prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Oak Beach, New York and Great South Bay are both situated between what same island?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Lower South Bay, New York
Lower South Bay, commonly called South Bay, is a hamlet on the southwest corner of Oneida Lake, Oneida County, New York, United States  It is opposite North Bay, and is surrounded by many islands to the west, north and east, including Geersbeck Island, Hall Island, Glosky Island, Schroeppel Island, Denmans Island and Long Island (not to be confused with Long Island, New York City)  Lower South Bay also lies near the town of Cicero, approximately two miles west 
Passage 2:
Jones Beach Island
Jones Beach Island is one of the outer barrier islands off the southern coast of Long Island in the U S  state of New York 

Etymology
It is named for Major Thomas Jones, who first came to Long Island in 1692, where he proceeded to build the island's first brick house near Massapequa  Jones built a whaling station on Jones Island near the present site of Jones Beach State Park in 1700 Jones Beach Island is sometimes referred to as Oak Beach Island and is the former home of the infamous Oak Beach Inn   Because of the ephemeral nature of the various inlets, the name Fire Island is sometimes used to refer collectively to the various barrier islands off the south shore of Long Island, but usually refers specifically to the island across the Fire Island Inlet to the east 

Geography
Jones Beach Island is separated from Long Island by South Oyster Bay and Great South Bay, from Long Beach Barrier Island by Jones Inlet to the west, and from Fire Island by Fire Island Inlet to the east   It straddles the line between Nassau and Suffolk counties From west to east, Jones Beach Island contains the following communities and parks:

Jones Beach State Park
John F  Kennedy Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary, a Town of Oyster Bay wildlife preserve
Tobay Beach, a Town of Oyster Bay beach
Gilgo, a census-designated place
West Gilgo Beach, a private gated community
Gilgo Beach, a community and Town of Babylon beach
Cedar Beach, a Town of Babylon beach
Overlook Beach, a residents-only Town of Babylon beach
Gilgo State Park, an undeveloped beach
Oak Beach, a census-designated place
Captree, a census-designated place
Captree State ParkThe southern side of the island is known for its beaches that face the open Atlantic Ocean  The best known of the public beaches on the island, Jones Beach State Park on the western tip of the island, is a summer recreational destination for the New York City area Jones Beach Island is accessible from Long Island on its western end by the Meadowbrook State Parkway to Merrick (with the Loop Parkway providing a spur to Long Beach), and the Wantagh State Parkway to Wantagh   The Robert Moses Causeway traverses its eastern end, linking to Babylon via the State Boat Channel Bridge and Great South Bay Bridge, as well as to Fire Island by the Fire Island Inlet Bridge  The Ocean Parkway connects all three causeways and runs the length of the island 
Passage 3:
Oak Beach–Captree, New York
Oak Beach–Captree, frequently just called Oak Beach, was a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, United States  The population was 286 at the 2010 census Prior to the 2010 census, the area was part of a larger CDP called Gilgo-Oak Beach-Captree, New York  The Oak Beach–Captree CDP consists of some small beach communities on a barrier island along the southern edge of Long Island, including Oak Beach, Oak Island, and Captree Island  As of 2020, Oak Beach–Captree was split into two separate CDPs called Oak Beach and Captree 

Geography
Oak Beach–Captree was located at 40°38′21″N 73°17′35″W 
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP had a total area of 3 7 square miles (9 5 km2), of which 2 7 square miles (7 1 km2) is land and 0 93 square miles (2 4 km2), or 25 03%, is water 

Demographics
The census numbers are presumably for full-time inhabitants; many of these houses are second homes and not primary residences, although the proportion of seasonal residents is decreasing 
The land for these communities is not privately owned, but leased from the Town of Babylon through the year 2065  However, the residences on the property are owned  If the leases are not renewed at some point in the future, the owners will have to move the houses elsewhere, similar to what happened at High Hill Beach when Jones Beach State Park was created 
Passage 4:
South Oyster Bay
South Oyster Bay or East Bay is a lagoon and natural harbor along the western portion of the south shore of Long Island in New York in the United States  The harbor is formed by Jones Beach Island, a barrier island on the southern side of Long Island  It is approximately 3 mi (5 km) wide between the two islands, and approximately 15 mi (24 km) long  It links to Great South Bay on its eastern end and opens to the Atlantic Ocean through inlets on either side of Jones Beach Island The name refers to its history as one of the finest oyster beds in the world 

See also
Outer Barrier
Jamaica Bay
Oyster Bay, New York
Great South Bay
Patchogue Bay
South Shore Estuary
Passage 5:
Short Beach (New York)
Short Beach is the beach on the northern shore of the western end of Jones Beach Island  The beach faces South Oyster Bay instead of the Atlantic Ocean, thereby providing some shelter from storm waves   Since 1851 it has been the home of a coastal lifesaving station operated (at first) by the United States Life-Saving Service and later by the United States Coast Guard  The current facility, Station Short Beach, typically does around 500 search and rescue missions each year —one of the busiest units in the Coast Guard's 1st District   The Jones Beach State Park's West End Boat Basin is also on Short Beach  The Jones Beach West End barracks of the New York State Park Police is around 200 feet south of the Short Beach shoreline  An uninhabited islet, Short Beach Island, is usually just offshore, but occasionally connects to the beach when low tide exposes sandbars to the surface 

External links
United States Coast Guard Station Jones Beach
Passage 6:
Oak Beach Inn
The Oak Beach Inn, commonly referred to by the abbreviation OBI, was a Long Island nightclub located in Oak Beach, on Jones Beach Island near Captree State Park in the Town of Babylon, Suffolk County, New York 

History and controversy
In 1969, Robert Matherson bought what was then a waterfront barrier island restaurant and converted it into an enormously popular (and controversial) nightclub  The Oak Beach Inn, located in Oak Beach on Jones Beach Island, was the original, and later just referred to as The OBI  He later opened three more OBI nightclubs and named them according to their geographic location  The OBI North was in Smithtown, New York, the OBI East near the Shinnecock Canal en route to The Hamptons, and the OBI West locations in Island Park, New York (which had two locations: first at 3999 Long Beach Road, and later, briefly, at 50 Broadway)  All four clubs were located on Long Island and were wildly successful for many years, bringing people in from all over Long Island, New York City, Westchester, southern Connecticut and New Jersey and hosting acts such as Twisted Sister and The Good Rats In 1979, Matherson sued the town to lease him more land for additional parking, which the town granted  However two years later, new officials disagreed, which caused Matherson to sue again, and when the court favored with Matherson, the town granted him $3 million and the nine acres  In 1993, an unhappy Matherson started a "Move Out of New York Before It's Too Late" campaign complete with a hearse, banners and TV ads  An article in 1993 in The New York Times provided details about his campaign, including information that the New York State Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control raided the club one year earlier in 1992  One of the OBI West locations burned down after only a couple of years of packing in thousands on the weekends  Arson involving organized crime figures referred to in the movie Goodfellas was alleged but never substantiated 

Closure
Over the years, the OBI was involved in many disputes with the local community over issues such as noise, parking and traffic  Finally, in 1999, Matherson sold the property to developer Ross Cassata, who planned to build condominiums  Matherson then moved to Key West, Florida to open a new club of the same name  When it closed, the inn's two-ton statues of whales and dolphins, which were commonly touched by clubgoers, were moved to Danfords on the Sound in Long Island However, Cassata then sold the nine acres to Suffolk County for $7 95 million and the original property was torn down in 2003 and was replaced with a town-operated park, with later added plans of adding a bed and breakfast, upscale restaurant, boardwalk, water-sport area and boat ramp  The park now hosts activities, such as car racing, and it too has caused controversy  At the time of demolition, the Suffolk County Legislator commented that the park agreement avoided "an enormous tax increase in Babylon, which would have had to pay a court judgment of as much as $20 million or watch its coastline be forever scarred by high-rise development" and the money came from the county's greenway program 

Locations
The original OBI was at 1 Oak Beach Road  The building was sold in 1999, torn down in 2003, land turned into a park with a small beach simply called Oak Beach 
The OBI East was at 239 E Montauk Highway, Hampton Bays  The property underwent extensive renovations between 2018 and 2022 and was reopened as the Canoe Place Inn and Cottages with 20 rooms, 5 cottages, restaurant, bar and a 350 banquet room The OBI North was at State Road 25A, near Jericho Turnpike, Smithtown  The building burned down in 1980, and the land is now part of Willow Ridge at Smithtown HOA 
The OBI West was at 3999 Long Beach Road, Island Park  The building was torn down between 1994 and 2004, the land is now a parking lot for school buses 
It briefly was located at 50 Broadway (sometimes listed as 50 Austin Blvd ), Island Park as one of a series of famous nightclubs such as the Shell House, The Action House, The Rock Pile, and Speaks 
Robert Matherson later opened Oak Beach Inn at 227 Duval Street, Key West, Florida  Robert Matherson died in 2007 

In popular culture
Robert "Rosebud" Butt is credited with inventing the Long Island Iced Tea, while working as a bartender at the original OBI in the 1970s 
In 2010, the Babylon-based rock band Two Cent Sam released the "OBI Song" and a DIY video celebrating the Oak Beach Inn's history and impact on Long Islanders and the void in Long Island night life after the OBI's destruction 
Passage 7:
Great South Bay
The Great South Bay is a lagoon situated between Long Island and Fire Island, in the State of New York  It is about 45 miles (72 km) long and has an average depth of 4 feet 3 inches (1 3 m) and is 20 feet (6 1 m) at its deepest  It is protected from the Atlantic Ocean by Fire Island, a barrier island, as well as the eastern end of Jones Beach Island and Captree Island 
Robert Moses Causeway adjoins the Great South Bay Bridge, which leads to Robert Moses State Park 

The bay is accessible from the ocean through Fire Island Inlet, which lies between the western tip of Fire Island and the eastern tip of Jones Beach Island  The bay adjoins South Oyster Bay on its western end, and Patchogue and Moriches bays at the east end 

History
In the early 17th century, European settlers first encountered the native Montaukett Indian Nation  Among the earliest British families were the Smith, Carman and Hewlett families  Long Island's South Shore, adjacent to the bay, now includes the communities of Lindenhurst, Babylon, Islip, Oakdale, Sayville, Bayport, Blue Point, Patchogue, Bellport, Shirley, and Mastic Beach 

Environmental concerns
In the late nineteenth century Great South Bay provided many of the clams consumed throughout the region and even the country  The first oysters to be exported from the US to Europe came from Great South Bay  By the latter 20th century, a significant percentage of the habitat was lost  Hurricane Sandy, the largest storm to affect the region since 1938, made landfall with devastating impact to Fire Island sea shores, including multiple breaches, the largest of which formed just south of Bellport  This was formerly known as Old Inlet  Residents were concerned it would have effects on tidal increases and potential flooding, when in actuality it has allowed the bay to relieve some of its captive water, which has changed the salinity and nitrogen levels in the bay  After roughly 75 years, the bay begun flushing itself out which may improve the water condition within the bay  Regulations set forth by the US Government National Wildlife Preserve, which has a seven-mile stretch of land (The Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness) prohibit any unauthorized parties from performing any kind of man made changes, thus the inlet has remained open  There have been a number of ongoing public meeting discussing the future of the Inlet  All the other breaches were closed by the Army Corps of Engineers  In 2012, The Save the Great South Bay (STGSB)  not-for-profit organization was formed in order to work towards better conservation of the water and its beachfronts  Save The Great South Bay has increased concerns about boat sewerage pumpouts in The Great South Bay as a serious ecological concern 

See also
South Shore Estuary
Passage 8:
Great South Bay Bridge
The Great South Bay Bridge  is a bridge on the southwest side of Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island  It connects the Robert Moses Causeway from Long Island's mainland over the Great South Bay, connecting to Captree and Jones Beach islands  It serves as access via the Robert Moses Causeway to both of the downstream crossings, the State Boat Channel Bridge and the Fire Island Inlet Bridge, also leading visitors and on-lookers to either the Fire Island Lighthouse or the Robert Moses State Park 

History
The bridge was originally a single span, that opened in 1954 and was called the Captree Bridge  Today it carries southbound traffic 
In 1964, a second parallel span opened to traffic and carried northbound traffic  This brought much needed relief to traffic heading back from Jones Beach, Robert Moses, and Captree parks  The bridges are through trusses and are painted a traditional "bridge green" 
In 1997, a major rebuild of the deck of the older span began and was completed in 2000  Safety compliant railings were installed on the older span  In 2013–2014, the northbound span received upgraded railings  Major improvements NYSDOT is considering is a cycle/pedestrian path shared with the northbound lanes  NYSDOT has not released any official plans 

See also
State Boat Channel Bridge
Passage 9:
Oak Beach, New York
Oak Beach is a small community and census-designated place located near the eastern end of Jones Beach Island, a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great South Bay of Long Island  The community is part of the village of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, United States  The eastern part, the Oak Island Beach Association, is gated, whereas the western part is not  The Oak Beach CDP was first listed prior to the 2020 census  Prior to that the community was part of the Oak Beach–Captree census-designated place 

History and amenities
Oak Beach has been inhabited since at least the first decade of the twentieth century, when a U S  Coast Guard lifesaving station was located there, although it could not be reached overland at that time   Prior to that, marsh bird hunters had kept shacks in the area   Ferry access from Babylon enabled cottages to be built and made more accessible by car after construction of Ocean Parkway; it was largely a summer community until the completion of the Robert Moses Causeway in 1951, which allowed much faster travel from the main part of Long Island  It has gradually evolved since then to become a location where most residents live year-round Although now entirely residential, Oak Beach was once the location of the popular but controversial Oak Beach Inn, which was closed in 1999 and torn down in 2003, along with a small general store ("The Store") and bait/tackle/surf shop that closed a decade earlier   There is now a public park at the site  The "park" is unusual, in that it lacks any amenities other than a fishing dock and a single portable toilet  While the park encompasses over nine acres of land, there are but two trees and nearly 300 parking spots  In the warmer months the park - or rather the parking lot - collects an informal early Sunday morning motor rally, attracting local motorcycle and car enthusiasts 

Geography
Oak Beach is in southwestern Suffolk County, in the southeast part of the village of Babylon  The census-designated place includes the community of Oak Beach on Jones Beach Island, as well as the community of Oak Island, directly to the north  The CDP is bordered to the east by Captree State Park and to the west by Gilgo State Park  To the south is the west end of Fire Island 

Ownership
The land is not owned by the residents but is on long-term lease from the Village of Babylon   In the early 1990s, New York State litigated against extension of the lease   After much negotiation, including detailed environmental impact statements, the lease was renewed (currently through 2050), although with a ramp up in costs  In 2012, the Village of Babylon agreed to extend the current leases through 2065 

Shannan Gilbert
On May 1, 2010,  Shannan Gilbert disappeared after fleeing a client's house in the Oak Beach Association  In December 2010, while searching for Gilbert, the police found 10 dead bodies along the adjacent highway, some bodies in December 2010, others in April 2011  Consequently, the community attracted much public attention 
In December 2011, the body of the original missing sex worker Shannan Gilbert was found in the marsh east of the community  On November 29, 2011, the police announced their belief that one person is responsible for all 10 deaths (whom the press refers to at various times as: "the Long Island serial killer", "LISK", "the Gilgo Beach Killer", or "the Craigslist Ripper"), and that they did not believe the case of Gilbert, who went missing before the first set of bodies was found, was related  "It is clear that the area in and around Gilgo Beach has been used to discard human remains for some period of time," said Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota On December 10, 2015, Suffolk County Police announced that the FBI had officially joined the investigation  A spokesperson for the FBI confirmed the announcement  The FBI had previously assisted in the search for victims, but was never officially part of the investigation until this announcement  The investigation is ongoing 
Passage 10:
Gilgo-Oak Beach-Captree, New York
Gilgo-Oak Beach-Captree, frequently just called Oak Beach, was a census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, New York within the Town of Babylon  The population was 333 at the 2000 census 
Following the 2010 census, the area was delineated as two CDPs: Gilgo and Oak Beach–Captree  The original CDP contained several small beach communities on a barrier island along the southern edge of Long Island  In order from west to east, these included West Gilgo Beach (on the Nassau/Suffolk county border), Gilgo Beach, Cedar Beach (no residences), Oak Beach (including the Oak Island Beach Association), Oak Island and Captree Island  They are connected to the mainland by Ocean Parkway from the west and Robert Moses State Parkway from the north 
Prior to the 2020 census, the Oak Beach-Captree CDP was further split into the Oak Beach and Captree CDPs 

Geography
Oak Beach is located at 40°38′28″N 73°16′42″W (40 641100, -73 278195) According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP had a total area of 3 7 square miles (9 6 km2), of which 2 7 square miles (7 0 km2) was land and 0 9 square miles (2 3 km2), or 25 21%, is water 

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 333 people, 161 households, and 94 families residing in the CDP  The population density was 122 1 inhabitants per square mile (47 1/km2)  There were 305 housing units at an average density of 111 9 per square mile (43 2/km2)  The racial makeup of the CDP was 97 00% White, 0 30% African American and 2 70% Asian  Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1 80% of the population 
There were 161 households, out of which 14 9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50 9% were married couples living together, 6 2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41 0% were non-families  34 8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 07 and the average family size was 2 64 
In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 13 5% under the age of 18, 1 5% from 18 to 24, 28 8% from 25 to 44, 34 8% from 45 to 64, and 21 3% who were 65 years of age or older  The median age was 48 years  For every 100 females, there were 109 4 males  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100 0 males 
The median income for a household in the CDP was $66,250, and the median income for a family was $105,870  Males had a median income of $61,250 versus $37,083 for females  The per capita income for the CDP was $55,813  None of the families and 0 9% of the population were living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and none of those over 64 
The census numbers are presumably for full-time inhabitants; many of these houses are second homes and not primary residences, although the proportion of seasonal residents is decreasing 
The land for these communities is not privately owned, but leased from the State of New York through the year 2050   However, the residences on the property are owned   If the leases are not renewed at some point in the future, the owners will have to move the houses elsewhere, similar to what happened at High Hill Beach when Jones Beach was created 
Context 2: Passage 1:
FIBT World Championships 1960
The FIBT World Championships 1960 took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy for the fifth time  The Italian city had hosted the event previously in 1937 (Two-man), 1939 (Four-man), 1950, and 1954  This was an extraordinary event because bobsleigh was not included in the program at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California 

Two man bobsleigh
The Italian duo of Monti and Alvera won their fourth straight championships in this event 

Four man bobsleigh
Medal table
Passage 2:
Steven Langton
Steven Daniel Langton (born April 15, 1983) is an American bobsledder  He won silver medals in both the two-man and four-man events at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and gold in both the two-man and four-man events at the 2012 FIBT World Championships 

Early life
Langton attended Northeastern University, in Boston, Massachusetts, graduating cum laude in 2006 with a degree in Business Management and Entrepreneurship  At Northeastern, he was a member of the track and field team and was a two-year team captain, with personal bests of 6 49 seconds in the indoor 55m dash, 10 58 seconds in the outdoor 100m dash, and 7 04m in the long jump  He was inspired to try bobsled after watching the 2006 Winter Olympics 

Olympic career
At the 2010 Olympic Games, Langton competed in both the two-man and four-man events with pilot, John Napier  Langton finished tenth in the two-man event  Due to injuries that were sustained during USA 2's crash in the second run of the four-man event, Langton and his team did compete on the second day 
At the 2014 Olympic Games, Langton competed in both the two-man and four-man events with pilot Steven Holcomb  He won a bronze medal (later upgraded to silver) in the two-man event at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, marking the first time in 62 years an American sled had won an Olympic medal in the two-man event  Following this accomplishment, Langton teamed with Steven Holcomb, Curt Tomasevicz and Christopher Fogt to win a bronze medal (later also upgraded to silver) in the four-man event  With this medal, they became the first American team in 62 years to win an Olympic medal in both the two- and four-man events at the same Olympics 

World Championships and World Cups
Outside of the Olympic Games, Langton has also won four world championships medals: bronze in the four-man in 2011 and 2013, and gold in both events in 2012  The 2012 victory marked the first time an American sled won gold in the two-man event at a world championships, and the first time the American team won both events at a single world championships 
He has also won 21 World Cup medals during his career: 11 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze  During the 2010–11 season Langton also won the Inaugural World Push Championships held in Cesana Pariol, Italy 

Family
Steven Langton's brother, Christopher Langton, was an All-Ivy lacrosse player at Cornell University  Chris served as Team USA's Alternate for the Sochi Winter Olympic Games  Another brother, Sean Langton, currently works as a dentist 
Passage 3:
Urs Aeberhand
Urs Aeberhand (sometimes known as Urs Aeberhard) is a Swiss bobsledder who competed from the late 1990s to the early 2000s  He won three bronze medals at the FIBT World Championships (Two-man: 2000, Four-man: 2000, FIBT World Championships 2001) 
Aeberhand also finished sixth in the four-man event at Salt Lake City in 2002 
Passage 4:
FIBT World Championships 1981
The FIBT World Championships 1981 took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy for the seventh time, having hosted the event previously in 1937 (Two-man), 1939 (Four-man), 1950, 1954, 1960, and 1966 
Following the death of West Germany's Toni Pensperger at the track in 1966, numerous safety improvements were done at the track which were satisfactory enough for the FIBT to allow the championships to be hosted  These improvements would not be enough as American bobsled driver James Morgan was killed during the third run of the four-man event A stuntman fatality on the track a week later, during the first day of filming of For Your Eyes Only, led track officials to shorten the track to its current configuration  Cortina did not host another championship until 1989 

Two man bobsleigh
Four man bobsleigh
February 8, 1981

Medal table
Passage 5:
Eugenio Monti track
The Eugenio Monti olympic track (Italian: Pista olimpica Eugenio Monti  ) is a bobsleigh and skeleton track located in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy  It is named after Eugenio Monti (1928–2003), who won six bobsleigh medals at the Winter Olympic Games between 1956 and 1968 and ten medals at the FIBT World Championships between 1957 and 1966  It was featured in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, held after the 1981 FIBT World Championships, before the track was shortened to its current configuration  In January 2008, after a last bobsleigh race tournament, the track was closed 

History
Bobsleigh at Cortina d'Ampezzo was introduced in 1905-6 using a snow-covered road on the Dolomite Road between Cortina and Pocol  An attempt was made in 1911 to build an artificial bobsleigh run near the centre of Cortina, but that failed due to funding issues  By 1923, a new track 1200 metres in length, was constructed in Ronco, a village near Cortina on the Dolomite Road laid with special water piping constructed into the earth and covered with turf to allow for track freezing The track made its international debut in 1928 at the International University Winter Games (forerunner of the Winter Universiade, under administration by the International University Sports Federation), giving the track first notice, increasing its growth  Rebuilding of the track occurred in 1936 to meet the standards of other tracks such as St  Moritz, Switzerland and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany with the finish of the track moving down to the bank of the Boite River  This extended the track length to 1500 metres with 15 turns and a vertical drop of 152 metres  The track hosted its first FIBT World Championships in 1937 in the two-man event  Two years later, it hosted the four-man event of the FIBT World Championships though it would lead to the death of Swiss bobsledder Reto Capadrutt during competition  Another renovation occurred with the track after World War II in 1948, when all of the turns were rebuilt and the track lengthened to 1700 metres and 16 turns When the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1956 Winter Olympics to Cortina, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) took over all operations and improvement of the track at considerable expense  Following the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, track officials added large scoreboards, and electronic timing and scoring  The track used for the 1956 Winter Olympics was 1720 metres long with 16 turns and an elevation drop of 152 metres  When a bobsleigh track was not built for the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California in the United States, the track in Cortina was used to host the world championships that year in place of being excluded from the Winter Olympic Games 

The track played a key role in improving bobsleigh safety when West Germany's Toni Pensperger was killed during the four-man event at the 1966 world championships  Because of Pensperger's death, the world championships did not take place at the track until safety improvements were made satisfactory to the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT)  This was not until 1981, though the death of American bobsledder James Morgan during the four-man event on February 8 led to track officials shortening the course to its current configuration  The week following the 1981 championships, the track was filmed as part of the movie For Your Eyes Only; one of the stuntmen involved, Paolo Rigon, was killed during the first day of filming By 1989 the track was deemed safe enough by the FIBT to host another world championship  Following the death of Eugenio Monti in 2003, the Olympic Bobrun Cortina was renamed the Eugenio Monti pista (track in (in Italian)) early the following year  The track was awarded the 2011 world championships in June 2007 over Winterberg, Germany and was to have undergone homologation to involve skeleton (last competed in 1992) though that was not done during the 2007-08 Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup season  Following some issues with the city of Cortina, the track withdrew its bid to host the 2011 championships so the FIBT awarded the championships instead to Königssee, Germany  The track is now artificially refrigerated  The venue could be reopened when Cortina co-host the 2026 Winter Olympics with Milan 

Track statistics
The track used for the 1956 Winter Olympics had 16 curves that was 1,700 meters long with an elevation difference of 152 meters  Turns 3 and 5 were not named 

Following the 1981 FIBT World Championships, the track was shortened to 1350 meters in length with 13 curves, an elevation drop of 120 45 meters, a maximum grade of 15 9%, and an average grade of 9 3% 

Championships hosted
Winter Olympics: 1956, 2026
FIBT World Championships: 1937 (Two-man), 1939 (Four-man), 1950, 1954, 1960 (Extraordinary event since bobsleigh was not included for the 1960 Winter Olympics), 1966, 1981, 1989 (Bobsleigh only), 1999 (Bobsleigh only)
Bobsleigh European Championship: 1965, 1970, 1982, 2000, 2002, 2007
Bobsleigh Italian Championship: 1930, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008

Gallery
See also
Italy national bobsleigh team
Passage 6:
Katie Uhlaender
Katie Uhlaender (born July 17, 1984) is an American skeleton racer who has competed since 2003  She has won six medals at the FIBT World Championships with two gold (women's skeleton: FIBT World Championships 2012, mixed bobsleigh-skeleton team event: 2012), one silver (women's skeleton: 2008), and three bronze (women's skeleton: 2007, mixed bobsleigh-skeleton team event: 2008, 2009) 

Career
Uhlaender won the women's Skeleton World Cup title twice (2006-7, 2007-8)  She also finished sixth in the women's skeleton event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin  She earned a medical waiver to compete in the 2009-10 Skeleton World Cup season following surgery in the wake of an April 2009 snowmobile accident where Uhelander shattered her kneecap  She then broke it again in August 2009 (having a total of four surgeries)  She qualified for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where she finished 11th   She then had another surgery (microfracture labral repair by Dr Phillipon at Steadman Hawkins)  On January 18, 2014, Uhlaender was named to the 2014 Olympic team  She placed fourth at the 2014 Olympics, missing out on a medal by  04 seconds Uhlaender has also participated in weightlifting competitions  The 2012 U S  Olympic trials were just the third meet of her weightlifting career, but she did not make the team  Discovering that her hip had ossified (there was no soft tissue) and her ankle had a hole in it, she took the 2014-15 season off from skeleton and gave up on weightlifting to get healthy  She participated in track cycling, attempting to be a starter in the women's team sprint  She posted her best one-lap time of 20 7 at Senior Nationals 2015 
Uhlaender was named, along with Kendall Wesenberg, to represent the U S  in women's skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang In July 2018, Uhlaender testified before the U S  Helsinki Commission in Washington, DC, on the subject of doping in sports  She was on a panel alongside Travis Tygart, CEO of the U S  Anti-Doping Administration, Jim Walden, the attorney for Russian whistleblower Dr  Grigory Rodchenkov, and Yuliya Stepanova, a former Russian track star turned whistleblower  Uhlaender told the body that she felt she was twice unfairly denied an Olympic medal  The loss "erased the meaning of sport and the Olympics as I knew it "

Personal life
A native of Vail, Colorado, Uhlaender lives in nearby Breckenridge while training, but lives in McDonald, Kansas the rest of the year  She is the daughter of Major League Baseball outfielder (and former Cleveland Indians coach) Ted Uhlaender  In memory of her father, she wears his National League Championship ring from the 1972 Cincinnati Reds on a necklace 
Passage 7:
FIBT World Championships 1951
The FIBT World Championships 1951 took place in Alpe d'Huez, France  Germany returned to the FIBT World Championships for the first time since World War II, albeit as the separate countries of East Germany and West Germany 

Two man bobsleigh
Four man bobsleigh
Medal table
Passage 8:
Andreas Barucha
Andreas Barucha (born 2 April 1979 in Potsdam) is a German bobsledder who has competed since 1999  He won a gold in the mixed team event at the 2009 FIBT World Championships in Lake Placid, New York  His best finish at the FIBT World Championships was seventh in the four-man event at Calgary in 2005 
Barucha's best World Cup finish was second three times in the four-man event (2005, 2006, 2009) 
He finished fourth in the four-man event at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver 
Passage 9:
Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italian pronunciation: [korˈtiːna damˈpɛttso]; Ladin: Anpezo, Ampëz; historical Austrian German: Hayden) is a town and comune in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy  Situated on the Boite river, in an alpine valley, it is a summer and winter sport resort known for its skiing trails, scenery, accommodation, shops and après-ski scene, and for its jet set and Italian aristocratic crowd 
In the Middle Ages, Ampezzo fell under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Aquileia and of the Holy Roman Empire  In 1420 it was conquered by the Republic of Venice  From 1508, it then spent much of its history under Habsburg rule, briefly undergoing some territorial changes under Napoleon, before being returned to the Austrian Empire (later Austria-Hungary), which held it until 1918  From the nineteenth century, Ampezzo became a notable regional centre for crafts  The local handmade products were appreciated by early British and German holidaymakers as tourism emerged late nineteenth century  Among the specializations of the town were crafting wood for furniture, the production of tiled stoves, and iron, copper and glass items  
Today, the local economy thrives on tourism, particularly during the winter season, when the population of the town typically increases from about 7,000 to 40,000  The Basilica Minore dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo was built between 1769 and 1775 on the site of two former thirteenth and sixteenth-century churches; it is home to the parish and the deanery of Cortina d'Ampezzo  The town also contains the Rinaldo Zardini Palaeontology Museum, established in 1975, the Mario Rimoldi Modern Art Museum, and the Regole of Ampezzo Ethnographic Museum  
Although Cortina d'Ampezzo was unable to go ahead with the scheduled 1944 Winter Olympics because of World War II, it hosted the Winter Olympics in 1956 and subsequently a number of world winter-sports events  Cortina d'Ampezzo will host the Winter Olympics for a second time when it co-hosts the 2026 Winter Olympics with Milan  The town is home to SG Cortina, a top league professional ice hockey team, and Cortina d'Ampezzo is also the start and end point of the annual Dolomites Gold Cup Race  
Several films have been shot in the town, most notably The Pink Panther (1963), For Your Eyes Only (1981), and Cliffhanger (1993) 

History
Prehistory
The discovery in 1987 of a primitive tomb at Mondeval de Sora high up in the mountains to the south of Cortina testifies to the presence of Mesolithic man in the area as far back as the 6th millennium B C  In the 6th century B C , Etruscan writing was introduced in the province of Cadore, in whose possession it remained until the early 5th century  From the 3rd century B C , the Romans assimilated the Veneti people, giving the area the name of Amplitium (from amplus meaning wide), today's Ampezzo 

Middle Ages to 19th century
No historical information exists on the Cadore region from the fall of the Roman Empire until the Lombard period  It is assumed that during the Barbarian invasions, the inhabitants fled to the Fassa, Badia, Cordevole and Ampezzo valleys In the Middle Ages, Ampezzo fell under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Aquileia and of the Holy Roman Empire  In 1420, the village was conquered by the Republic of Venice  In 1508 it was conquered by the Habsburgs, and by 1511 people of Ampezzo swore loyalty to the Emperor Maximilian, and that area was subsequently adjoined to the region of Pusterthal  In 1797, when the Treaty of Campo Formio was signed, Napoleon initially permitted the Habsburg Empire to retain it, but in 1810 he added Ampezzo to the Department of Piave, following an attack on the town in which it was burned by the French  It was short-lived; the Austrian Empire reclaimed it in 1813, and it remained in its possession even after the battles of Custoza and Sadowa in 1866 when Venice was ceded to Italy  The town gained a reputation as a health resort; it was reportedly free of diseases such as cholera In 1874 the Ampezzo forest became the property of the Carnic Woods Consortium  Although remaining an Austrian possession until 1920 (as a part of kronland Tyrol), aside from being home for an ethnic German-speaking minority, Ampezzo never became a German-speaking territory and conserved its original language Ladin, a Rhaeto-Romance language 

20th century
When Italy entered World War I in 1915, most of the male inhabitants were fighting for Austria-Hungary on the Russian front  669 male inhabitants (most of them under 16 or over 50) tried to fight the Italian troops  Outnumbered by the Italians, they had to retreat  After the Austrian recovery in 1917, the town was occupied again by the Tyrolean Standschützen  On 24 November 1917, the Habsburg Emperor Charles (Karl) traveled through Ampezzo and was received with enthusiasm by the population  A little girl handed the emperor a letter with the request to send her father home from the front because his wife and mother of nine children had died  After ten days, Bepe Manaigo was with his children  A total of 144 Ampezzans died as a result of the war  Ampezzo soldiers received 16 silver and 4 bronze medals for bravery  In the surrounding area of Cortina there were 38 military cemeteries, everywhere trenches, barbed wire, impact holes, splinters, ammunition and barracks; 2,450 hectares of forest were devastated 
The mountains surrounding Cortina were themselves the theatre of several battles during the Great War  

Following Italy's victory in World War I, Ampezzo was (together with the central and southern part of Tyrol) definitively ceded to Italy in 1920  Three years later, it was separated from Tyrol (along with Colle Santa Lucia and Livinallongo del Col di Lana) and incorporated into the province of Belluno, itself part of the Veneto region 
After the war the city was renamed "Cortina d'Ampezzo" (Curtain of the Ampezzo Valley), adopting the name of one of the six villages that made up the territory of Ampezzo, located in the middle of the Ampezzo valley Cortina d'Ampezzo was designated as a major redoubt and held a large ammunition storage depot (46°36'50"N / 12°09'27"E) in 1945 and had been assigned as a hold out by Italian and German troops to prevent the American and British from advancing into Austria   Town and depot was scheduled to be attacked on 26 April 1945 only last minute weather prevented this strike by the 15th AF / 49th BW
Already an elite destination for the first British tourists in the late 18th and early 20th centuries, after World War I Cortina d'Ampezzo became a resort for upper-class Italians, too  Cortina d'Ampezzo was chosen as the venue of the 1944 winter Olympics, which did not take place due to World War II  Thanks to finally hosting the winter Olympics in 1956,  Cortina grew into a world-famous resort, with a substantial increase in tourism  With a resident population of 6,150 people in 2008, Cortina has a temporary population of around 50,000 during peak periods such as the Christmas holidays and mid-August  The Ford Cortina, the UK's best-selling car of the 1970s, was named after Cortina d'Ampezzo 

21st-century politics
In 2002 the Ampezzaner rifle company Ŝizar Anpezo Hayden was brought back to life  Since Otto von Habsburg, the then head of the Habsburg family, visited Cortina in 2005, their patron has been Charles I of Austria  Especially because of the eventful history, the Habsburg brand is still very present in Cortina in the 21st century, as many pictures and photos of Franz Joseph I of Austria and of Charles I, who is particularly revered here, in inns, restaurants, bars and hotels testify  Since 2011 there has been a memorial for Maximilian I on the main square in memory of the year 1511 and the union of the Ampezzo valley basin with Tyrol The town voted in October 2007 to secede from the region of Veneto and join the neighbouring region, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol  This was motivated by cultural ties with the Ladin-speaking community in South Tyrol and the attraction of lower taxes  The referendum is not executive, and a final decision on the matter can only be made by law from the Italian parliament with consent of both regional councils of Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol In the European elections of 2014, the leading party was the Democratic Party with 30 4% of the vote, followed by Forza Italia (19 4%) and the autonomist Südtiroler Volkspartei with 14 1% 

Geography and climate
Cortina is situated more or less in the centre of the Ampezzo valley, at the top of the Valle del Boite in the Dolomites, which encircle the town  The Boite river flows directly through the town of Cortina itself  The mountains in the area are described as "craggy" and "soaring", "unmistakable; like a massive coral reef ripped from the sea, strung with conifers and laced with snow"  The town is positioned between Cadore (to the south) and the Puster Valley (to the north), Val d'Ansiei (to the east) and Agordo (to the west)  Originally it consisted of numerous frazioni, isolated villages and hamlets, but from the 1950s it grew rapidly as a result of tourism  Only the most remote villages have remained isolated from the main town  San Vito di Cadore is 9 kilometres (5 6 mi) to the south of Cortina d'Ampezzo Among the surrounding mountains are Tofane to the west, Pomagagnon to the north, Cristallo to the northeast, Faloria and Sorapiss to the east, and Becco di Mezzodì, Croda da Lago and Cinque Torri to the south  Monte Antelao (Nantelou in Ladin) is at 3264 m the highest mountain in the Ampezzo Dolomites and the second highest in the Dolomites  When the weather is good, Monte Antelao is clearly visible from the rive in Trieste on the Adriatic Sea  The town centre is located at an elevation of 1,224 metres (4,016 ft), the closest high peak is that of Tofana di Mezzo, which towers at 3,244 metres (10,643 ft)  There are numerous fast flowing rivers, streams and small lakes in the territory, such as the Ghedina, Pianozes and d'Ajal, which fill particularly during the summer snow-melt season  Fauna include marmots, roe deer, chamois and hares and, on occasion, wolves, bears and lynx  Much of the area of Cortina is part of the "Natural Park of the Ampezzo Dolomites" 

Frazioni
The comune contains the following frazioni (parishes/wards) with their Ladino names in parentheses: Acquabona (Agabòna), Alverà, Bigontina (Begontina), Cadelverzo (Cadelvèrzo), Cademai, Cadin (Ciadìn), Campo (Ciànpo), Chiamulera (Ciamulèra), Chiave (Ciàe), Cianderìes, Coiana (Cojana), Col, Cortina, Crìgnes, Doneà, Fiames (Fiàmes), Fraìna, Gilardon (Jilardòn), Gnòche o Gràa, Guargné, Lacedel (Lazedèl), Manaigo, Majon, Melères, Mortisa (Mortìja), Pecol (Pecòl), Pezié, Pian da Lago, Pocol (Pocòl), Rònco, Salieto, Socol, Staulin (Staulìn), Val, Verocai, Vera (Vèra), Zuel (Zuèl) 

Climate
Cortina d'Ampezzo has a humid continental climate (Dfb) with short summers and long winters that vacillate between frigid, snowy, unsettled, and temperate  In late December and early January, some of Italy's lowest recorded temperatures are to be found in the region, especially at the top of the Cimabanche Pass on the border between the provinces of Belluno and Bolzano  The other seasons are generally rainy, cool to warm, and windy  During the summer temperature up to 25 degrees are present 

Demographics
Cortina's population grew steadily from the time when it was annexed to the Italian State until the 1960s  Thereafter, it underwent a sharp decline (down by 2,099 inhabitants over a 30-year period), with signs of recovery only in the very last few years  Nevertheless, with 6,112 inhabitants, Cortina d'Ampezzo is the seventh most populous place in the province following Belluno (36,509), Feltre (20,688), Sedico (9,734), Ponte nelle Alpi (8,521), Santa Giustina (6,795) and Mel (6,272)  In 2008, there were 44 births (7 1 ‰) and 67 deaths (10 9%), resulting in an overall reduction of 23 inhabitants (−3 8 ‰)  The town's 2,808 families consisted on average of 2 2 persons The presence of foreign residents in Cortina d'Ampezzo is a fairly recent phenomenon, accounting for only a small number of inhabitants in what in any case is a fairly small town  There are 298 resident foreigners in the town, representing 4 9% of the total population  This compares with 7 0% in the town Belluno, 6 4% in the entire province of Belluno, and 10 2% in the Veneto region 

Language and dialects
In addition to Italian, the majority of the population speak fluent Ampezzano, a local variant of Ladin, now recognized as a language rather than a dialect  Ladin is a Rhaeto-Romance language and closely resembles Romansh, which is spoken in Switzerland  The preservation of the local language, as a living medium used by younger generations, is seen as a symbol of pride and attachment to local heritage  Ladin and Tyrolean culture continues to survive despite the increasing pressure faced in recent years  Its importance is even beginning to be recognized by the local authorities who in December 2007 decided to use Ladin on signs for the names of streets and villages in compliance with regulations for the protection of linguistic minorities in force since 1999 

Economy
Beginning in the 19th century, Ampezzo became a notable regional centre for crafts  The growing importance of this sector led the Austrian Ministry of Commerce to authorize the opening of a State Industrial School in 1874, which later became the Art Institute  It became a reputable institution in teaching wood and metalwork, admitting boys from the age of 13 for up to four years of study  The local handmade products were appreciated by early British and German vacationers as tourism emerged in the late 19th century  Some of the local items were said to have mythical qualities; the Austrian journalist and anthropologist Karl Felix Wolff, for example, stated in 1935 that according to legend a local man "once made a sword that was so flexible that you could bend it over, tie it up, and then allow it to straighten out again"  Among the specializations of the town were crafting wood for furniture; the production of tiled stoves; and iron, copper, and glass items 

Today the local economy thrives on tourism, particularly during the winter season, when the population of the town typically increases from about 7,000 to 40,000  Lonely Planet refers to Cortina d'Ampezzo as "one of Italy's most famous, fashionable and expensive ski resorts", which "boasts first-class facilities (skiing, skating, sledding, climbing) and superb hiking" Cortina is home to some of the most prestigious names in fashion (including Bulgari, Benetton, Gucci, and Geox) and various artisan shops, antiquarians, and craft stores  It is also home to many stores specializing in mountaineering equipment  The symbol of Cortina shopping remains La Cooperativa di Cortina, founded on 28 June 1893 as Consumverein Ampezzo  In this shopping centre many trades can be found, from confectioners to newspaper vendors, toys, gift shops, skiing stores, and blacksmiths  The building is divided into three levels (more a raised plan and a balcony)  The cooperative in Cortina was one of the first cooperatives founded in the Italian Peninsula and currently provides employment to approximately 200 people 
The five-star Miramonti Majestic Grand Hotel, of James Bond fame, is more than 100 years old  Previously an Austro-Hungarian hunting lodge, it contains 105 rooms  Other hotels of note include Hotel Cornelio on Via Cantore, Hotel Montana on Corso Italia, Hotel Menardi on Via Majom, Hotel Villa Gaiai on Via Guide Alpine, and the Grand Hotel Savoia on Via Roma  There are several mountain hostels in the vicinity, including Rifugio Faloria, Rifugio son Forca, Rifugio Capanna Tondi and Rifugio duca D'Aosta, which contains restaurants 

Landmarks
Near the bridge on the Bigontina River is the Town Hall, a palace in the Tyrolean style  Piazza Angelo Dibona houses several landmarks  The Ciasa de ra Regoles is one of the more important legal buildings in Ampezzo, where the "regolieri" — a council for the local villages that stood before the town merged — train the community and give administrative orders  It was at one time the see of Ampezzo's primary school  Currently it contains the offices of Comunanza delle Regole d'Ampezzo and the Modern Art Museum "Mario Rimoldi"  The main square of Cortina d'Ampezzo is named after the famous local mountain guide Angelo Dibona 

Museums
The Regole d'Ampezzo administer the Musei delle Regole d'Ampezzo, which covers three museums: 
Rinaldo Zardini Palaeontology Museum, Regole of Ampezzo Ethnographic Museum, and Mario Rimoldi Modern Art Museum The Rinaldo Zardini Palaeontology Museum, established in 1975, is a paleontological museum with a collection of hundreds of fossils of all colors, shapes, and sizes, which were found, gathered, and cataloged by local photographer Rinaldo Zardini  All of the pieces were found in the Dolomites and tell of a time when these high mountain peaks were still on the bottom of a large tropical sea, populated by marine invertebrates, fish, corals, and sponges The Regole of Ampezzo Ethnographic Museum is an ethnographic museum situated in an old restored Venetian sawmill at the confluence of the Boite and Felizon rivers to the north of the town  There are objects related to everyday life, rural, and pastoral practices in the vicinity; agricultural tools; techniques; materials processing; and clothing typical of the valley  
The Mario Rimoldi Modern Art Museum is an art gallery, established in 1941, which preserves over 800 works by major Italian artists of the 20th century including Filippo De Pisis, Felice Carena, Pio Semeghini, Renato Guttuso, Tullio Garbari, Massimo Campigli, and many others  It also hosts temporary exhibitions on various topics 
The Great War Tour stretches over 80 km (50 mi) across the mountains between Lagazuoi and Sass de Stria  It includes the Great War Open Air Museum with its trenches and tunnels  In winter it is accessible to skiers, but it is easier to visit on foot or by mountain bike in the summer months 

Churches
The Basilica Minore dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo was built between 1769 and 1775 on the site of two former 13th and 16th-century churches; it is home to the parish and the deanery of Cortina d'Ampezzo  Its high wooden altar, crowned by a figure of Christ the Redeemer, was carved by Andrea Brustolon  On the ceiling are three frescoes by Luigi Ghedina: "Christ Purifying the Temple", "The Martyrdom of St  Philip", and "The Beheading of St  James" The Chiesa della Madonna della Difesa was built in 1750 on the site of a ruined 14th-century building  Its façade features an intricate fresco depicting the Madonna della Difesa, and the interior is decorated with a wealth of statues, paintings, polychrome marble, and gold leaf 

The Cappella della Beata Vergine di Lourdes (Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes) was completed in 1907  Decorated by artist Corrado Pitscheider of the Val Gardena, it is a small church of particular interest given the reconstruction sculpture The Cappella di Sant'Antonio da Padova in the village of Chiave was completed in 1791, but the interior was renovated in 1809 after serious fire damage caused by the Napoleonic troops  The furnishings include two wooden busts (Christ and St  Catherine) and a richly designed altar Sacrario militare di Pocol (also known as Ossario di Pocol) is a cemetery and shrine located at an altitude of 1,535 metres (5,036 ft) towards Passo Falzarego, in the locality of Pocol  The small church and cemetery were built in 1916 as a military cemetery by the 5th Alpine group  A shrine was built in 1935 as a memorial to the thousands who lost their lives during World War I on the Dolomite front  It is a massive square tower of stone, clearly visible from the entire Ampezzo valley below  In a crypt in the centre of the structure rests the body of general Antonio Cantore, who was awarded the gold medal for military valor 

Castles and forts
The Castello de Zanna is a small fortress, situated in the vila of Minel  It consists of low, white outer walls and two white corner towers, with a small chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity  The construction of the castle began in 1694, but on 19 August 1696 work was interrupted; the building remained unfinished in 1809 when it was burned by French revolutionary troops who had invaded Ampezzo  Since then the castle has undergone restoration 
Forte Tre Sassi (or Forte Tra i Sassi) is a fortress constructed in 1897 during the Austro-Hungarian period on the Passo Valparola  It lies between Sass de Stria and Piccolo Lagazuoi, dominating the passage between the Passo Falzarego and Val Badia in South Tyrol (Alto Adige)  It was part of the large complex of Austrian fortifications built on the Italian border in the late 19th and early 20th centuries 
Rendered unusable due to a bombing by the Italians on 5 July 1915, the ruins remained in a state of disrepair until the advent of the 21st century, when it was restored by the local administration of Ampezzo with the assistance of the Lacedelli family  The fort houses a museum containing relics related to the First World War Castello di Botestagno (also known as Podestagno) was a medieval fort perched on a rock in the valley of the river Boite, a little farther north of Cortina d'Ampezzo  It is believed that it was first erected as a stakeout during conflict with the Lombards between the 7th and 8th centuries, with the aim of dominating the three valleys that converge beneath it: the Boite, the Val di Fanes, and the Val Felizon  The cornerstone, however, probably dates to the 11th century  It was held by the Germans until 1077, and then by the patriarchs of Aquileia (12th century) and Camino (13th century), until Botestagno became the seat of a captaincy  It then passed into Venetian hands and finally to the Habsburgs  During the 18th century the castle gradually lost importance until it was auctioned in 1782 by order of Emperor Joseph II  Today the fort has now almost completely disappeared; only the remnants of what must have been the wine cellars and the foundations remain, now weathered and largely covered up by vegetation 

Culture
Cortina has a long tradition in hosting writers, intellectuals, poets and editors from all over the world  Ernest Hemingway, Saul Bellow, Dino Buzzati, as well as Vittorio Gassman, Leonardo Sciascia, Leonardo Mondadori and many others, spent their vacations in the town and took part in the cultural life of the city  Through the years, this led to a continuous activity of literature festivals and book presentations, like Una Montagna di Libri ("A Mountain of Books"), held twice a year since 2009  The festival attracted to Cortina writers as Azar Nafisi, Peter Cameron, Emmanuel Carrère 
Music is important to the locals of Cortina, with a guitar found in most houses, and young musicians are often found walking the streets  Every year, from the end of July to early August, Cortina hosts the Dino Ciani Festival and Academy  It is held in honour of the celebrated Italian pianist Dino Ciani (1941–1974) who died when he was only 32  The festival attracts young pianists from around the world who are able to benefit from classes with some of the world's leading performers  The Festival of the Bands is another annual musical event featuring brass bands from Italy and beyond during the last week of August  Cortina's own band, parading in traditional costumes, is a central attraction dating back to 1861  Cortina d'Ampezzo hosted the 1953 Miss Italia contest, won by Marcella Mariani  Traditionally, on the eves of the festivals of Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity and St Philip and St James, the youth of the town would climb the hills at sunset and light fires After Ernest Hemingway's wife Hadley lost a suitcase filled with Hemingway's manuscripts at the Gare de Lyon in Paris, he took a time off  He began writing that same year in Cortina d'Ampezzo, writing Out of Season The dominant religion in the comune of Cortina d'Ampezzo is Roman Catholicism 
Among the religious minorities, mainly a result of recent immigration, there is a small community of Eastern Orthodox Christians and Muslims  There is also a congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, which has its headquarters in Pian da Lago The surroundings of Cortina have been the location for a number of movies, including mountain climbing scenes for Cliffhanger, Krull and  The Pink Panther  The resort was the primary area for location shooting in Sergio Corbucci's Revisionist Spaghetti Western The Great Silence; the resort was used to represent Utah in the winter of 1898  It was a glamorous location for Elizabeth Taylor in Ash Wednesday (1973), and was also a major location for the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only  Roger Moore's James Bond meets the character Luigi Ferrara (John Moreno) at the peak of Tofana and stays at the Hotel Miramonti  A number of action sequences were shot in the town involving Bond and Erich Kriegler (John Wyman), as Kriegler competes in the biathlon  The battle culminates in one of the famous ski chase sequences in film, where Bond has to escape Kriegler and a crew of assassins on a spike-wheeled motorcycles, his route taking them all onto the bobsleigh run  The actual town centre was also the scene of the first attack on Bond and his partner Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) by two motorcyclists who attempted to run them over, only for Bond to eliminate them both, putting one of them through the window of a local florist 

Sports
Cortina d'Ampezzo hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics, originally scheduled for 1944, but cancelled because of World War II  The 1927 Nordic, 1941 Nordic, and 1941 Alpine World Championships were held in Cortina as well, although both 1941 championships were withdrawn by the International Ski Federation (FIS) in 1946  The region lost Winter Olympics bids in 1988 (Calgary, Alberta) and 1992 (Albertville, France) 
 Cortina hosted the 2021 Alpine World Championships, and, with Milan, will jointly host the 2026 Winter Olympics and the 2026 Winter Paralympics 
The town is home to SG Cortina, a professional ice hockey team in Serie A1, Italy's top division  Cortina is also the start and end point of the annual Dolomites Gold Cup Race, a historical re-evocation event for production cars on public roads  The town hosted the Red Bull Road Rage in 2009 

Cortina also offers skiing facilities for amateurs, centrally located among the 12 resorts of the Dolomiti Superski area  Cortina itself has 115 km (71 mi) of pistes with 34 lifts and guaranteed snow coverage of over 95% from December to April  There are six ski schools (two for cross-country) and some 300 instructors  The Faloria-Cristallo-Mietres ski area has views over the Ampezzo Valley and is suitable forall abilities, including children  The Tofane area offers more challenging opportunities from an elevation of 2,500 m (8,200 ft) with the Canalone and Schuss ski runs  The longest run, the Armentarola piste in the Lagazuoi-5 Torri area, starts next to the Lagazuoi refuge at 2,752 m (9,029 ft) and is reached by cable car  With the Forcella Staunies (currently not in operation) and the Forcella Rossa, the ski area has one of the steepest slopes in the Dolomites  There are numerous ski freeride and tour options in the mountains around Cortina Facilities also exist for cross-country skiing, including a long stretch of the old railway line  In and around Cortina, there are opportunities to participate in many other winter sports such as curling, ski mountaineering, snowboarding, sledding, and extreme skiing  In the summer months, sports include trekking, trail running, biking, rock climbing, tennis, golf, swimming, and ice skiing  Cortina is known for the many via ferratas in the surrounding mountains such as the VF Ivano Dibona that was used in the movie Cliffhanger  The annual Lavaredo Ultra Trail series of international trail running races is based at Cortina 

Transport
Cortina Airport was built for the 1956 Winter Olympics, but is currently closed  The town has its own bus service, connecting the centre to surrounding villages and cable car lifts  The nearest airports are those serving Venice: the distance to Treviso is 138 km (86 mi) while that to Venice Marco Polo Airport is 148 km (92 mi)  Both can be reached in about two and a quarter hours by road  The railway station for Cortina is Calalzo di Cadore, 37 km (23 mi) to the south east, with rail connections to Venice and a bus service to Cortina  The total journey time to Venice is about three and a half hours  There are also direct bus links from Venice Mestre and Padova railway stations, coordinated with the arrivals and departures of Eurostar trains Cortina was the principal intermediate station on the narrow-gauge (950mm) Dolomites Railway from Calalzo to Toblach  When the line was electrified in 1929  the only sub-station was established at Cortina  The line closed in 1964 but in February 2016 the regional governments of Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige announced that they are to commission a feasibility study to build a new line between Calalzo, Cortina and Toblach 

Notable people
Cortina has attracted many distinguished guests, often inspiring them in their creative work  They include the Italian novelists Dino Buzzati (1906–1972), author of The Tartar Steppe, Goffredo Parise (1929–1986) and Fernanda Pivano (1917–2009)  Ernest Hemingway, author of A Farewell to Arms, also arrived in the area in 1918 as a young ambulance driver  Other notable visitors include John Ball (1818–1889), the Irish mountaineer and naturalist who climbed Monte Pelmo in 1857, the Italian mountaineers Emilio Comici (1901–1940), Angelo Dibona (1879–1956) and Lino Lacedelli (1925–2009), the Italian skier Kristian Ghedina (born 1969), the Italian bobsledder Eugenio Monti (1928–2003), the Austrian mountaineer Paul Grohmann (1838–1908) and the Austrian skier Toni Sailer (1935–2009)  Frequent visitors include the Italian businessman and former racing driver Paolo Barilla (born 1961) and the journalist and writer Indro Montanelli (1909–2001) Among the distinguished sportsmen from Cortina itself are the skiers Enrico Colli, his younger brother Vincenzo, and Giuseppe Ghedina who competed in the 1924 Winter Olympics, Severino Menardi who participated in the 1932 and 1936 Winter Olympics, and Stefania Constantini, gold-medalist curler in the 2022 Winter Olympics  Other local citizens include the climbers Angelo Dibona (1879–1956) and Lino Lacedelli (1925–2009), and the painter Luigi Gillarduzzi (1822–1856) 

International relations
Twin towns / sister cities
Cortina is twinned with:

 Cattolica, Italy (since 16 March 1971)
 Skardu, Pakistan

See also
Italian front (World War I)
White War
Passage 10:
FIBT World Championships 1966
The FIBT World Championships 1966 took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy for the sixth time, having hosted the event previously in 1937 (Two-man), 1939 (Four-man), 1950, 1954, and 1960  The Four-man event was cancelled following the death of West Germany's Toni Pensperger during competition  Pensperger would be awarded a posthumous gold medal from the FIBT along with his surviving teammates Ludwig Siebert, Helmut Werzer, and Roland Ebert  As of 2010, Pensperger's death would set the FIBT to increase and improve safety among all bobsleigh competitions at all levels, including the Winter Olympics and the World championships 

Two man bobsleigh
Four man bobsleigh
This event was cancelled when Toni Pensperger of West Germany was killed during competition  Pensperger was awarded a posthumous gold medal along with his grieving teammates (Siebert, Werzer, and Ebert) 

Medal table
Context 3: Passage 1:
Merck &amp; Co 
Merck & Co , Inc  is an American multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, and is named for Merck Group, founded in Germany in 1668, of whom it was once the American arm  The company does business as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada  It is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, generally ranking in the global top five by revenue Merck & Co  was originally established as the American affiliate of Merck Group in 1891  Merck develops and produces medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products  It has multiple blockbuster drugs or products each with 2020 revenues including cancer immunotherapy, anti-diabetic medication and vaccines against HPV and chickenpox 
The company is ranked 71st on the 2022 Fortune 500 and 87th on the 2022 Forbes Global 2000, both based on 2021 revenues 

Products
The company develops medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products  In 2020, the company had 6 blockbuster drugs or products, each with over $1 billion in revenue: Keytruda (pembrolizumab), a humanized antibody used in cancer immunotherapy that had $14 3 billion in 2020 revenue; Januvia (sitagliptin), an anti-diabetic medication used to treat type 2 diabetes that had $5 3 billion in 2020 revenue; Gardasil, an HPV vaccine that had $3 9 billion in 2020 revenue; Varivax, a varicella vaccine used to protect against chickenpox that had $1 9 billion in 2020 revenues; Bridion (Sugammadex), a neuromuscular-blocking drug that had $1 2 billion in 2020 revenue; and Pneumovax 23, a pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine that had $1 1 billion in 2020 revenue  Other major products by the company include Isentress (raltegravir), an antiretroviral medication used to treat HIV/AIDS that had $857 million in 2020 revenue; Simponi (golimumab), a human monoclonal antibody used as an immunosuppressive drug that had $838 million in 2020 revenue; RotaTeq, a rotavirus vaccine that had $797 million in 2020 revenue; and Lynparza (olaparib), a medication for the maintenance treatment of BRCA-mutated advanced ovarian cancer in adults that generated $725 million in 2020 revenue for the company Details of Merck's major products are as follows:

Januvia (sitagliptin) is a dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitor for the treatment of type 2 diabetes  In 2013, Januvia was the second largest selling diabetes drug worldwide  Januvia is commonly paired with the generic anti-diabetes drug metformin  It has been popular due in part because unlike many other diabetes drugs, it causes little or no weight gain and is not associated with hypoglycemic episodes  Merck also sells a single pill combination drug containing both Januvia and metformin under the trade name Janumet  There has been some concern that treatment with Januvia and other DPP-IV inhibitors may be associated with a modestly increased risk of pancreatitis 
Zetia (ezetimibe) is a drug for hypercholesterolemia that acts by inhibiting the absorption of dietary cholesterol  Zetia has been controversial, as it was initially approved based on its impact on serum cholesterol levels without proof that it actually impacted the incidence of cardiovascular disease  Results of the IMPROVE-IT study, however, introduced at the 2014 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, showed a statistically significant, albeit modest, benefit in adding Zetia to simvastatin for high-risk, post-acute-coronary-syndrome patients 
Remicade (infliximab) is a monoclonal antibody directed toward the cytokine TNF-alpha and used for the treatment of a wide range of autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, ankylosing spondylitis, plaque psoriasis, and others  Remicade and other TNF-alpha inhibitors exhibit additive therapeutic effects with methotrexate and improve quality of life  Adverse effects include increased risk of infection and certain cancers  Merck had rights to the drug in certain areas, while Janssen Biotech had rights in other areas; in 2017, Merck announced a biosimilar to Remicade, Renflexis 
Gardasil (recombinant human papilloma virus vaccine) is a vaccine against multiple serotypes of human papilloma virus (HPV), which is responsible for most cases of cervical cancer worldwide 
Isentress (raltegravir) is a human immunodeficiency virus integrase inhibitor for the treatment of HIV infection  It is the first anti-HIV compound having this mechanism of action  It is part of one of several first line treatment regimens recommended by the United States Department of Health and Human Services 
Keytruda (pembrolizumab) is an immune modulator for the treatment of cancer  On September 4, 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pembrolizumab (MK-3475) as a breakthrough therapy for melanoma treatment  In clinical trials, pembrolzumab provided partial tumor regression in about one quarter of patients, many of whom have not seen further progression of their disease in over 6 months of follow-up 
Invanz (Ertapenem) is an injectable antibiotic, rights to which Merck has owned since 1999  Merck was in a legal dispute with the Taiwanese company Savior Lifetec over their attempt to secure rights to sell a generic drug version in the United States  Savior has since obtained approval to market generic ertapenem 
Mexsana is an antiseptic medicated powder 
Mectizan (ivermectin) is an anti-parasitic medicine traditionally used to treat river blindness  It is the focus of Merck's Mectizan Donation Program, wherein Merck has donated doses of the drug to treat millions of people in countries such as Yemen and African nations 
Molnupiravir is an antiviral pill to treat COVID-19, developed in partnership with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics Merck & Co  publishes The Merck Manuals, a series of medical reference books for physicians, nurses, technicians, and veterinarians  These include the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, the world's best-selling medical reference  The Merck Index, a compendium of chemical compounds, was published by Merck & Co  until it was acquired by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2012 

History
Roots and early history
Merck & Co  traces its origins to its former German parent company Merck Group, which was established by the Merck family in 1668 when Friedrich Jacob Merck purchased a drug store in Darmstadt  In 1827, Merck Group evolved from a pharmacy to a drug manufacturer company with the commercial manufacture of morphine  Merck perfected the chemical process of deriving morphine from opium and later introduced cocaine, used to treat sinus problems and to add to beverages to boost energy levels In 1887 a German-born, long-time Merck employee, Theodore Weicker, went to the United States to represent Merck Group  In 1891, with $200,000 received from E  Merck, Weicker started Merck & Co , with headquarters in lower Manhattan  That year George Merck, the 23-year-old son of the then head of E  Merck (and grandson of the founder) joined Weicker in New York  Merck & Co  operated from 1891 to 1917 as the US subsidiary of the Merck Group 

Nationalization
After the U S  entered World War I, due to its German connections, Merck & Co  was the subject of expropriation under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917  In 1919, George W  Merck, in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, bought the company back at a U S  government auction for $3 5 million, but Merck & Co  remained a separate company from its former German parent  Merck & Co  holds the trademark rights to the "Merck" name in the United States and Canada, while its former parent company retains the rights in the rest of the world; the right to use the Merck name was the subject of litigation between the two companies in 2016 In 1929, H  K  Mulford Company merged with Sharp and Dohme, Inc  and brought vaccine technology, including immunization of cavalry horses in World War I and delivery of a diphtheria antitoxin to Merck & Co 
In 1943, Streptomycin was discovered during a Merck-funded research program in Selman Waksman's laboratory at Rutgers University  It became the first effective treatment for Tuberculosis  At the time of its discovery, sanatoriums for the isolation of tuberculosis-infected people were a ubiquitous feature of cities in developed countries, with 50% dying within 5 years of admission  Although Merck's agreement with Rutgers gave it exclusive rights to streptomycin, at Waksman's request the company renegotiated the agreement, returning the rights to the university in exchange for a royalty  The university then set up non-exclusive licenses with seven companies to ensure a reliable supply of the antibiotic 

1950–2000
In the 1950s, thiazide diuretics were developed by Merck scientists Karl H  Beyer, James M  Sprague, John E  Baer, and Frederick C  Novello and led to the marketing of the first drug of this class, chlorothiazide, under the trade name Duiril in 1958  The research leading to the discovery of chlorothiazide, leading to "the saving of untold thousands of lives and the alleviation of the suffering of millions of victims of hypertension" was recognized by a special Public Health Award from the Lasker Foundation in 1975 In 1953, Merck & Co  merged with Philadelphia-based Sharp & Dohme, Inc , becoming the largest U S  drugmaker  Sharp and Dohme had acquired H  K  Mulford Company in 1929, adding smallpox vaccines to its portfolio  The combined company kept the trade name Merck in the United States and Canada, and as Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) outside North America In 1965, Merck & Co  acquired Charles Frosst Ltd  of Montreal (founded 1899), creating Merck-Frosst Canada, Inc , as its Canadian subsidiary and pharmaceutical research facility  Merck & Co  closed this facility in July 2010 but remerged in 2011 as Merck Canada Maurice Hilleman, a scientist at Merck, developed the first mumps vaccine in 1967, the first rubella vaccine in 1969, and the first trivalent measles, mumps, rubella (MMR vaccine) in 1971  The incidence of rubella-associated birth defects fell from up to 10,000 per year in the U S  to zero in the aftermath of the rubella vaccine's development  Hilleman also developed the first Hepatitis B vaccine and the first varicella vaccine, for chickenpox The company was incorporated in New Jersey in 1970  John J  Horan became CEO and Chairman in 1976, serving until 1985  Under his leadership, the company's investment in R&D grew threefold, and Merck became the largest pharmaceutical company in the world In 1979, Merck scientists developed lovastatin (Mevacor), the first drug of the statin class Merck scientist William C  Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura developed ivermectin for veterinary use in 1981, and later put it to human use against Onchocerciasis in 1987–88 with the name Mectizan; today the compound is used against river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, scabies and other parasitic infections In 1982, the company formed a joint venture, KBI Inc , with AstraZeneca  During the late 1980s and 1990s, the company also established joint ventures with DuPont to access research and development expertise, and with Johnson & Johnson to sell over-the-counter consumer medications In 1985, Merck received approval for imipenem, the first member of the carbapenem class of antibiotics  Antibiotics of the carbapenem class play an important role in treatment guidelines for certain hospital-acquired and multi-drug resistant infections  P  Roy Vagelos became CEO and Chairman that year, succeeding Horan In 1991, Merck's Kelco subsidiary was responsible for volatile organic compound (VOC) emission pollution in the San Diego area  In 1996 Merck paid $1 8 million for polluting the air  New machines were installed to reduce smog emissions by 680,000 lb (310,000 kg) a year In November 1993, Merck & Co  acquired Medco Containment Services for $6 billion  Merck & Co  spun Medco off ten years later 

2001–2019
In May 2002, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation purchased stock in Merck From 2002 through 2005, the Australian affiliate of Merck paid publishing house Elsevier an undisclosed amount to produce eight issues of a medical journal, the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine  Although it gave the appearance of being an independent peer-reviewed journal, without any indication that Merck had paid for it, the journal actually reprinted articles that originally appeared in other publications and that were favorable to Merck  The misleading publication came to light in 2009 during a personal injury lawsuit filed over Vioxx; 9 of 29 articles in the journal's second issue referred positively to Vioxx  The CEO of Elsevier's Health Sciences Division, Michael Hansen, admitted that the practice was "unacceptable" In 2005, CEO Raymond Gilmartin retired following Merck's voluntary worldwide withdrawal of Vioxx  Former president of manufacturing Richard Clark was named CEO and company president In November 2009, Merck & Co  completed a merger with Schering-Plough in a US$41 billion deal  Although Merck & Co  was in reality acquiring Schering-Plough, the purchase was declared a "reverse merger", in which "Old" Merck & Co  was renamed Merck Sharp & Dohme, and Schering-Plough renamed as "Merck & Co , Inc  The maneuver was an attempt avoid a "change-of-control" in order to preserve Schering-Plough's rights to market Remicade  A settlement with Johnson & Johnson was reached in 2011, in which Merck agreed to pay $500 million  Merck Sharp & Dohme remains a subsidiary of the Merck & Co  parent Richard Clark retired as CEO and company president in October 2011 and Kenneth Frazier became CEO In October 2013, Merck announced it would cut 8,500 jobs in an attempt to cut $2 5 billion from its costs by 2015  Combined with 7,500 job cuts announced in 2011 and 2012, the layoffs amounted to 20% of its workforce By 2014, research performed at Merck has led to U S  FDA approval of 63 new molecular entities In August 2014, Merck acquired Idenix Pharmaceuticals for $3 85 billion In December 2014, the company acquired Swiss biotechnology company OncoEthix for up to $375 million Between 2010 and 2015, the company cut around 36,450 jobs  During that time, the company sold its consumer health business to Bayer and narrowed the company's focus to immunology, vaccines, diabetes, emerging markets and medicines used in hospitals, like certain antibiotics In January 2015, Merck acquired Cubist Pharmaceuticals In July 2015, Merck and Ablynx expanded their 18-month-old immuno-oncology collaboration by four years, generating a potential $4 4 billion in milestone payments for the Abylnx  The company also announced it would spend $95 million up front collaborating with cCAM Biotherapeutics and its early-stage treatment similar to Keytruda  Merck & Co  will bring in CM-24, an antibody designed to block the immune checkpoint CEACAM1 In January 2016, Merck announced two new partnerships; the first with Quartet Medicine and its small molecule pain treatments, the second with Complix investigating intracellular cancer targets, with both collaborations potentially generating up to $595 million and $280 million respectively  Days later the company announced it would acquire IOmet Pharma, with IOmet becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co  The acquisition includes IOmets indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO), tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO), and dual-acting inhibitors In July 2016, the company acquired Afferent Pharmaceuticals, developer of a candidate used to block P2RX3 receptors, for approximately $1 billion, plus up to $750 million in milestone payments In 2017, Merck bought the PARP inhibitor Lynparza from AstraZeneca In April 2017, Merck Animal Health acquired Vallée S A , a Brazilian animal health product manufacturer In September 2017, the company announced it would acquire Rigontec, developer of a candidate to target the retinoic acid-inducible gene I pathway, for $554 million In October 2017, the company granted the inaugural Merck-AGITG Clinical Research Fellowship in Gastro-Intestinal (GI) Cancer to David Lau, a professional in Melbourne, Australia In June 2018, Merck acquired Viralytics, an Australian viral cancer drug company, for AUD$502 million In 2018, Merck began the submission process for a Biologics License Application to the Food and Drug Administration under the Breakthrough Therapy Designation for an investigational vaccine, called V920, to fight the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus In April 2019, the company acquired Immune Design for approximately $300 million, gaining access to its immunotherapy programs  It also acquired Antelliq Group for $2 4 billion, or $3 7 billion including debt In May 2019, Merck announced it would acquire Peloton Therapeutics, developer of a HIF-2alpha inhibitor for Von Hippel–Lindau disease-associated renal cell carcinoma, for up to $2 2 billion In June 2019, Merck announced it would acquire Tilos Therapeutics for up to $773 million In November 2019, the company acquired Calporta, which focused on Parkinsons and Alzheimers treatments In December 2019, Merck Animal Health acquired Vaki, an aquaculture company, from Pentair 

2020–present
In January 2020, Merck acquired ArQule, developer of ARQ 531, an oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, for $2 7 billion In March 2020, Merck was one of ten companies recognised at the inaugural Manufacturing Awards by New Jersey Business magazine and the New Jersey Business and Industry Association In June 2020, Merck acquired Themis Bioscience, a company focused on vaccines and immune-modulation therapies for infectious diseases including COVID-19 and cancer Also in June 2020, Merck Animal Health acquired Quantified Ag, a data and analytics company that monitors cattle body temperature and movement in order to detect illness early In August 2020, Merck Animal Health acquired IdentiGEN, engaged in DNA-based animal traceability In September 2020, Merck acquired $1 billion of Seattle Genetics common stock, and agreed to co-develop ladiratuzumab vedotin In November 2020, Merck announced it would acquire VelosBio for $2 75 billion, developer of VLS-101, an antibody-drug conjugate designed to target Tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1) in both hematological and solid tumors  VLS-101 is currently Phase I and Phase II clinical trials  The company also announced it would acquire OncoImmune for $425 million and its phase 3 candidate, CD24Fc, used in the treatment of patients with severe and critical COVID-19 In February 2021, Merck Animal Health acquired PrognostiX Poultry In March 2021, Merck Head of Corporate Affairs Petra Wicklandt represented the company at the Munich Security Conference, where she participated in a tabletop exercise simulating the public health response to the release of a weaponized strain of monkeypox In April 2021, Merck acquired Pandion Therapeutics for $1 85 billion, expanding its offering in treating autoimmune diseases In June 2021, the U S  government agreed to spend $1 2 billion to purchase 1 7 million doses of Molnupiravir, a Merck product, if it were to be approved by regulators to treat COVID-19  In October 2021, the company said that the drug reduces the risk of hospitalization or death by around 50% for patients with mild or moderate cases of COVID-19 and that it would seek Emergency Use Authorization for the drug In July 2021, Robert M  Davis became CEO, succeeding Kenneth Frazier, who became executive chairman In July 2021, Merck completed the corporate spin-off of Organon & Co In September 2021, Merck announced it would acquire Acceleron Pharma for $11 5 billion, gaining control over Sotatercept, used in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension, and luspatercept-aamt In September 2022, the company announced it would acquire Vence, a livestock management company for an undisclosed sum, incorporating it within Merck Animal Health In December 2022, the company announced a licensing deal with Kelun-Biotech of China whereby it would expand its early cancer pipeline with a set of antibody-drug conjugates; this follows an earlier agreement between the two companies to co-develop such drugs In April 2023, Merck announced it would acquire Prometheus Biosciences Inc for $10 8 billion 

Acquisition history
Philanthropy
Merck Company Foundation
Since it was founded in 1957, the Merck Company Foundation has distributed $740 million in overall charitable distributions including more than $480 million to educational and non-profit organizations On December 7, 2012, the foundation announced that it was ending its donations to the Boy Scouts of America citing its discrimination against gay people 

Patient assistance programs
Merck & Co  was one of the first American pharmaceutical companies to offer assistance to those unable to afford its medications, beginning a program in the 1950s  Merck & Co  offers seven patient assistance programs, each with specific eligibility requirements 

Hilleman Laboratories
Merck and the Wellcome trust jointly fund the Hilleman Laboratories, an India-based non-profit research organization dedicated to the development of low-cost vaccines for use in developing countries  Current projects include the development of low cost, thermostable vaccines for the prevention of cholera, rotavirus, and meningitis 

Merck for Mothers
Merck for Mothers is Merck's global initiative to help create a world where no woman has to die while giving life 

Mectizan donation program
In 1987, Merck began a program with UNICEF to donate its new drug Mectizan to "all that need it for as long as needed" in an effort to combat onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, primarily in Africa  Up to that point, the World Health Organization had fought the disease through the use of insecticides to lower the population of its primary vector, the Black Fly  However, when studies in the 1980s showed how effective the drug was at treating and preventing the disease, the WHO agreed to use it instead of its previous strategies  Merck's involvement is considered a key factor in the success against the disease all over the world, and the decision to donate the entirety of the drug to all those in need of it is used as part of the Mectizan Donation Program that covers countries such as Yemen and African countries  More than 700 million people have been treated since the inception of the program with 80 million people still undergoing treatment in Africa, Latin America, and Yemen  Blindness caused by onchocerciasis is decreasing, and there are regions of Latin America and Africa that have been shown to have eliminated the disease altogether 

Lawsuits and controversies
Vioxx
In 1999, the U S  Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Vioxx (known generically as rofecoxib), a Merck product for treating arthritis  Vioxx was designed as a selective inhibitor of the enzyme cyclooxygenase-2  Such compounds were expected to cause less gastrointestinal bleeding than older anti-inflammatory drugs such as naproxen, which were associated with 20,000 hospitalizations and 2000 deaths each year  Vioxx became one of the most prescribed drugs in history Thereafter, studies by Merck and by others found an increased risk of heart attack associated with Vioxx use when compared with naproxen  Merck adjusted the labeling of Vioxx to reflect possible cardiovascular risks in 2002 On September 23, 2004, Merck received information about results from a clinical trial it was conducting that included findings of increased risk of heart attacks among Vioxx users who had been using the medication for over eighteen months  On September 28, 2004, Merck notified the FDA that it was voluntarily withdrawing Vioxx from the market, and it publicly announced the withdrawal on September 30  An analysis for the period 1999–2004, based on U S  Medical Expenditure Survey data, reported that Vioxx was associated with 46,783 heart attacks, and along with the other popular COX-2 inhibitor Celebrex, an estimated 26,603 deaths from both About 50,000 people sued Merck, claiming they or their family members had suffered medical problems such as heart attacks or strokes after taking Vioxx  In November 2007, Merck agreed to pay $4 85 billion to settle most of the pending Vioxx lawsuits  The settlement required that claimants provide medical and pharmacy records confirming the occurrence of a heart attack, ischemic stroke, or sudden cardiac death; the receipt of at least 30 Vioxx pills within 60 days prior to the injury or death; and confirmation of Vioxx being used within 14 days of the Vioxx-related event  The settlement was generally viewed by industry analysts and investors as a victory for Merck, considering that original estimates of Merck's liability reached between $10 billion and $25 billion  As of mid-2008, when the plaintiff class had reached the threshold percentage required by Merck to go through with the settlement, plaintiffs had prevailed in only three of the twenty cases that had reached juries, all with relatively small awards Merck has refused to consider compensation for Vioxx victims and their families outside the US  This is particularly true in the UK where there are at least 400 victims and the legal protection afforded to the victims and their families is particularly weak According to internal e-mail traffic released at a later lawsuit, Merck had a list of doctors critical of Vioxx to be "neutralized" or "discredited"  "We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live," wrote an employee  A Stanford Medical School professor said that Merck was engaged in intimidation of researchers and infringement upon academic freedom On May 20, 2008, Merck settled for $58 million with 30 states alleging that Merck engaged in deceptive marketing tactics to promote Vioxx  All its new television pain-advertisements must be vetted by the Food and Drug Administration and changed or delayed upon request until 2018 

Fosamax
Fosamax (alendronate) is a bisphosphonate used for the treatment of post-menopausal osteoporosis and for the prevention of skeletal problems in certain cancers  The American College of Clinical Endocrinology, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the North American Menopause Society and the UK National Osteoporosis Guideline Group recommend alendronate and certain other bisphosphonates as first line treatments for post-menopausal osteopotosis  Long-term treatment with bisphosponates produces anti-fracture and bone mineral density effects that persist for 3–5 years after an initial 3–5 years of treatment  Alendronate reduces the risk of hip, vertebral, and wrist fractures by 35-39% In December 2013, Merck agreed to pay a total of $27 7 million to 1,200 plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit alleging that the company's osteoporosis drug had caused them to develop osteonecrosis of the jaw  Prior to the settlement, Merck had prevailed in 3 of 5 so-called bellwether trials  Approximately 4000 cases still await adjudication or settlement as of August 2014 

Medicaid overbilling
A fraud investigation by the United States Department of Justice began in 2000 when allegations were brought in two separate lawsuits filed by whistleblowers under the False Claims Act  They alleged that Merck failed to pay proper rebates to Medicaid and other health care programs and paid illegal remuneration to health care providers  On February 7, 2008, Merck agreed to pay more than $650 million to settle charges that it routinely overbilled Medicaid for its most popular medicines  The settlement was one of the largest pharmaceutical settlements in history  The federal government received more than $360 million, plus 49 states and Washington, DC, received over $290 million  One whistleblower received a $68 million reward  Merck made the settlement without an admission of liability or wrongdoing 

"Merck" name legal dispute
In 191 of 193 countries, the original Merck company, the Merck Group of Darmstadt, owns the rights to the "Merck" name  In the United States and Canada, the company trades under the name EMD (an abbreviation of Emanuel Merck, Darmstadt), its legal name here says Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and instead of "Merck Group", the "EMD Group" name is used  In the United States and Canada, Merck & Co  holds the rights to the trademark "Merck", while in the rest of the world the company trades under the name MSD (an abbreviation of Merck, Sharp & Dohme) and its legal name says here Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC , a subsidiary of Merck & Co , Inc  Kenilworth, NJ, USA 
In 2015 the Merck Group adopted a new logo and said it will be "much more aggressive" about protecting the brand of "the real Merck"  Merck of Darmstadt has initiated litigation against its former subsidiary, Merck & Co  (MSD) of Kenilworth, in several countries over infringing use of the Merck name  In 2016, the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom ruled that MSD had breached an agreement with its former parent company and that only Merck of Darmstadt is entitled to use the Merck name in the United Kingdom  The judge also held that MSD's use of "Merck" as part of branding on its global websites were directed to the UK and infringed Merck's trade mark rights in the UK In response to the ruling, MSD initiated counter-litigation in the United States in January 2016 by filing a federal lawsuit which accused its former parent company of "infringing on its trademark" through actions that included the increased usage of "Merck KGaA" and "MERCK" in branding in the US as well as on its social media presence  Further Merck & Co  has also accused the Merck Group of federal trademark dilution, unfair competition, false advertising, deceptive trade practices, breach of contract, and cybersquatting  The case came to a head when a research scientist believed he was communicating with Merck & Co regarding a research grant in oncology, when in fact he was talking with the Merck Group  As a result, Merck & Co  asked the federal court to stop the Merck Group from using "Merck" on any products or marketing materials in the United States  As a direct result, Merck & Co is seeking "all monetary gains, profits, and advantages" made by the Merck Group and three-times the damage, plus additional punitive damages In April 2020, in the course of litigation of Merck against MSD in Switzerland, the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland ruled that MSD's use of the "Merck" brand in its global websites could, absent geotargeting mechanisms, have "commercial effect" in Switzerland and could therefore violate Merck's rights (if any) to the "Merck" brand in Switzerland 

Tax fraud
In 2007, Merck paid $2 3 billion to settle allegations of offshore tax fraud between 1993 and 2001 

Propecia
In 2021, an investigation by Reuters revealed that Merck's baldness drug Propecia caused persistent sexual dysfunction in men  The drug has been linked to over 700 incidences of suicidal thoughts and 110 deaths  Merck has been receiving reports since 1998, but never included the risks on the label  In 2015, Merck was sued by consumer-rights law firm Hagens Berman over a wrongful death linked to Propecia 

Environmental violations
Merck & Co  once used methylene chloride, an animal carcinogen on the United States Environmental Protection Agency's list of pollutants, as a solvent in some of its manufacturing processes  Merck chemists and engineers subsequently replaced the compound with others having fewer negative environmental effects  Merck has also modified its equipment to protect the environment, installing a distributed control system that coordinates chemical reactions more efficiently and expedites manufacturing by 50 percent, eliminating the need for the disposal and storage of harmful waste  Biological oxygen demand has also been reduced  In 2011, Merck paid a $1 5 million civil penalty to settle alleged violations of federal environmental laws at its pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in Riverside, Pennsylvania and West Point, Pennsylvania 

Public-private engagement
Conferences
Merck was a Conference Supporter for the Virtual ISPOR Asia Pacific conference in September 2020 

Political lobbying
Merck is a contributing member of AcademyHealth, a health research advocacy network that also includes government agencies, universities, pharmaceutical companies and lobbying groups 
Passage 2:
American Laser Games
American Laser Games was a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that created numerous light gun laserdisc video games featuring live action full motion video  The company was founded in the late 1980s by Robert Grebe, who had originally created a system to train police officers under the company name ICAT (Institute for Combat Arms and Tactics) and later adapted the technology for arcade games  Its first hit game was Mad Dog McCree, a light gun shooter set in the American Old West  By mid-1995 they were recognized as the leading company in the medium of laserdisc-based arcade games  Almost all arcade games released by the company were light gun shooters and a number of them also had an Old West theme 
Later, the company turned toward compact disc technology to release its games  Ports of its arcade titles were released for the Sega CD, CD-i and DOS computers equipped with CD-ROM drives  The company was particularly supportive of the 3DO, not only releasing versions of its games for the console, but also offering a modified version of the 3DO platform as an upgrade kit for existing arcade video game cabinets, supporting compressed video versions of their games at a lower cost  In 1995, American Laser Games released Mazer for the 3DO home market and Orbatak (3DO-powered) for the arcade - their first and only in-house non-Full motion video based games  The company also released a series of light-gun controllers, including the 3DO Game Gun and the PC Gamegun, for home computer use  The latter proved unsuccessful due to its poor accuracy 
American Laser Games lasted until the mid-to-late 1990s, by which time it had begun making "games for girls" for the PC under the moniker Her Interactive, beginning with McKenzie & Co  In response to a major slump in the arcade industry, American Laser Games ended its direct manufacturing of coin-op machines in November 1995, and turned its focus to developing games for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation  This failed to revive the company's fortunes, and revenues in 1996 were roughly half of the $16 million it generated in 1995  At the end of 1996 ALG laid off a third of its staff, Jan Claesson replaced Grebe as president, and the company began focusing primarily on the Her Interactive line, cancelling all the games in their mainstream line except for Shining Sword  The company eventually closed its doors and was bought out by Her Interactive, which had been spun off before ALG closing and is still making games as of January 2018  In 2000, the development and publishing rights to all of the games that were produced by American Laser Games were purchased by Digital Leisure, Inc from Her Interactive  Many of these games were then re-released for the PC and in DVD TV game format 

Games
Light gun arcade games
Mad Dog McCree (1990)
Who Shot Johnny Rock? (1991)
Space Pirates (1992)
Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold (1992)
Gallagher's Gallery (1992)
Crime Patrol (1993)
Crime Patrol 2: Drug Wars (1993)
The Last Bounty Hunter (1994)
Fast Draw Showdown (1994)
Shootout at Old Tucson (1994, limited arcade release  3DO port was cancelled)

Other games
Mazer
Way of the Warrior (with Naughty Dog)
Orbatak
McKenzie & Co 
McKenzie & Co  : More Friends
The Vampire Diaries
Battles in Time (with QQP)
Shining Sword (cancelled)
Blood Bath at Red Falls(1995)

See also
Digital Pictures

Notes
Passage 3:
Devon General
Devon General was the principal bus operator in south Devon from 1919  The name was first used by the Devon General Omnibus and Touring Company which was created in 1919  In 1922 it was purchased by the National Electric Construction Company which merged with British Electric Traction in 1931  Nationalisation in 1969 resulted in 1971 with the company being merged into Western National  In 1983 a new Devon General Limited was created which became the first operating subsidiary of the National Bus Company to be privatised in 1986 when it became the first company of Transit Holdings  It was sold to the Stagecoach Group in 1996 and renamed Stagecoach Devon in 2003 
Coaches were operated under various names, principally Fleet Cars from 1925 until 1933, and Grey Cars from 1932 until 1971 
Its main principal depots were in Exeter and Torquay, but the area of operation covered most of south, east and mid Devon 

History
The Devon General Omnibus and Touring Company started operations in south Devon in 1919 with two bus routes from Exeter to Torquay  In 1922 Torquay Tramways bought the company for £36,000, although it was operated as a subsidiary of the National Electric Construction Company (NECC) and the motor buses already owned by the tramway company were transferred to Devon General  Some charabanc tours had been operated by the Torquay Tramways and this continued under Devon General  A local independent company that traded as Fleet Cars was purchased in 1925 but continued to operate as a separate business for a few seasons, during which time a number of other small operators were also acquired and merged with Fleet Cars In 1931 the NECC became a part of British Electric Traction (BET)  The Torquay tram network was closed in January 1934  The Tramways company was sold to Devon General, the fleet of which was enlarged by 24 buses to allow it to operate the former tram routes Devon General had turned down the chance to buy local independent coach operator Grey Cars in 1930 so it had instead been purchased by A Timpson & Sons of Catford in 1931  Timpsons sold the business to Devon General in 1932 and the following year both Grey Cars and Fleet Cars, which had been operated as separate businesses, were merged into Devon General  Most coaches continued to operate under Grey Cars' name, although some small operators that were subsequently bought out by Devon General continued in their old names for a while 

National Bus Company
BET's bus operations, including Devon General, became part of the National Bus Company (NBC) when it was formed on 1 January 1969  Devon General had worked closely with the Corporation of Exeter's bus services since 1947  In April 1970 the corporation's buses and routes were transferred to the NBC and merged into Devon General  The city's unusual use of route letters (as opposed to numbers) continued In January 1971, the NBC transferred the bus operations of Devon General to neighbouring Western National but the Devon General name was retained as a brand, while the Grey Cars coaching operation was transferred to Exeter-based Greenslades  NBC split Western National into four new companies on 1 January 1983, one of which was Devon General Limited  This operated in south and east Devon as the old Devon General had done, but the Tiverton area became a part of a new North Devon operation 

Transit Holdings
On 19 August 1986, Devon General became the first NBC operating subsidiary to be privatised under the Transport Act 1985 by being sold in a management buyout led by managing director Harry Blundred An experimental high-frequency service using 22 minibuses had been introduced in Exeter on 27 February 1984  By the time the company was privatised in August 1986, the minibus fleet had expanded to more than 200 vehicles, more than half the buses in service  By the end of 1990 all regular services had been converted to minibus operation using a mixture of 16 and 24-seat vehicles The new owners of Devon General formed Transit Holdings to operate number of other bus companies, most of them in southern England:
Bayline (Torquay)
Devon General (Exeter)
Docklands Transit (London)
Portsmouth Transit (Portsmouth)
Thames Transit (Oxford)
Transit AustraliaBayline was established in 1992 for the operations in Torbay and Newton Abbot, after which Devon General operated in the Exeter area  Both companies were sold to the Stagecoach Group in 1996, and became Stagecoach Devon in 2003 

Area of operation
Devon General quickly expanded beyond its original routes between Exeter, Newton Abbot and Torquay  A number of small operators were bought out (see below), but area agreements with larger neighbours set out the company's area of operation  While the boundaries changed in detail from time to time, the area was largely set out in two agreements 

In 1922 an eastern boundary was agreed with the National Omnibus and Transport Company along the road from Minehead via Tiverton, Cullompton and Honiton to Sidmouth 
In 1924 a northern boundary was agreed with Hardy Central Garage between Okehampton, Bampton and Wellington 
By 1929 the western boundary had settled at Kingswear, Totnes, Buckfastleigh and Okehampton, with Western National having control beyond 

Offices and depots
Most of the directors of the Devon General Omnibus and Touring Company came from the London area and so the company offices were established in a house Kilmore Road, Forest Hill, London  The first buses were housed at the Exeter Garage Company's premises in Paris Street, Exeter  In 1921 the offices were moved to the new garage that was being constructed at Blackboy Road in Exeter, but the takeover by the NECC the following year saw the office moved back to Queen Street in the city of London The merger of NECC with BET in 1932 saw the Queen Street office closed in favour of BET's headquarters in Kingsway, London  At around this time work started on the construction of a new large garage and central workshops at Newton Road in Torquay  The BET headquarters were moved across London to Piccadilly in 1952 but in 1956 the registered offices of Devon General were moved to the garage at 87 Newton Road, Torquay When Devon General was absorbed into Western National in 1971, all the office work was moved to the latter company' offices in Queen Street, Exeter  The newly independent Devon General Limited of 1983 chose to remain in Exeter, but moved into offices in Belgrave Road where a new bus depot had opened in 1975 Buses were based in garages or open yards at
Ashburton
Dropping Wells 1925–1927
West Street (Blue Saloon Motor Services) 1927–1928
Brixham
New Road 1935–1939
Mount Pleasant Road 1940–1957
Bus Station 1957–1992
Crediton
Unknown site 1928?–1931
Mill Street 1931–1954
Exeter
Gold's Garage, Heavitree Road 1919–1921
Blackboy Road 1921–1971
Heavitree Road (Exeter Corporation) 1970–1975
Belgrave Road 1975–(1996)
Exmouth
New Street 1921–1931
Imperial Road 1931–(1996)
Moretonhampstead
Station Road June – September 1924
Steven's Garage, Chagford 1924–1928?
Court Street 1928–1971 Moved to a different site in Court Street in 1931
Newton Abbot
Bradley Hotel 1919–1921
Newton Road, Kingsteignton 1921–1960
Kingsteignton Road 1960–1992
Paignton
Roundham Road 1923–1925
Churston 1925–1930
Orient Road, Preston 1924–1932
Bus Station 1988–(1996) The bus station opened in 1954
Sidmouth
Mill Street 1922–?
Station Road, Newton Poppleford ?–1930
Woolbrook 1930–1996
Tiverton
Chapel Street (Croscols) 1924–1938
Old Road 1938–1971 After 1971 buses were kept at the bus station 
Torquay
Westhill Avenue (Torquay Tramways) 1922–1931
Newton Road 1931–1988
Torwood Street (Grey Cars) 1933–1940 and 1946–1971
Belgrave Road (Court Garages) 1940–1946 and 1966–1973
Regents Close 1992–(1996)One or two buses were also kept at a number of other towns and villages such as Axminster (1922–1924, 1927–1984), Budleigh Salterton (1930–1939, 1988–1989), Crockernwell (1942–1957), Cullompton (1922–1996), East Budleigh 1921–1931, Kenton (1942–1947), Okehampton (1923–1997), Ottery St Mary (1927–1938, 1949–1967), Tiverton Junction (1955–1977), Uffculme (1942–1954) 

Livery
The first buses were painted in red with cream relief  Coaches were generally grey with deep red relief and open top buses (introduced in 1955) were given a cream livery with red relief In 1972 NBC imposed a standard poppy red colour with white relief, but from 1979 Devon General buses started to be painted in leaf green and white, the same colours as the parent Western National fleet  Six months after the operation became independent of Western National in 1983 a red livery was again adopted  The first minibuses were painted in bright red and yellow colours with a black skirt To coincide with privatisation in 1986 a new livery was introduced  Buses were painted an ivory colour with red skirt and lower deck window surrounds 

Amalgamated companies
Over the years many rival operators were purchased and their fleets and/or routes were amalgamated into Devon General 

Torquay–Chelston Car Company
The Torquay–Chelston Car Company, which Devon General bought in 1927, had its origins in 1903, when a Chelmsford steam bus was demonstrated in Torquay in May 1903  Torquay & District Motor Omnibus Co Ltd, formed on 23 July 1903, ran a Strand - Chelston route from 2 November 1903 via Torbay Road and Rathmore Road terminating at Normanhurst, just short of Rosery Road railway bridge  The bus was green with orange lines and the domed roof was white  It carried 12 inside and 2 beside the driver and 2,828 passengers in the first week  8 steam buses were working by Easter 1905 between St Marychurch and Babbacombe, but sold after trams started on 4 April 1907  Torquay Road Car took over the old bus garage and ran until liquidation on 24 December 1908 
On 28 March 1911 Torquay-Chelston Steam Car Company Ltd started with 3 Chelmsford buses, possibly those stored after the liquidation  They dropped the 'Steam' part of the name when a single deck RAF type Leyland took over, after Devon General started a competing Meadfoot Beach - Chelston route on 31 March 1923  The Chelston company bought a new Leyland PLSC Lion in 1925  In 1926, Devon General started to shadow the Chelston bus  The company sold out to Devon General in 1927, the Leylands becoming 98 and 99 in their fleet  The Devon General timetables were revised in July, 1929, with numbering similar to current services, including 32 (Torquay - Paignton via Preston), 33 (Strand-Chelston circular) and 35 (Shiphay Turn - Meadfoot Beach) 
On the Chelston routes Devon General used Leyland Lions, Dennis Lancet lIs from 1938, AEC Regals from 1939, Leyland Royal Tigers in 1954, AEC Reliances in 1957, Regent IIIs in 1960 and Leyland Atlanteans from 1964 

See also
Open top buses in Torbay
Passage 4:
Hercules Inc 
Hercules, Inc  was a chemical and munitions manufacturing company based in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, incorporated in 1912 as the Hercules Powder Company following the breakup of the DuPont explosives monopoly by the U S  Circuit Court in 1911   Hercules Powder Company became Hercules, Inc  in 1966,  operating under this name until 2008, when it was merged into Ashland Inc 
An earlier Hercules Powder Company was formed in 1882 by DuPont and Laflin & Rand Powder Company   This company was dissolved on June 30, 1904 Hercules was one of the major producers of smokeless powder for warfare in the United States during the 20th century  At the time of its spin-off, the DuPont Corp  retained the processes and patents for the production of "single-base" nitrocellulose gunpowders, whereas Hercules was given the patents and processes for the production of "double-base" gunpowders that combined nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine 

History
A special formulation of dynamite was patented in 1874 by J W  Willard, superintendent of the California Powder Works in Santa Cruz, California  He called his invention "Hercules powder", a competitive jab at rival Giant Powder Company which had acquired the exclusive U S  rights to Alfred Nobel's original dynamite formula   The mythological Hercules was known as a giant slayer 
The California Powder Works became the only manufacturer of Hercules powder  In 1877, J W  Willard moved to Cleveland, Ohio to oversee the opening of a new California Powder Works plant there, dedicated to the manufacture of Hercules powder  In 1881, the California Powder Works moved its Hercules powder manufacturing in California to a new site along the northeast shore of San Francisco Bay   The company town that grew up around the facility became known as "Hercules", later (1900) incorporated as Hercules, California 
In 1882, thanks to their interlocking ownership interests with the California Powder Works by that time, the DuPont corporation and Laflin & Rand Powder Company acquired the rights to manufacture Hercules powder and incorporated the Hercules Powder Company for that purpose   In 1904, Du Pont dissolved the company as part of its ongoing effort to consolidate the many explosives manufacturers that it controlled under the Du Pont name 
In 1911, the United States won a lawsuit that it had brought against the Du Pont corporation under the Sherman Antitrust Act  The U S  Circuit Court in Delaware found that Du Pont had been operating an unlawful monopoly, and ordered a breakup of its explosives and gunpowder manufacturing business   The breakup resulted in the creation of two new companies in 1912, Atlas Powder Company and Hercules Powder Company  Atlas received the explosives manufacturing portion of Du Pont's business (including the facilities acquired from the Giant Powder Company), while Hercules received the gunpowder portion 
The first management team of this new Hercules Powder Company included President H  Dunham, T W  Bacchus, G G  Rheuby, J T Skelly, Norman Rood, Fred Stark, C D  Prickett, and George Markell Some of their products were used by the military in World War I  A school and a plant were named after T  W  Bacchus in Bacchus, Utah  Hercules Powder Company ranked 65th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts In the 1920s and 30s, Hercules diversified into the pine resin products business (see below) 
On 12 September 1940, the Kenvil, New Jersey plant suffered a major explosion  News reports at the time estimated at least fifteen buildings were destroyed along with twenty-five tons of explosives  Fifty-one people were killed outright with perhaps two hundred injured and many missing  This facility also exploded twice in 1934 and again in 1989 Richard F  Heck, recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, gained experience with transition metal chemistry while working at Hercules in 1957 By the 1960s, the community was experiencing the first signs of a suburban transition  The Hercules Powder Co , once a small dynamite manufacturing firm, had begun producing rocket motors at its Bacchus Works south of the Magna community  The growing availability of jobs was one factor encouraging subdivision development in the Magna, Kearns and West Valley areas 
In 1966, the Hercules Powder Company changed its name to Hercules, Inc 

In 1995, Hercules, Inc  sold its subsidiary Hercules Aerospace Co  to Alliant Techsystems Inc  The sale included all of what remained of Hercules' gunpowder lines 
By the end of the 1990s, Hercules Inc , had sold off a significant number of its divisions that had not been profitable for the company  This caused the price of shares of common stock in Hercules to rise above US$70  Several successful cost-savings programs were implemented in addition to buying back its own shares   Also at that time, Hercules had a significant amount of assets  available for possible purchases of other corporations  Hercules, Inc , had a Paper Technology Division (PTD) whose products were slowly becoming commodities  In order to survive, this division needed to obtain new products 
First, Hercules Inc , tried to purchase the Allied Colloids Company, but this was not successful  Next, Hercules bought the Betz-Dearborn Corporation  Betz-Dearborn produced mostly chemicals for paper processing, and the Hercules PTD produced mainly functional chemicals for paper  According to some business analysts, Hercules Inc  paid about three times as much for Betz-Dearborn as compared with its actual value 
Soon after the purchase of Betz-Dearborn, the price per share of stock in Hercules Inc , had dropped from above US$70 to below US$10  It has been speculated that Hercules Inc , was close to going bankrupt after this failed purchase operation  Afterwards, several senior managers were forced out of the company because of this failure; however, a significant amount of former PTD senior managers were able to keep their positions within Hercules  The price of stock shares in Hercules Inc  never recovered from this debacle  Finally, Hercules Inc  was sold off to the Ashland Corporation in 2008, and dissolved 
In 2009, rapper George Watsky released a song about the history of the company called "Hercules" 

Product lines
Commercial gunpowders
Some of the more recent gunpowders marketed to reloaders include the brand names "Bullseye", "2400", "Reloder", "Unique", and "Red Dot"   These gunpowders are still being manufactured by Alliant Techsystems Inc  in Radford, Virginia 

Powders inherited from DuPont in 1912
EC (Explosives Company) shotgun powder was the first smokeless powder manufactured in the United States   Production began in 1890, and was discontinued in 1931 
WA  30 caliber powder was named W for United States Army Lieutenant Whistler and A for American Smokeless Powder Company factory superintendent Aspinwall   This tubular powder was used for military loading of the  30 U S  Army (the M1892 Springfield and the M1893 Gatling) from 1894 until the military specification was changed to single-base nitrocellulose powder in 1908   Grains of 2 mm (0 08 inch) diameter were 1 mm long   Hercules continued producing the powder for other users until 1930 
Sharpshooter was a flake powder introduced by Laflin & Rand in 1897 to replace black powder for loading the  45-70   Black flakes containing 15 to 18 percent nitroglycerin were approximately 2 mm in diameter   Production was discontinued after World War II 
Bullseye was introduced by Laflin & Rand in 1898   Large surface area per unit weight enables rapid combustion in short-barreled handguns   Laflin & Rand began production using small, irregular particles removed by screening runs of larger grained powders   Improved manufacturing processes offered other reclamation options for reduced quantities of rejected material   Hercules manufactured Bullseye as thin, round flakes   It is believed to be the oldest smokeless powder formulation still being manufactured in the United States   It is designed for handguns and can also be used in 12-gauge shotgun target loads
Lightning was introduced by Laflin & Rand in 1899 for lever action sporting rifles like the  30-30 Winchester and  303 Savage   Production of 2 mm diameter flakes was discontinued after World War II   Tubular Lightning # 2 was manufactured from 1903 to 1929 
Infallible was a flake shotgun powder introduced by Laflin & Rand in 1900   Initial production had an orange color, but graphite coating gave later production a black color   Production was discontinued after World War II 
Unique is a gray flake powder introduced by Laflin & Rand in 1900   Individual flakes are approximately 1 5 mm (0 06 inch) in diameter   It is designed for shotguns and can be used in handguns 
Bear was a tubular powder introduced by Laflin & Rand in 1908 for small capacity rifle cartridges like the  351 and  401 Winchester Self-Loading and the  32-20 and  25-20 Winchester   Production was discontinued after World War II 
Military Rifle (MR) # 19 was a tubular powder containing 20 percent nitroglycerin introduced by DuPont in 1908 and was renamed HiVel (# 1) when manufactured by Hercules   It was modified as HiVel # 2 in 1915   Production was discontinued in 1964   A smaller grained version was produced as HiVel # 3 from 1926 to 1941 

Powders developed by Hercules Powder Company
Hercules # 308 was Hercules production of single-base tubular Pyro DG (Diphenylamine Graphited) powder for loading military  30-06 Springfield ammunition through World War I   Production began in 1915 and continued through the 1920s 
Hercules # 300 was a black, tubular single-base rifle powder produced from 1916 to 1932 
Pyro was produced from 1922 to 1928 as lightly graphited yellow flakes for loading the  45 ACP 
Hercules # 2400 is a coated flake powder containing 20 percent nitroglycerin introduced in 1932   Individual dark gray flakes are approximately 1 mm (0 04 inch) in diameter and 0 3 mm thick   It is designed for small capacity center-fire rifle cartridges and can be used in magnum handgun and  410 bore shotgun loads 
Red Dot is a flake powder introduced in 1932   Individual flakes are approximately 1 5 mm (0 06 inch) in diameter and some are dyed red to aid identification   It is designed for light and standard loads for 12, 16, and 20 gauge shotguns and can be used in handguns 
HiVel # 6 was produced from 1933 to 1941 for loading the  30-06 Springfield 
Herco is a flake powder introduced in the 1930s   Individual flakes are approximately 1 5 mm (0 06 inch) in diameter   It is designed for heavy loads for 10, 12, 16, 20 and 28 gauge shotguns and can be used for heavy handgun loads 
Green Dot is a flake powder introduced in 1965   Individual flakes are approximately 1 5 mm (0 06 inch) in diameter and some are dyed green to aid identification   It is designed for medium and standard loads for 12, 16, and 20 gauge shotguns and can be used in handguns 
Reloder 7 was the most popular of three cylindrical rifle powders introduced in 1965 to replace HiVel # 2   Each powder was blended from four different formulations dyed different colors   Production of the other two longer-grained powders, Reloder 11 and Reloder 21, was discontinued in 1972 
Blue Dot is a flake powder introduced in 1972   Individual flakes are approximately 1 5 mm (0 06 inch) in diameter and some are dyed blue to aid identification   It is designed for magnum loads for 10, 12, 16, 20 and 28 gauge shotguns and can be used for magnum handgun loads 

Pine resin products
In the 1920s, Hercules entered the pine resin products business, a development which followed upon the faster clearing of forests for lumber and farmland , especially in the southeast U S , around the time of the First World War  The clearings had left many stumps which had to be removed, often with dynamite supplied by Hercules and others   Hercules itself was a consumer of wood pulp, a key ingredient in their dynamite  The increasing surplus of wood pulp led the company to the idea of producing other things from it, namely, the various chemicals that were present in pine resin  They set up production sites such as the one in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Brunswick, Georgia for this express purpose, and added to their raw supply by offering to take or buy tree stumps from farmers 

Solid-fuel rocket motor production
Beginning in 1959, Hercules, Inc , began to diversify into the production of large solid-propellant rocket motors, and it soon became a primary producer of these, especially for the U S  Department of Defense, U S  Air Force, U S  Navy, and U S  Army - and to a lesser degree for the civilian National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)  In 1961, the company hired contractors C H  Leavell & Company, Morrison-Knudsen, and Alaskan Plumbing and Heating Company to expand the existing Bacchus Works site  The contractors added "Air Force Plant 81" adding 97 buildings, including a 97,000 square foot administration building  One of its major solid-fuel rocket products was the third-stage engine for the three -stage solid-fueled Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the U S  Air Force, of which 1,000 were made and deployed at Air Force Bases in several northern states during the 1960s  In addition, all of the missiles of the Minuteman I series were removed from service and replaced with the Minuteman II and Minuteman III series of more-advanced ICBMs  Hence, the Minuteman ICBM program was a huge project and a major source of revenue for Hercules, Inc 
Hercules, Inc , also produced the solid-fueled rocket motors for the two-stage Polaris missile system of intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) for the U S  Navy in its 41 for Freedom series of 41 George Washington class ballistic missile submarines  These nuclear submarines carried 16 Polaris missiles apiece for a grand total of 656 missiles  In addition, the Polaris series consisted of the successively-improved Polaris A-1, Polaris A-2, and Polaris A-3 missiles  The early Polaris submarines that had been armed with the Polaris A-1 were upgraded to the Polaris A-2; and then all that had been armed with the Polaris A-2 were upgraded to the Polaris A-3 
For some of the early Polaris submarines, the Polaris A-3 was the end of their upgrades, but a large number of them (about 31) were further rearmed with the more-advanced and longer-ranged two-stage Poseidon C-3 missile  Hence, the Polaris missile submarine program was also a huge project and a major source of revenue for Hercules, Inc 
During the 1960s, Hercules, Inc , also made solid-fuel rocket motors for hundreds of the U S  Army's Honest John missile, a mobile tactical missile for carrying tactical nuclear weapons for U S  Army divisions  The Honest John missile was mostly deployed with the U S  Seventh Army in West Germany as part of the American commitment to NATO to defend Western Europe against aggression from the Warsaw Pact, using nuclear weapons on Eastern Europe, if necessary  None of the Honest John, Minuteman, Polaris, or Poseidon has ever been used in combat, and the threat of nuclear war has been sufficient to deter aggression and make it unnecessary to use nuclear weapons for defense 
During the 1970s and 80s, the Honest John missile was removed from deployment, scrapped, and replaced by the more-advanced Lance missile by the U S  Army in Europe  Of all of the missiles mentioned above, only a reduced number of the Minuteman missiles remain in service at Air Force Bases in the United States, with all of the others having been removed from deployment and scrapped, along with all of the Polaris and Poseidon submarines 
For space exploration and satellite launches by the U S  Air Force and NASA, Hercules, Inc , developed and manufactured the two large, strap-on solid-fueled Solid Rocket Motor Upgrade (SRMU) booster rockets for the otherwise liquid-fueled Titan IVB rockets  These strap-on rockets replaced the UA120 series of boosters used on the Titan IVB's predecessors, the Titan IIIC, Titan IIIE and Titan IVA 
After the end of production and firing of NASA's huge Saturn IB and 
Saturn V rockets, the Titan IV was the largest and heaviest  unmanned rocket available anywhere in the world, and especially in the Titan IV-Centaur version  The Titan IV-Centaur was used for special launches of heavy space probes into the Solar System, such as the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn which was launched in 1997  The Titan IV is no longer manufactured, and the last one of these was fired during a launch in October 2005   In 1995 the aerospace division of Hercules, including its solid motor line, was acquired by the American defense contractor ATK 

Business segments
In its later years, Hercules, Inc , manufactured and marketed worldwide specialist chemicals that were used in a wide variety of industrial, home, and office markets, and it and had over 4,500 employees  Hercules was composed of two major divisions: the Paper Technologies and Ventures (PTV) division and the Aqualon division  In 2005, the former accounted for 49% of its sales and 35% of its operating profits, with the latter producing 37% and 68% respectively 

Aqualon Group
Aqualon produces products for physical property modification of aqueous systems which are sold into a wide variety of industries including personal care, food additives, and construction 

Paper Technologies and Ventures Group
Paper Technologies
Paper Technologies produces specialty chemicals to the pulp and paper industry  These products include functional, process, and water treatment chemicals for a wide variety of pulp and paper applications 
Functional chemicals can be divided in three main groups  Wet strength resins, Rosin sizes and AKD -sizes  Significant persons developing functional chemicals in Hercules could be mentioned: Dr  Keim on his efforts developing PAE wet strength resin, Mr Kai Kiviö on his efforts on developing cationic rosin size  Basis of AKD -technology Hercules acquired more or less voluntary from German BASF after the Second World War 

Ventures
Ventures produces specialty chemicals for a variety of markets, including adhesives and sealants, paints, inks, coatings, lubricants, rubber, plastics, and building and construction 
Hercules Incorporated, in collaboration with Professor Kaichang Li of Oregon State University and Columbia Forest Products, received a 2007 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for the Greener Synthetic Pathways category in developing and commercializing a formaldehyde-free adhesive made from soy flour and Hercules' unique polymer chemistries 

See also
Tekoi, a former solid fuel rocket motor test and calibration site operated by Hercules Aerospace
Passage 5:
Doravirine
Doravirine, sold under the brand name Pifeltro, is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor medication developed by Merck & Co  for use in the treatment of HIV/AIDS 
Doravirine was approved for medical use in the United States in August 2018 
Passage 6:
Liquid Assets Paint &amp; Pigment Company
Liquid Assets Paint & Pigment Company is an artist supply company based in Buenos Aires, Argentina that manufactures acrylic paints and pigments created with real currency, such as Euro, US Dollar, Argentine Peso, and Romanian Leu  The Company's slogan "The Price of Art" refers to the company's assertion that its products allow fine artists to quantify the precise and actual value of a work of art created using Liquid Assets products  The company was started in 2007 by a group of Buenos Aires–based professional artists and presently operates a manufacturing plant in Buenos Aires, as well as a retail store in the Palermo Soho neighborhood  In September 2010, Liquid Assets opened a temporary pop up store in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood in conjunction with the Swervewolf Experience marketing and design firm  Although artists have used valuable commodities such as gold leaf to create works of art for centuries, such as gilding, Liquid Assets Paint & Pigment Company is the world's only known manufacturer of artist paint and pigment created with actual currency 
Passage 7:
New England Emigrant Aid Company
The New England Emigrant Aid Company (originally the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company) was a transportation company founded in Boston, Massachusetts by activist Eli Thayer in the wake of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed the population of Kansas Territory to choose whether slavery would be legal  The Company's ultimate purpose was to transport anti-slavery immigrants into the Kansas Territory  The Company believed that if enough anti-slavery immigrants settled en masse in the newly-opened territory, they would be able to shift the balance of political power in the territory, which in turn would lead to Kansas becoming a free state (rather than a slave state) when it eventually joined the United States The Company is noted less for its direct impact than for the psychological impact it had on proslavery and abolitionist groups  Thayer's prediction that the Company would eventually be able to send 20,000 immigrants a year never came to fruition, but it spurred border ruffians from nearby Missouri, where slavery was legal, to move to Kansas to ensure its admission to the Union as a slave state  That, in turn, further galvanized Free-Staters and other enemies of the Slave Power 
Thayer's intention was to capitalize on anti-slavery sentiment in the Northern United States and to send settlers to Kansas to purchase land and build houses, shops, and mills  They could then sell the land at a significant profit and send the proceeds back to Thayer and his investors  At the behest of several investors, who found the notion of profiting from the anti-slavery cause distasteful, the company's model was shifted to that of a benevolent society, and it was renamed the New England Emigrant Aid Company in 1855  While the company achieved neither a profit nor a significant impact on the population of Kansas, it played an important role in the events that would later be termed Bleeding Kansas 

Creation
The Company was formed in the midst of the sectional crisis that preceded the American Civil War  To the Northern United States, the concept of popular sovereignty, which stated that the population of each new U S  state should be allowed to decide if it allowed slavery, was an attempt by Southerners to gain power  When the Kansas–Nebraska Act threatened to extend popular sovereignty into the new Kansas Territory, Eli Thayer, a second-term Congressman from Massachusetts, hatched the idea of an Emigrant Aid Company in the winter of 1853–1854  His primary partners in the venture were Alexander H  Bullock and Edward Everett Hale, and together, they set Thayer's plans in motion on March 5, 1854  Thayer announced the Company at a rally against the impending passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in Worcester on March 11  Shortly thereafter, the Company's charter was approved by the Massachusetts Legislature for up to $5,000,000 in capital Officially, the Company was a profit-making venture, and how the settlers voted was of no consequence to the company  For example, the company secretary, Thomas Webb released a pamphlet in 1855 stating that although the settlers sent to the territories would not be required to vote for one side or the other, they were expected to support the free-state movement  A number of abolitionists questioned the profit motive behind the company, and even many of Thayer's potential investors balked at the notion "that people might say we were influenced by pecuniary considerations in our patriotic work " Although Thayer personally disagreed with such hesitations, in 1855 the Company reorganized as a benevolent society and changed its name to the New England Emigrant Aid Company 

Reaction
The success of the endeavor prompted other aid assistance companies to form back East, in New York and Ohio, with new companies such as the Worcester County Emigrant Aid Society 

Impact
The company was directly responsible for creating the Kansas towns of Lawrence and Manhattan, and it played a key role in founding Topeka and Osawatomie  Lawrence was named after the Company secretary, Amos Adams Lawrence  Multiple politicians were found in the emigrants who left for Kansas, such as Daniel Read Anthony, Charles L  Robinson, Samuel C  Pomeroy, and Martin F  Conway, who would later be Kansas's first US Representative 
The exact number of people who left for Kansas is unknown  James Rawley puts the numbers somewhere around 2000, about a third of whom returned home, but the Kansas Historical Society puts the number at around 900 for those who left for Kansas in 1855 alone The Company's mission was ultimately successful, and Kansas entered the United States as a free state in 1861 

Notes



ground_truth: Long Island

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: The FIBT World Championships 1960 took place in a town located in which part of Italy ?

The following are given passages.
Context 4: Passage 1:
Mikkeli hostage crisis
The Mikkeli hostage crisis, or Jakomäki bank robbery took place on 8–9 August 1986, which ended in Mikkeli, South Savo, Finland, outside of the Mikkeli County Government House on Maaherrankatu  The crisis began when the perpetrator, Jorma Kalevi Takala (born July 11, 1950) took three hostages in Helsinki in a bank robbery, with whom he traveled by car to Mikkeli  The event ended when Takala blew up his car, killing himself and hostage Jukka Häkkinen (born May 13, 1961)  In the aftermath of the incident, the Finnish police were subjected to harsh criticism 

Events
The events began on 8 August 1986, when Jorma Takala, armed with a sawed-off shotgun and an explosive charge, entered the Kansallis-Osake-Pankki bank in Jakomäki, Helsinki  Takala took twelve people inside the bank as his hostages  After receiving 2 5  million Finnish marks and a getaway car in exchange for most of the hostages, he left the bank with three remaining hostages, two female and one male  Takala forced the male hostage to drive the car, following Highway 4 and later Highway 5  
The party arrived in Mikkeli on 9 August, where they parked in front of the Mikkeli County Government House  Finnish police surrounded the vehicle and tried to negotiate with Takala  When he threatened to blow up the car if he was not allowed to continue his journey, the police advised the hostages to leave the vehicle  Both female hostages complied, after which the police started to shoot at the car  In response, Takala detonated the charge and destroyed the vehicle, killing both himself and the male hostage  Nine police officers were injured in the explosion 

Aftermath
The police received much criticism for its handling of the crisis  Nobody knew who gave the order to shoot at the car and initially none of the police commanders took the responsibility for the operation  After an investigation by the NBI, Chancellor of Justice Jorma S  Aalto decided not to prosecute the police officers for the events  In 1993, the Supreme Court of Finland convicted the police commissioner who led the operation of involuntary manslaughter and negligence and fined him 6,000 mk 
Passage 2:
Graham Perkin
Edwin Graham Perkin (16 December 1929 – 16 October 1975) was an Australian journalist and newspaper editor 

Early life
Perkin was born at Hopetoun, Victoria, elder son of Herbert Edwin Perkin, baker, and his wife Iris Lily, née Graham, both Victorian born  Graham grew up at Warracknabeal and was educated at the local high school  In 1948 he began to study law at the University of Melbourne, but abandoned his course in the following year when he obtained a cadetship with The Age  At the Methodist Church, St Kilda, on 6 September 1952 he married Peggy Lorraine Corrie 

Career
As a young reporter, Perkin rapidly acquired a reputation for enthusiasm and restless energy  In 1955 he won a Kemsley scholarship in journalism which took him to London  Returning to Australia as a feature writer, he shared the Walkley Award for journalism in 1959 for an article on pioneering heart surgery  His rise in the newspaper hierarchy was rapid: he became deputy news editor in 1959, news editor in 1963, assistant-editor in 1964 and editor (at the age of 36) in 1966  He was appointed to the additional post of editor-in-chief in 1973 
Perkin turned The Age into a more interventionist and campaigning newspaper  It exposed financial scandals in State governments and corruption in the police force, and attacked Federal governments for suppressing information  In the process, it attracted critics who thought it too 'leftist'  In 1972 The Age, which had traditionally supported Coalition governments, advocated the election of Gough Whitlam's Australian Labor Party  When that government was forced to an early election in 1974, Perkin wanted to support Whitlam again  His stand led to a conflict with the board of David Syme & Co  Ltd, owner and publisher of The Age  A compromise, supported by the managing director Ranald Macdonald, narrowly averted Perkin's resignation  It also reinforced his insistence on editorial independence, subject to the management's right to dismiss an editor in whom it had lost confidence 
However, Perkin turned violently on Whitlam a year later when he published details of a murky land deal involving Phillip Cairns, the son of Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns, and Rex Connor, the Minister for Minerals and Energy  Perkin had won a bidding war for the information, setting aside his normal opposition to buying stories because he felt the story was one of overwhelming importance  Perkin's editorials grew more and more critical of Whitlam, culminating in the elemental editorial "Go now, go decently" in which he called for the government to step down  It began with the words 'We will say it straight, and clear, and at once  The Whitlam Government has run its course ' Perkin died of a heart attack on 16 October 1975 at his Sandringham home at the age of 45 
The Age became a more substantial, wider ranging, better written and significantly more influential newspaper  Perkin's reforms and his willingness to speak out strongly in defence of the paper's policies boosted circulation from a stagnant 180,000 in 1965 to a solid 222,000 ten years later  The company's revenues rose correspondingly  Perkin was also director (from 1966) of Australian Associated Press, its chairman in 1970-72, and a director of Reuters Ltd, London, in 1971-74 

Personal life
His wife, their son Steve, and their daughter Corrie – both journalists – survived him  Peggy later remarried, and died in 2012, aged 81 

Graham Perkin Journalism Award
The Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award, an annual prize, was established in 1976 

Bibliography
Hills, Ben, Breaking News: The Golden Age of Graham Perkin, Scribe, 2010  ISBN 978-1-921640-37-7
Passage 3:
1991 Sacramento hostage crisis
On April 4, 1991, 41 employees and customers were taken hostage and held at a Good Guys! electronics store at the corner of 65th Street and Stockton Boulevard in Florin, California, near the Florin Mall (now Florin Towne Centre) for approximately eight hours by four gunmen  Near the end of the hostage crisis, six were killed: three hostages and three of the four hostage-takers  The fourth hostage-taker was captured by authorities, and an additional 14 hostages were injured during the crisis  To this day, the hostage crisis remains the largest hostage rescue operation in US history, with over 40 hostages having been held at gunpoint 

Event
Background
The four gunmen were all Vietnamese immigrants: brothers Loi Khac Nguyen, 21; Pham Khac Nguyen, 19; and Long Khac Nguyen, 17; and their friend, Cuong Tran, 17  The Nguyens had fled Vietnam as a family of eight in 1979 at the start of the second wave of Vietnamese refugees, first sailing to Malaysia and remaining anchored there for the first seven months, then waiting for four more months in an Indonesian refugee camp before they arrived in California in 1980  The entire family lived in a two-bedroom apartment 1⁄2 mile (0 80 km) from the Good Guys! store  Cuong Tran had moved with his parents into a new home in Elk Grove 15 months before the hostage crisis Tran and Long Nguyen were friends and classmates at Florin High School; both had been expelled in March 1991 after stealing athletic equipment and attempting to set fire to the building  Loi Nguyen had attended Valley High School but dropped out during his senior year  Pham Nguyen was attending William Daylor High School (a continuation school) after having transferred from Valley following attendance issues On the day of the hostage crisis, Pham Nguyen briefly came to school and asked to be excused with a toothache  The Nguyen brothers told their parents they were going fishing at the Sacramento River 

Start of the siege
At approximately 1:00 p m , on April 4, 1991, the four young gunmen drove into the parking lot of the Good Guys! electronics store, in the South Area of Sacramento County  The group left their vehicle, a 1982 Toyota Corolla, and entered the store armed with three pistols and a shotgun  They had purchased the guns legally at a local sporting goods store the prior week, following a background check and waiting period  Although reported, the gunmen were not members of the Oriental Boys gang, and the hostage-taking and subsequent crisis were not considered to be gang-related They herded customers and staff into a group, including a shoplifter attempting to leave the store, and began shooting at the ceiling of the store  One employee escaped after being ordered to lock the doors  Although initial reports indicated they had taken the hostages after a failed robbery attempt, subsequent statements to hostages and negotiators instead proved "they were attempting to gain notoriety," according to Sacramento County Sheriff Glen Craig  They were frustrated with their lives in the United States since it was difficult to find good jobs and expressed a desire to travel to Thailand and fight the Viet Cong, according to two of the hostages 

Law enforcement and media response
When the 9-1-1 call came in at 1:33 p m , the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department Special Enforcement Detail (SED) was already in the process of gearing up in anticipation of executing a previously planned drug raid  They immediately paged off-duty team members and began preparations to rush to the scene along with the Department's Critical Incident Negotiations Team (CINT) and other local and state law enforcement agencies 
As the situation developed, the local media descended on the area in force, broadcasting the unfolding incident  They were able to get footage of the event because of the store's huge glass front doors, which allowed video crews to see into the store where the hostage-takers lined up some of the hostages in front of the entrance as human shields 

Surveillance and negotiation
Following the standard operating procedure, the team obtained a floor plan of the building, which was copied and distributed to team members  The SED team was told that there was only one entrance to the store that was not alarmed: a freight entrance located at the rear of the store  Their only option would be to enter the store's showroom, where the hostages were being held, through a fabrics store on the north side of the building  The entry team gained entrance to the fabric store and slowly moved into position  The criminals apparently heard movement by the police amid shouts of "stay away from the door" coming from inside the store itself 
One of the entry team members removed a ceiling panel in the hallway between the two buildings and inserted a pole-mounted mirror  He was able to observe the subjects directing hostages to place large boxes against the back door to block entry  Once the door was barricaded, the area was abandoned  A fisheye camera was installed by the team but was of limited use because of the design of the store, showing only a portion of the showroom near the door  By this time, the hostages had been tied up with speaker wire and had been arranged inside the store's glass front entrance doors in standing and kneeling positions 
For more than two hours, the department's CINT tried to end the incident peacefully by negotiating with the hostage-takers  Negotiations were initially conducted from police headquarters, and a special negotiation team took over on-site after a few hours from a bank that had been evacuated  The hostage-takers demanded $4 million, forty 1,000-year-old ginseng roots, four bulletproof vests, a 50-troop military helicopter, and transportation for everyone to Thailand after a refueling stop in Alaska  Throughout the incident, the hostage-takers did not present a consistent set of demands to the negotiators One demand that remained constant was for bulletproof vests  During early negotiations, one of the requested vests was exchanged for what was to be the release of nine hostages, although only three were released initially; the police officer who took the first vest to them stripped to his underwear to prove he was unarmed  Loi Nguyen sent a woman to retrieve the vest and threatened to shoot her children if she did not return; after she retrieved the vest, they were the first three hostages to be released  In addition to the hostage exchange, another benefit was that it allowed police to gain information on the current situation in the store  One of the released hostages revealed that the shots heard earlier had been the hostage-takers shooting at the store's security cameras and that none of the hostages had been harmed up to this point  Soon thereafter, more shots were heard, but this was the hostage-takers testing the vest  Approximately an hour later, another woman and her three children were released; an eighth hostage was released at 8:20 p m , bearing a message that they would start to shoot the other hostages shortly At one point during the negotiations, the leader of the hostage-takers, who called himself "Thai" (later shown to be Loi Nguyen), agreed to surrender to the police but only if they were allowed to retain their bulletproof vests and weapons while in prison  The police negotiator informed Loi Nguyen that he would have a short sentence and his vest and guns would be returned upon his release  He set down the phone and began to discuss the situation with his partners  At that point, many of the officers involved felt the exchanges might lead to a negotiated settlement; when he returned to the phone, Loi Nguyen stated that while he accepted those terms, his partners did not  Suddenly, the phone went dead, and the CINT immediately tried to re-establish contact with the store  On the first attempt, the phone was busy, and on the second attempt, a suspect calling himself "Number One" (later shown to be Long Nguyen) answered the phone, informing everyone that he was now in control  From that point on, the situation began to rapidly deteriorate  Shots were once again fired at the store's security cameras 

Entry
At approximately 9 p m , Long Nguyen shot a twenty-year-old male hostage named Sean McIntyre in the leg and then released McIntyre as the ninth and final hostage to be released with the instruction to deliver their message and plight to the local media  They claimed they were trying to draw attention to the troubles of their home country and that they were on a suicide mission  At that point, the police attempted to distract the gunmen by putting the hostage on the news, which would also move them to the television area of the store, but this tactic did not work  The police team was finally given the "green light" to enter the store  Sniper Jeffrey Boyes would issue the signal to execute the assault  Boyes had received permission to fire on any subject on whom he could obtain a clear line of sight 
After McIntyre was shot and released, another hostage was shot just before 10 p m ; the gunmen had told the hostages to select the next victim from among themselves, causing an elderly hostage, Harold Brooks, to faint  According to Sheriff Craig, the gunmen joked "he just decided he was going to be our next person shot " Long Nguyen attempted to shoot Brooks, but his gun misfired, and Loi Nguyen shot Brooks in the leg  The surviving hostages stated the gunmen divided them into two groups and had begun flipping a coin to decide their fates  Guns were placed to the hostages' heads  Several hostages were placed on the phone, and they informed the police the gunmen were going to begin executing hostages 

A second bulletproof vest was delivered to the front door shortly after Brooks was shot, which was to be exchanged for nine more hostages, but no one was released  Another hostage, Priscilla Alvarez, was sent out to recover the second vest with her wrists tied behind her and harnessed with more speaker cord  As the door was opened and Alvarez was halfway down the path to retrieve the vest, Boyes took a shot at one of the gunmen, but the sniper's bullet was deflected by the glass door as it swung shut, and it hit the target's ear Immediately, the hostage-takers ran back and forth, and Long Nguyen started to shoot the seated hostages who were tied down in a row behind the glass door, in full view of the news cameras broadcasting the event live  At the same time, Boyes radioed "Go", and the SED entry team immediately hit the door at 9:51 p m  A stun grenade was tossed into the store from outside, and Curt Warburton, one of the Good Guys employees, managed to scramble to safety through the now shattered glass door  "Number One" (Long Nguyen), now stunned and disoriented, managed to stagger out of Boyes's sights and take cover behind a large pillar  He then immediately began firing his weapon at more bound hostages 
It took the seven-person entry team two to three seconds to get through the back doors from where they had been hiding (a storage space in the rear of the store) because of the "barricades" erected earlier  They then had to contend with the 100-foot (30 m) distance to the front of the store  The team was armed with a variety of weapons for the entry  Sergeants Don Devlin, Charles Price, and Gordon Smith were armed with SiGARMS Sig P220 pistols, Sergeant Bill Kelly carried a laser-sighted HK MP5, investigators Mike Hammel and Greg Peterson carried H&K MP5SD3 submachine guns, and investigator Roger Stanfill was still armed with his AR-15 
Hammel and Price cleared the west side of the store, Peterson and Kelly the east side, and Devlin and Smith went straight up the middle  Stanfill took up a rearguard position  As the team began its movement toward the front of the store, the remaining hostage-takers immediately began to fire on the entry team and hostages  Peterson stepped on the wire that had been used to tether the female hostage sent out to recover the second vest  At that moment, she was snatched to safety by officers outside the store, causing Peterson's feet to fly out from under him, forcing him to fall backward, just as a shotgun blast immediately blew through the area where he was standing  His fellow team members mistakenly believed he had been struck in the face by the blast  As Peterson began to rise to his feet, Devlin and Kelly tried to flank the shotgun-wielding suspect, who fired on them once again, before being taken under fire by the team 

Suspects shot
Simultaneously, on the west side of the store, the team shot one of the suspects (Cuong Tran) before he could react  Then they spotted a second armed suspect (Pham Nguyen) and fired on him, but he disappeared into the chaos of the screaming and panicking crowd of hostages  Then, "Number One" (Long Nguyen) was shot 
At this point, the team could only account for three of the suspects and immediately began a systematic search for the fourth  Price and Hammel discovered an unarmed Asian male (Loi Nguyen) lying on the floor, wearing the sole bulletproof vest that had been provided earlier  Once he was rolled over, they discovered he had a  223 caliber entrance wound, accounting for all four suspects 
It took only 30 seconds from the initial police entry until the gunfire ceased, bringing an end to the hostage crisis 

Aftermath
Casualties
During the assault, the suspects wounded eleven hostages and killed three  Of the eleven wounded, ten were shot, and one suffered a miscarriage  Others shot at were Bret Soren, Chris Lauretzen, Curt Warburton, and many others who suffered both physical and extreme emotional consequences including brutal bodily injuries, trauma, and severe ongoing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)  Of the four suspects, three were killed by the entry team and one, "Thai" (Loi), was wounded  None of the SED entry team was wounded  The hostages killed were store employees Kris Edward Sohne and John Lee Fritz and customer Fernando Gutierrez Gutierrez's two nieces were also hostages  One of the nieces, Lisa Joseph, later wrote the book Heads or Tails: A True Hostage Story of Terror, Torture and Ultimate Survival about her ordeal  Two employees hid in a computer closet during the hostage crisis The Good Guys! announced they would set up trust funds for the two slain employees and would pay for the funerals of all three murder victims 

Trial and prosecution
Loi Nguyen was arraigned from his hospital bed shortly after the crisis ended and charged with 54 felonies, including murder  Nguyen's attorney, Sacramento public defender Linda Parisi, argued that Loi Nguyen was trying to make peace, based on witness testimony and recorded audio, and did not deserve the death penalty; she pointed to Long Nguyen as the leader  However, Rebecca Moore, a sheriff's detective, pointed out that Loi Nguyen had purchased the guns, driven the group to the store, and handled most of the negotiations: "In my opinion he is the most responsible party for this thing going down " Because of pre-trial publicity, the trial was moved to San Francisco  He was convicted on February 8, 1995, on 51 felony counts: three for murder, eight for attempted murder, two for assault with a firearm, and 38 for kidnapping, after two days of jury deliberation  On March 28, the jury recommended a life sentence in prison rather than the death penalty, after four more hours of deliberation At the sentencing hearing in Sacramento, Judge W J  Harpham said, "It's hard to find the adjectives for the terror the defendant put these hostages through " He sentenced Loi Khac Nguyen to 49 life terms in prison, 41 to be served consecutively without the chance of parole  Information that surfaced at Nguyen's trial revealed the men's motivation for committing the crime was that they were frustrated by their inability to learn English and find jobs  Nguyen initially served his sentence at the California State Prison, Lancaster  he was later transferred to California State Prison, Centinela, and has since been transferred to California State Prison, Solano where he is currently serving his term  His CDCR number is J69791 The former Good Guys! building later became a Dollar Tree store, which was modified to move the main entry doors from the front (south facade) to the side of the building (east facade)  This Dollar Tree still stands and remains in business 

In popular culture
In 2000, a play titled The Good Guys: An American Tragedy was created by Michael Edo Keane and Miko Lee and presented by Theater of Yugen, a theatre group that presents work relating to the Pan Asian Diaspora, at the Theater Artaud in San Francisco, California 
The hostage crisis was examined in detail in the first season of the documentary series Shootout!, aired on the History Channel, for the first time in September 2005 
Footage of the event was featured in World's Scariest Police Shootouts in 1997 
In March 2015, the crisis was the focus of an episode of ABC's In an Instant 
In 2019 a movie called A Clear Shot, based on the incident, was released  It starred Hao Do as Loi, Kevin Bach as Pham, Tony Dew as Long, and Dang Tran as Cuong 

See also
List of homicides in California
1996 Honolulu hostage crisis
Passage 4:
Chris Reason
Chris Reason (born 1 October 1965) is a senior reporter and presenter for Seven News in Sydney, Australia  He was awarded the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award for his coverage of the Lindt Cafe siege in December 2014 

Career
Reason's career began in 1990, when during his first year at Seven News he unwittingly covered a segment now infamously known as the Democracy Manifest video, which became an Internet viral video years later  In 2019, The Guardian called it "perhaps the pre-eminent Australian meme of the past 10 years" In 2002, he was announced as co-host of the re-launched national breakfast program Sunrise alongside Melissa Doyle  But in September, Reason was diagnosed with cancer and forced to retire from the program while he underwent six months of chemotherapy, surgery and recovery care  He was replaced by David Koch  The cancer was an abdominal metastasis of the testicular cancer he had fought four years earlier  Reason had missed a critical health check-up in 2001 while covering the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, and he says it almost cost him his life  In multiple interviews since, he has warned young men to never miss a health check-up In 2003, after his recovery, Reason had multiple roles—first as presenter of Seven Morning News, and then presenter of Sunday Sunrise in 2004  In 2005, he was named co-host of Weekend Sunrise alongside Lisa Wilkinson, but he was later replaced by Deal or No Deal host Andrew O'Keefe  Reason returned to full-time reporting as Senior Network Correspondent In 2015, he won the Graham Perkin Award for his coverage of the Lindt Cafe siege  He has won a Walkley Award and two Logie Awards for News Reporting 
Reason is a back-up presenter for most of the Seven News programs, including Seven Morning News, Seven Afternoon News and Seven News Sydney  He also intermittently fills in for either David Koch or Matt Doran on Sunrise and Weekend Sunrise respectively, and appears on the former show during the week as one of the News Feed panelists 

Personal life
His father died from brain cancer in 2006  He attended Villanova College in the Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo and the University of Queensland (BA)  Reason married journalist Kathryn Robinson in 2005  They became parents to twins in 2007 
Passage 5:
Les Carlyon
Leslie Allen Carlyon  (10 June 1942 – 4 March 2019) was an Australian writer and newspaper editor 

Early life
Carlyon began his career in journalism with The Herald and Weekly Times as a cadet on the Sun News-Pictorial (now the Herald Sun) in 1960  In 1963, he moved to The Age working successively as leader writer, finance editor, news editor, assistant editor and, in 1975 aged 33, editor, following the sudden death of the previous editor, Graham Perkin  Carlyon had to resign for health reasons in 1976 after just one year in the position From 1977 to 1982, he was a visiting lecturer in journalism at RMIT University, Melbourne  During this time, he continued writing for newspapers across Australia with a particular focus on horse racing In 1984, Carlyon returned to an executive role in journalism with his first employer, the Herald and Weekly Times, where he was promoted to editor-in-chief   After resigning in 1986, Carlyon again continued as a freelance writer and columnist during the 1990s, contributing to such publications as the Sydney Morning Herald, Western Australia's The Sunday Times and The Bulletin Carlyon twice won the Walkley Award for journalism (1971 and 2004)  In 1993, he won the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award 

Books
In addition to his career as a journalist, Carlyon was also an accomplished author writing mainly on sport and Australian military history  His books include:

Carlyon, Les (1996)  True Grit: Tales from a Decade on the Turf  Mandarin  ISBN 9781863306065 
Carlyon, Les (1998)  Heroes in our eyes  Information Australia  ISBN 9781863502467 
Carlyon, Les (2001)  Gallipoli  Macmillan Australia  ISBN 9781743534229 
Carlyon, Les (2006)  The Great War  Picador Australia  ISBN 9780330424967 
Carlyon, Les (2011)  The Master: A personal portrait of Bart Cummings  Macmillan Australia  ISBN 9781742628837 
Carlyon, Les (2021)  Les Carlyon: A Life in Words  Allen and Unwin Australia  ISBN 9781760879723 Gallipoli, a popular history of the Allied Gallipoli campaign in the Dardanelles during the First World War (which remains a key event in the Australian and New Zealand national consciousnesses), was published in 2001, and met with critical and commercial success in Australia, New Zealand and England  The book was the basis for the Australian 2015 TV miniseries Gallipoli, released in the year of the 100th anniversary of the campaign The Great War is the story of Australian forces on the Western Front in France and Belgium also during World War I Les Carlyon: A Life in Words, published posthumously, is a collection of Carlyon's articles from across his career, selected by his family and with a foreword by his son, Patrick Carlyon 

Awards
In the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours List, Carlyon was invested as a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), for "eminent service to literature through the promotion of the national identity as an author, editor and journalist, to the understanding and appreciation of Australia's war history, and to the horseracing industry" He was admitted to the Australian Media Hall of Fame He served as a Member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial from May 2006 until his death (he was replaced by Tony Abbott)  In April 2020, the Australian War Memorial announced the inaugural Les Carlyon Literary Prize in his memory 

Awards
Walkley Award for magazine feature writing 1971
Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award 1993
Walkley Award for journalism leadership 2004
Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for Lifetime Achievement 2004
Prime Minister's Prize for History 2007 (for The Great War)
Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) 2014

Death
Carlyon's death, aged 76, on 4 March 2019 was widely reported 
Passage 6:
2014 Sydney hostage crisis
The Lindt Café siege was a terrorist attack that occurred on 15–16 December 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt Chocolate Café in the APA Building in Martin Place, Sydney, Australia 
The Sydney siege led to a 16-hour standoff, after which a gunshot was heard from inside and police officers from the Tactical Operations Unit (TOU) stormed the café  Hostage Tori Johnson was killed by Monis and hostage Katrina Dawson was killed by a police bullet ricochet in the subsequent raid  Monis was also killed  Three other hostages and a police officer were injured by police gunfire during the raid Police have been criticised over their handling of the siege for not taking proactive action earlier, for the deaths of hostages at the end of the siege, and for the lack of negotiation during the siege  Hostage Marcia Mikhael called radio station 2GB during the siege and said, "They have not negotiated, they've done nothing  They have left us here to die "Early on, hostages were seen holding a Jihadist flag against the window of the café, featuring the shahādah creed  Initially, many media organisations mistook it for the flag used by the Islamic State (IS); Monis later demanded that an IS flag be brought to him  Monis also unsuccessfully demanded to speak to the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, live on radio  Monis was described by Abbott as having indicated a "political motivation," but the eventual assessment was that the gunman was "a very unusual case—a rare mix of extremism, mental health problems and plain criminality "In the aftermath of the siege, Muslim groups issued a joint statement in which they condemned the incident, and memorial services were held in the city at the nearby St Mary's Cathedral and St James' Church  Condolence books were set up in other Lindt cafés and the community turned Martin Place into a "field of flowers " The Martin Place Lindt café was severely damaged during the police raid, closed afterwards, then renovated for reopening in March 2015 In October 2022, the TOU officer who shot and killed Monis during the police storming of the Lindt Café published a memoir entitled 'Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! The Lindt Café Siege: The incredible inside story of two days that traumatised a nation: And one man's journey of resilience and hope '

Events
Prior to event
An anonymous call was made to Australia's anti-terrorism hotline 48 hours before the siege, raising concerns about the content of Monis's website  On his website, Monis had pledged allegiance to "the caliph of the Muslims", believed to be referring to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and denounced moderate Islam  It has been reported that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation followed up on the call by reviewing the website and Monis's posts on social media but found nothing to indicate that he was likely to commit an act of violence 

Hostage-taking and negotiations
Monis entered the Lindt Chocolate Café at 53 Martin Place, Sydney, at 8:33 am Sydney local time (AEDT) on 15 December 2014 (UTC+11)  The café is located directly across from the Seven News television studios, and near the Reserve Bank of Australia, the headquarters of the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac bank, and Martin Place underground train station 
The situation began at 9:44 am, when Monis forced Tori Johnson, the manager of the café, to phone 000 Monis was bearded, wearing a black cap and wearing a black headband with the inscription, in Arabic: "We are ready to sacrifice for you, O Mohammad " He was carrying a blue sports bag, and armed with a sawed-off pump-action shotgun 
The shotgun was old but could fire four shots in five seconds Monis used hostages as human shields  He had disabled the automatic sliding glass doors of the café Monis claimed there were four "devices" located around Sydney  However, New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said that none of the alleged devices were found during investigations  Monis also demanded that a hostage ask all media to broadcast that "this is an attack on Australia by the Islamic State"  In addition, he demanded that an Islamic State flag be delivered to him, although the request was never fulfilled Hostages were ordered to hold up a Black Standard flag, with the shahādah in white Arabic letters (an Islamic creed declaring: "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of God"), against the window of the café  Some news reports initially mistook it for the flag used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) Monis demanded to speak to the Australian Prime Minister live on radio, but this demand was rejected  This was relayed by hostage Marcia Mikhael, who said that she "lost it" when told that the Prime Minister was too busy, saying, "I don't care what [Abbott] is doing right now   I'm sure there's nothing more important happening in Australia   than the lives of the people in this café   "Mamdouh Habib said he knew Monis well and offered to help police negotiate with him  He believed that Monis was "sick and disturbed" over his failure to gain access to his children, and said Monis could trust him to get his message out  Lawyer Manny Conditsis had represented Monis and had also offered help because he said that Monis respected what he had to say to him  Barrister Michael Klooster who had met Monis in the cafe before the siege called the police at 2:17 pm  Other Muslim leaders also offered to help, including the Grand Mufti of Australia, Ibrahim Abu Mohamed 
All such offers were rejected by police because they had no control over what the untrained negotiators might say or do  However, Mikhael said that after the request to speak to the Prime Minister was refused: "It was then that I knew that there was not going to be any negotiation and we were just left there     They were waiting for him to kill someone or shoot something so they [could] come in     There was nothing proactive about that operation, nothing "Belinda Neil, who was a negotiator for the NSW police, said that in negotiations, "[W]e want to try and talk to the hostage-taker     [W]e want to find out why he's there, why is he doing this, and we don't just go into this situation hoping to resolve it in half an hour " This approach would be consistent with the Behavioral Change Stairway Model  However, Mikhael stated that no such negotiation took place  Habib said that he called both the police and the Attorney General twice during the raid, but they did not return his calls  Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione confirmed during the siege that "we're not dealing directly with him 



ground_truth: the Veneto region of Northern Italy

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Where is the company that created Doravirine ( from?

The following are given passages.
Context 4:    we do not have direct contact with the offender "Several hostages made contact with media outlets and relayed Monis's demands to them  At the request of the New South Wales Police Force, they were not published during the siege  The social media profiles of the hostages were also used to relay demands At 1:43 am Tori Johnson texted his family "He's [Monis] increasingly agitated, walks around when he hears a noise outside with a hostage in front of him  Wants to release one person in good faith, tell police " This was conveyed to the police 10 minutes later During the early stages of the siege, the Australian government and NSW authorities did not label the event as a terrorist attack; however, as the siege continued, NSW police authorised the engagement of the state's counter-terrorism task force, treating the incident as an act of terrorism 

Escape of first five hostages
At around 3:37 pm, two hostages, John O'Brien and barrister Stefan Balafoutis, escaped from the front entrance of the building, followed by a third hostage, café employee Paolo Vassallo, who ran out from a fire exit at the side of the building  At around 4:58 pm, two female hostages, both employees, Jieun Bae and Elly Chen, escaped by running from another entrance of the building and were met by Tactical Operations Unit officers Monis was unaware that Jieun Bae and Elly Chen had escaped  Jarrod Morton-Hoffman made noise to cover their exit and persuaded Monis that media reports of five hostages escaping were wrong  After the escape, Monis threatened to kill hostages Police planted a covert listening device in the café during the night  At one point, the device picked up Monis saying that he wanted to kill any escaping hostages 

Raid and end of the siege
At 2:03 am on 16 December, a "very loud bang" was heard as Monis shot towards six hostages fleeing from the building  At 2:11 am Monis fired a shot towards the kitchen, and was heard on the police listening device reloading his shotgun  The hostage Fiona Ma then escaped through the front door, and two police Tactical Operations Unit teams were ordered to move very slowly towards the two entrances At 2:14 am, four minutes after the Tactical operations teams were ordered in, Monis shot Tori Johnson in the back of the head, killing him  The shooting was witnessed by a police sniper, who reported a hostage down  Police armed with M4A1 carbines threw eleven stun grenades as they stormed the café 
Monis was shot in the head  An officer reported that "I watched the (gun's) laser     from the centre of his chest go to his head and his head exploded and he fell"  One officer then fired a total of 17 rounds, and another officer fired 5 additional rounds  Some fragments of those rounds killed hostage Katrina Dawson Police declared the siege over soon after, later confirming that Monis was killed in the raid  Two hostages had died, and another three were injured by police bullets  One police officer, whose face was grazed by a police bullet, was discharged from hospital later in the day At the inquest, Counsel assisting the coroner, Jeremy Gormley SC, said, "No shot fired by Mr Monis, other than the one that struck and killed Mr Johnson, struck anyone " Mitchell McAlister, who was a tactical assaulter with 2nd Commando Tactical Assault Group questioned the police use of M4A1 carbines with 5 56mm NATO rounds that could have "dangerous effects in a dense and enclosed environment " It was also unclear why 22 shots were fired by police, of which 13 hit Monis 

Flag raids
At around 2:00 pm on 15 December, police contacted Rebecca Kay, a member of the Muslim community, and asked her to help source an ISIS flag for Monis  Kay contacted many people in the Muslim community but ultimately the police sourced their own flag  However, the flag was never given to Monis The following day, NSW and federal police raided three homes of people who had been contacted in the attempt to source the flag  Kay assumes that her conversations had been monitored  Kay said she would help police in another crisis, but "with this incident they have not built trust at all  You don't understand   the fear that [the AFP and ASIO] create, and how they stalk   members of our community   " Lawyer Zali Burrows questioned the purpose of the police contacting Kay in the first place, stating, "Why didn't they just print [a flag]?"

Police strategy
The police followed a "contain and negotiate" strategy which was to avoid any direct action unless a hostage was killed or injured  They decided that this strategy could deliver a "peaceful negotiated outcome" because Monis had not harmed any hostages, despite having threatened to do so  Monis had also not reacted violently to the escape of five hostages on two separate occasions, or due to none of his demands being met  Further, Monis claimed to have a bomb, and "if the bomb was triggered, all of those inside the cafe and those attempting a rescue were not likely to survive"  At 8:20 pm and again at 11:35 pm, the head of the tactical operations unit attempted to persuade the other commanders to take a "deliberate action" plan and storm the cafe but this was overruled by other commanders and Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins due to the danger to the hostages and police 
Police snipers could not be used due to "the narrow windows, the moving around of Monis, the risk to hostages if there was a missed shot, (and) the position of the snipers behind glass" At 11 am, Operational Commander Mick Fuller approved negotiations for the release of half of the 18 hostages in return for Monis being allowed to talk on ABC radio  However, the negotiation commander decided not to do so because it conflicted with a standing policy to not negotiate with terrorists The first negotiator was not told that the Grand Mufti of Australia and a barrister who represented Monis had offered to help negotiate with Monis  He only found out about Monis's demand for the ABC to broadcast that Australia was under attack after a Facebook post from one of the hostages was read out on radio 2GB  Monis had also demanded that the Christmas lights be turned off  The first negotiator thought that doing this would have provided an opportunity to bargain with Monis, but did not hear back from commanders as to whether it was possible so "discarded" the option He was then relieved by a second negotiator, but did not tell him about the demand that the Christmas lights be turned off  Hostage Selina Win Pe told the second negotiator Monis wanted to know why it hadn't happened  It was later revealed an Ausgrid team had assembled to switch off the lights, but was sent home A third negotiator later said that he did not have the Christmas lights turned off because he had some reason to know that Monis would not carry through his threat to kill Win Pe  He said there was some "step-by-step" process to have the hostages released (after nineteen hours)  Jenkins says he would have liked the Christmas lights turned off quickly, and was unaware that this had been found to be possible  Jenkins was also not told about the Johnson text near the end of the siege that Monis wanted to release a hostage The negotiation team leader did not think Monis would hurt anyone because Monis had told people inside the cafe that everyone would go home once Prime Minister Tony Abbott called  The team leader later conceded that Abbott was never going to call  Forensic advice given to the police by an unnamed consultant psychiatrist was that Monis was probably undertaking a grandiose act to be recognised as a figure of great infamy rather than wishing to hurt anyone  He doubted that Monis actually represented ISIS because he did not have the correct flag, nor that his actions were politically motivated  The psychiatrist warned that "a wounded narcissist is a dangerous specimen" as none of Monis's demands were met 

Timeline of events
Hostages
Authorities did not release an estimate of the number of hostages inside the café during the siege  After the siege, a total of 18 hostages was confirmed—eight staff and ten customers of the café including lawyers and Westpac employees with offices close by  Initial estimates varied, with some significantly overestimating the number Tori Johnson, the 34-year-old manager of the café, died after being shot in the head by Monis 
Katrina Dawson, a 38-year-old barrister, was killed when she was hit by seven police bullet fragments while lying behind a chair, which was hit by 10 bullets Three hostages and a police officer were wounded by police gunfire during the raid  The three hostages were Marcia Mikhael, who was shot in the leg; Robyn Hope, a 75-year-old woman who was shot in the shoulder; and Louisa Hope, her 52-year-old daughter, who was shot in the foot 
All three were in a stable condition after treatment  Paolo Vassallo, one of the five hostages who initially escaped the scene, was hospitalised for a pre-existing condition 
The other hostages were identified as John O'Brien, Stefan Balafoutis, Elly Chen, Jieun Bae, Harriette Denny, Viswakanth Ankireddy, Joel Herat, Fiona Ma, Jarrod Hoffman, Puspendu Ghosh, Selina Win Pe, and Julie Taylor Memorial services for Johnson and Dawson were held on 23 December: Johnson's in the morning at St Stephen's Uniting Church, Sydney, and Dawson's in the afternoon in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney  Interviews with some of the hostages were later recorded for television and broadcast, amid some controversy 

Evacuations and closures
After the siege began, a staged exclusion zone was established with thousands of people evacuated from nearby buildings, including from the floors above the café  The Sydney Opera House was evacuated after a suspicious package was found; however, reports were unconfirmed by police  The US Consulate General in Sydney, located in Martin Place, was also evacuated  Some Sydney schools were put in "white level lockout" due to the hostage situation, which meant that no school group was permitted to leave the school grounds Police advised people in the area bounded by Hunter, George, Elizabeth, and Macquarie streets, bordering Martin Place, to remain indoors and away from windows  Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and ANZ closed their CBD branches for the day  The State Library was also closed  Numerous other buildings, including David Jones stores, executive offices for the New South Wales Parliament, criminal courts for the Supreme Court, the Downing Centre, and "several city legal chambers" were evacuated, as were the facilities of the Seven Network, situated directly across from the café, forcing The Morning Show to suspend transmission  Police established an emergency centre in nearby Hyde Park in response to the unfolding situation with emergency services sent to the area to respond to any immediate threats and evacuees were relocated to the park as a safety precaution Trains did not stop at Martin Place railway station during the incident  Transport for NSW advised people to stay away from the CBD  Road closures prevented southbound access to the Cahill Expressway, York Street, and Harbour Street, and northbound access to the Cahill Expressway, and all traffic was diverted to the Sydney Harbour Tunnel  On the morning of 16 December, road diversions remained in place and Martin Place train station remained closed  In the evening of 16 December, Elizabeth Street, Macquarie Street and Hunter Street were opened to traffic Uber fares for travel in Sydney surged during the event under the company's dynamic pricing system, which led to criticism  Uber subsequently refunded excessive fares and provided free rides out of the CBD 

Gunman
Iranian-born Monis was identified as the hostage-taker and named early on the morning of 16 December In September 2009, Monis was convicted for criminal use of the postal service to "menace, harass or cause offence", for a campaign protesting the presence of Australian troops in Afghanistan, by writing letters to the families of soldiers killed there, in which he called the soldiers murderers  On 12 December, three days before the siege, Monis lost his appeal against his conviction and was sentenced to 300 hours of community service  Monis had been charged with accessory to murder relating to the death of his former wife who was found stabbed eighteen times, and set alight, on 21 April 2013 at a unit block in Werrington  However, on 12 December 2013, Magistrate William Pierce said "It is a weak case" and granted Monis bail  In November 2016, Amirah Droudis was found guilty, in a judge-only trial, of the murder of Monis's ex-wife and sentenced to 44 years' jail Monis also had numerous charges of sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, and common assault  On 14 April 2014, Monis was charged with three sexual assault offences against a woman and remanded in custody  He was granted bail on 26 May, six days after the Bail Act in New South Wales was rewritten based on recommendations by the New South Wales Law Reform Commission  On 10 October, he was charged with another 40 sexual assault offences against six more women, and his bail was continued Jeremy Gormly SC, counsel assisting the inquest, summarised Monis as "a complex, disturbed individual desperate for recognition and status but completely lacking the skills or achievements to bring that dream to life"  Gormly summarised that "Monis could be plausible, courteous and controlled, but he was also almost entirely consumed in his own self-importance      By 2014, he owned no property, was in debt, and had developed no employment skills  His attempts to develop a personal, religious following     had failed      He was facing future serious criminal charges    he had made no public impact of note on the Australian political scene"  Monis may have felt that he had "little left to live for" No weapons were found when police raided his home in 2013  From 1997 to 2000, Monis held a security guard licence, which would have let him carry a pistol between March and June 1997  The weapon that Monis used, a sawn-off French-made Manufrance La Salle pump-action shotgun, was more than 50 years old  Police believe the weapon was imported in the 1950s, when no registration was required  Monis had 23 shotgun cartridges of different brands on him, between 15 and 20 years old 

Reactions
Leaders
The Prime Minister convened the National Security Committee of Cabinet to give briefings on the situation and said "Australians should be reassured that our law enforcement and security agencies are well trained and equipped and are responding in a thorough and professional manner " He later said, "The whole point of politically motivated violence is to scare people out of being themselves  Australia is a peaceful, open, and generous society  Nothing should ever change that and that's why I would urge all Australians today to go about their business as usual", and "Australians should be reassured by the way our law enforcement and security agencies responded to this brush with terrorism "The Premier of New South Wales, Mike Baird, addressed the media during the stand-off, and stated "we are being tested today    in Sydney  The police are being tested, the public is being tested, but whatever the test we will face it head on and we will remain a strong democratic, civil society  I have full confidence in the Police Commissioner and the incredible work of the NSW police force The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, on the morning of 16 December, urged Australians to see this as a "one-off event", stating, "We're an inclusive multicultural community and we need to deal with this together"  Governor-General of Australia, Sir Peter Cosgrove, released a statement sympathising with the families, commending the work of the police involved, and urging Australians to "unite in our resolve to protect what we value most—our way of life, our care and respect for each other" 

Community
Thousands of people visited the site in the first few days after the incident to pay tribute to the victims  Among them were members of the families of Dawson and Johnson  Johnson's father was accompanied by rabbis Levi Wolff and Zalmen Kastel, Hindu priest Pandit Ramachandra, the Reverend Bill Crews and Sheikh Wesam Charkawi  Dawson's young daughter left her own note 
Flags on all NSW government buildings, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge, flew at half-mast to honour the hostages who lost their lives at the café A magistrate who had granted Monis bail and the lawyers who had represented him in his court appearances received death threats in the days after the attack  This reaction was described by the Bar Association as "understandable but wrong-headed", as magistrates have to deal with cases as they come before them on the basis of the law at the time 

#illridewithyou campaign
During and immediately following the incident, some in the community expressed concern about an increased potential for violence or intimidation directed at Muslims in Australia  For example, the head of the Australian Muslim Women's Association told the media there was an increase in anti-Muslim messages being posted on social media  Due to this concern among some local social media users, many started using the hashtag #illridewithyou [I'll ride with you]  This sought to offer solidarity and emotional support to Muslims travelling alone on public transport by people tweeting their bus/train route and suggesting that they would be willing to "ride with" anyone who might feel threatened  More than 150,000 people indicated their support of the concept by using the hashtag  The campaign was initially inspired by a Facebook status update about offering to walk with a woman who had removed her head covering  The campaign received international attention, including from United States President Barack Obama, although federal National Party member of Parliament George Christensen criticised the campaign for creating "false victims" out of Muslims and thereby taking attention away from the hostages 

"Field of flowers"
On the morning of 16 December, after police declared the crisis to be over, a makeshift memorial began to take shape in Martin Place  From the first bunch of lilies, tributes developed into a field of flowers that "you can smell before you can see" and which was extensively reported and photographed  The Prime Minister and NSW Premier were among many in the community to lay flowers at the memorial in a demarcated space  Flowers were also taken to suburban Lindt shops 
Volunteers from the Rural Fire Service, the State Emergency Service and the Red Cross began clearing the flowers on 22 December after consultation with the families, because rain was expected  It was announced that the condolence books would be bound in several volumes and one complete copy provided to each family  The messages on the many cards were to be digitised  During the week after the siege, it was estimated that 110,000 bouquets were laid at Martin Place 

Religious organisations
During the siege, Sanier Dandan, president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, informed ABC News that Australian Muslim leaders were meeting online for discussions as to how the Muslim community could help with the situation  He added, "Regardless, we have a hostage situation  Whether he is someone who belongs to the Australian Muslim community or not, we are still waiting for information to be provided by police and based on that if there's something the Muslim community can do or assist, we are there "
Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, the Grand Mufti of Australia, condemned the incident in a statement released on 15 December  The same afternoon, around fifty Muslim groups issued a joint statement in which they condemned the incident  The Australian Ahmadiyya Muslim Association condemned the incident, the national president saying that "such actions are criminal and totally contrary to the teachings of Islam " Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawqi Allam also condemned the attack 
In Martin Place, the 2014 traditional Hanukkah menorah presented a message of support: "May the lights of the festival of Hanukkah bring comfort and warmth to our nation" The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, invoked the special prayers in the Roman Missal from the "Mass in times of civil disturbance" and a memorial service was held at St Mary's Cathedral, on the morning of 19 December St James' Church, which had been within the exclusion zone, held a "Service of Remembrance and Reflection" on the afternoon of 19 December  The service was attended by about 400 people, most of them members of the legal profession 

International
During the siege, a spokesman for the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird, said, "We urge all Canadians in Sydney to use extra precaution and limit their movements as authorities handle this situation "Iran Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, strongly condemned the taking of hostages as "inhuman" and also stated that the Australian authorities had been repeatedly warned about Monis United States President Barack Obama called the Prime Minister to express his condolences on behalf of the United States  According to the White House, Obama praised the "Australian public's embrace of #illridewithyou and the Muslim leaders who have disavowed the actions of the hostage taker", and "Australia's rejection of any violence taken in the name of religion and the fear this violence seeks to stoke " The President also conveyed the United States' willingness to provide assistance in the aftermath of the situation  United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, said the United States stood ready to provide Australia with any assistance required in "determining the facts of the case, assisting the victims and holding accountable anyone and everyone responsible for this act of terror"  Citing this event, the United States issued a global travel alert to its citizens, to be alert for possible terrorist attacks within public venues New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak also expressed their concern about the incident  In addition, the Israeli embassy in Australia stated that it stood with Australia in the face of terror 

Charitable foundations
Following the two deaths during the hostage situation, the Katrina Dawson Foundation was established, with the aim of supporting educational opportunities for women  The then Governor-General Quentin Bryce was a founding member  At his parents' request, a memorial fund for Johnson was used to raise money for mental health organisation Beyond Blue  The first donation, of $51,000, came from Lindt Australia 

Terrorist organizations
Two weeks after the siege, Dabiq, a magazine published by the ISIL editorialised on Monis's actions and attempted to claim him as one of their own, in a response that an expert described as "absolutely predictable"  The magazine lauded Monis's actions and their effect on the city  The al Qaeda-produced magazine Inspire also praised Monis's actions 

Investigations
A number of organisations announced formal investigations 
Police investigations include a "critical incident" investigation undertaken by NSW police; headed by Detective Inspector Angelo Memmolo and an enquiry conducted by the Australian Federal Police Federal and state governments announced a joint review to be led by Michael Thawley from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Blair Comley of the New South Wales Department of Premier and Cabinet Following the siege, officers from the New South Wales Police Force and the Australian Federal Police went to the Belmore home of Monis's partner Amirah Droudis, and removed property  Her bail was revoked after a hearing on 22 December 2014  Investigations by Australian security agencies and monitoring of suspects following the siege revealed increased "terror chatter" 

Federal–State joint review
The findings of the Federal–State joint review were released on 22 February 2015  The report covered Monis's earlier interactions with the government, his access to firearms, and the government response to Monis including problems correlating his various aliases  The report's terms of reference did not cover the controversial police actions during the siege itself, such as the nature of the negotiations or the final assault The review found that the judgements made by government agencies were reasonable  It suggested only modest changes to laws and procedures, taking the view that "introducing substantial further controls involves a larger choice about the sort of society we wish to live in and is properly the province of the public and our elected representatives"  The review found that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had conducted a thorough review of Monis in 2008/9 and found that he was not involved in politically motivated violence, nor had significant contact with groups of security concern  After receiving 18 calls from the public, ASIO reviewed Monis's Facebook page, which was considered not to indicate a threat  None of the calls related to any pending attack  The review found that there was no credible information that would indicate an attack  Monis had been granted bail while charged with several violent offences  However, bail laws had since been tightened in this regard  Monis obtained his firearm illegally and was never granted a license The review suggested, in addition to the reforms to the bail laws and "new programmes to counter violent extremism", that a review of immigration policies and visa applications should be undertaken  The review suggested that the gun that Monis used had lawfully entered the country, possibly as early as the 1950s, and had fallen into the "grey market" after not being included in the gun buyback schemes of 1996 and 2002 

Inquest
An inquest, mandatory whenever people die in a police operation, began as scheduled on 29 January 2015, presided over by the State Coroner, Michael Barnes  The stated aim was "to determine how the [three] deaths occurred, the factors that contributed to them and whether they could have been prevented" The hearings were divided into blocks of a couple of weeks  The first, which started on 25 May 2015, queried people who knew Monis to get background information  The second started on 17 August 2015 to consider Monis's bail application  Further blocks that investigate how the police dealt with the siege itself will be withheld from the public "in the interests of the families" The findings of the inquest were released on 24 May 2017 

Aftermath
Designation of the event as terrorism
Insurance declaration
Treasurer Joe Hockey declared the siege to be a "terrorist incident" under the Terrorism Insurance Act 2003  The Act means that insurance exclusions for terrorist incidents do not apply if such a declaration is made 

Debate on status as a terrorist event
Scholars and social commentators have debated whether Monis was a terrorist and whether his actions could be classified as an act of terrorism  There is doubt as to whether or not Monis fit the definition of a lone wolf terrorist 
Queensland University of Technology criminologist Mark Lauchs said it was important to not describe the siege as a "terrorist attack"  Lauchs said Monis was simply a deranged person running a hostage situation  "This incident was not about religion and neither was it a terrorist attack, but given that perception by the paraphernalia Monis used " The Australian prime minister said, "[Man Haron Monis] had a long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism and mental instability   As the siege unfolded yesterday, he sought to cloak his actions with the symbolism of the ISIL death cult "Prof Greg Barton (from Deakin University) and Dr Clarke Jones (ANU) told the inquest that Monis was a loner and had mental health problems, and was desperate to attach himself to something  Clarke suggested that if the Rebels had accepted his membership then the siege might not have happened  Roger Shanahan from the Lowy Institute said that if Monis had followed ISIS direction he would have just killed everyone The chief of ASIO Duncan Lewis confirmed that he believed Monis to be a terrorist  However, former counter-terrorism adviser to the White House, Richard A  Clarke, said, "I don't think this was a lone wolf terrorist, I don't think this was a terrorist at all, I think this was someone who was committing suicide by police as a lot of people with mental problems do, and now, if they say they're a terrorist, if they say they're somehow associated with ISIS or Al Qaeda, it becomes a major event that shuts down the city and gets international attention  This was a person with a mental problem who tried to gain attention and succeeded, tried to shut down the city and succeeded, merely by putting up a flag that was something like the flag of ISIS "The difference between terrorism and terrorising acts was noted in one analysis as "enormously important"—it added that in Monis's case, terrorism "was clearly an element, but he was coming to the end of his rope with a variety of legal processes; there was clearly some mental instability " One view was that his lack of ties to any movement did not preclude his being a terrorist as it is "an inclusive club"  Another commentator said, "There can be also no doubt that his attack was a terrorist act, as defined under Australia's Criminal Code Act 1995" and that, "he was a terrorist, clearly influenced by IS" One terrorism expert, Professor Greg Barton, described Monis's actions as those of a "lone wolf terrorist     driven by a desire for attention and to be in the spotlight", and his use of the flag was described as "the only way" to instil fear on a global scale  Professor Michael Wesley, Director of the School of International, Political and Strategic Studies at the Australian National University said the attack "was very different from first-generation or second-generation terrorist attacks—but it was terrorism, and terrorism of a brutal and more unpredictable sort " Another view was that describing the gunman as a terrorist was misplaced and would only serve the interests of ISIL  The supervisor of terrorism and security analysis for Stratfor said that this hostage-incident exhibits many of the elements associated with grassroots terrorism  A criminologist said that the event "was not about religion and neither was it a terrorist attack but given that perception by the paraphernalia Monis used "Conversely, Yassir Morsi, a researcher at the Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding in Australia, suggested that "before he flew the black flag, Monis was just a desperate man with a violent past" and that "he was just another gunman      the symbol (flag) rewrote Monis's violent past and gave grammar to his attack "Monis had entered the cafe without an ISIS flag  ASIO's previous investigations had found no links between Monis and any terrorist group  When a News reporter met him before the crisis she thought Monis was "lost and confused" and "harmless"  Habib said Monis was "sick and disturbed" and desperately seeking attention over his grievances with government officials that had nothing to do with terrorism In 2016, Monis was cited as one of a number of recent violent attackers who were mentally disturbed and operated under the justification of Islamist ideas or slogans  Other examples include the as-of-yet unidentified perpetrator of the Munich knife attack and Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the perpetrator of the 2014 shootings at Parliament Hill, Ottawa  According to psychologists and psychiatrists who study radicalisation, jihad propaganda and calls to kill infidels can push mentally-ill individuals to act, even in the absence of direct or personal contact with radical Islamists In February 2017, United States President Donald Trump cited the Sydney siege as an example of what he claimed was deliberate underreporting of terrorist attacks by the media, notwithstanding that the event received "blanket coverage" in local and international news 

The coroner's finding
Following the Sydney siege inquest, in May 2017, the NSW Coroner Michael Barnes determined that "The siege was a terrorist incident "

Police weapons and tactics
During the siege, an Australian Army Tactical Assault Group East team at Holsworthy Barracks evaluated the floorplan of the cafe and gave advice to police  Mitchell McAlister, a former member of TAG East, questioned the police use of M4A1 carbines with 5 56 mm rounds over Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns Katrina Dawson died from a fragment of a police bullet, and other hostages appear to have been hit by bullets that ricocheted off the concrete building  It was unclear why 22 shots were fired by police, of which 13 hit Monis  Police have been criticised for both the high powered weapons used and the number of shots fired 

Negotiation
During the siege, no significant effort was made to negotiate with Monis, as would normally be expected in a hostage situation in order to build a relationship with a gunman and persuade them to surrender  Instead, Monis received no encouragement or assistance from trained police negotiators Help was offered by the Muslim community including the Grand Mufti and Mamdouh Habib who had known Monis personally  Habib offered to help negotiate or provide background information to the police  These offers were not taken up It has been suggested that the police treatment of the siege as a terrorist attack may have led to errors such as making no attempt to negotiate with the gunman as would have been normal practice in other hostage situations  One commentator, Guy Rundle, questioned whether the police may have used a "crude rule" that "we don't negotiate with terrorists" that affected their procedures  It might also explain the choice of weapon in a small enclosure against a lone gunman  These factors may have directly led to the deaths of Johnson and Dawson 

ISIL flag
During the siege, police asked Muslims in Sydney to source an ISIL flag for Monis, before obtaining their own  The police later raided several houses of people contacted by Ms Kay who was attempting to find an ISIL flag  Ms Kay assumed that the phone calls had been monitored, and that the request had been solely to find out who she would contact, lowering trust among Muslims in the NSW police force 

Lack of detection
The security forces have been criticised for not recognising that Monis was a threat, and for taking him off their watch list in 2008  This may have been because they overlooked key evidence, or it may have been because there was simply no evidence to collect  The federal/state joint review found that the relevant agencies' analysis had been reasonable 

Law and politics
After the siege, the revelation that the new Bail Act had allowed Monis to be granted bail sparked calls to further tighten the law; however, a review had already been conducted in the wake of earlier controversial bail releases, with the new law set "to take effect next year" (that is, on 28 January 2015)  Former director of public prosecutions in New South Wales, Nicholas Cowdery, said he was not sure that the amended law would have changed anything in Monis's case, saying that "There will always be, unfortunately, some exceptional events which laws and controls put in place before the event could not have prevented"  Homicide detectives sent a letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) urging them to challenge the bail decision for Monis, but a commissioned officer did not pass it on to the DPP  Michael Esposito, writing for the Law Society of South Australia, noted that the shocking nature of the Sydney siege had the power to prompt reviews of bail laws across Australia Some commentators expressed concerns about immigration and citizenship processes  Monis's "confused agenda" meant that Amnesty International did not realise that he and Boroujerdim, who had sought help in 1997, were the same man until they went back through their records  In the absence of hard evidence, suggestions that Monis represented a growing trend of systemic failure, rather than being an aberration, were noted as dangerous to public confidence; to the separation of powers; to the idea of innocence till proven guilty and also to social cohesion by inviting suspicion of people from the Middle East In the week after the siege, it was revealed that John Robertson, NSW Opposition leader, had sent a letter which passed on a request made by Monis, a constituent in his Blacktown electorate, to the Department of Family and Community Services in 2011  The letter was, according to Robertson, routine procedure on behalf of a constituent and written in support of Monis's request for a supervised visit with his children on Father's Day despite an apprehended violence order against him  The Department declined Monis's request  As pressure mounted on Robertson to resign as Leader of the Labor Party, and three months away from the 2015 state election, he stood aside on 23 December 2014 

Violence
Commentators considered Monis's history of domestic violence, with a family violence expert arguing that it should have been considered when bail was given  A columnist noted that while his behaviour highlighted an "epidemic" of violence towards women, the media focus remained on terrorism Historians of religion and politics also critically reviewed the role of violence committed in the name of religion 

Media
Debate followed about the difficulty of managing a police operation in the presence of continuous global media coverage as well as the likely damage caused by the spread of rumour  Particular criticism was levelled at Rupert Murdoch and News Corp for spreading false information as well as for insensitivity and "gross ethical violations"  Commissioner Scipione and chair of the Australian Press Council, Professor Julian Disney released statements about the media coverage after the event  Beyond misinformation, concerns were raised regarding the presentation of crises as entertainment Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Four Corners aired a two-part broadcast, interviewing former hostages, and the families of deceased Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson 

Memorials and legacy
A month after the siege, police, ambulance workers, firefighters and others were officially thanked at NSW Government House  Memorial plaques were placed inside the reopened Lindt café  A permanent memorial to the victims of the siege will incorporate the flowers from Martin Place, which are to be mulched and incorporated into its garden element  The memorial was opened in December, 2017 The premiere of Jonathon Welch's choral piece Street Requiem in February 2015 was dedicated to the siege victims and to those who died in the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris Composer Lyle Chan, who resides less than a kilometre from the Lindt cafe, wrote two works influenced by the events  Sea of Flowers was premiered by conductor Alondra de la Parra and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in May 2015  Chan's Love Is Always Born (December), with original words by Michael Leunig and 'Silent Night' in Arabic, was commissioned and premiered by the Song Company at concerts around the first anniversary of the events Dawson's family created the Katrina Dawson Foundation and scholarships to The Women's College, University of Sydney to provide financial assistance to young women for their university education  The first recipients started university in 2016 Senator Dean Smith, a homosexual Liberal Party member, changed his views on same-sex marriage in Australia due to Tori Johnson and his partner of 14 years  Smith later introduced a bill aimed at legalising same-sex marriage to the Senate, which became law A ceremony unveiling the memorial was held on 16 December 2017 The Lindt Cafe closed in October 2021 due to lack of patronage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing construction work for the Sydney Metro 

See also
List of mass shootings in Australia
Sydney siege inquest
2015 Parramatta shooting
Crime in Australia
Islam in Australia



ground_truth: American