jocelyn Billy-Upshaw, a family friend. "Refinery29" called her the "breakout star" of the event. That same week, she walked her first runway at New York Fashion Week.


title: Going My Way

text: Going My Way is a 1944 American musical comedy drama film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald. Written by Frank Butler and Frank Cavett based on a story by McCarey, the film is about a new young priest taking over a parish from an established old veteran. Crosby sings five songs with other songs performed onscreen by Metropolitan Opera's star mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens and the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir. "Going My Way" was followed the next year by a sequel, "The Bells of St. Mary's".


title: Going My Way

text: "Going My Way" was the highest-grossing picture of 1944, and was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning seven, including Best Picture. Its success helped to make movie exhibitors choose Crosby as the biggest box-office draw of the year, a record he would hold for the remainder of the 1940s. After World War II, Crosby and McCarey presented a copy of the film to Pope Pius XII at the Vatican.


title: Going My Way

text: Father Charles "Chuck" O'Malley (Bing Crosby), an incoming priest from East St. Louis, is transferred to St. Dominic's Church in New York City.


title: Going My Way

text: On his first day, his unconventional style gets him into a series of mishaps; his informal appearance and attitude make a poor impression with the elder pastor, Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald). The very traditional Fitzgibbon is further put off by O'Malley's recreational habits – particularly his golf-playing – and his friendship with the even more casual Father Timmy O'Dowd (Frank McHugh). O'Malley privately informs O'Dowd that the bishop sent him to take charge of the parish's affairs but that Fitzgibbon is to remain as pastor. To spare Fitzgibbon's feelings, O'Malley acts as if he is simply an assistant.


title: Going My Way

text: The difference between O'Malley and Fitzgibbon's styles is openly apparent as they deal with events like a parishioner being evicted and a young woman named Carol James (Jean Heather) having run away from home. The most consequential difference arises in their handling of the church youth, many of whom consistently get into trouble with the law in a gang led by Tony Scaponi (Stanley Clements). Fitzgibbon is inclined to look the other way, siding with the boys because of their frequent church attendance. O'Malley seeks to make inroads into the boys' lives, befriending Scaponi and eventually convincing the boys to become a church choir.


title: Going My Way

text: The noise of the practicing choir annoys Fitzgibbon, who goes to the bishop and asks for O'Malley to be transferred away. In the course of the conversation, Fitzgibbon infers the bishop's intention to put O'Malley in charge of the parish. To avoid an uncomfortable situation, Fitzgibbon asks the bishop to put O'Malley in charge, and then, resigned to his fate, he informs O'Malley of his new role. A distressed Fitzgibbon runs away in a rainstorm, returning late that night. O'Malley puts the older priest to bed, and the two begin to bond. They discuss Fitzgibbon's long-put-off desire to go to Ireland and see his mother, now over 90 years old. O'Malley puts Fitzgibbon to sleep with an Irish lullaby, "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral".


title: Going My Way

text: O'Malley runs into Jenny Tuffel (Risë Stevens), an old girlfriend whom he left to join the priesthood. Jenny now has a successful career with the Metropolitan Opera, performing under the stage name Genevieve Linden. As she prepares to go onstage as the lead in a performance of "Carmen", the two discuss their past, and she learns that her world travels with a previous opera company caused her to miss his letter explaining he had entered the priesthood.


title: Going My Way

text: O'Malley next pays a visit to Carol, now suspected of living in sin with Ted Haines Jr. (James Brown), the son of the church's mortgage holder. O'Malley describes to the young couple his calling in life to "go his way," which to him means to follow the joyous side of religion and lead others to do the same. He sings them the song "Going My Way," which he wrote on this theme. When the junior Haines is confronted by his father, the father discovers that he and Carol have married, and he has joined the Air Force.


title: Going My Way

text: Jenny visits O'Malley at the church, sees the boys' choir, and reads the sheet music of "Going My Way". She, O'Malley, and O'Dowd devise a plan to rent out the Metropolitan, have the choir perform it with a full orchestra, then sell the rights to the song, saving the church from its financial woes. When Max Dolan (William Frawley), the music executive brought on to hear the song does not believe it will sell, the choir decides to make the most of its opportunity on the grand stage, and sings "Swinging on a Star". The executive overhears and decides to buy it, providing enough money to pay off the church mortgage.


title: Going My Way

text: With everything settled, O'Malley is transferred to a new assignment; O'Dowd will be Fitzgibbon's new assistant, with Tony Scaponi in charge of the choir. However, the church is damaged by a massive fire. On Christmas Eve, parishioners gather in a temporary church for a Mass that also serves as O'Malley's farewell. O'Malley sent for Fitzgibbon's mother (Adeline De Walt Reynolds) from Ireland as a going-away present. As mother and son embrace for the first time in 45 years, the choir sings "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral", as Father O'Malley quietly slips away into the night.


title: Going My Way

text: Risë Stevens, whose character is seen onscreen performing the lead role in a Metropolitan Opera (the Met) production of "Carmen", was an actual performer with the Met when the film was made. A few years later she would earn enormous personal triumph as the Met's Carmen in the famous Tyrone Guthrie production of 1951, becoming the leading Carmen of her generation.


title: Going My Way

text: According to Bosley Crowther in "The New York Times", "Going My Way" was "the best" of Crosby's career, which is "saying a lot for a performer who has been one of the steadiest joys of the screen. But, in this Leo McCarey film ... he has definitely found his sturdiest role to date." Crowther, however, criticized the film's length while lauding Crosby, and wrote that "he has been stunningly supported by Barry Fitzgerald, who plays one of the warmest characters the screen has ever known. As a matter of fact, it is a cruel slight to suggest that this is Mr. Crosby's show. It is his and Mr. Fitzgerald's together. And they make it one of the rare delights of the year."


title: Going My Way

text: "Variety" liked the film, saying: "Bing Crosby gets a tailor-made role in "Going My Way", and with major assistance from Barry Fitzgerald and Risë Stevens, clicks solidly to provide top-notch entertainment for wide audience appeal. Picture will hit hefty biz on all booking ... Intimate scenes between Crosby and Fitzgerald dominate throughout, with both providing slick characterizations ... Crosby’s song numbers include three new tunes by Johnny Burke and James Van Heusen — 'Going My Way,' 'Would You Like to Swing on a Star' and 'Day After Forever.' Trio are topgrade and due for wide pop appeal due to cinch recording and airings by Bing. He also delivers 'Ave Maria,' 'Adeste Fideles' and 'Silent Night' in addition to a lively Irish-themed song, 'Toora-loora-looral' with boys' choir accompaniment."


title: Going My Way

text: At the 17th Academy Awards, "Going My Way" was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including two for Barry Fitzgerald, whose work on the film was nominated for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. It won for Best Picture, with Crosby winning for Best Actor and Fitzgerald for Best Supporting Actor. (Subsequently, the rules were changed to prevent a recurrence.) It won seven, including Best Picture.


title: Going My Way

text: In 2004, "Going My Way" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: Going My Way

text: Bing Crosby recorded six of the songs for Decca Records and some of them were issued on a 3-disc 78rpm set titled "Selections from Going My Way". “Swinging on a Star” topped the "Billboard" charts for nine weeks in a 28-week stay. "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That's an Irish Lullaby)" was in the charts for twelve weeks with a peak position of #4. "The Day After Forever" and "Going My Way" also charted briefly. Crosby's songs were also included in the "Bing's Hollywood" series.


title: Going My Way

text: "Going My Way" was adapted as a radio play for the January 8, 1945, broadcast of "The Screen Guild Theater" starring Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald and Paul Lukas. It was also adapted for the May 3, 1954, broadcast of "Lux Radio Theatre" with Barry Fitzgerald.


title: Going My Way

text: The film also inspired an hour-long comedy drama of the same name during the 1962–63 television season starring Gene Kelly in the role of Father O'Malley. The series ran on ABC for one season of 30 episodes.


title: Paddington (film series)

text: Paddington is a British-French media franchise based on the character Paddington Bear, created by British author Michael Bond. The franchise began with the 2014 film of the same name. A sequel was released in 2017 and a third film went into development. The films have also spawned a TV series, and a short film. All films and TV series see Ben Whishaw play Paddington Bear.


title: Paddington (film series)

text: This is the first and only film to be distributed by The Weinstein Company in the US, as the rights to the film series were sold to Warner Bros. Pictures following the Weinstein scandal in October 2017.


title: Paddington (film series)

text: In April 2015, David Heyman confirmed that he would produce the second film in the franchise. It was also announced that Paul King would direct and co-write with Simon Farnaby. By October 2016, the cast of "Paddington" – Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, Ben Whishaw and Imelda Staunton – were confirmed to be returning for the sequel, joined by new cast members Hugh Grant and Brendan Gleeson. Principal photography began in the same month. Framestore provided the visual effects for the film. Filming in Little Venice took place for three days. Filming also took place at Shepton Mallet Prison.


title: Paddington (film series)

text: In June 2016, StudioCanal CEO Didier Lupfer stated that the studio was committed to making a third "Paddington" film. In November 2017, David Heyman told "Digital Spy" that though the script for a third Paddington film had not developed, discussions about locations, ideas and scenes had already begun. In November 2018, Heyman noted that a third film was still likely to happen, but that Paul King would not be back to direct, though he would still be involved in a prominent creative capacity. In February 2021, "Paddington 3" officially began development. At the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, StudioCanal announced that "Paddington 3" would commence shooting in the second quarter of 2022. The films' previous director Paul King will not be directing the film as he is helming the film "Wonka" starring Timothée Chalamet. King is set to executive produce the film and has written a story alongside Simon Farnaby and Mark Burton with a screenplay by Burton, Jon Foster and James Lamont. On June 13, it was announced that the title of the film will be "Paddington in Peru" and will be directed by Dougal Wilson, with principal photography now set to begin in 2023 in London and Peru with some of the cast returning.


title: Paddington (film series)

text: In October 2017, it was announced that StudioCanal was producing an animated series based on the films, set to launch in either late 2018 or early 2019. It was announced in February 2019, that the series will launch worldwide in 2020 on Nickelodeon, with Whishaw reprising his voice of Paddington.


title: Paddington (film series)

text: On 20 November 2019, it was announced that the series will premiere on 20 January 2020 after a sneak preview which aired on 20 December 2019.


title: Paddington (film series)

text: For the "Platinum Party at the Palace" music concert that would open the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the Queen acted in a short film Directed By Mark Burton to open the concert, later titled as ""🥪 👜 Ma’amalade sandwich Your Majesty?"", in which the Queen hosts Paddington Bear (with Whishaw reprising his role) for tea in honour of the Jubilee. The Queen is seen patiently tolerating a tea-slurping Paddington who, upon realising his mistake, attempts to pour tea for her. However, he stomps over a pastry on the table and ends up covering a footman (played by Simon Farnaby) in cream. As the bear offers the Queen a marmalade sandwich, and tells her that he always keeps one for emergencies, the Queen confides "So do I" and, prising open her handbag, tells him: "I keep mine in here". Later, the bear congratulates the Queen on her reign, exclaiming: "Happy Jubilee Ma'am. And thank you for everything". The sequence ends with both the Queen and Paddington using a spoon to tap out the beat of Queen's "We Will Rock You" on teacup.


title: Paddington (film series)

text: The Queen spent around half a day filming the sketch at Windsor Castle, and had since kept it a secret from some of her family members. A Buckingham Palace spokesman stated: "While the Queen may not be attending the concert in person, she was very keen that people understood how much it meant to her and that all those watching had a great time. [...] Her Majesty is well known for her sense of humour, so it should be no surprise that she decided to take part in tonight's sketch."


title: Paddington (film series)

text: The first film of the series was announced in September 2007, with David Heyman producing and Hamish McColl writing the screenplay. When filming began, Heyman announced the casting of Colin Firth as the voice of Paddington. "Paddington" is the most expensive film produced by the French production company StudioCanal.


title: Paddington (film series)

text: In June 2014, after principal photography had wrapped, Firth voluntarily dropped out of the film, after the studio decided his voice was not suitable for Paddington. The role was recast the following month, with Ben Whishaw signing on to voice the title role. Paddington was created using a combination of computer-generated imagery (by the British company Framestore) and animatronics.


title: Paddington (film series)

text: The creator of the Paddington character, Michael Bond, also appeared in a cameo in the first film, playing the role of the Kindly Gentleman.


title: Kilmarnock

text: Kilmarnock (, ; (IPA:[kʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ]), "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council. With a population of 46,770, Kilmarnock is the 14th most populated settlement in Scotland and the largest town in Ayrshire. The town is continuous to nearby neighbouring villages Crookedholm and Hurlford to the east, and Kilmaurs to the west of the town. It includes former villages subsumed by the expansion of the town such as Bonnyton and new purpose built suburbs such as New Farm Loch. The town and the surrounding Greater Kilmarnock area is home to 32 listed buildings and structures designated by Historic Environment Scotland.


title: Kilmarnock

text: The River Irvine runs through the eastern section of Kilmarnock, and the Kilmarnock Water passes through it, giving rise to the name 'Bank Street'. The first collection of work by Scottish poet Robert Burns, "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect", was published in Kilmarnock in 1786 by John Wilson, printer and bookseller and became known as the "Kilmarnock Edition". The internationally distributed whisky brand Johnnie Walker originated in the town in the 19th century and until 2012 was still bottled and packaged in the town at the Johnnie Walker Hill Street plant. Protest and backing from the Scottish Government took place in 2009, after Diageo, the owner of Johnnie Walker, announced plans to close the bottling plant in the town after 189 years.


title: Kilmarnock

text: Kilmarnock is home to Kilmarnock Academy, one of a small number of schools in the UK, and the only school in Scotland, to have educated several Nobel Prize Laureates – Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of Penicillin, and The 1st Baron Boyd-Orr, for his scientific research into nutrition and his work as the first Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).


title: Kilmarnock

text: In 1592, King James VI of Scotland granted a charter to Thomas, Lord Boyd, erecting Kilmarnock into a burgh of barony. The charter confirms that the Boyd family to be in possession of the land of Kilmarnock and assures any future line of succession. At the beginning of the 16th century, Kilmarnock was described as "a large village and of great repair" with nearby Kilmaurs notably larger than Kilmarnock. However, over the course of the next one hundred years, the expansion of Kilmarnock was evident. Its expansion led to Kilmarnock becoming larger than Kilmaurs and becoming Ayrshire's largest inland centre and challenging the supremacy of the royal burghs of Ayr and Irvine. During the 19th century, due to the growing rate of expansion due to the industrial expansion, Kilmarnock's population growth increased significantly from 6,000 in 1800, 21,000 in 1851 and 35,000 by 1901.


title: Kilmarnock

text: Although never granted the title of royal burgh, largely due to its geography as an inland settlement with no port to enhance trade at sea, Kilmarnock, as a parliamentary burgh was ranked as equal to other nearby royal burghs such as Ayr and Irvine. Its close proximity to Troon and its harbour helped Kilmarnock's trade and economy and its reputation of a strong and important burgh despite its inland position. Goods such as coal was frequently transported from Kilmarnock to Troon for export, and by 1812 a new railway line between Kilmarnock and Troon was constructed to allow trade to flow from the town much easier. The line opened in 1812, and was the first railway in Scotland to obtain an authorising Act of Parliament; it would soon also become the first railway in Scotland to use a steam locomotive; the first to carry passengers; and the River Irvine bridge, "Laigh Milton Viaduct", is the earliest railway viaduct in Scotland. It was a plateway, using L-shaped iron plates as rails, to carry wagons with flangeless wheels. In 1841, when more modern railways had developed throughout the West of Scotland, the line was converted from a plateway to a railway and realigned in places. The line became part of the Glasgow and South Western Railway system. Much of the original route is part of the present-day Kilmarnock to Barassie railway line, although the extremities of the original line have been lost.


title: Kilmarnock

text: The growth of Kilmarnock in population and geographical area swallowed up the old separate village communities