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

Question: How many times did plague occur in the birthplace of La Silvia's composer?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353  It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the deaths of 75–200 million people, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351  Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis spread by fleas, but during the Black Death it probably also took a secondary form, spread by person-to-person contact via aerosols, causing pneumonic plague The Black Death was the beginning of the second plague pandemic  The plague created religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history 
The origin of the Black Death is disputed  Genetic analysis points to the evolution of Yersinia pestis in the Tian Shan mountains on the border between Kyrgyzstan and China 2,600 years ago  The immediate territorial origins of the Black Death and its outbreak remains unclear with some pointing towards Central Asia, China, the Middle East and Europe  The pandemic was reportedly first introduced to Europe during the siege of the Genoese trading port of Kaffa in Crimea by the Golden Horde army of Jani Beg in 1347  From Crimea, it was most likely carried by fleas living on the black rats that travelled on Genoese ships, spreading through the Mediterranean Basin and reaching North Africa, Western Asia and the rest of Europe via Constantinople, Sicily and the Italian Peninsula  There is evidence that once it came ashore, the Black Death mainly spread person-to-person as pneumonic plague, thus explaining the quick inland spread of the epidemic, which was faster than would be expected if the primary vector was rat fleas causing bubonic plague  In 2022, it was discovered that there was a sudden surge of deaths in what is today Kyrgyzstan from the Black Death in the late 1330s; when combined with genetic evidence, this implies that the initial spread may not have been due to Mongol conquests in the 14th century, as previously speculated The Black Death was the second great natural disaster to strike Europe during the Late Middle Ages (the first one being the Great Famine of 1315–1317) and is estimated to have killed 30 percent to 60 percent of the European population, as well as about one-third of the population of the Middle East  The plague might have reduced the world population from c  475 million to 350–375 million in the 14th century  There were further outbreaks throughout the Late Middle Ages and, with other contributing factors (the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages), the European population did not regain its level in 1300 until 1500  Outbreaks of the plague recurred around the world until the early 19th century 

Names
European writers contemporary with the plague described the disease in Latin as pestis or pestilentia, 'pestilence'; epidemia, 'epidemic'; mortalitas, 'mortality'  In English prior to the 18th century, the event was called the "pestilence" or "great pestilence", "the plague" or the "great death"  Subsequent to the pandemic "the furste moreyn" (first murrain) or "first pestilence" was applied, to distinguish the mid-14th century phenomenon from other infectious diseases and epidemics of plague The 1347 pandemic plague was not referred to specifically as "black" in the time of occurrence in any European language, though the expression "black death" had occasionally been applied to fatal disease beforehand  "Black death" was not used to describe the plague pandemic in English until the 1750s; the term is first attested in 1755, where it translated Danish: den sorte død, lit  'the black death'  This expression as a proper name for the pandemic had been popularized by Swedish and Danish chroniclers in the 15th and early 16th centuries, and in the 16th and 17th centuries was transferred to other languages as a calque: Icelandic: svarti dauði, German: der schwarze Tod, and French: la mort noire  Previously, most European languages had named the pandemic a variant or calque of the Latin: magna mortalitas, lit  'Great Death' The phrase 'black death' – describing Death as black – is very old  Homer used it in the Odyssey to describe the monstrous Scylla, with her mouths "full of black Death" (Ancient Greek: πλεῖοι μέλανος Θανάτοιο, romanized: pleîoi mélanos Thanátoio)  Seneca the Younger may have been the first to describe an epidemic as 'black death', (Latin: mors atra) but only in reference to the acute lethality and dark prognosis of disease  The 12th–13th century French physician Gilles de Corbeil had already used atra mors to refer to a "pestilential fever" (febris pestilentialis) in his work On the Signs and Symptoms of Diseases (De signis et symptomatibus aegritudium)  The phrase mors nigra, 'black death', was used in 1350 by Simon de Covino (or Couvin), a Belgian astronomer, in his poem "On the Judgement of the Sun at a Feast of Saturn" (De judicio Solis in convivio Saturni), which attributes the plague to an astrological conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn  His use of the phrase is not connected unambiguously with the plague pandemic of 1347 and appears to refer to the fatal outcome of disease The historian Cardinal Francis Aidan Gasquet wrote about the Great Pestilence in 1893 and suggested that it had been "some form of the ordinary Eastern or bubonic plague"  In 1908, Gasquet said use of the name atra mors for the 14th-century epidemic first appeared in a 1631 book on Danish history by J  I  Pontanus: "Commonly and from its effects, they called it the black death" (Vulgo & ab effectu atram mortem vocitabant) 

Previous plague epidemics
Research from 2017 suggests plague first infected humans in Europe and Asia in the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age  Research in 2018 found evidence of Yersinia pestis in an ancient Swedish tomb, which may have been associated with the "Neolithic decline" around 3000 BCE, in which European populations fell significantly  This Y  pestis may have been different from more modern types, with bubonic plague transmissible by fleas first known from Bronze Age remains near Samara The symptoms of bubonic plague are first attested in a fragment of Rufus of Ephesus preserved by Oribasius; these ancient medical authorities suggest bubonic plague had appeared in the Roman Empire before the reign of Trajan, six centuries before arriving at Pelusium in the reign of Justinian I  In 2013, researchers confirmed earlier speculation that the cause of the Plague of Justinian (541–542 CE, with recurrences until 750) was Y  pestis  This is known as the first plague pandemic  In 610, the Chinese physician Chao Yuanfang described a "malignant bubo" "coming in abruptly with high fever together with the appearance of a bundle of nodes beneath the tissue " The Chinese physician Sun Simo who died in 652 also mentioned a "malignant bubo" and plague that was common in Lingnan (Guangzhou)  Ole Jørgen Benedictow believes that this indicates it was an offshoot of the first plague pandemic which made its way eastward to Chinese territory by around 600 

14th-century plague
Causes
Early theory
The most authoritative contemporary account is found in a report from the medical faculty in Paris to Philip VI of France  It blamed the heavens, in the form of a conjunction of three planets in 1345 that caused a "great pestilence in the air" (miasma theory)  Muslim religious scholars taught that the pandemic was a "martyrdom and mercy" from God, assuring the believer's place in paradise  For non-believers, it was a punishment  Some Muslim doctors cautioned against trying to prevent or treat a disease sent by God  Others adopted preventive measures and treatments for plague used by Europeans  These Muslim doctors also depended on the writings of the ancient Greeks 

Predominant modern theory
Due to climate change in Asia, rodents began to flee the dried-out grasslands to more populated areas, spreading the disease  The plague disease, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, is enzootic (commonly present) in populations of fleas carried by ground rodents, including marmots, in various areas, including Central Asia, Kurdistan, Western Asia, North India, Uganda and the western United States Y  pestis was discovered by Alexandre Yersin, a pupil of Louis Pasteur, during an epidemic of bubonic plague in Hong Kong in 1894; Yersin also proved this bacillus was present in rodents and suggested the rat was the main vehicle of transmission  The mechanism by which Y  pestis is usually transmitted was established in 1898 by Paul-Louis Simond and was found to involve the bites of fleas whose midguts had become obstructed by replicating Y  pestis several days after feeding on an infected host  This blockage starves the fleas and drives them to aggressive feeding behaviour and attempts to clear the blockage by regurgitation, resulting in thousands of plague bacteria being flushed into the feeding site, infecting the host  The bubonic plague mechanism was also dependent on two populations of rodents: one resistant to the disease, which act as hosts, keeping the disease endemic, and a second that lacks resistance  When the second population dies, the fleas move on to other hosts, including people, thus creating a human epidemic 

DNA evidence
Definitive confirmation of the role of Y  pestis arrived in 2010 with a publication in PLOS Pathogens by Haensch et al  They assessed the presence of DNA/RNA with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques for Y  pestis from the tooth sockets in human skeletons from mass graves in northern, central and southern Europe that were associated archaeologically with the Black Death and subsequent resurgences  The authors concluded that this new research, together with prior analyses from the south of France and Germany, "ends the debate about the cause of the Black Death, and unambiguously demonstrates that Y  pestis was the causative agent of the epidemic plague that devastated Europe during the Middle Ages"  In 2011, these results were further confirmed with genetic evidence derived from Black Death victims in the East Smithfield burial site in England  Schuenemann et al  concluded in 2011 "that the Black Death in medieval Europe was caused by a variant of Y  pestis that may no longer exist" Later in 2011, Bos et al  reported in Nature the first draft genome of Y  pestis from plague victims from the same East Smithfield cemetery and indicated that the strain that caused the Black Death is ancestral to most modern strains of Y  pestis Since this time, further genomic papers have further confirmed the phylogenetic placement of the Y  pestis strain responsible for the Black Death as both the ancestor of later plague epidemics including the third plague pandemic and as the descendant of the strain responsible for the Plague of Justinian  In addition, plague genomes from significantly earlier in prehistory have been recovered DNA taken from 25 skeletons from 14th century London have shown plague is a strain of Y  pestis almost identical to that which hit Madagascar in 2013  Further DNA evidence also proves the role of Y  Pestis and traces the source to the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan 

Alternative explanations
It is recognised that an epidemiological account of plague is as important as an identification of symptoms, but researchers are hampered by the lack of reliable statistics from this period  Most work has been done on the spread of the disease in England, and even estimates of overall population at the start vary by over 100% as no census was undertaken in England between the time of publication of the Domesday Book of 1086 and the poll tax of the year 1377  Estimates of plague victims are usually extrapolated from figures for the clergy 
Mathematical modelling is used to match the spreading patterns and the means of transmission  A research in 2018 challenged the popular hypothesis that "infected rats died, their flea parasites could have jumped from the recently dead rat hosts to humans"  It suggested an alternative model in which "the disease was spread from human fleas and body lice to other people"  The second model claims to better fit the trends of death toll because the rat-flea-human hypothesis would have produced a delayed but very high spike in deaths, which contradict historical death data Lars Walløe complains that all of these authors "take it for granted that Simond's infection model, black rat → rat flea → human, which was developed to explain the spread of plague in India, is the only way an epidemic of Yersinia pestis infection could spread", whilst pointing to several other possibilities  Similarly, Monica Green has argued that greater attention is needed to the range of (especially non-commensal) animals that might be involved in the transmission of plague Archaeologist Barney Sloane has argued that there is insufficient evidence of the extinction of numerous rats in the archaeological record of the medieval waterfront in London and that the disease spread too quickly to support the thesis that Y  pestis was spread from fleas on rats; he argues that transmission must have been person to person  This theory is supported by research in 2018 which suggested transmission was more likely by body lice and fleas during the second plague pandemic 

Summary
Although academic debate continues, no single alternative solution has achieved widespread acceptance  Many scholars arguing for Y  pestis as the major agent of the pandemic suggest that its extent and symptoms can be explained by a combination of bubonic plague with other diseases, including typhus, smallpox and respiratory infections  In addition to the bubonic infection, others point to additional septicaemic (a type of "blood poisoning") and pneumonic (an airborne plague that attacks the lungs before the rest of the body) forms of plague, which lengthen the duration of outbreaks throughout the seasons and help account for its high mortality rate and additional recorded symptoms  In 2014, Public Health England announced the results of an examination of 25 bodies exhumed in the Clerkenwell area of London, as well as of wills registered in London during the period, which supported the pneumonic hypothesis  Currently, while osteoarcheologists have conclusively verified the presence of Y  pestis bacteria in burial sites across northern Europe through examination of bones and dental pulp, no other epidemic pathogen has been discovered to bolster the alternative explanations 

Transmission
Lack of hygiene
The importance of hygiene was recognised only in the nineteenth century with the development of the germ theory of disease; until then streets were commonly filthy, with live animals of all sorts around and human parasites abounding, facilitating the spread of transmissible disease By the early fourteenth century so much filth had collected inside urban Europe that French and Italian cities were naming streets after human waste  In medieval Paris, several street names were inspired by merde, the French word for "shit"  There were rue Merdeux, rue Merdelet, rue Merdusson, rue des Merdons and rue Merdiere—as well as a rue du Pipi Pigs, cattle, chickens, geese, goats and horses roamed the streets of medieval London and Paris  Medieval homeowners were supposed to police their housefronts, including removing animal dung, but most urbanites were as careless as William E  Cosner, a resident of the London suburb of Farringdon Without  A complaint lodged against Cosner charges that "men could not pass [by his house] for the stink [of]       horse dung and horse piss "One irate Londoner complained that the runoff from the local slaughterhouse had made his garden "stinking and putrid", while another charged that the blood from slain animals flooded nearby streets and lanes, "making a foul corruption and abominable sight to all dwelling near " In much of medieval Europe, sanitation legislation consisted of an ordinance requiring homeowners to shout, "Look out below!" three times before dumping a full chamber pot into the street Early Christians, who thought self-abnegation a cardinal virtue, considered bathing, if not a vice, then a temptation  "Who knows what impure thoughts might arise in a tub of warm water? With this danger in mind, St  Benedict declared, "To those who are well, and especially to the young, bathing shall seldom be permitted " St  Agnes took the injunction to heart and died without ever bathing 

Territorial origins
According to a team of medical geneticists led by Mark Achtman that analysed the genetic variation of the bacterium Yersinia pestis "evolved in or near China" over 2,600 years ago  Later research by a team led by Galina Eroshenko places the origins more specifically in the Tian Shan mountains on the border between Kyrgyzstan and China  However more recent research notes that the previous sampling had a very heavy East Asian bias and that sampling since then has discovered strains of Y  pestis in the Caucasus region that were previously thought to be restricted to China  There is also no physical or specific textual evidence of the Black Death in 14th century China  As a result, China's place in the sequence of the plague's spread is still debated to this day  According to Charles Creighton, records of epidemics in 14th century China suggest nothing more than typhus and major Chinese outbreaks of epidemic disease post-date the European epidemic by several years  The earliest Chinese descriptions of the bubonic plague do not appear until the 1640s Nestorian graves dating to 1338–1339 near Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan have inscriptions referring to plague, which has led some historians and epidemiologists to think they mark the outbreak of the epidemic; this is supported by recent direct findings of Y  pestis DNA in teeth samples from graves in the area with inscriptions referring to "pestilence" as the cause of death  Epidemics killed an estimated 25 million across Asia during the fifteen years before the Black Death reached Constantinople in 1347 
The evidence does not suggest, at least at present, that these mortality crises were caused by plague  Although some scholars, including McNeill and Cao, see the 1333 outbreak as a prelude to the outbreaks in Europe from the late 1340s to the early 1350s, scholars of the Yuan and Ming periods remain skeptical about such an interpretation  Nonetheless, the remarkably high mortality rates during the Datong mortality should discourage us from rejecting the possibility of localized/regional outbreaks of plague in different parts of China, albeit differing in scale from, and unrelated to, the pandemic mortality of the Black Death  What we lack is any indication of a plague pandemic that engulfed vast territories of the Yuan Empire and later moved into western Eurasia through Central Asia 
According to John Norris, evidence from Issyk-Kul indicates a small sporadic outbreak characteristic of transmission from rodents to humans with no wide-scale impact  According to Achtman, the dating of the plague suggests that it was not carried along the Silk Road, and its widespread appearance in that region probably postdates the European outbreak  There are no records of the symptoms of the Black Death from Mongol sources or writings from travelers east of the Black Sea prior to the Crimean outbreak in 1346  Finally, the Silk Road had already been heavily disrupted before the spread of the Black Death  Western and Middle Eastern traders found it difficult to trade on the Silk Road by 1325 and impossible by 1340, making spread of the plague less likely Others still favor an origin in China or even Kurdistan, and not Central Asia  According to the theory of Chinese origin, the disease may have traveled along the Silk Road with Mongol armies and traders, or it could have arrived via ship, but this theory is still contested  It is speculated that rats aboard Zheng He's ships in the 15th century may have carried the plague to Southeast Asia, India and Africa 
Research on the Delhi Sultanate and the Yuan Dynasty shows no evidence of any serious epidemic in fourteenth-century India and no specific evidence of plague in fourteenth-century China, suggesting that the Black Death may not have reached these regions  Ole Benedictow argues that since the first clear reports of the Black Death come from Kaffa, the Black Death most likely originated in the nearby plague focus on the northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea 
Demographic historians estimate that China's population fell by at least 15 percent, and perhaps as much as a third, between 1340 and 1370  This population loss coincided with the Black Death that ravaged Europe and much of the Islamic world in 1347–52  However, there is a conspicuous lack of evidence for pandemic disease on the scale of the Black Death in China at this time  War and famine – and the diseases that typically accompanied them – probably were the main causes of mortality in the final decades of Mongol rule 
Monica H  Green suggests that the reason why other parts of Eurasia outside the west do not contain the same evidence of the Black Plague is because there were actually four strains of Yersinia pestis that became predominant in different parts of the world  Mongol records of illness such as food poisoning may have been referring to the Black Plague  Another theory is that the Black Death originated near Europe and cycled through the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and Russia before making its way to China  Other historians such as John Norris and Ole Benedictaw believe the Black Death likely originated in Europe or the Middle East and never reached China 

European outbreak
Plague was reportedly first introduced to Europe via Genoese traders from their port city of Kaffa in the Crimea in 1347  During a protracted siege of the city, in 1345–1346 the Mongol Golden Horde army of Jani Beg, whose mainly Tatar troops were suffering from the disease, catapulted infected corpses over the city walls of Kaffa to infect the inhabitants, though it is more likely that infected rats travelled across the siege lines to spread the epidemic to the inhabitants  As the disease took hold, Genoese traders fled across the Black Sea to Constantinople, where the disease first arrived in Europe in summer 1347 The epidemic there killed the 13-year-old son of the Byzantine emperor, John VI Kantakouzenos, who wrote a description of the disease modelled on Thucydides's account of the 5th century BCE Plague of Athens, but noting the spread of the Black Death by ship between maritime cities  Nicephorus Gregoras also described in writing to Demetrios Kydones the rising death toll, the futility of medicine, and the panic of the citizens  The first outbreak in Constantinople lasted a year, but the disease recurred ten times before 1400 Carried by twelve Genoese galleys, plague arrived by ship in Sicily in October 1347; the disease spread rapidly all over the island  Galleys from Kaffa reached Genoa and Venice in January 1348, but it was the outbreak in Pisa a few weeks later that was the entry point to northern Italy  Towards the end of January, one of the galleys expelled from Italy arrived in Marseilles From Italy, the disease spread northwest across Europe, striking France, Spain (the epidemic began to wreak havoc first on the Crown of Aragon in the spring of 1348), Portugal and England by June 1348, then spread east and north through Germany, Scotland and Scandinavia from 1348 to 1350  It was introduced into Norway in 1349 when a ship landed at Askøy, then spread to Bjørgvin (modern Bergen) and Iceland  Finally, it spread to northwestern Russia in 1351  Plague was somewhat more uncommon in parts of Europe with less developed trade with their neighbours, including the majority of the Basque Country, isolated parts of Belgium and the Netherlands, and isolated Alpine villages throughout the continent According to some epidemiologists, periods of unfavourable weather decimated plague-infected rodent populations and forced their fleas onto alternative hosts, inducing plague outbreaks which often peaked in the hot summers of the Mediterranean, as well as during the cool autumn months of the southern Baltic region  Among many other culprits of plague contagiousness, malnutrition, even if distantly, also contributed to such an immense loss in European population, since it weakened immune systems 

Western Asian and North African outbreak
The disease struck various regions in the Middle East and North Africa during the pandemic, leading to serious depopulation and permanent change in both economic and social structures  As infected rodents infected new rodents, the disease spread across the region, entering also from southern Russia 
By autumn 1347, plague had reached Alexandria in Egypt, transmitted by sea from Constantinople; according to a contemporary witness, from a single merchant ship carrying slaves  By late summer 1348 it reached Cairo, capital of the Mamluk Sultanate, cultural centre of the Islamic world, and the largest city in the Mediterranean Basin; the Bahriyya child sultan an-Nasir Hasan fled and more than a third of the 600,000 residents died  The Nile was choked with corpses despite Cairo having a medieval hospital, the late 13th century bimaristan of the Qalawun complex  The historian al-Maqrizi described the abundant work for grave-diggers and practitioners of funeral rites, and plague recurred in Cairo more than fifty times over the following one and a half centuries During 1347, the disease travelled eastward to Gaza by April; by July it had reached Damascus, and in October plague had broken out in Aleppo  That year, in the territory of modern Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Palestine, the cities of Ascalon, Acre, Jerusalem, Sidon and Homs were all infected  In 1348–1349, the disease reached Antioch  The city's residents fled to the north, but most of them ended up dying during the journey  Within two years, the plague had spread throughout the Islamic world, from Arabia across North Africa  The pandemic spread westwards from Alexandria along the African coast, while in April 1348 Tunis was infected by ship from Sicily  Tunis was then under attack by an army from Morocco; this army dispersed in 1348 and brought the contagion with them to Morocco, whose epidemic may also have been seeded from the Islamic city of Almería in al-Andalus Mecca became infected in 1348 by pilgrims performing the Hajj  In 1351 or 1352, the Rasulid sultan of the Yemen, al-Mujahid Ali, was released from Mamluk captivity in Egypt and carried plague with him on his return home  During 1348, records show the city of Mosul suffered a massive epidemic, and the city of Baghdad experienced a second round of the disease 

Signs and symptoms
Bubonic plague
Symptoms of the disease include fever of 38–41 °C (100–106 °F), headaches, painful aching joints, nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise  Left untreated, of those that contract the bubonic plague, 80 percent die within eight days Contemporary accounts of the pandemic are varied and often imprecise  The most commonly noted symptom was the appearance of buboes (or gavocciolos) in the groin, neck and armpits, which oozed pus and bled when opened  Boccaccio's description:

In men and women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumours in the groin or armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg     From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and numerous  As the gavocciolo had been and still was an infallible token of approaching death, such also were these spots on whomsoever they showed themselves 
This was followed by acute fever and vomiting of blood  Most people died two to seven days after initial infection  Freckle-like spots and rashes, which could have been caused by flea-bites, were identified as another potential sign of plague 

Pneumonic plague
Lodewijk Heyligen, whose master the Cardinal Colonna died of plague in 1348, noted a distinct form of the disease, pneumonic plague, that infected the lungs and led to respiratory problems  Symptoms include fever, cough and blood-tinged sputum  As the disease progresses, sputum becomes free-flowing and bright red  Pneumonic plague has a mortality rate of 90 to 95 percent 

Septicaemic plague
Septicaemic plague is the least common of the three forms, with a mortality rate near 100%  Symptoms are high fevers and purple skin patches (purpura due to disseminated intravascular coagulation)  In cases of pneumonic and particularly septicaemic plague, the progress of the disease is so rapid that there would often be no time for the development of the enlarged lymph nodes that were noted as buboes 

Consequences
Deaths
There are no exact figures for the death toll; the rate varied widely by locality  In urban centres, the greater the population before the outbreak, the longer the duration of the period of abnormal mortality  It killed some 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia  A study published in 2022 of pollen samples across Europe between 1250 and 1450 was used to estimate changes in agricultural output before and after the Black Death  The authors found great variability in different regions, with evidence for high mortality in areas of Scandinavia, France, western Germany, Greece and central Italy, but uninterrupted agricultural growth in central and eastern Europe, Iberia and Ireland The mortality rate of the Black Death in the 14th century was far greater than the worst 20th-century outbreaks of Y  pestis plague, which occurred in India and killed as much as 3% of the population of certain cities  The overwhelming number of deceased bodies produced by the Black Death caused the necessity of mass burial sites in Europe, sometimes including up to several hundred or several thousand skeletons  The mass burial sites that have been excavated have allowed archaeologists to continue interpreting and defining the biological, sociological, historical and anthropological implications of the Black Death According to medieval historian Philip Daileader, it is likely that over four years, 45–50% of the European population died of plague  Norwegian historian Ole Benedictow suggests it could have been as much as 60% of the European population  In 1348, the disease spread so rapidly that before any physicians or government authorities had time to reflect upon its origins, about a third of the European population had already perished  In crowded cities, it was not uncommon for as much as 50% of the population to die  Half of Paris' population of 100,000 people died  In Italy, the population of Florence was reduced from between 110,000 and 120,000 inhabitants in 1338 down to 50,000 in 1351  At least 60% of the population of Hamburg and Bremen perished, and a similar percentage of Londoners may have died from the disease as well, with a death toll of approximately 62,000 between 1346 and 1353  Florence's tax records suggest that 80% of the city's population died within four months in 1348  Before 1350, there were about 170,000 settlements in Germany, and this was reduced by nearly 40,000 by 1450  The disease bypassed some areas, with the most isolated areas being less vulnerable to contagion  Plague did not appear in Douai in Flanders until the turn of the 15th century, and the impact was less severe on the populations of Hainaut, Finland, northern Germany and areas of Poland  Monks, nuns and priests were especially hard-hit since they cared for people with the Black Death 

The physician to the Avignon Papacy, Raimundo Chalmel de Vinario (Latin: Magister Raimundus, lit  'Master Raymond'), observed the decreasing mortality rate of successive outbreaks of plague in 1347–48, 1362, 1371 and 1382 in his 1382 treatise On Epidemics (De epidemica)  In the first outbreak, two thirds of the population contracted the illness and most patients died; in the next, half the population became ill but only some died; by the third, a tenth were affected and many survived; while by the fourth occurrence, only one in twenty people were sickened and most of them survived  By the 1380s in Europe, it predominantly affected children  Chalmel de Vinario recognised that bloodletting was ineffective (though he continued to prescribe bleeding for members of the Roman Curia, whom he disliked), and said that all true cases of plague were caused by astrological factors and were incurable; he himself was never able to effect a cure The most widely accepted estimate for the Middle East, including Iraq, Iran and Syria, during this time, is for a death toll of about a third of the population  The Black Death killed about 40% of Egypt's population  In Cairo, with a population numbering as many as 600,000, and possibly the largest city west of China, between one third and 40% of the inhabitants died within eight months Italian chronicler Agnolo di Tura recorded his experience from Siena, where plague arrived in May 1348:

Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another; for this illness seemed to strike through the breath and sight  And so they died  And none could be found to bury the dead for money or friendship  Members of a household brought their dead to a ditch as best they could, without priest, without divine offices     great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead  And they died by the hundreds both day and night     And as soon as those ditches were filled more were dug     And I, Agnolo di Tura     buried my five children with my own hands  And there were also those who were so sparsely covered with earth that the dogs dragged them forth and devoured many bodies throughout the city  There was no one who wept for any death, for all awaited death  And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world 

Economic
It has been suggested that the plague, like some others in history, disproportionately affected the poorest people, who were already in generally worse physical condition than the wealthier citizens   Nevertheless, with such a large overall population decline from the pandemic, wages soared in response to a labour shortage  On the other hand, in the quarter century after the Black Death in England, it is clear many labourers, artisans and craftsmen, those living from money-wages alone, did suffer a reduction in real incomes owing to rampant inflation  Landowners were also pushed to substitute monetary rents for labour services in an effort to keep tenants 

Environmental
A study performed by Thomas Van Hoof of the Utrecht University suggests that the innumerable deaths brought on by the pandemic cooled the climate by freeing up land and triggering reforestation  This may have led to the Little Ice Age 

Persecutions
Renewed religious fervour and fanaticism bloomed in the wake of the Black Death  Some Europeans targeted "various groups such as Jews, friars, foreigners, beggars, pilgrims", lepers and Romani, blaming them for the crisis  Lepers, and others with skin diseases such as acne or psoriasis, were killed throughout Europe 
Because 14th-century healers and governments were at a loss to explain or stop the disease, Europeans turned to astrological forces, earthquakes and the poisoning of wells by Jews as possible reasons for outbreaks  Many believed the epidemic was a punishment by God for their sins, and could be relieved by winning God's forgiveness There were many attacks against Jewish communities  In the Strasbourg massacre of February 1349, about 2,000 Jews were murdered  In August 1349, the Jewish communities in Mainz and Cologne were annihilated  By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been destroyed  During this period many Jews relocated to Poland, where they received a warm welcome from King Casimir the Great 

Social
One theory that has been advanced is that the devastation in Florence caused by the Black Death, which hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, resulted in a shift in the world view of people in 14th-century Italy and led to the Renaissance  Italy was particularly badly hit by the pandemic, and it has been speculated that the resulting familiarity with death caused thinkers to dwell more on their lives on Earth, rather than on spirituality and the afterlife  It has also been argued that the Black Death prompted a new wave of piety, manifested in the sponsorship of religious works of art This does not fully explain why the Renaissance occurred in Italy in the 14th century  The Black Death was a pandemic that affected all of Europe in the ways described, not only Italy  The Renaissance's emergence in Italy was most likely the result of the complex interaction of the above factors, in combination with an influx of Greek scholars following the fall of the Byzantine Empire  As a result of the drastic reduction in the populace the value of the working class increased, and commoners came to enjoy more freedom  To answer the increased need for labour, workers travelled in search of the most favorable position economically Prior to the emergence of the Black Death, the workings of Europe were run by the Catholic Church and the continent was considered a feudalistic society, composed of fiefs and city-states  The pandemic completely restructured both religion and political forces; survivors began to turn to other forms of spirituality and the power dynamics of the fiefs and city-states crumbled Cairo's population, partly owing to the numerous plague epidemics, was in the early 18th century half of what it was in 1347  The populations of some Italian cities, notably Florence, did not regain their pre-14th century size until the 19th century  The demographic decline due to the pandemic had economic consequences: the prices of food dropped and land values declined by 30–40% in most parts of Europe between 1350 and 1400  Landholders faced a great loss, but for ordinary men and women it was a windfall  The survivors of the pandemic found not only that the prices of food were lower but also that lands were more abundant, and many of them inherited property from their dead relatives, and this probably destabilised feudalism The word "quarantine" has its roots in this period, though the concept of isolating people to prevent the spread of disease is older  In the city-state of Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik, Croatia), a thirty-day isolation period was implemented in 1377 for new arrivals to the city from plague-affected areas  The isolation period was later extended to forty days, and given the name "quarantino" from the Italian word for "forty" 

Recurrences
Second plague pandemic
The plague repeatedly returned to haunt Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the 14th to 17th centuries  According to Jean-Noël Biraben, the plague was present somewhere in Europe in every year between 1346 and 1671  (Note that some researchers have cautions about the uncritical use of Biraben's data ) The second pandemic was particularly widespread in the following years: 1360–63; 1374; 1400; 1438–39; 1456–57; 1464–66; 1481–85; 1500–03; 1518–31; 1544–48; 1563–66; 1573–88; 1596–99; 1602–11; 1623–40; 1644–54; and 1664–67  Subsequent outbreaks, though severe, marked the retreat from most of Europe (18th century) and northern Africa (19th century)  The historian George Sussman argued that the plague had not occurred in East Africa until the 1900s  However, other sources suggest that the Second pandemic did indeed reach Sub-Saharan Africa According to historian Geoffrey Parker, "France alone lost almost a million people to the plague in the epidemic of 1628–31 " In the first half of the 17th century, a plague killed some 1 7 million people in Italy  More than 1 25 million deaths resulted from the extreme incidence of plague in 17th-century Spain The Black Death ravaged much of the Islamic world  Plague could be found in the Islamic world almost every year between 1500 and 1850  Sometimes the outbreaks affected small areas, while other outbreaks affected multiple regions  Plague repeatedly struck the cities of North Africa  Algiers lost 30,000–50,000 inhabitants to it in 1620–21, and again in 1654–57, 1665, 1691 and 1740–42  Cairo suffered more than fifty plague epidemics within 150 years from the plague's first appearance, with the final outbreak of the second pandemic there in the 1840s  Plague remained a major event in Ottoman society until the second quarter of the 19th century  Between 1701 and 1750, thirty-seven larger and smaller epidemics were recorded in Constantinople, and an additional thirty-one between 1751 and 1800  Baghdad has suffered severely from visitations of the plague, and sometimes two-thirds of its population had died 

Third plague pandemic
The third plague pandemic (1855–1859) started in China in the mid-19th century, spreading to all inhabited continents and killing 10 million people in India alone  The investigation of the pathogen that caused the 19th-century plague was begun by teams of scientists who visited Hong Kong in 1894, among whom was the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin, after whom the pathogen was named Twelve plague outbreaks in Australia between 1900 and 1925 resulted in well over 1,000 deaths, chiefly in Sydney  This led to the establishment of a Public Health Department there which undertook some leading-edge research on plague transmission from rat fleas to humans via the bacillus Yersinia pestis The first North American plague epidemic was the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904, followed by another outbreak in 1907–1908 

Modern-day
Modern treatment methods include insecticides, the use of antibiotics, and a plague vaccine  It is feared that the plague bacterium could develop drug resistance and again become a major health threat  One case of a drug-resistant form of the bacterium was found in Madagascar in 1995  A further outbreak in Madagascar was reported in November 2014  In October 2017, the deadliest outbreak of the plague in modern times hit Madagascar, killing 170 people and infecting thousands An estimate of the case fatality rate for the modern bubonic plague, following the introduction of antibiotics, is 11%, although it may be higher in underdeveloped regions 

See also
Black Death in England
Black Death in medieval culture
Crisis of the Late Middle Ages
Flagellant
Globalization and disease
List of epidemics
Second plague pandemic
Timeline of plague
Passage 2:
Patricia Millardet
Patricia Millardet (24 March 1957 − 13 April 2020) was a French movie and television actress, who played judge Silvia Conti in the Italian mafia series La piovra She died of a heart attack in 2020 at the age of 63 

Partial filmography
Passage 3:
La Rosiere de Pessac
La Rosière de Pessac (The Virgin of Pessac) is the title of two hour-long films directed by Jean Eustache (in 1968 and 1979 respectively)   The films cover an annual ceremony, held in Eustache's place of birth, in which the mayor and his associates nominate a girl as the town's most virtuous   Thus, the girls chosen in those two years are eponymous subjects of these documentaries 

External links
La Rosière de Pessac at IMDb
La Rosière de Pessac at IMDb
Passage 4:
Orlando furioso (Vivaldi, 1714)
Orlando furioso RV 819 (Italian pronunciation: [orˈlando fuˈrjoːzo, -so], Teatro San Angelo, Venice 1714) is a three-act opera surviving in manuscript in Antonio Vivaldi's personal library, only partly related to his better known Orlando furioso (RV 728) of 1727  It is a recomposition of an Orlando furioso written by Giovanni Alberto Ristori which had been very successfully staged by Vivaldi and his father's impresa in 1713, and whose music survives in a few fragments retained in the score of RV 819  Therefore, Vivaldi's first cataloguer Peter Ryom did not assign the opera a RV number, but catalogued it as RV Anh  84  The libretto was by Grazio Braccioli 

Authorship
Federico Maria Sardelli, according to the studies of Reinhard Strohm, argues that Orlando RV 819 was entirely recomposed by Vivaldi, starting from the original Ristori's opera that Vivaldi himself had already changed during the numerous representations of the season 1713  He assigned to it the catalogue number RV 819  One suggestion is that Vivaldi avoided putting his own name on the opera having himself only recently taken direction of the Teatro San Angelo  Against this others consider that the bulk of the opera is a copy of Ristori's lost work 

Opera
Unlike the Orlando furioso (RV 728) of 1727, in which the role of Orlando is sung by a contralto, the 1714 opera assigns the title role to a bass  The third act is missing and the rest of the score (evidently used in performances by the composer) is incomplete  Two arias are lost, seven arias are incomplete (only the bass part is extant) and three arias are identical with extant arias in RV 727 and RV 729 

Recording
The French label Naïve, which had already recorded the more famous Orlando furioso and Orlando finto pazzo for its Vivaldi Edition, released a recording of the July 20, 2012 première at the Festival de Beaune, with Sardelli conducting Modo Antiquo and singers including Riccardo Novaro as Orlando, Gaëlle Arquez as Angelica, Romina Basso as Alcina and Teodora Gheorghiu as Bradamante  Given the heavily defective nature of the surviving manuscript, Sardelli had to reconstruct or compose ex novo the seven incomplete arias, in a Vivaldian style 

See also
List of operas by Antonio Vivaldi
Passage 5:
Denmark Place fire
The Denmark Place fire occurred on 16 August 1980 at 18 Denmark Place in Central London  The fire, caused by arson, killed 37 people of eight nationalities, most of whom were Spanish or Latin American, who were patrons of two unlicensed bars in the building  At the time, The Sunday Times suggested that it could be "the worst mass murder in British history" 

Background
There were two unlicensed bars on the top two floors of 18 Denmark Place: The Spanish Rooms, a late night bar frequented by locals, including Irish and Jamaican immigrants; and Rodo's, also known as El Dandy, a salsa club popular with South American immigrants  Access to both of these bars was obtained by shouting up from the street below in order to obtain a key  The only way into both of these clubs was through a locked front door and up some stairs leading to a landing  
Access to the club on the lower floor was via this landing and access to the club on the upper floor was via a fire escape enclosed with plywood  Both bars, being unlicensed, were obscured from the outside world by boarded up windows and the door on Denmark Street that led to the fire escape was bolted shut  The Metropolitan Police were aware of the clubs and were planning to shut them both down on Monday 18 August  A farewell party was being thrown over the weekend 

The fire
On the night of 16 August 1980, John Thompson, a Scottish-born petty criminal aged 42, entered The Spanish Rooms and drank there  He believed that the barman had overcharged him for the drink  After fighting with the barman he was ejected from the building and the door was locked behind him  Thompson found a 2-gallon container outside the club, hailed a taxi and then travelled to a 24-hour petrol station in Camden where he filled the container with petrol  He then returned to 18 Denmark Place, poured the petrol through the letterbox of the front door and put a lit piece of paper through Fire quickly took hold in the premises owing to the largely timber construction of the building  Both bars were badly damaged  There were estimated to be 150 people within the building at the time  People could not escape easily due to the boarded up windows, the locked fire escape and general lack of fire safety precautions owing to the bars' unlicensed status The fire burned quickly through the wooden staircase, destroying the main entrance and exit to the bars  Some patrons tried to escape via the back door but found that this was locked  Others smashed windows and jumped out onto the street below  On Denmark Street there was a music shop that backed onto the clubs and some patrons were found here trapped behind the security shutters  One firefighter managed to rescue six people from this area 
When firefighters were called to the fire at around 03:30 they could see smoke seeping from the shuttered windows  When an attempt was made to force the locked front door open they were showered with sparks and embers and were forced to retreat  Once firefighters were able to access the front door it took four minutes to break it down – behind it they found that the staircase was completely on fire 
The speed of the fire was so rapid that many of the bar patrons died where they were sitting or standing  An officer from the London Fire Brigade described the scene:

People seem to have died on the spot without even having time to move an inch  Some were slumped at tables  Seven were at the bar and appear to have fallen as they stood, with drinks still in their hands 

Aftermath
In May 1981, Thompson was convicted on a specimen charge of murdering one of the victims, Archibald Campbell (aged 63) and sentenced to life imprisonment  He died of lung cancer on 16 August 2008, the 28th anniversary of the fire There was comparatively little publicity about the fire, and no formal enquiry into it  The families of some of those who died were not aware of the circumstances  In 2022, after redevelopment of the site, a plaque was placed on a wall in memory 

See also
Blue Bird Café fire, 1972 fire in Montreal started in retaliations by patrons refused entry who then lit petrol in front of main entrance and only exit; also killed 37 
Happy Land fire, 1990 fire in New York City at illegally operated nightclub started the same way by aggrieved ejected patron; resulting 87 fatalities is the worst mass murder in city history caused by a single person 
Clerkenwell cinema fire, 1994 fire in London at an illegally operated adult cinema, intentionally started by an aggrieved patron 
Ghost Ship warehouse fire, 2016 fire at illegally operated nightclub in California that killed 37
Passage 6:
List of bones of the human skeleton
The human skeleton of an adult consists of around 206 bones, depending on the counting of sternum (which may alternatively be included as the manubrium, body of sternum, and the xiphoid process)  It is composed of 270 bones at the time of birth, but later decreases to 206: 80 bones in the axial skeleton and 126 bones in the appendicular skeleton  Many small accessory bones, such as sesamoid bones, are not included in this count 

Introduction
As a person ages, some bones fuse, a process which typically lasts until sometime within the third decade of life  Therefore, the number of bones in an individual may be evaluated differently throughout a lifetime  In addition, the bones of the skull and face are counted as separate bones, despite being fused naturally  Some reliable sesamoid bones such as the pisiform are counted, while others, such as the hallux sesamoids, are not 
Individuals may have more or fewer bones than the average (even accounting for developmental stage) owing to anatomical variations  The most common variations include sutural (wormian) bones, which are located along the sutural lines on the back of the skull, and sesamoid bones which develop within some tendons, mainly in the hands and feet  Some individuals may also have additional (i e , supernumerary) cervical ribs or lumbar vertebrae  Amputations or other injuries may result in the loss of bones  Complete bone fractures may split one bone into multiple pieces  Other genetic conditions may result in abnormally higher (e g  polydactyly or conjoined twins) or lower (e g  oligodactyly) counts of bones 

Bones
The axial skeleton, comprising the spine, chest and head, contains 80 bones  The appendicular skeleton, comprising the arms and legs, including the shoulder and pelvic girdles, contains 126 bones, bringing the total for the entire skeleton to 206 bones  Infants are born with about 270 bones with most of it being cartilage, but will later fuse together and decrease over time to 206 bones 

Spine (vertebral column)
A fully grown adult features 26 bones in the spine, whereas a child can have 34 

Cervical vertebrae (7 bones)
Thoracic vertebrae (12 bones)
Lumbar vertebrae (5 bones)
Sacrum (5 bones at birth, fused into one after adolescence)
Coccygeal vertebrae/Cordal (set of 4 bones at birth; some or all fuse together, but there seems to be a disagreement between researchers as to what the most common number should be  Some say the most common is 1, others say 2 or 3, with 4 being the least likely  It is counted as 1 in this article )

Chest (thorax)
There are 25 bones in the chest  The chest contains cartilage for the lungs to fill with air  

Sternum (1 or 3 bones  It is counted as 1 in this article )
Ribs (24, in 12 pairs)
Cervical ribs are extra ribs that occur in some people 

Head
There are 23 bones in the skull  Including the bones of the middle ear and the hyoid bone, the head contains 29 bones 

Cranial bones (8)
Occipital bone
Parietal bones (2)
Frontal bone
Temporal bones (2)
Sphenoid bone (sometimes counted as facial)
Ethmoid bone (sometimes counted as facial)
Facial bones (15)
Nasal bones (2)
Maxillae (upper jaw) (2)
Lacrimal bone (2)
Zygomatic bone (cheek bones) (2)
Palatine bone (2)
Inferior nasal concha (2)
Vomer (1)
Hyoid bone (1)
Mandible (1)
Middle ears (6 bones in total, 3 on each side)
Malleus (2)
Incus (2)
Stapes (2)

Upper limb (arm and forearm) and hand
There are a total of 64 bones in the arms, 32 in each arm

Upper arm bones (6 bones in total; 3 on each side)
Humerus (2)
Pectoral girdle (shoulder)
Scapula (2)
Clavicle (2)
Lower arm bones (4 bones in total, 2 on each side) left bone
Ulna (2) (Lined up with pinky)
Radius (2) (Lined up with thumb)
Hand (54 bones in total; 27 in each hand)
Carpals
Scaphoid bone (2)
Lunate bone (2)
Triquetral bone (2)
Pisiform bone (2)
Trapezium (2)
Trapezoid bone (2)
Capitate bone (2)
Hamate bone (2)
Metacarpals (10 bones in total; 5 on each side)
Phalanges of the hand (28 bones in total, 14 on each hand)
Proximal phalanges (10 bones in total; 5 on each side)
Intermediate phalanges (8 bones in total; 4 on each side)
Distal phalanges (10 bones in total; 5 on each side)

Pelvis (pelvic girdle)
The pelvis (or hip bone) is made up of three regions that have fused to form two coxal bones  They are the ilium, ischium, and pubis 

The sacrum and coccyx attach to the two hip bones to form the pelvis, but are more important to the spinal column, where they are counted The pelvis is one of two bones used to determine the sex of a skeleton, which is determined by examining the size of the greater sciatic notch (also known as the pelvic opening) 

Lower limb (thigh and leg) and foot
There are a total of 60 bones in the legs 

Femur (2)
Patella or kneecap (2)
Tibia (2)
Fibula (2)
Foot (52 bones in total, 26 per foot)
Tarsus/Tarsals
Calcaneus or heel bone (2)
Talus (2)
Navicular bone (2)
Medial cuneiform bone (2)
Intermediate cuneiform bone (2)
Lateral cuneiform bone (2)
Cuboid bone (2)
Metatarsals (10)
Phalanges of the foot (28 bones in total, 14 per foot)
Proximal phalanges (10)
Intermediate phalanges (8)
Distal phalanges (10)

See also
List of skeletal muscles of the human body
List of nerves of the human body
Circulatory system
Blood vessel
Passage 7:
2010 Elazığ earthquake
The 2010 Elazığ earthquake was a 6 1 Mw earthquake that occurred on 8 March 2010 at 02:32 UTC (04:32 local time)  The epicentre was Başyurt in Elazığ Province, in eastern Turkey  Initial reports in global media said as many as 57 people had died  By 10 March, reports in the Turkish media placed the death toll at 41 and later, the death toll rose to 42  Another 74 were injured, many after falling and jumping from buildings  A stampede through the streets led to further injuries The earthquake came one week to the day after the Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers sent a report to parliament detailing inadequate building projects and the possibility that Istanbul would be destroyed by an earthquake, which could kill tens of thousands of people, at some point in the next three decades 

Earthquake
The quake occurred on the East Anatolian Fault, a major transform fault which represents  the boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the Arabian Plate 

Damage
According to officials, most of the deaths occurred in three villages: Okçular, Yukarı Kanatlı and Kayalı  At least five villages, though, suffered loss of life  Villagers fled buildings, spending the night outside and lighting fires in the streets for warmth Thirty houses collapsed in Okçular, and the death toll is at least 17  Reports from the scene indicate "the village is totally flattened" and "everything has been knocked down – there is not a stone in place" At least 25 people died in Yukarı Demirci, and emergency services went to Kovancılar Many people used vehicles and taxis to drive to the hospital  Most were asleep at the time the quake struck, with four sleeping sisters perishing in one house  Farm animals were also killed, and minarets fell down 

Aftershocks
Several aftershocks were felt, the strongest measuring 5 5 (at 09:47 local time), 5 1 (at 12:14) and 5 3 (at 13:12)  A total of over 20 aftershocks were counted within a short time following the quake  Villagers were told to stay away from buildings for several days due to the potential of further aftershocks Onur Tan et al  (2011) analyzed 2130 aftershocks (ML≥0 3) and reported in Geophysical Research Letters 

Response
Turkey: Four government ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek, visited the scene as soon as news of the earthquake was reported  The Red Crescent and Turkey's disaster management centre donated blankets and tents  Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan later arrived  Pakistan: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani sent a condolence message to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the loss of lives and property and said that "We have learnt with utter sense of shock and profound sadness the news of the massive earthquake that has hit your beautiful country, today  Our hearts go out to our Turkish brethren over the loss of precious lives and destruction of property  I wish to convey, on behalf of the people and Government of Pakistan and on my own behalf our deepest condolences and commiserations to the people and Government of Turkey in bearing this enormous natural calamity " Israel: Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered an aid proposal to be put together but later said that Turkey informed Israel that it did not require assistance at this time 

See also
2020 Elazığ earthquake
List of earthquakes in 2010
List of earthquakes in Turkey
Passage 8:
La Cantuta massacre
La Cantuta massacre took place in Peru on 18 July 1992, during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori  Supposed members of Shining Path, including a university professor and nine students from Lima's La Cantuta University, were abducted, tortured, and killed by Grupo Colina, a military death squad  The incident occurred two days after the Shining Path's Tarata bombing, which killed over 40 people in Lima Province 
The massacre was one of the crimes cited in the conviction of Fujimori on 7 April 2009, for human rights abuses 

Context
The Enrique Guzmán y Valle National Education University (Universidad Nacional de Educación Enrique Guzmán y Valle, or "UNE"; better known as "La Cantuta", from the neighbourhood in which it stands) was founded as a teacher-training college in 1822, granted its university charter in 1965, closed down by the military government in 1977, and reopened in 1980 Because of its remote location, far away from the centre of Lima, the fact that most of its students hailed from the impoverished interior of the country, and that most of them intended to enter the highly politicised teaching profession, La Cantuta gained a reputation as hotbed of radical politics, such as communism and anarchism as early as the late 1950s and early 1960s  A series of student-led protest actions on the campus — including the blocking of the railway line linking Lima with the interior of the country — that led to the suspension of its activities in 1977 With the return of democratic rule in 1980, President Belaúnde reopened the university  The radical elements among the students and lecturers were quick to return, and by the mid-1980s the country's two main insurgent groups, Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), had a strong presence on campus, being widely regarded as 2 very legitimate organisations  By the early 1990s, due to a strategic withdrawal by MRTA and the fragmentation of the other left-wing groups on campus, legal and illegal alike, Sendero Luminoso had the upper hand  This was in spite of operations such as that of 13 February 1987, when 4000 police officers conducted night-time raids at the dormitories of three state universities (including La Cantuta); 20 April 1989, when a joint force of police and army descended on La Cantuta University and San Marcos National University and arrested over 500 students on charges of subversion; or 22 May 1991, when, in response to a hostage crisis and rumors of an explosive device squirreled away on campus, Fujimori sent the army in to restore law and order at La Cantuta  Graffiti alluding to Sendero Luminoso and its leader, Abimael Guzmán, were painted over with patriotic slogans; students went about their business only after passing checkpoints and under close supervision from the armed forces; and the campus remained under military control for several years 

Abduction of July 1992
In the pre-dawn hours of 18 July 1992, two days after the Tarata bombing, members of the Army Intelligence Service (SIE) and the Army Directorate of Intelligence (DINTE), most of whom were attached to the recently established Grupo Colina death squad, burst into the residences of the Enrique Guzmán y Valle National University Once inside, the troops forced all the students to leave their rooms and lie belly-down on the floor  Nine students believed to be linked to the Tarata Bombing — Bertila Lozano Torres, Dora Oyague Fierro, Luis Enrique Ortiz Perea, Armando Richard Amaro Cóndor, Robert Édgar Teodoro Espinoza, Heráclides Pablo Meza, Felipe Flores Chipana, Marcelino Rosales Cárdenas, and Juan Gabriel Mariños Figueroa — were separated from the others and taken away  Meanwhile, in the staff residences, a group of soldiers broke into the home of professor Hugo Muñoz Sánchez  After searching his bedroom, they gagged the professor and led him away 

Prosecutions and amnesty
In April 1993, a group of Peruvian military officers anonymously released a document detailing the events at La Cantuta  Their document claimed the death squad had abducted the victims, tortured and murdered them, and then hurriedly buried them; later, they claimed, after questions had been raised in Congress, that the armed forces had exhumed, incinerated, and reburied the bodies in another location  The military whistleblowers named the members of Grupo Colina involved, identified the operations chief as Major Santiago Martín Rivas, and suggested that the group operated on the orders of Vladimiro Montesinos, head of the National Intelligence Service (SIN) and a close advisor to President Fujimori 
On 6 May, Lt  Gen  Humberto Robles Espinoza, the army's third highest-ranking officer, publicly denounced a number of human rights violations committed by the SIN and the armed forces, including the La Cantuta killings  He was later dismissed from duty and subjected to death threats, and finally fled the country for political asylum in Argentina In June 1993, Justo Arizapana Vicente, a recycler, and his friend Guillermo Cataroca, leaked a marked map to congress man Roger Cáceres Velásquez and Radio Comas journalist Juan Jara Berrospi  Cáceres then shared the map with Ricardo Uceda at the news magazine Sí, who published it in July of that year  Mariella Barreto, an agent of the Peruvian Army Intelligence Service, is also sometimes credited with leaking this map to a Peruvian magazine  An investigation of the site indicated on the map by the public prosecutor revealed four clandestine graves  Forensic tests conducted on the remains, and on another set of bones found at another site, revealed that they belonged to Muñoz Sánchez and the students Luis Enrique Ortiz Perea, Armando Amaro Condor, and Juan Gabriel Mariños Figueroa, and that at least some of them had been tortured prior to receiving an execution-style coup-de-grâce to the base of the neck  Barreto was murdered some years later: her decapitated and dismembered corpse, showing signs of ante-mortem torture, was found in March 1997  A few weeks after Mariella Barreto's death, her colleague Leonor La Rosa, was on TV in a hospital bed, declaring she had been tortured and that Barreto had been killed in retaliation for leaking information to the press about the Groupo Colina's plan to intimidate journalists and politicians from the opposition The military authorities had begun an investigation into the killings in May 1993  In addition, in December 1993, a civilian prosecutor filed criminal charges against several named members of the military  A conflict of jurisdiction thus arose between the military and civilian courts  The controversy was placed before the Supreme Court which, on 3 February 1994, ruled that it was unable to reach agreement on which venue should apply  Consequently, on the night of 7 February, Congress enacted a new law whereby the Supreme Court could decide such matters with a simple majority, instead of a unanimous vote  By a three-to-two vote of the Supreme Court's criminal division, the case was placed under military jurisdiction On 21 February 1994, the Supreme Council of Military Justice (CSJM) sentenced ten of the perpetrators to prison sentences of between one and 20 years Following Fujimori's landslide re-election in April 1995, in another all-night session on 14 June 1995, Congress enacted law No  26479, the "Amnesty Law", ordering the release of all police officers, soldiers, and civil servants convicted of or charged with civilian or military crimes during Peru's War on Terrorism  On 15 July, the Supreme Council of Military Justice ordered the release of all the individuals convicted for the La Cantuta killings 

Repeal of the Amnesty Law
The Amnesty Law was repealed after the Fujimori government in 2000 and, on 21 March 2001, Attorney General Nelly Calderón presented charges against Fujimori, accusing him of being one of the "co-authors" of this massacre and of the 1991 Barrios Altos massacre  She presented evidence that Fujimori, acting in concert with SIN supremo Vladimiro Montesinos, exercised control over Grupo Colina  The charges alleged that the group could not have committed crimes of this magnitude without Fujimori's express orders or consent, and that the formation and function of the Colina group was part of an overall counter-insurgency policy that involved systematic violations of human rights 

Prosecutions and apology
In November 2005, Fujimori was detained in Chile  Peruvian authorities filed for his extradition to face charges arising from various incidents during his presidency, including the La Cantuta massacre, and he was returned to Peru on 22 September 2007 
On 8 April 2008, a court found a number of people, including Julio Salazar, guilty of kidnapping, homicide, and forced disappearance In October 2007, pursuant to a 2006 ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the government extended a formal apology for the massacre and undertook to make amends to the victims' next-of-kin, including compensation in the amount of US$1 8 million 

Fujimori's trial
During the trial of Alberto Fujimori, it was asserted by former Colina member José William Tena Jacinto that at least two of the victims were positively identified as Shining Path members Lieutenant Aquilino Portella and the Dean of the Social Science Department of the University, Claudio Cajahuaringa, have also claimed that Professor Hugo Muñoz Sánchez and student Bertila Lozano Torres were involved with Shining Path  In the case of Lozano, it was claimed that documents allegedly in her possession revealed that she was indeed an actual member of the insurgent organization In 2009 it was determined by a judicial ruling that not a single one of the victims in La Cantuta massacre was linked to any terrorist organization, it was in the same ruling that condemned Fujimori to a 25 years imprisonment for crimes against humanity 

See also
List of massacres in Peru

Notes
External links
"The La Canuta Case"  APRODEH 
La Cantuta Case – Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
La Cantuta Case vs  Peru – Inter-American Court of Human Rights
La Cantuta – Truth and Reconciliation Commission, final report (PDF; Spanish)
La Cantuta – overview (MIT Western Hemisphere Project)
La Cantuta – summary of events (Spanish)
Questions and answers about Fujimori's criminal prosecution – Human Rights Watch
Passage 9:
La Silvia
La Silvia (RV 734) is an dramma pastorale per musica in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to an Italian libretto by Enrico Bissari  It was first performed on 28 August 1721 at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan on the occasion of the birthday celebrations of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth Christine, wife of Emperor Charles VI of Austria 

Background
In 1718 Vivaldi had been nominated maestro di cappella di camera, at the court of Philipp von Hessen-Darmstadt in Mantua for whom he composed Armida al campo d'Egitto, Teuzzone, Scanderbeg (all 1718) and then Tito Manlio (1719) and La Candace (1720)  On his return to Venice, following performance of La verità in cimento at the Teatro Sant'Angelo, Vivaldi, thinly disguised as "Aldiviva", became, along with Giovanni Porta, Anna Maria Strada and others, one of the principal targets of the gentleman-composer Benedetto Marcello's satirical pamphlet Il teatro alla moda (written 1718-1719, published 1720) Bissari's text had originally been written in 1710 as a play for Princess Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska, second wife of the Bavarian elector Maximillian II Emmanuel  The opera was performed again in Milan in 1723 and 1724  8 of the arias are preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino 

Roles
Recordings
2001 (reconstruction of nine surviving arias) Roberta Invernizzi, Gloria Banditelli, John Elwes, Philippe Cantor   Ensemble Baroque de Nice, dir  Gilbert Bezzina  Ligia  1CD 
Passage 10:
Giovanni Cifolelli
Giovanni Cifolelli was an Italian mandolin virtuoso and dramatic composer whose date and place of birth are unknown  In 1764 he made his appearance in Paris as a mandolin virtuoso and was highly esteemed, both as a performer and teacher  He published his Method for the mandolin while residing in Paris, which met with great success throughout France, being the most popular of its period 
His chief works were the operas L'Italienne and Pierre et Lucette, the former being an opera bouffe in one act (with the storyline or libretto by Nicolas-Étienne Framery)  These works were commissioned by the Comedie Italienne, Paris, and were produced at this theatre successfully, in 1770 and 1774  Several of the songs and duets in Pierre and Lucette were exceedingly popular in France, and they were republished in Paris in 1775 and 1780 

Works
L'Italienne  : comédie en 1 acte, mêlée d'ariettes (Paris, 1770)
Pierre et Lucette, comédie en deux actes et en prose mêlée d'ariettes (Paris, 1774)
Airs détachés de Perin et Lucette, comédie en deux actes, mêlées d'ariettes par M  Davesne (Paris, 1775)
Ariette nouvelle avec accompagnement de deux violons et basse
Non, laisse moi, laisse moi, Lucas  Duo (1775)
Context 3: Passage 1:
Hughesville, Maryland
Hughesville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Charles County, Maryland, United States  The population was 2,197 at the 2010 census  Truman's Place was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 11 2 square miles (29 1 km2), of which 11 2 square miles (28 9 km2) is land and 0 08 square miles (0 2 km2), or 0 69%, is water Hughesville was a tobacco market town   The former tobacco warehouses are now used for second-hand thrift stores and boutique gift and craft shops Because Hughesville, though small, is considered the strategic geographic center of the tri-county Southern Maryland region, it houses institutions such as the headquarters for the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, an animal shelter, an economic development council, a board of realtors, and a homeless women's shelter, which serve the tri-county area  There is also a Girl Scout camp  The town has no traditional grid-layout streets, but consists of merely businesses along the highway and some very small outlying housing developments  It was announced in 2013 that the College of Southern Maryland is building their fourth campus in the town A 5 5-MW solar farm near Hughesville generates enough power for 600 homes, and offsets the pollution of 1,600 cars 

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,537 people, 503 households, and 407 families residing in the CDP  The population density was 137 4 inhabitants per square mile (53 1/km2)  There were 529 housing units at an average density of 47 3 per square mile (18 3/km2)  The racial makeup of the CDP was 82 04% White, 13 08% African American, 0 72% Native American, 2 73% Asian, 0 07% Pacific Islander, 0 13% from other races, and 1 24% from two or more races  Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0 65% of the population 
There were 503 households, out of which 36 4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68 2% were married couples living together, 7 4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18 9% were non-families  12 7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4 6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 97 and the average family size was 3 25 
In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 26 3% under the age of 18, 6 5% from 18 to 24, 30 0% from 25 to 44, 27 3% from 45 to 64, and 10 0% who were 65 years of age or older  The median age was 38 years  For every 100 females, there were 99 4 males  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97 4 males 
The median income for a household in the CDP was $90,697, and the median income for a family was $103,393  Males had a median income of $49,500 versus $36,563 for females  The per capita income for the CDP was $29,884  About 4 8% of families and 7 1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7 9% of those under age 18 and 5 1% of those age 65 or over 
Passage 2:
Minsk Region
Minsk Region, also known as Minsk Oblast or Minsk Voblasts (Belarusian: Мі́нская во́бласць, romanized: Minskaja voblasć, IPA: [ˈmʲinskaja ˈvobɫasʲtsʲ]; Russian: Минская о́бласть, romanized: Minskaya oblast), is one of the regions of Belarus  Its administrative center is Minsk, although it is a separate administrative territorial entity of Belarus  As of 2011, the region's population is 1,411,500 

Geography
Minsk Region covers a total of 39,900 km2, about 19 44% of the national total area  Lake Narach, the largest lake in the country, is located in the northern part of the region  There are four other large lakes in this region: Svir (8th largest), Myadel (11th largest), Syalyava (14th largest) and Myastro (15th largest)  It is the only region of Belarus whose border is not part of the international border of Belarus 

History
Beginning the 10th century, the territory of the current Minsk Region was part of Kievan Rus', the Principality of Polotsk, and later it was included in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania  With the unification of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, the territory became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 
In 1793, as a result of the second partition of Polish territory, the area was annexed by Russia as the Minsk Region  During the collapse of the Russian Empire due to the Civil War, the western part was annexed to Poland in 1921, while the east became Soviet Belarus 
The Minsk region was established on 15 January 1938, based on the amendment of the Constitutional Law of the USSR  As of 20 February 1938, the area included 20 districts   Following the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, the former Eastern lands of the Second Polish Republic were annexed in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact partitioning Poland and added to the Minsk Region 
On 20 September 1944, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Gressky, Kopyl, Krasnoslobodski, Luban, Slutsky, Starobin, Starodorozhski districts and the city of Sluck were removed from the Minsk region and transferred to the newly formed Bobruisk Region 
On 8 January 1954, by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the Nesvizhski and Stolbtsovsky districts from the abolished Baranovichi Region, as well as the Glusk, Gressky, Kopyl, Krasnoslobodski, Luban, Slutsky, Starobin, Starodorozhski districts and the city of Sluck from the abolished Bobruisk Region, were added to the Minsk Region 
In 1960, following the abolition of Molodechno Region, its southern part became the northern part of the Minsk Region 

Tourism
The number of travel agencies in Minsk Region grew from twelve in 2000 to seventy in 2010  The most popular tourist destinations of the region are Zaslavskoye Lake, the Zhdanovichi area which has health resorts, Nesvizh Palace and its surroundings, as well as the alpine ski resorts of Logoysk and Silichi 

Administrative subdivisions
The Minsk Region comprises 22 districts (raions), 307 selsovets, 22 cities, 8 city municipalities, and 20 urban-type settlements 

Districts of Minsk Region
Cities and towns
Population of cities and towns in Minsk Region

Demographics
See also
Administrative divisions of Belarus
Villages in Minsk Region
Passage 3:
Hylestad
Hylestad is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway  The 570-square-kilometre (220 sq mi) former municipality existed from 1915 until its dissolution in 1962  It was located in the southern part of the present-day municipality of Valle in the traditional region of Setesdal in Agder county  The administrative centre was the village of Rysstad where the Hylestad Church was located 

History
The parish of Hylestad was established as a municipality on 1 July 1915 when the municipality of Valle was divided into two municipalities: Hylestad (population: 658) in the south and Valle (population: 1,051) in the north  During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee  On 1 January 1962, Hylestad was reincorporated into Valle  Prior to the merger Hylestad had a population of 662 

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) was named after the old Hylestad farm (Old Norse: Hyljastaðir), since the first Hylestad Church was built there  The first element comes from hylja meaning a "pool" (possibly referring to the pool in the river) and the last element is staðir which means "homestead" or "farm" 

Government
All municipalities in Norway, including Hylestad, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads  The municipality was governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elected a mayor 

Municipal council
The municipal council (Herredsstyre) of Hylestad was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms   The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Notable residents
Osmund Faremo (1921-1999), a Norwegian politician
Aani Aanisson Rysstad (1894-1965), a Norwegian politician

See also
List of former municipalities of Norway
Passage 4:
Port Blair
Port Blair (pronunciation ) is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal  It is also the local administrative sub-division (tehsil) of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South Andaman and is the territory's only notified town 
Port Blair serves as the entry point for visiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands  Port Blair is connected with mainland India by both air and sea  It is a two to three-hour flight from mainland India to Port Blair's Veer Savarkar International Airport, and three to four days by sea to reach Kolkata, Chennai, or Visakhapatnam from Haddo Wharf in Port Blair  It is home to several museums and a major naval base INS Jarawa of the Indian Navy, along with sea and air bases of the Indian Coast Guard, Andaman and Nicobar Police, Andaman and Nicobar Command, the first integrated tri-command of the Indian Armed Forces and the Indian Air Force Port Blair is also famous for the historic Cellular Jail and other small islands like Corbyn's Cove, Wandoor, Ross Island, Viper Island and so forth, which were once home to British colonists  Port Blair has been selected as one of the cities to be developed as a smart city under the Smart Cities Mission 

History
Pre-history
The indigenous inhabitants are the Andamanese  Radiocarbon dating studies of the kitchen refuse dumps from the mounds excavated by the Anthropological Survey of India at Choladari near Port Blair indicate human occupation for at least 2,000 years, although they are likely to have diverged from the inhabitants of the mainland significantly earlier 

Modern history
In 1789 the Government of Bengal established a penal colony on Chatham Island in the southeast bay of Great Andaman, named Port Blair in the honour of Archibald Blair of the East India Company  After two years, the colony moved to the northeast part of Great Andaman and was named Port Cornwallis after Admiral William Cornwallis  However, there was much disease and death in the penal colony, and the government ceased operating it in May 1796 
In 1824 Port Cornwallis was the rendezvous of the fleet carrying the army to the First Anglo-Burmese War  In the 1830s and 1840s, shipwrecked crews who landed on the Andamans were often attacked and killed by the natives, alarming the British government  In 1855, the government proposed another settlement on the islands, including a convict establishment, but the Indian Rebellion of 1857 forced a delay in its construction 
However, since the rebellion provided the British with a lot of new prisoners, it made the new Andaman settlement and prison an urgent necessity  Construction began in November 1857 at the renovated Port Blair, avoiding the vicinity of a salt swamp which seemed to have been the source of many of the old colony's problems  The penal colony was originally on Viper Island  The convicts, mostly political prisoners, suffered life imprisonment at hard labour under cruel and degrading conditions  Many were hanged, while others died of disease and starvation  Between 1864 and 1867 a penal establishment was also built with convict labour on the northern side of Ross Island  These structures now lie in ruins As the Indian independence movement continued to grow in the late 19th century, the enormous Cellular Jail was constructed between 1896 and 1906 to house Indian convicts, mostly political prisoners, in solitary confinement  The Cellular Jail is also known as Kala Pani (translated as "Black Waters"), a name given to it due to the torture and general ill-treatment towards its Indian convicts 
The airport at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar's capital, has been named Veer Savarkar International Airport  The commemorative blue plaque on India House fixed by the Historic Building and Monuments Commission for England reads "Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 1883–1966 Indian patriot and philosopher lived here "
In World War II the islands were occupied by the Japanese on 23 March 1942 without opposition from the garrison  From 1943 to 1944, Port Blair served as the headquarters of the Azad Hind government under Subhas Chandra Bose  British forces returned to the islands in October 1945 Although affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Port Blair survived sufficiently to act as a base for relief efforts in the islands 

Climate
Port Blair has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification Am), with little variation in average temperature and large amounts of precipitation throughout the year  All months except January, February and March receive substantial rainfall 

Tourism
Port Blair being the capital city of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is the entry point for all tourism related activities  Tourists first have to arrive to Port Blair before progressing on to any other islands in Andaman  At Port Blair, the major tourist places to visit are the Cellular Jail, Corbyns Cove Beach, North Bay Island, Ross Island renamed to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island, Chidiatapu, Wandoor and other museums that are present within city limits  Entry charges are applicable to some of the tourist places 

Demographics
As of 2011 India census, Port Blair had a population of 100,608  Males constitute 52 92% (53,247) of the population and females 47 07% (47,361)  9 3% of the population is under the age of 6 years 

Language
Bengali is the most spoken language of the city, followed by Telegu, Hindi and Tamil 

Religion
The most common religion is Hinduism, followed by Christianity and Islam 

Literacy
Port Blair has an average literacy rate of 89 76%, higher than the national average that is 74 04%  In Port Blair, male literacy is 92 79%, and female literacy is 86 34% 

Administration
The Port Blair Municipal Council, abbreviated as PBMC is the ruling civic body administering the city of Port Blair, the capital and the largest city in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands  The council came into existence on 2 October 1957 after the assent by the President of India to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Municipal Board’s) Regulation, 1957 Act on 11 March 1957  The council comprises a total of 24 wards after the recent delimitation and the expansion of the city limits with the merger of few other villages to the existing 18 wards previously The recent elections for the council were held in 2022  U  Kavitha from ward 24 a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party was elected as the chairperson for the first term which commenced from 16 March 2022  On 14 March 2023, Telugu Desam Party councilor S  Selvi from ward 5 was elected as the chairperson for the second year term of commencing from 16 March 2023 as part of the joint candidature from the BJP-TDP Alliance 

PBMC electoral history
Education
B Ed
Tagore Government College of Education

Degree
Andaman and Nicobar college
Jawaharlal Nehru Government College

Engineering
Dr  B  R  Ambedkar Institute of Technology

Law
Andaman Law College

Medicine
Andaman and Nicobar Islands Institute of Medical Sciences

Gallery
See also
Cellular Jail
Charles James Lyall
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Ross Island
Havelock Island
Passage 5:
Pak Tam Chung
Pak Tam Chung (Chinese: 北潭涌) is an area in the southern part of the Sai Kung Peninsula in the New Territories of Hong Kong  It is administratively under the Sai Kung District 

Features
Pak Tam Chung was described as consisting of six villages in 1911 with fewer than 405 inhabitants: Wong Yi Chau (黃宜洲), Pak Tam (北潭), Sheung Yiu (上窰), Tsak Yue Wu (鯽魚湖), Wong Keng Tei (黃麖地) and Tsam Chuk Wan  The six villages were all inhabited by Hakka people, with the exception of two hamlets in Pak Tam There is a visitor centre for nature education set up by the Hong Kong Government  Near the centre is a vehicle barrier leading to the restricted portion of Sai Kung East Country Park in Pak Tam Chung  For vehicles, only those with authorisation can enter the area and reach places like Hoi Ha, Pak Tam Au and High Island Reservoir 
There are a number of picnic and barbecue facilities within Pak Tam Chung, including a site designed for physically disabled visitors 
Po Leung Kuk owns a holiday camp site in Pak Tam Chung, the Po Leung Kuk Pak Tam Chung Camp (保良局北潭涌渡假營) 

See also
Sheung Yiu Folk Museum
Historic churches of Sai Kung Peninsula
Sai Kung Town
Tai Po District
Passage 6:
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York is the United States bankruptcy court within the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York   The Southern District of New York is a major venue for bankruptcy, as it has jurisdiction over the corporate headquarters and major financial institutions located in Manhattan 
Originally, the District Court itself handled bankruptcies; these and admiralty court cases dominated nearly to the exclusion of all other cases, which were primarily handled by a Circuit Court for the District of New York and its successor Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, until that court was abolished and its cases handled by the District Court as well   The district became widely recognized for its expertise in handling large bankruptcies, leading companies to seek a way to file in this court   Modern examples include the General Motors Chapter 11 reorganization and the Enron and WorldCom bankruptcies From 1980 through 2014, the Southern District Bankruptcy Court for New York handled over 18% of all large, public-company bankruptcy filings in the United States while the Delaware District Bankruptcy Court handled nearly 36% 

List of judges
The following is a list of the bankruptcy judges, as of May 2023, for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York 

See also
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
List of judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Passage 7:
Alamnagar
Alamnagar (community development block) is one of the administrative divisions of Madhepura district in the Indian state of Bihar  The block headquarters are located at a distance of 58 km from the district headquarters, namely, Madhepura  The name of Alamnagar is named for Shah Alamgir  Almost alls caste of Hindus and Muslims live together  Khara Budhama is also attached in Alamnagar vidhan shabha from udakishunganj  Khara is located 12 km from Alamnagar 

Geography
Alamnagar is located at 25°32′56″N 86°54′40″E

Panchayats
Panchayats in Alamnagar community development block are: Bispatti, Basanbara, [Khurhan, Bargaon, Singhar, Itahari, Alamnagar North, Alamnagar South, Alamnagar East, Northua Bhagipur, Kujauri, Gangapur, Kishanpur Ratwara and Khapur 

Demographics
In the 2001 census Alamnagar Block had a population of 129,226 
Passage 8:
Ceres Nunataks
The Ceres Nunataks (72°3′S 70°25′W) are a group of three nunataks located immediately east of the base of Shostakovich Peninsula in southern Alexander Island, Antarctica  They were mapped by the Directorate of Overseas Surveys from satellite imagery supplied by the U S  National Aeronautics and Space Administration in cooperation with the U S  Geological Survey, and named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Ceres, one of the asteroids lying between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter 

Geology
According to the British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) aeromagnetic 1975 survey of Ceres Nunataks and nearby Astraea Nunatak, this geographical feature is rich in the igneous rocks Diorite and Tonalite as presumed by the rock samples which were observed by BAS during this survey 

Aeromagnetic Survey of Ceres Nunataks and Astraea Nunatak
In December 1975, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) (originally known as the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS)) embarked on an 8-week long survey observing the proposed theory of Ceres Nunataks and Astraea Nunatak having an aeromagnetic connection between one another  I  A  Crawford and R  W  Girdler embarked on the survey, along with other accompanists and personnel members, flying at a constant barometric altitude of approximately 1130 meters (3707 feet, with an east–west flightline separation of about 7 5 kilometers  Here, they proved that these geographical features were rich in geologic minerals which shared similar characteristics  Data was sampled at one-second intervals, which, at ground speed of approximately 240 kilometers per hour, equates to 15 data points for every kilometer covered  The total distance traveled on the surface was 2200 kilometers (1367 miles)  The equipment used included a Geometrics G-803 proton precision magnetometer with both analogue and digital recording, a Bendix DRA-12 Doppler navigation system and Sperry C-12 gyro-magnetic compass, and a Bonzer radio altimeter 
Overall, the 2-month long survey was a successful event and contributed to the history of Alexander Island and the Antarctic Peninsula in itself  Former contributors to this survey include:

Barker, P  F  - Studied the Cenozoic subduction history of the Antarctic Peninsula region 
Bell, C  M  - Observed the geology of the southern portion of Alexander Island 
Bhattacharyya, B  K  - Examined the magnetic anomalies due to prism-shaped bodies with arbitrary polarization 
Burn R  W  - Studied multiple fields of Alexander Island, such as the early Tertiary calc-alkaline volcanism on the island and researching the geology of the nearby LeMay Mountain Range due 40-50 kilometers north of Staccato Peaks 
Care, B  W  - Like Burn, Care studied the vast majority of fields involving Alexander Island, such as archiving geographic reports on the Havre Mountains, Lassus Mountains and other miscellaneous peaks within the vicinity of northern Alexander Island 
Coles R  W  - Conducted two magnetic interpretation methods using rectangular prisms 
Collinson, D  W  - Created an anisotropic susceptibility meter, along with Molyneux, L  and Stone, D  B 
Crabtree, R  D  - Constructed a British Antarctic Territory ice thickness map
Crawford, I  A  - Proposed an analysis of aeromagnetic data over the Staccato Peaks region of Alexander Island, Antarctica, along with Girdler, R  W 
Edwards, C  W  - Collected early Mesozoic marine fossils from the central portion of Alexander Island 
Fabiano, E  B  - Observed grid values of total magnetic intensity, along with the help of former geophysicist Peddie, N  W 
Pankhurst, R  J  - Studied the geochronology of Graham Land, Antarctica 
Peddie, N  W  - Former geophysicist of BAS 
Renner R  G  B  - Former member of BAS and accepted the aeromagnetic survey to commence, chief of the 1975 survey 
Smellie, J  L  - A complete arc-trench system recognized in Gondwana sequences of the Antarctic Peninsula region 
Streckeisen, A  - Gave to each plutonic body its proper name 
Suarez, M  - Credited for having charted a Plate-tectonic model for the southern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula (Palmer Land) and its relation to the southern Andes Mountain Range 
Passage 9:
Beryslav Raion
Beryslav Raion (Ukrainian: Бериславський район, romanized: Beryslavs'kyi raion) is one of the five administrative raions (a district) of Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine  Its administrative center is located in the city of Beryslav  Its population was 55,976 as of the 2001 Ukrainian Census  Current population: 94,103 (2022 est ) The January 2020 estimate of the raion population was 45,931 (2020 est )  However, on 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Kherson Oblast was reduced to five, and the area of Beryslav Raion was significantly expanded  Three raions (Novovorontsovka, Velyka Oleksandrivka, and Vysokopillia Raions) were abolished and their territories were merged into an enlarged Beryslav Raion 

Subdivisions
Current
After the reform in July 2020, the raion consisted of 11 hromadas:
Beryslav urban hromada with the administration in the city of Beryslav, retained from Beryslav Raion;
Borozenske rural hromada with the administration in the selo of Borozenske, transferred from Velyka Oleksandrivka Raion;
Kalynivske settlement hromada with the administration in the urban-type settlement of Kalynivske, transferred from Velyka Oleksandrivka Raion;
Kochubeivka rural hromada with the administration in the selo of Kochubeivka, transferred from Vysokopillia Raion;
Mylove rural hromada with the administration in the selo of Mylove, retained from Beryslav Raion;
Novooleksandrivka rural hromada with the administration in the selo of Novooleksandrivka, transferred from Novovorontsovka Raion;
Novoraisk rural hromada with the administration in the settlement of Novoraisk, retained from Beryslav Raion;
Novovorontsovka settlement hromada with the administration in the urban-type settlement of Novovorontsovka, transferred from Novovorontsovka Raion;
Tiahynka rural hromada with the administration in the settlement of Tiahynka, retained from Beryslav Raion;
Velyka Oleksandrivka settlement hromada with the administration in the urban-type settlement of Velyka Oleksandrivka, transferred from Velyka Oleksandrivka Raion 
Vysokopillia settlement hromada with the administration in the urban-type settlement of Vysokopillia, transferred from Vysokopillia Raion;

Before 2020
Before the 2020 reform, the raion consisted of four hromadas:
Beryslav urban hromada with the administration in Beryslav;
Mylove rural hromada with the administration in Mylove;
Novoraisk rural hromada with the administration in Novoraisk;
Tiahynka rural hromada with the administration in Tiahynka Beryslav Raion was divided in a way that followed the general administrative scheme in Ukraine  Local government was also organized along a similar scheme nationwide  Consequently, raions were subdivided into councils, which were the prime level of administrative division in the country 
Each of the raion's urban localities administered their own councils, often containing a few other villages within its jurisdiction  However, only a handful of rural localities were organized into councils, which also might contain a few villages within its jurisdiction 
Accordingly, Beryslav Raion was divided into:
1 city council—made up of the city of Beryslav (administrative center)
1 settlement council—made up of the urban-type settlement of Kozatske
29 village councilsOverall, the raion had a total of 43 populated localities, consisting of one city, one urban-type settlement, 34 villages, and seven rural settlements 

Geography
Beryslav Raion is located in the central part of Kherson Oblast on the right-bank of the Dnieper River and the Kakhovka Reservoir  Geographically, it lies in the lowland immediately before the Black Sea 

History
Beryslav Raion was first established on March 7, 1923 as part of a full-scale administrative reorganization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic  During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, almost the whole of Beryslav Raion was initially occupied by Russian forces, apart from a few villages in the north of the Raion  However, by late October 2022 the majority of the rural districts had been re-taken by Ukrainian forces, although the city of Beryslav remained in Russian hands as at 29 October  The rest of the raion was retaken on 10 November 2022, when the Russian troops withdrew from the right bank of the Dnieper 

See also
Vysoke, Kherson Oblast
Passage 10:
Kiri Territory
Kiri Territory is an administrative region of Mai-Ndombe Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo  The headquarters is the town of Kiri 

Location
Kiri territory has sandy clay soils, supporting food crops that include cassava, maize, banana, peanut, yams, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, rice, beans, vegetables, robusta coffee, cocoa and palm 
Most of the land is covered with rain forest 
The southern boundary is defined by the Lokoro River, which flows from the southeast, entering Lake Mai-Ndombe at the westernmost point of the territory  
Kiri Territory is divided into the Beronge, Lutoy and Pendjwa sectors 

Economy
The Kiri General Hospital was rehabilitated in 1983, and a farmers cooperative was established in 1995 
As of 1997 Kiri Territory had a population of 121,604 within an area of 12,070 square kilometres (4,660 sq mi), or about 11 people per square kilometer  Trade was mostly with Kinshasa via the neighboring territory of Inongo to the west, handled by a cartel of traders who controlled prices  
Local products such as manioc or fish were exchanged for manufactured goods such as hammocks or machetes As of 2004 the territory lacked electricity and drinking water supplies, and had no telephone, radio or television service 
It does have an airport (Basango Mboliasa Airport) in good condition that is used for occasional unscheduled flights 
Passage 11:
Southern California Edison
Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electricity utility for much of Southern California  It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of approximately 50,000 square miles  However, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Imperial Irrigation District, and some smaller municipal utilities serve substantial portions of the southern California territory  The northern part of the state is generally served by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company of San Francisco  Other investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in California include SDG&E, PacifiCorp, Bear Valley Electric, and Liberty Utilities 

Southern California Edison (SCE) still owns all of its electrical transmission facilities and equipment, but the deregulation of California's electricity market in the late 1990s forced the company to sell many of its power plants, though some were probably sold by choice  In California, SCE retained only its hydroelectric plants, totaling about 1,200 MW, and its 75% share of the 2,150-MW San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which has been shut down since January 2012; in June 2013 the company announced its intention to permanently close and decommission the nuclear plant  The utility lost all of its natural gas-fired plants, which provided most of its electrical generation  The large, aging plants were bought by out-of-state companies such as Mirant and Reliant Energy, which allegedly used them to manipulate the California energy market Southern California Edison's power grid is linked to PG&E's by the Path 26 wires that generally follow Interstate 5 over Tejon Pass  The interconnection takes place at a large substation at Buttonwillow  PG&E's and WAPA's Path 15 and Path 66, respectively, from Buttonwillow north eventually connect to BPA's grid in the Pacific Northwest  There are several other interconnections with local and out-of-state utilities, such as Path 46 
In addition, SCE operates a regulated gas and water utility  SCE is the sole commercial provider of natural gas and fresh water service to Santa Catalina Island, including the city of Avalon, California  SCE operates the utilities under the names of Catalina Island Gas Company and Catalina Island Water Company 

History
The origins of the company lie with the grand scheme of business magnate Henry E  Huntington and hydraulic engineer John S  Eastwood, developed around 1908, for a vast complex of reservoirs to be constructed in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of central California   Huntington founded Pacific Light and Power, one of the roughly two dozen companies he controlled at the time, to execute what would eventually become one of the largest hydropower systems in the United States, the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project   Pacific Light and Power was one of the predecessor companies to SCE, along with Edison Electric, Mt  Whitney Power & Electric Co , California Electric Power Co , Southern California Power Co , and others 

Settlement for blackout
Southern California Edison agreed to pay a $650,000 settlement for the 2011 blackout with FERC and NERC 

Shooting
On December 16, 2011, a shooting occurred when an employee of Southern California Edison opened fire at an office building in Irwindale  The employee killed two co-workers and seriously wounded two others before committing suicide 

COVID-19 pandemic
In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, 8,000 of the 13,000 employees were shifted to remote work  The US Department of Homeland Security has named utilities like SCE part of the 16 sectors designated “critical infrastructure sectors  The group of remote workers was set up so the company can operate if it faces workforce disruptions or shortages if employees become stricken or quarantined because of COVID-19 
The company also ceased power disconnections for non-payment 

Renewable energy
Southern California Edison allows its customer to obtain their electricity entirely from renewable sources by subscribing to a "green rate" In 2006, Southern California Edison planned to secure 1,500 megawatts or more of power generated from new projects to be built in the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm area  The contract, which more than doubles SCE's wind energy portfolio, envisions more than 50 square miles (130 km2) of wind parks in the Tehachapi region, which is triple the size of any existing U S  wind farm In March 2008, Southern California Edison announced a $875 million project to build a network of 250 megawatts of photovoltaic solar power generation, making it the biggest solar cell project in the nation  The photovoltaic cells will cover 65,000,000 square feet (6,000,000 m2) of rooftops in southern California and will generate enough power to serve 162,000 homes In 2009, Southern California Edison entered into a contract with Solar Millennium to purchase solar thermal power up to 726 MW  Southern California Edison also entered into a contract with Stirling Energy Systems to buy electricity from a 500 megawatt, 4,600 acre (19 km2), solar power plant which was due to open in 2009  The purchase was canceled in late 2010, as changes in technology reduced the cost of photovoltaic-based solar power to below that of solar Stirling generated power  This would have been the first commercial application of the dish stirling system  A different technology from the more familiar solar panel, the dish concentrates solar energy by the use of reflective surfaces and by the use of the Stirling heat engine to convert the heat into electricity 
In 2014, Southern California Edison installed the Tehachapi Energy Storage Project, which is composed of more than 600,000 lithium-ion battery cells at Monolith Substation in Tehachapi, California in order to test storing power generated from an area that currently has 5,000 wind turbines In 2014 SCE had a renewables mix of 23%  By 2016, 28 2% of SCE's power sources were renewable 

Natural gas and energy storage
In 2017, the company opened two new hybrid electric gas turbine (EGT) units called peaker plants, that combine gas turbines and storage batteries at the same site  Each plant delivers around 50-megawatts; the batteries can provide 10-megawatts and four megawatt-hours of power  Both the turbines and the batteries are designed and manufactured by General Electric’s Power Division The plant runs the battery first in a series of short bursts, saving gas usage for longer power demand  The combination of a 30-minute duration battery improves the environmental impact of the gas turbine   The SCE setup (the first of its kind) cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60%, reduced annual water usage by 2 million gallons and lowered the number of gas starts by 50% 

Electric vehicles
Southern California Edison has a number of resources and a rate designed specifically for electric vehicle users As of July 2018, Southern California Edison plans to add thousands of new charging stations for passenger electric vehicles (EV)  This addition is a component of the company's "Charge Ready" program, a pilot program with the aim of increasing the availability of charging ports for EVs  Since 2016, Southern California Edison has installed 1,000 charging stations throughout their Southern and Central California service area The company also runs a rebate program for electric vehicle purchases  Southern California Edison gives people in its service area who purchase a new or used, or lease, an electric vehicle a $450 rebate  The program will run until 2020 

Energy research and policy
Southern California Edison has a long history of research in the energy arena  Often this includes working with other companies and government entities  One example is the SOLARII feasibility generator, which was a solar-powered energy plant that could produce electricity 24 hours a day  This was done by heating molten salts that would hold the heat during the day and would be used to generate power at night Dr  John Jurewitz served as Director of Regulatory Policy for Southern California Edison for 15 years until his retirement in July 2007  His major areas of research are in oil, gas, and electricity policy and greenhouse gas regulation  He has testified and participated in government-sponsored proceedings addressing electric industry restructuring and energy policy at the state, federal, and international levels In November, 2014, SCE announced a partnership with Ice Energy to provide more efficient energy storage by freezing water at night when electricity is cheaper  (Ice Energy filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in December 2019 )

Labor practice controversy
In April 2015, Southern California Edison laid off about 400 IT employees, with an additional 100 IT workers leaving voluntarily  Meanwhile, the utility company hired  immigrants from India through Infosys, based in Bangalore, and Tata Consultancy Services in Mumbai, which are among the largest users of H-1B visas  About 70% of the work to be done by Tata and Infosys will be completed offshore, according to SCE  The company claimed it had to lay off US-based employees to stay competitive  The layoffs were questioned by members of the United States Senate  SCE was subsequently investigated by the US Department of Labor for potential H1-B visa abuse  In October, Department of Labor concluded Infosys did not abuse the H1-B program in the dealings with SCE, while Tata's case remained open 

See also
Energy use in California
Solar power plants in the Mojave Desert
Wind power in California
List of articles associated with nuclear issues in California
Passage 12:
Dunbar Hospital
The Dunbar Hospital was the first hospital for the black community in Detroit, Michigan  It is located at 580 Frederick Street, and is currently the administrative headquarters of the Detroit Medical Society  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 

Building construction and description
The building housing the Dunbar Hospital was built in 1892 by the Guy W  Vinton Company as a home for real estate developer Charles W  Warren  The home was constructed in a fashionable 19th century residential district The structure is a three-story home of mixed Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne style, built of red brick and rough-cut ashlar  The entrance is through a recessed, arched first-floor porch and the second story has a double-arch brick balcony  The roof is slate, with a bay-windowed gabled dormer surmounting the front façade 

Founding of the Dunbar Hospital
In 1894, Dr  James W  Ames, a graduate of both Straight University and Howard University, arrived in Detroit after a stint of teaching in New Orleans  He quickly became influential in both Detroit's white community and its then-small black community  Detroit's mayor at the time was Hazen Pingree  During his subsequent re-election campaign, Pingree actively courted the black vote, in part by supporting Ames's bid for election to the Michigan state legislature The nationally famous black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, popular in both the black and white community, visited Detroit and lent his voice to those supporting Pingree, penning the poem, "Vote for Pingree and Vote for Bread " Both Ames and Pingree won their respective elections, and Ames spent the next two years in the legislature  He was the last black elected until the 1920s Two decades later, in the years following World War I, the black population of Detroit soared  In 1910, fewer than 6000 blacks called the city home; in 1917 more than 30,000 blacks lived in Detroit  The increase in black residents led to a crisis in health care  Hospitals were still segregated, and physicians like Ames were required to ask permission to admit black patients  Often black patients were simply denied care  The increase in the black population threatened to overwhelm the city's 30 black doctors In 1918, Ames led the group of 30 black physicians to form the Allied Medical Society  The area around Frederick street was at the cusp of becoming the center of social and cultural life for Detroit's black community, and the AMS purchased the Warren home on Frederick They opened their own non-profit hospital in the building, the first in the city to serve the black community, as well as an associated nursing school  The hospital was named for the poet Dunbar, who had died in 1906  The hospital had 27 beds and an operating room 

Later history
In 1928, demand led Dunbar Hospital to move from its first home to a larger facility several blocks to the east  The facility was renamed Parkside Hospital, and continued in operation until 1962  Soon after Dunbar moved from its home on Frederick, Charles Diggs Sr , who was later the first African-American Democratic state senator, purchased the home  Diggs's son, Charles C  Diggs Jr , served in the Michigan State Senate from 1951 to 1954 and the U S  House of Representatives from 1954 to 1980  In 1978, the Detroit Medical Society (the successor to the Allied Medical Society) purchased and restored the building  It now serves as their administrative headquarters and a museum 
Passage 13:
Campora
Campora is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, Campania (southern Italy)  It is located in the territory of Cilento and as of 2009 its population was 810 

History
Geography
The village is located in a hilly area in the middle of Cilento, close to Stio and to the area of Pruno, not far from the town of Vallo della Lucania  It borders with the municipalities of Cannalonga, Gioi, Laurino, Moio della Civitella, Novi Velia and Stio 

See also
Pruno Cilento
Cilentan language
Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park
Passage 14:
Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative
The Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) is an electric distribution cooperative which is headquartered in Hughesville, Maryland, United States  SMECO serves approximately 161,000 customers in Calvert, Charles, Prince George's, and St  Mary's counties of southern Maryland  Under its rules as a nonprofit cooperative, SMECO passes on its costs to its customer-members without markup or profit 

History
In 1937 two committees of citizens from three counties which were seeking aid to construct a local rural electric distribution system under the New Deal's Rural Electrictrification Administration formed the Southern Maryland Tri-County Electric Cooperative Association  This was reorganized as a cooperative under the SMECO name in 1942  Customers were allowed to select suppliers of electricity beginning in 2001 under the Maryland Electric Deregulation legislation enacted in 1999  From 2007 to 2011, SMECO has won the J D  Power and Associates award for best customer service for a midsize utility SMECO owned a 77 MW gas turbine generator located at the Chalk Point Generating Station which began operation in 1990 and was operated and maintained by NRG Energy  In 2015 NRG acquired the turbine plant from SMECO 

FERC solar complaint
SMECO has filed a complaint with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), alleging that the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) coerced utilities into purchasing excess solar power generated by the state's community solar program at much higher retail rates rather than paying the amount it would have cost these utilities to create the power themselves, also known as the avoided cost  This would be in violation with the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which establishes that any payment given to such qualifying power plants equate the utility's avoided cost  In addition, PURPA mandates that these plants do not exceed 80 MW of power Recently, the development of community solar programs has become increasingly prevalent in order to meet the ever-growing demand for new, viable energy sources; however, there has been much controversy regarding the surge in net metering consumers due to the resulting cost shifts which negatively affect the non-solar community now facing much higher payments to even out the increased benefits given to solar projects Because of the continual reduction in the cost of power, FERC has become more concerned with the discrepancy between avoided costs and wholesale prices, which continue to prevail  This has placed more focus on PURPA's roles and responsibilities in the maintenance and balance of the current energy market 
Passage 15:
Poum
Poum  is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean  The small town of Poum (Latitude: 20° 13' 59 south, longitude: 164° 1' 23 east) is located in the far northwest, located on the southern part of Banare Bay, with Mouac Island just offshore  Aside from French, the native language of the Kanak inhabitants is nêlêmwa-nixumwak, an Austronesian language spoken by about 1,100 people  British fishermen came to the islands in 1855 seeking sea cucumbers, and settled and intermarried, and this is reflected in the last names of some clan members and on gravestones (e g  Williams, Winchester)  In the 1850s, a hundred Europeans lived on Mouac Island and John Henry Williams established a presence on Néba island 

Geography
The Poum massif south of Poum and Titch rises to 414 m and is rich in nickel  Other minerals like cobalt have been mined out  The hills around Poum are bare of trees and distinctively rose and red-tinged  Seasonal water shortages and bush fires are common 

Economy
There is one boarding middle school near Poum village  The Kanak population pursue diverse subsistence activities, sometimes combined with paid work  There is one service station and store, opened in the 2010s  Tourists can stay at a western style hotel complex, the Malabou Beach hotel on Nehoue Bay, which is owned by the Northern Province corporation, Grands Hôtels - it has 35 employees  There are also two tourist cottages (Golone and Poingam),  a campsite (Pagop) and home stays are also possible Fishing is still pursued mainly by the islanders, especially from Tiabet, although commercial fish sales are affected by the long distances to market in Nouméa and accreditation systems  Agriculture is practised, and there is some European-owned cattle ranching 
The Poum nickel mine was not heavily exploited fully for many years following its acquisition by SLN after the Accords de Bercy in the 1990s, and had about thirty employees in 2014  In 2015, plans to increase production to 100,000 tonnes of ore per year from 'Spur A' of the mine, with 2 5% nickel content, were announced  In 2019, a further announcement of increased production was made  The mine has been accused by the inhabitants of Titch, west of Poum centre, of creating water pollution problems 
Passage 16:
Menteng, Menteng
Menteng is an administrative village in the Menteng district of Indonesia  It has a postal code of 10310  It is located on the southern area of the Menteng Project 

See also
List of administrative villages of Jakarta
Passage 17:
Elk Ridge (Maryland)
Elk Ridge, or Elk Mountain, is a mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Maryland and is the westernmost of four parallel ridges   It forms the western side of a narrow valley in which are situated the towns of Yarrowsburg and Brownsville   South Mountain is on the eastern side of this valley running roughly parallel to it   The ridge runs from Rohrersville, in the north, to the Potomac River across from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in the south   Across the Potomac the ridge continues as Blue Ridge Mountain in Virginia and West Virginia   To the west of Elk Mountain is the broader Cumberland Valley, in which lie the towns of Hagerstown and Chambersburg, and the Potomac River   The southern end of the ridge, which is part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, is known as Maryland Heights 

History
In the early 19th century, Elk Ridge was the site of numerous charcoal hearths, which produced charcoal for nearby iron furnaces from wood harvested on the mountain   More than 50 hearths were constructed between 1810 and 1840 
The Maryland Heights portion of Elk Ridge was the scene of much activity during the American Civil War   Artillery emplacements and fortifications were first erected on the mountain by Union forces in 1862, during Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign   Later that year, during the Battle of Harpers Ferry, the union fortifications on the mountain were attacked by units under General Lafayette McLaws, who subsequently took control of the ridge and used it to deliver devastating artillery fire against the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry   After the battle Confederate forces abandoned the ridge to rejoin the Army of Northern Virginia at Antietam and the Union army quickly reoccupied the heights 
Following the Battle of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln came to Maryland to review the army, including the garrisons on the mountain   He began the ascent, but because of the steepness of the slope, turned around halfway up, concluding any man who could make the climb would pass his muster   In June 1863 Union forces again took control of the ridge and enlarged the fortifications in response to the Confederate invasion of Maryland during the Gettysburg Campaign 
The "Pinnacle Lot" of the Maryland Heights was purchased by the Maryland Park System from the grandchildren of the last private owner, Judge Patrick Chapman Savin (1820-1889) of Harper's Ferry, MD; the lot was in turn gifted by the State of Maryland to the National Park Service in the 1950s   Judge Patrick and his brother, John Chapman Savin, and a future son-in-law, John Marion Marsteller (1841-1898) were among those who participated in the capture of John Brown and his men   It was during this time that the side of the cliff overlooking Harper's Ferry was leased for advertising seen by the passengers of trains as they entered and exited the tunnel under the Maryland Heights 

Recreation
A trail system, maintained by the National Park Service, ascends Maryland Heights and tours the Civil War-era fortifications and provides access to the cliffs on the mountain which contain views of Harpers Ferry and the Potomac Water Gap   An unmaintained trail leads along the ridge of Park Service land onto private property to Buggy Rocks and views east of Pleasant Valley   Mountain climbing is permitted by the National Park Service along the Maryland Heights cliffs 

Bibliography
Whitman, T  Stephen, Antietam 1862: Gateway to Emancipation, ABC-CLIO, 2012 ISBN 0313397341 

External links
NPS Maryland Heights Brochure
Passage 18:
Pangi Territory
Pangi Territory is an administrative area in Maniema Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  The  headquarters is the town of Pangi 
The Elila River flows through Pangi territory, entering the Lualaba River to the west 
The territory is divided into the Babene chiefdom and the Beia, Ikama, Wakabango and Wasongola sectors 
Most of the territory is inhabited by the Lega people, as are the adjoining Mwenga and Shabunda territories 
As of 1972 there were still a few Pygmies living among the Baziri tribe of Lega people 
Before independence the territory had 97,380 inhabitants of whom 35,518 were in urban and mining agglomerations 
Passage 19:
WaterColor, Florida
WaterColor is an unincorporated master-planned community located in Walton County, Florida, United States, between Grayton Beach and Seaside  This 499-acre (2 02 km2) Southern resort and residential community was planned by Cooper, Robertson & Partners with Urban Design Associates, in collaboration with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, under the direction of The St  Joe Company  The St  Joe Company has owned the land since 1927 
WaterColor homes are based on the vernacular architecture of Southern wood homes with features that include large wraparound or screened porches, wood columns and siding and a metal roof with deep overhangs  Community amenities include a swimming pool, fitness center, tennis courts, parks and gardens, shopping and restaurants  Camp Creek Golf Club is available to homeowners for an annual fee 
The WaterColor Inn is a 60-room beachfront resort designed by David Rockwell   In 2006 it was rated the #1 Family Friendly Resort in North America by Travel + Leisure magazine   It is the only four diamond hotel in Northwest Florida   The Inn and Vacation Rentals are managed by Troon Golf and St  Joe Clubs and Resorts as of January 2014 

See also
Celebration, Florida
Prospect New Town
Rosemary Beach, Florida
Seaside, Florida
Tradition, Florida
Passage 20:
Khong Island
Khong Island or Don Khong (Lao: ດອນໂຂງ) is the largest island and the seat of administration in the Si Phan Don riverine archipelago located in the Mekong River, Khong District, Champasak Province, southern Laos 
The island is 18 kilometers (11 mi) long (north-south), and 8 kilometers (5 0 mi) at its widest point  Its population is mainly concentrated in the two villages Muang Saen (west) and Muang Khong (east); the latter is the de facto capital of the island as well as the regional seat of government  There are 19 villages on the island and the main source of income comes from fishing  
The former President of Laos, Khamtai Siphandon, has a residence on the island, which is a possible explanation for the  high quality of its infrastructure, such as asphalted roads and electricity  Locals tend to travel on longtail boats 



ground_truth: 22

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

Question: Who is the federal leader of the party that Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu is a member of?

The following are given passages.
Context 2: Passage 1:
Franck Biancheri
Franck Biancheri (11 March 1961 – 30 October 2012) was the founder of the Newropeans European political party and the leader from June 2006   The party planned to run for campaigns in the 2009 elections to the European Parliament with representatives in all member states simultaneously 
Biancheri had previously founded the largest student association in Europe, European Students' Forum (AEGEE) in 1985 and the think tank LEAP/Europe2020 in 1998 

Biography
Biancheri was born in Nice, France   He lived in Cannes, and had one daughter 
From 1991, through several networks including the Promotheus-Europe group, he contributed to enhance relationship between the European Union and several parts of the world (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, the Arabic world, South America, Asia, and North America) 
In 1997, at Blair House, during an EU-US summit in Washington, he launches TIESWeb, the first transatlantic web portal dedicated to dialog between European and American civil societies In 2003 he was among the top twenty "heroes" for being a "French champion of European unity" in a poll by Time Europe 
From 2006, he was the scientific coordinator of the Leap2020 think tank 
Biancheri died on 30 October 2012   He had been seriously ill from cancer for four years 
Passage 2:
Jean-Pierre Sueur
Jean-Pierre Sueur (born 28 February 1947) is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Loiret department   He is a member of the Socialist Party 
Passage 3:
Confederation of Regions Party of Canada
The Confederation of Regions Party (CoR) was a right-wing federal political party in Canada founded in 1984 by Elmer Knutson  It was founded as a successor to the Western Canada Federation (West-Fed), a non-partisan organization, to fight the Liberal Party of Canada  The CoR aimed to fill the void on the right of the political spectrum left by the decline of the Social Credit Party of Canada and the growing unpopularity among westerners of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada under the leadership of Brian Mulroney 
The party also attracted significant support as a protest vote against official bilingualism among some voters who were not necessarily ideologically opposed to mainstream Canadian political parties on other issues  The party proposed dividing Canada into four 'regions', western Canada, Atlantic Canada, Ontario and Quebec, each with an equal number of seats in the House of Commons of Canada In the 1984 federal election, it nominated 55 candidates, who won 65,655 votes in total, or 0 52% of the popular vote across the country   The party took 2 2% of the vote in Alberta and peaked with 6 7% in Manitoba 
In the 1988 federal election, its 51 candidates won 41,342 votes, 0 31% of the popular vote   One of its candidates was Paul Fromm, leader of the far-right groups Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform and Canadian Association for Free Expression  (See also: Confederation of Regions Party candidates, 1988 Canadian federal election) 
The party's greatest success came in New Brunswick, where its provincial wing, the New Brunswick Confederation of Regions Party, held the status of official opposition from 1991 to 1995  After the demise of CoR, many former supporters joined the Reform Party of Canada 

Provincial wings
The CoR captured about 2% of the vote in provincial elections in the 1988 Manitoba election and the 1990 Ontario election 

Alberta
The CoR's Alberta wing nominated candidates in the 1986 provincial election and the 1993 provincial election   In 1986, the party nominated 6 candidates, who won a total of 2,866 votes, or 0 40% of the total   In 1993, the party nominated 12 candidates, who won 3,556 votes, or 0 36% of the total 
On 17 June 1996, the Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta, cancelled the registration of the Confederation of Regions Party of Alberta and the party was struck from the Register of Alberta Political Parties because the party failed to comply with the registration requirements of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act  The COR Party was struck from the register because two conflicting groups in the party claimed different persons were officers of the party  The party presented different addresses of record  The conflicting groups had different interpretations of the COR Party Constitution  As the Chief Electoral Officer did not have the authority to resolve such issues, he referred the participants in the dispute to the courts  Neither side in the dispute applied to the courts in an effort to resolve the problem, and the party did not run any candidates 1997 election nor any election since 

Manitoba
New Brunswick
Ontario
Party program
The party program was set out in a website that aimed to re-establish CoR as a federal political party  Grammatical, punctuation and formatting errors have been left intact 

COR wants to become a nationwide Federal Party, and wishes to represent all Canadians who want to live in a true democracy, restore Canada's prosperity and rebuild its National Institutions We want to become an egalitarian, populist party slightly to the right of center in the political spectrumWe aspire to be the elected representative of all Canadians who embrace these views about their nation A Canada that follows a policy of "CANADA FIRST"A Canada that practices true democracy, where individual rights are paramount, majority rule is applied, minorities are protected by law and all citizens are equalA Canada that teaches its people about their true history, celebrates their contributions, achievements and sacrifices and takes pride in its unique heritage and traditionA Canada that is viewed by all as a land of "the true north, strong and free"A Canada whose multi-racial and multi-cultural heritage is acknowledged but where Canadian nationality is neither divided or hyphenated and where one official language and one legal system based on common law serves to unite its peopleWe believe that Canada has evolved into four economic, geographic, commercial and political regions which, has the potential to become one strong and united nation once Canadians have been allowed to draft and ratify a true Constitution for Canada at a constituent assemble of elected delegates COR (whose name is derived from its belief) believes that in such a "CONFEDERATION of REGIONS" EACH REGION SHOULD BE FREE TO DEVELOP ITS POTENTIAL TO THE FULL WHILST COMPLEMENTING THE CANADIAN NATION AS A WHOLEWe believe that during the last 25 years Canadians have been unable to change things because of the political and economic bankruptcy of old line parties who encourage the enshrinement of flawed vision of Canada's future, a politically imposed Canadian Constitution, the greed of big business and the existence of an "establishment" consists of institutionalized elites who strive to retain power by maintaining the status quo and perpetuating myths about Canada's past Our goals have been shaped by events of our times such as the latest recession that our politicians were eventually obliged to acknowledge and the presence of an ever growing number of homeless and hungry Canadian men, women and children who are now walking the streets and roads of this land in search of personal pride and dignity and a restored sense of what is means to be a Canadian Our policies have also been influenced by the cavalier attitude of the present government with regard to how its spends the taxpayer's dollar, its contempt for the nation's ever increasing national debt and its inability to address the rising unemployment that is eroding the foundations of Canadian society and which is now impacting negatively on Canadians from all walks of life THE OVERRIDING GOAL OF THE POLICIES IS TO RESTORE CANADIAN PROSPERITY AND BUILD CANADIAN DEMOCRACY 

See also
List of political parties in Canada
Passage 4:
Party leaders of the United States Senate
The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate  They serve as the chief spokespersons for their respective political parties holding the majority and the minority in the United States Senate  They are each elected as majority leader and minority leader by the senators of their party caucuses: the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate Republican Conference 
By Senate precedent, the presiding officer gives the majority leader priority in obtaining recognition to speak on the floor of the Senate  The majority leader serves as the chief representative of their party in the Senate, and is considered the most powerful member of the Senate  They also serve as the chief representative of their party in the entire Congress if the House of Representatives, and thus the office of the speaker of the House, is controlled by the opposition party  The Senate's executive and legislative business is also managed and scheduled by the majority leader                                                        
The assistant majority leader and assistant minority leader of the United States Senate, commonly called whips, are the second-ranking members of each party's leadership  The main function of the majority and minority whips is to gather votes of their respective parties on major issues  As the second-ranking members of Senate leadership, if there is no floor leader present, the whip may become acting floor leader 

Current floor leaders
The Senate is currently composed of 49 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and 3 independents; all the independents caucus with the Democrats 
The current leaders are Senators Chuck Schumer (D) of New York and Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky  The current assistant leaders, or whips, are Senators Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois and John Thune (R) of South Dakota 

History
By at least 1850, parties in each chamber of Congress began naming chairs, and while conference and caucus chairs carried very little authority, the Senate party floor leader positions arose from the position of conference chair  Senate Democrats began the practice of electing their floor leaders in 1920 while they were in the minority  John W  Kern was a Democratic senator from Indiana  While the title was not official, the Senate website identifies Kern as the first Senate party leader, serving in that capacity from 1913 through 1917 (and in turn, the first Senate Democratic leader), while serving concurrently as chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus  In 1925, the Republicans (who were in the majority at the time) also adopted this language when Charles Curtis became the first (official) majority leader, although his immediate predecessor Henry Cabot Lodge is considered the first (unofficial) Senate majority leader 
The United States Constitution designates the Vice President of the United States as president of the Senate  The Constitution also calls for a president pro tempore, to serve as the presiding officer when the president of the Senate (the vice president) is absent  In practice, neither the vice president nor the president pro tempore—customarily the most senior (longest-serving) senator in the majority party—actually presides over the Senate on a daily basis; that task is given to junior Senators of the majority party  Since the vice president may be of a different party from the majority and is not a Senate member subject to discipline, the rules of procedure of the Senate give the Vice President no power beyond the presiding role  For these reasons, it is the majority leader who, in practice, manages the Senate  This is in contrast to the House of Representatives, where the elected speaker of the House has a great deal of discretionary power and generally presides over votes on legislative bills 

List of party leaders
The Democratic Party first selected a leader in 1920  The Republican Party first formally designated a leader in 1925 

See also
Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
Vice President of the United States (President of the United States Senate)
Party divisions of United States Congresses
List of political parties in the United States

Notes
Passage 5:
Inky Mark
Inky Mark (Chinese: 麥鼎鴻; pinyin: Mài Dǐnghóng; born November 17, 1947) is a Canadian politician and a former member of the House of Commons of Canada, representing the Manitoba riding of Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette  Mark was a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, although he frequently criticized and took positions opposite the party and its leader, Stephen Harper  Mark ran in the 2015 federal election, noting that he is now a Green Party of Canada member but that he would still run as an independent  He lost significantly 

Early life
Mark was born in Taishan, China, and moved to Manitoba as a child  Mark's father and grandfather had emigrated from China to Canada some time previously, but were unable to bring their families with them as a result of provisions in the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923  Mark accompanied his mother when she fled China in 1953, and subsequently settled with his family in the Manitoba community of Gilbert Plains 

Education
Mark has a Bachelor of Arts from Brandon University and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Manitoba  Before entering political life, he worked as a high school teacher and small businessman  Mark also has a certificate in broadcasting and started a master's degree in education program, although he did not graduate 

Political career
Municipal politics
Mark's political career started when joined the Board of Directors of the Dauphin First United Church  He was subsequently elected to the Dauphin town council in 1991, and became the town's mayor in 1994 

Federal politics
Mark was first elected to the House of Commons in the federal election of 1997, running as a candidate of the Reform Party in the riding of Dauphin—Swan River  From 1997 to 2000, Mark was one of only three Chinese-Canadian MPs in the House of Commons 
The Reform Party dissolved itself in 2000 in favour of the Canadian Alliance, and Mark ran as a candidate of the new party in the federal election which followed On September 12, 2001, Mark left the Canadian Alliance caucus to sit as a member of the Democratic Representative Caucus, in alliance with the Progressive Conservative Party 
The DRC came to an end on April 10, 2002, when Stephen Harper replaced Day as Canadian Alliance leader   Every other member of the DRC requested to be re-admitted to the Alliance; Mark did not join them, but instead decided to sit as an "Independent Conservative", with the intention of rejoining the Progressive Conservatives at their annual party convention later in the year; he had been a Progressive Conservative before the early 1990s   Mark formally joined the Progressive Conservatives on August 27, 2002 
In December 2003, the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party formally merged to create the new Conservative Party of Canada   Mark supported the merger, and formally joined the new party's caucus on February 2, 2004  Mark was easily re-elected in the Canadian federal election of 2004 
In 2005, Mark alleged that Treasury Board President and Liberal MP Reg Alcock offered him an ambassadorship if he were to resign his seat  Alcock responded by saying, "Frankly, if I was going to recruit somebody, I'd go a little higher up the gene pool " Mark called this comment racist and filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission  As the CHRC does not publish its investigations, it is not possible to know the outcome of this case 

Criticism and complaints
While a sitting MP, Mark gained a reputation as "an outsider" within the Conservative caucus   Mark is and has been an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister's Office, and several sitting and former Conservative MPs  He frequently complained that Harper was controlling, and he responded by refusing to attend Conservative events  Mark has called Harper a "fascist" and complained that he runs a "top-down dictatorship"  He says that the Central Intelligence Agency is controlled by the United States' Republican Party, and that the Republican Party installed Stephen Harper as the Canadian Prime Minister in order to sell out Canada to the United States 
Following the announcement of his resignation, Mark complained that the nomination race for his successor was rigged, and allowed Robert Sopuck to be acclaimed without competition Following his resignation as an MP, Mark stepped up his criticisms of the Harper government  He complained that the nomination race for the Conservative candidate following the resignation of Labrador MP Peter Penashue was rigged because Harper "wants a candidate he can control"  He also complained that the nomination race to replace Merv Tweed was rigged, and that the eventual successor, Larry Maguire, was just a "rubber stamp" for Harper  Mark was featured prominently in the book Tragedy in the Commons, where almost every chapter quoted Mark's complaints about the way Harper's government was run 
Mark complained that the Conservatives' Constituent Information Management System (CIMS) was a secretive database used to track and control Canadians' information and voting preferences, and said that Harper could simply "switch off" this system to punish an MP 

Parliamentary work
For his tenure as an MP, Mark was always a "backbencher" In 2001, as the Alliance's parliamentary critic for Immigration, Mark was responsible for expressing his party's position on the Liberal government's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which he did during the immigration controversy involving the Sklarzyk family who, as a result of an administrative error, was deported from Canada to Poland in May 2001  He also contributed to the parliamentary committee's work in drafting the final version of the bill, and was generally regarded by MPs from all parties as having made several constructive criticisms to the legislation 
However, on June 13, 2001, Mark's position on the bill was undercut by Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day, who delivered a speech in parliament supporting tighter restrictions against refugee claimants and reduced opportunities for rejected claimants to appeal to the Refugee Board   Day's comments diverged from Mark's stated position on several particulars, and his speech was regarded as very surprising by many other MPs in the House of Commons  For example, Liberal MP Steve Mahoney referred to Day's comments as "treachery" towards Mark, for which he was ruled out of order by the Speaker 
In 2005, Mark's private members' Bill C-331 (Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act) was passed by the House of Commons and Senate of Canada, eventually resulting in the establishment of the Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund, supporting educational and commemorative projects recalling Canada's first national internment operations of 1914–1920 

Federal resignation and return to municipal politics
Mark announced in June 2009 that he would be resigning before the next federal election  On August 16, 2010, he announced that he would step down as an MP on September 15 to campaign for another term as mayor of Dauphin  However, he lost to Eric Irwin 

Return to federal politics and switch to Green Party of Canada
Mark announced on November 13, 2014, that he would be running as an independent candidate for the 2015 federal election in Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, which includes nearly all of his old riding  Mark announced that he is now a member of the Green Party of Canada, but would still seek election in 2015 as an independent candidate  Mark finished a distant fourth behind Sopuck, garnering only eight percent of the vote 

Electoral record
^  Change is from the total of Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance votes in the 2000 election  

Note: Canadian Alliance vote is compared to Reform Party vote in 1997 election 
Passage 6:
Yane Yanev
Yane Yanev (Bulgarian: Яне Янев, born 22 April 1971) is a Bulgarian politician, leader of the center-right opposition party Order, Law and Justice and a member of the Bulgarian National Assembly  Known as an "anti-corruption hawk" that has brought to light many political scandals, Yanev is one of the most famous political players to emerge in Bulgaria in the past decade 
His stated political mission is the adoption of a new constitution, to replace the one adopted in the early 1990s with the fall of the former communist regime  Yanev has stated that he believes only such a "far-reaching and radical change" will allow Bulgaria to end the period of transition from communism to a law-abiding, democratic society  Following repeated threats concerning his life and health a Bulgarian-Israeli team has assumed twenty-four-hour security over the leader of RZS Yane Yanev, the press center of the party declared 

Early life
Yanev was born in Sandanski, a town in southwestern Bulgaria known for its agreeable climate and recreational resorts  He is son to Georgi Yanev and grandson to Yane Yanev (in whose honor he was named), both known as resistance figures to the communist regime  His grandfather served as mayor of the village Malak Tzalin for 11 years 
Yanev attended the local school in Sandanski and in 1990 entered the Agricultural University of Plovdiv, from which he matriculated with a degree in Agro-Engineering in 1994  He also pursued a master's degree in Economics and Management from the University of Plovdiv in 1992 to 1995 
During his student days he was active in student politics and was a member of the Students National Organization (Independent) 

Political involvement
Coming from a family long involved in agrarian politics, in his third year of university Yanev became a member of the National Alliance – Bulgarian Agricultural People's Union, and the chairman of its advisory board to the parliamentary group  He rose to prominence within the party and by the time Ivan Kostov became prime minister in 1997, he was a sought-after figure  After declining offers of positions in government, Yanev found himself in a hostile political environment that forced his resignation from politics 
He then worked as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the canned food and beverage company Kustendilski Plod 
In 2000 he returned to political involvement through the Agricultural People's Union and became the party chairman  He rose to national prominence in the early years of the decade by exposing to the public the fact the former King had abused his powers as Prime Minister (2001–2005) by privatizing state property that was formerly used by his family before the overthrow of the monarchy in 1946  Yanev also investigated abuses under the King's Minister of Finance Milen Velchev 
Yanev oversaw the transformation of the party in 2005 to Order, Law and Justice, maintaining the position of Secretary General in charge of overall organization, whilst the titular chairman position was given to former constitutional judge Georgi Markov  Following a failure to make significant electoral gains in the 2006 presidential elections, Markov resigned his position and Yanev unified the two posts under himself as chairman 

Member of Parliament
In June 2005 Yanev was elected as a member of the 40th National Assembly from the region of Blagoevgrad as part of the Union of Democratic Forces, and was a member of the committees on Agriculture and Forests, and Environment and Water 
In July 2009 Yanev retained his position in the 41st National Assembly  He is currently Chairman of the Bulgaria-Israel Friendship Committee  From July to December 2009, he also served as Chairperson of the Anti-Corruption, Conflict of Interests and Parliamentary Ethics Committee, a member of the Control Committee of the State Agency for National Security, and a member of the Advisory Board on National Security to the President of the Republic 

Personal life
Yanev announced his plans to be married by the end of 2010 during a live television interview on the popular talk show "Ivan & Andrei" 
Passage 7:
2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election
The 2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election was held on May 27, 2017   Party members chose Andrew Scheer as leader, replacing Stephen Harper, who led the Conservative Party of Canada as its leader from 2004 following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties  Harper led the party through five federal elections: the party increased its seat count in the House of Commons in 2004, formed two minority governments in 2006, and 2008, and then a majority government in 2011  Following the defeat of the party in the 2015 federal election on October 19, Harper tendered his resignation as party leader  In a statement, Conservative Party President John Walsh said he had spoken to Harper, "and he has instructed me to reach out to the newly elected parliamentary caucus to appoint an interim Leader and to implement the leadership selection process "259,010 party members were eligible to vote in the leadership contest  141,000 members cast a vote  According to raw voting figures, Scheer received 62,593 votes on the final ballot compared to 55,544 votes for Bernier with 23,000 voters who had voted in the first round ranking neither Scheer or Bernier in their ranked ballot  Votes were apportioned among ridings so that each riding was allocated 100 points, regardless of the number of voters, resulting in 17,222 20 points (50 95%) for Scheer and 16,577 80 points (49 05%) for Bernier Subsequent to the election, fourth placed candidate Brad Trost and his campaign were fined $50,000 by the Conservative Party of Canada for allegedly leaking the party's membership list to the National Firearms Association  Trost denied that he or any of his staff leaked the list  On February 11, 2019, the Conservative Party released a statement from its Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) which concluded: "In short, LEOC does not believe there is evidence that the Trost Campaign was responsible for leaking of the membership list    " The fine was therefore removed from the Brad Trost Campaign  Trost went on to lose renomination as the party candidate for his riding during the 43rd Federal election on March 10, 2018, to Corey Tochor, former speaker of the Saskatchewan Legislature Criticism has been raised about how the party memberships were handled, with some prominent members saying they never received a ballot, even after contacting the party about it In addition, the result of the leadership race and party handling was questioned by some supporters of such as runner-up Maxime Bernier and  fifth place candidate Kellie Leitch due to discrepancies in the final ballot count, specifically a gap between the number of ballots cast and the announced result - a 7,466 vote discrepancy, which is greater than Andrew Scheer's 7,049 votes margin of victory in the final round  There was criticism over the exact role of the accounting firm Deloitte during the voting process - a deal revealed that Deloitte was not specifically tasked with auditing the vote but "observe" the counting process  It was also reported that some of  Brad Trost's supporters contravened the Elections Act and party membership rules by offering incentives to vote  Dimitri Soudas, a former Stephen Harper aide, pointed out that it violated election rules and it benefited Scheer's campaign but the ballots have been destroyed so the results stood Many considered Scheer's victory as an upset, given Bernier's consistent frontrunner status in the polls 

Interim leadership
Conservative Party president John Walsh's letter to caucus stated that only Members of Parliament (MPs) would vote for the interim leader, but Conservative Senators pointed out that the party constitution states that the entire parliamentary caucus votes  The caucus allowed senators to vote, declining to adopt the provisions of the Reform Act that would have only allowed MPs to vote The caucus chose Rona Ambrose, MP for Sturgeon River—Parkland, Alberta and former Minister of Health, as interim leader at its first meeting on November 5, 2015, in a vote by preferential ballot  Ambrose, as the interim leader, also served as Leader of the Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada until a permanent leader was chosen  She defeated Candice Bergen, Diane Finley, Mike Lake, Rob Nicholson, Erin O'Toole, and the joint ticket of Denis Lebel and Michelle Rempel in the caucus vote Under the party's constitution, Ambrose, as the interim leader, could not run for the permanent position 

Leadership election timing
Following Harper's resignation, debate emerged within the Conservative Party regarding the timing of the leadership election  Some members of the party's national council called for a leadership convention as early as May 2016 according to Maclean's magazine  However, interim leader Rona Ambrose has said there is a consensus among the party's caucus that the leadership election shouldn't be rushed and should be held sometime in 2017  In a December 2015 interview, Ambrose said the party would take its time allowing all members, including those not already involved in politics, to build a strong candidacy  "If we take a little extra time, that will mean we'll have a better leadership race "The Conservative Party's Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) met at Toronto's Albany Club January 15–17, 2016 to discuss the process for the Party to elect its next leader  Among its decisions, LEOC selected May 27, 2017, for Conservative Party members to elect their next leader 

Rules and voting system
Only party members in good standing at 5pm Eastern Time on March 28, 2017, were allowed to vote  The fee for a party membership was raised from $15 to $25, an increase that was reversed on April 23, 2016, after criticisms that the move was "elitist"  Membership fees could only be paid via personal cheque or credit card  Cash payments were not permitted  This new requirement was intended to prevent the election being dominated by new members, and to prevent anyone other than the individual member, such as a candidate's campaign, from signing up scores of members and paying the membership fees in cash out of campaign funds  Despite this, the Conservative Party confirmed irregularities with 1,351 memberships connected to prepaid credit cards that it subsequently struck from its membership roll Voting was on a one member one vote basis using a ranked ballot; however votes were calculated so that each electoral district had equal weight with each electoral district allocated 100 points  Candidates were assigned a point total based on his or her percentage of the vote in each electoral district  To win, a candidate must receive at least 16,901 points which would be a majority To register, candidates must:
be members of the party for at least six months (can be waived),
submit nomination forms signed by 300 party members from at least 30 electoral districts in at least seven different provinces and territories,
pay a $50,000 non-refundable entrance fee, half of which must be paid when filing nomination with the other half due by the close of nominations on February 24, 2017 
pay an additional $50,000 compliance deposit, by December 31, 2016, or when filing nomination for those who register in 2017, which is refundable provided the candidate complies with campaign rules 
and fill out a 40-page questionnaire that asks for:
references,
criminal background and credit checks,
agreement with basic party principles,
a list of social media accounts,
questions about possible controversial positions the candidate has taken in the past, and
questions about affiliations and personal associations and behaviour that may be problematic A party committee reviewed the candidate's nomination form and may disqualify a potential candidate  Candidates are allowed to spend a maximum of $5 million on their campaigns 

Timeline
October 19, 2015 – Federal election results in defeat of Conservative government  As Harper spoke to supporters in Calgary, making no reference to his future, a statement was released by the party announcing Harper's resignation as party leader and his request that an interim leader be chosen to lead the party in parliament until a leadership election can be held 
November 4, 2015 – Harper resigns as prime minister; Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau sworn in 
November 5, 2015 – Conservative caucus held its first meeting since the 2015 federal election and chose former health minister Rona Ambrose interim leader of the party 
December 4–5, 2015 – National Council meets, 20-member Leadership Election Organization Committee appointed, including seven members of the National Council and MP Diane Finley, all of whom have pledged to be neutral during the leadership campaign; Dan Nowlan is appointed the committee's chair 
January 15–17, 2016 – The Leadership Election Organization Committee meets at the Albany Club in Toronto to decide on the date of the leadership vote, the deadline for candidates to be nominated, campaign spending limits, the entrance fee for candidates and the appeals process for any disputes 
May 26–28, 2016 – Conservative Party national policy convention, held at the Vancouver Convention Centre, voted on policy resolutions and elected the party president and other officials  An attempt to change the party constitution to allow the party's interim leader, Rona Ambrose, to seek the permanent leadership is defeated 
September 12, 2016 – Former Foreign Minister Peter MacKay, who had been leading public opinion polls as the most popular potential leader, announces that he will not be a candidate for the party's leadership 
November 2, 2016 – Only those who have registered as candidates by this date, including having paid at least $25,000 of the candidate deposit, are permitted to participate in the first leadership debate, to be held the following week  12 candidates meet this deadline 
November 9, 2016 – First of five official leadership debates organized by the LEOC, held in Saskatoon 
November 13, 2016 – Leadership debate organized by the Carleton Conservative Association, held in Greely, Ontario
December 6, 2016 – Second official debate held in Moncton in English and French 
December 31, 2016 – Deadline for candidates who filed their nomination papers in 2016 to have paid $50,000 compliance fee 
January 17, 2017, 6:30 pm – Third official debate held in Quebec City in French at the Quebec Convention Centre  The themes covered will be government and taxes 
February 4, 2017 – Leadership debate organized by the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia  The first debate involving well-known businessman Kevin O'Leary 
February 24, 2017, 5pm ET (UTC-5) – Nomination period closes; deadline for candidates to pay any remaining balance of entrance fee 
February 24, 2017 – Leadership debate organized by the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, held in Ottawa, Ontario
February 28, 2017 – Fourth official debate, held in Edmonton at the Maclab Theatre in English and French 
March 28, 2017, 5pm ET (UTC-4) – Members who have joined by this date are eligible to vote 
April 26, 2017 – Presumed frontrunner Kevin O'Leary withdraws from the election and endorses Maxime Bernier; as O'Leary has withdrawn after the deadline, his name remains on the ballot  Final leadership debate is held 
April 28, 2017 – Voting by mail-in ranked ballot begins 
May 26, 2017, 5pm ET (UTC-5) – Deadline for mail-in ballots to be received 
May 27, 2017 – In-person voting at Toronto Congress Centre and 14 polling stations across the country until 4 pm ET (UTC-5)  Advance and in-person ballots counted; results announced 

Full results
Provincial summary
Debates
Registered candidates
Candidates who have paid their entrance fee and compliance deposit and filed their nomination papers:

Chris Alexander
BackgroundChris Alexander, 54, is the former Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (2013–2015), Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of National Defence (2011– 2013) and the former MP for Ajax—Pickering, Ontario (2011–2015)  Prior to entering politics, he served as a member of Canada's foreign diplomatic service, most notably in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow and as the Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005  From 2005 to 2009 he held the post of Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Afghanistan   In addition to English, he is fluent in both French and Russian languages 
Date campaign announced: October 12, 2016
EndorsementsFormer MPs: (1) Yuri Shymko (Parkdale, 1978–1979)PoliciesChris Alexander has 40 detailed published policies that fall into three main categories: New Economy, New Country and New Role  These policies include how Canada should approach: employment, taxation, innovation, families, education, competitiveness, energy self-reliance, cities, agriculture, poverty, homelessness, First Nations peoples, the Métis, refugees, the Monarchy, justice, health care, protecting wilderness, forestry, mining, international diplomacy, terrorism, democratic reform, cyber-security, Canadian culture, northern development, and national defence He believes that immigration is the key to "economic growth " Is proposing to increase immigration to 400,000 a year including 40,000 refugees and calling for doubling defence spending and "for an accelerated push to settle all outstanding land claims and to sign treaties with First Nations communities that would empower them to govern themselves"  Was prominent in the Conservative government's handling of the Syrian refugee crisis and in the government's promise during the 2015 election to create a telephone tip line to report so-called "barbaric cultural practices " As minister, he was criticized over delays in meeting the government's commitment to resettle Syrian refugees 

Maxime Bernier
BackgroundMaxime Bernier, 60, was the MP for Beauce, Quebec (2006–2019) and was the Shadow Minister of Innovation (2015—2016)  He served in the Harper government as Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism (2011–2015), Minister of Foreign Affairs (2007–2008), and Minister of Industry (2006–2007), Bernier is considered an advocate of limited government and has been compared to a Libertarian  He has been nicknamed "Mad Max", the "Bloc-buster", or the "Albertan from Quebec" by his Ottawa colleagues  Prior to entering federal politics in 2006, Bernier, a lawyer by training, was vice-president of the Standard Life of Canada Insurance company, MEI, and manager of corporate and international relations at the Commission des valeurs mobilières du Québec 
Date candidacy announced: April 7, 2016
Policies
Running a campaign based on individual freedom, personal responsibility, respect and fairness  Expects support around the ideas/policies he is placing in the campaigns 
Calls for smaller government, lower taxes everywhere, paying down the national debt, increasing investments, increase pipeline developments, and opening up markets  Opposes bailout to any corporation, and use of "corporate welfare" (business subsidies)  Supports the decriminalization/legalization of marijuana Wants to allow MPs to vote their conscience and get rid of omnibus bills 
Phasing control of Canada Health Transfer to the provinces for health care by replacing it with a health transfer point systems, encourage provinces to move away from a single-payer healthcare system to a two-tier healthcare system, balance the budget within two years then reduce the number of tax brackets from five to three, increase basic exemption from $11,474 to $15,000 being paid by "boutique" tax credits  Supports abolishing capital gains taxes, and lowering corporate taxes to 10% by getting rid of corporate welfare 
Opposes a "Canadian values" test on the basis that it is logistically ineffective to fight terrorism  Abolish the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission, privatizing Canada Post Corporation, phasing out supply management on dairy and poultry, and expanding free trade  Ending inter-provincial barriers as a priority 
He also wants to "break" Quebec's maple syrup cartel and wants to allow foreign ownership for the airline industry  He wants to "streamline the process for hiring specialized workers abroad"  He wants to put more emphasis on economic immigration and "slightly reduce" family reunification class immigration   More privately sponsored refugee and fewer government sponsored  Reform temporary foreign worker programs  Bernier believes first nation communities need to be consulted before the Indian Act needs to be "abolished, or changed " Opposes federal control overreaching into other jurisdictions  Create stricter foreign aid standards and phase out development aid 

Steven Blaney
BackgroundSteven Blaney, 58, was the Shadow Minister of Public Works and Government Services (2015–2016) for the Conservative Opposition, and is the former Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (2013–2015), Minister of Veterans Affairs (2011–2013)  He is the MP for Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, Quebec (2015–present) and Lévis—Bellechasse, Quebec (2006–2015) 

Date campaign announced: October 23, 2016
Endorsements
MPs:
Senators: (2)Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu (Quebec),
Jean-Guy Dagenais (Quebec)Provincial politicians:
Municipal politicians:
Former MPs:
Former Senators:
Former provincial politicians:
Former municipal politicians:
Other prominent individuals:
Organizations:
Media:
Policies
Supports banning the wearing of the niqab while voting, taking the citizenship oath, or by federal public servants, even if such a ban would require invoking the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution in order to override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms  Also advocates testing of would be citizens on "their understanding and appreciation of Canada's core principles " He wants to "beef up" screening  The number of immigrants he wants to bring in will be based upon labour-market studies 

Michael Chong
BackgroundMichael Chong, 51, is the MP for Wellington—Halton Hills, Ontario (2004–present) and was the Deputy Shadow Minister of the Environment (2015–2016)  He was Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth (2006) and Minister of Sport (2006)  Chong resigned from the Harper cabinet in 2006 to protest the government's recognition of the Québécois as a nation within Canada  As a backbench MP he advocated democratic reforms in Parliament to limit the power of the Prime Minister's Office and party leaders over their caucuses and individual MPs and introduced the Reform Act to give caucuses the option of the power to remove party leaders, elect caucus chairs, and expel or readmit MPs, and elect interim leaders  He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party at the time of the merger 
Date campaign announced: May 16, 2016
Policies
Advocates modernizing democratic institutions and strengthening the independence of MPs and parliamentary committees 
Calls for the privatization of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) mortgage insurance and securitization business, a measure he says will make housing more affordable in Canada 
Supports introducing a revenue neutral carbon tax  Chong's plan would phase in a carbon tax over a decade, while immediately cutting taxes by $18 billion and getting rid of green regulations and subsidies 
Believes that Canada needs an evidence-based immigration policy that would put economic interests at the forefront  He has criticized face-to-face values screening as a divisive tactic 

Kellie Leitch
BackgroundKellie Leitch, 52, was the MP for Simcoe—Grey, Ontario (2011–2019) and Shadow Minister of Health (2015–2016)  In the Harper cabinet, she was Minister of Labour and the Status of Women (2013–2015)  She is an orthopaedic pediatric surgeon at SickKids Hospital and an associate professor at the University of Toronto 
Date campaign announced: April 6, 2016
Policies
Supports the decriminalization, but not legalization, of marijuana  Opposes a national tax on carbon emissions  Has suggested screening prospective immigrants using a "Canadian values" test  Described Donald J  Trump's win of the American presidency as an "exciting message and one that we need delivered in Canada as well " Urged by hundreds of health professionals to honour her medical oath and work against Canada's controversial asbestos industry, remained silent on the issue  Calls for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to be defunded and dismantled with the exception of the provision of emergency services to rural and remote parts of Canada 

Pierre Lemieux
BackgroundPierre Lemieux, 60, is the former MP for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, Ontario (2006–2015)  In the Harper government he was the Parliamentary Secretary for Official Languages (2007–2008), Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture (2008–2015), and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs (2015) 
Date campaign announced: August 22, 2016
Endorsements
MPs:
Senators:
Provincial politicians:
Municipal politicians:
Former MPs:
Former Senators:
Former provincial politicians:
Former municipal politicians:
Other prominent individuals:
Organizations: (3)Campaign Life Coalition
Canadian Taxpayers Federation Generation Screwed project,
Right NowPolicies
Running as a social conservative, highlighting his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage  Lemieux does not believe that screening potential immigration candidates to Canada would make Canada any safer  In March 2017, Pierre Lemieux received a rating of C− from the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights for his policies on firearms ownership in Canada 

Deepak Obhrai
BackgroundDeepak Obhrai, 73, was the MP for Calgary Forest Lawn, Alberta (2015–2019), and represented Calgary East, Alberta (1997–2015), was Shadow Minister of International Development (2015–2016), and was the Dean of the Conservative Caucus  In the Harper government he was the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs (2006–2015)  Obhrai was a member of the Canadian Alliance at the time of the merger 

Date campaign announced: July 14, 2016
Endorsements
MPs:
Senators:
Provincial politicians:
Municipal politicians:
Former MPs: (2)Corneliu Chisu (Pickering—Scarborough East, 2011–2015)
Joe Daniel (Don Valley East, 2011–2015)Former Senators:
Former provincial politicians:
Former municipal politicians:
Other prominent individuals:
Organizations: (1)Canadian Taxpayers Federation Generation Screwed projectMedia:
Withdrawn Endorsements: (2)Julian Fantino (Former MP for Vaughan, 2010–2015)
Martin Shields (MP for Bow River)Policies
Advocates a more inclusive party  Had promised to withdraw in favour of Peter MacKay if he were to run  He wants to increase the number of privately sponsored refugees and cut the number of government-sponsored refugees 

Erin O'Toole
BackgroundErin O'Toole, 50, is the MP for Durham, Ontario (2012–present) and was Shadow Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (2015–2016) for the Conservative Party in Opposition  Previously, he served as Minister of Veterans Affairs (2015) 
Date campaign announced: October 14, 2016 
Policies
O'Toole policies wants to give tax credits for youth underemployment and student debt  He wants to restructure temporary foreign worker and provincial nominee programs 

Rick Peterson
BackgroundRick Peterson, 61, is a venture capitalist, party fundraiser, the principal of Peterson Capital, and a former candidate for leadership of the British Columbia Conservative Party  He was a member of the Progressive Conservatives at the time of the merger 
Date campaign announced: October 18, 2016
Endorsements
MPs:
Senators:
Provincial politicians:
Municipal politicians:
Former MPs: (1)Bill Clarke (Vancouver Quadra, 1973–1984)Former Senators:
Former provincial politicians:
Former municipal politicians:
Other prominent individuals: (3)Brian Day (Canadian Medical Association President, 2006–2008)
Karen Mortfield (Press Secretary to the Ontario PC Leader, 1990–1993)
Mark Mullins (Former Fraser Institute President)Organizations: (1)Canadian Taxpayers Federation Generation Screwed projectPolicies
Advocates a flat federal income tax rate of 15% and eliminating corporate income taxes and raising the GST to 9%  Supports boosting terrorist surveillance and enhance security screening for immigrants 
Advocates offering citizenship to almost 250,000 skilled workers a year by 2022, triple today's levels, and to 35,000 business people, more than five times today's level while freezing refugee integration to the levels of Harper Era 
Would reform health care provincial transfer payments and equalization payments 
Calls for Canada Revenue Agency to withdraw from Quebec and to transfer the administration and collection of the income tax in the province to Revenue Quebec 
Would take Canada out of the UN firearms marking scheme and to allow open carry of restricted firearms in the bush  Received a rating of C− from the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights for his policies and a rating of C from the National Firearms Association 

Lisa Raitt
BackgroundLisa Raitt, 55, was the MP for Milton, Ontario (2015–2019), previously Halton, Ontario (2008–2015) and the former Shadow Minister of Finance (2015–2016), Minister of Transport (2013–2015), Minister of Labour (2010–2013), Minister of Natural Resources (2008–2010), President and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority (2002–2008)  Stepped down from shadow cabinet on October 14, 2016, to prepare for leadership bid 
Date campaign announced: November 2, 2016
 
Policies
Opposes Leitch's proposal to screen immigrants for "anti-Canadian values"  She will "introduce balanced budgets, repeal carbon pricing legislation and prioritize the development of Canada's natural resources "Firearms policy   In March 2017, Raitt received a rating of C+ from the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights for her policies on firearms ownership in Canada   In April, she received a rating of D from the National Firearms Association 

Andrew Saxton
BackgroundAndrew Saxton, 59, is the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance (2013–2015), Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board and for Western Economic Diversification (2011–2013), MP for North Vancouver (2008–2015), former chief executive officer of King George Financial Corporation 
Date campaign announced: October 18, 2016
Endorsements
MPs:
Senators:
Provincial politicians:
Municipal politicians:
Former MPs: (3)Joyce Bateman (Winnipeg South Centre, 2011–2015)
John Duncan (Vancouver Island North, 1993–2006, 2008–2015)
John Fraser (Vancouver South, 1972–1993; Speaker of the House of Commons, 1986–1993)Former Senators: (1)Noël Kinsella (New Brunswick, 1990–2014; Speaker of the Senate, 2006–2014)Former provincial politicians:
Former municipal politicians:
Other prominent individuals:
Organizations: (1)Canadian Taxpayers Federation Generation Screwed projectMedia: (1)David Holmes Black (Black Press Owner)Policies
Saxton's campaign is an economic platform  He plans on lowering taxes and balancing the budget 

Andrew Scheer
BackgroundAndrew Scheer, 44, Opposition House Leader (2015–2016), MP for Regina—Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan (2004–present), Speaker of the House of Commons (2011–2015)  Scheer was a member of the Canadian Alliance at the time of the merger 

Date campaign announced: September 28, 2016
 
Policies
Running as an "unapologetic" Conservative who can unite all wings of the party  He is "committed" to lower taxes, fiscal responsibility, and "compassion"  Scheer believes that there should be a "more robust screening process " Scheer is pro-life, but doesn't intend to bring any legislation on the topic  Scheer advocates for immigration based process, economic indicators, and "what our society needs "

Brad Trost
BackgroundBrad Trost, 49, was the MP for Saskatoon—University, (2015–2019) and Saskatoon—Humboldt (2004–2015) previously  He was appointed Official Opposition Critic for Canada-U S  Relations (2015–2016) following the 2015 election  Prior to election, Trost worked as an exploration geophysicist (prospector) in natural resources extraction in the north  He was also an active participant in his family's mixed grain, oilseeds and beef cattle farm operation  In his first Parliament, he founded the Conservative Party Energy Caucus and pushed for the re-creation of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources  He has served on the Standing Committees on International Trade and on Industry, and was elected vice-chair of the Canada-U S  Parliamentary Association 
Date campaign announced: August 16, 2016
Endorsements
MPs:
Senators:
Provincial politicians:
Municipal politicians:
Former MPs: (2)Leon Benoit (Vegreville—Wainwright, 1993–2015),
Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, 1997–2015)Former provincial politicians:
Former municipal politicians:
Other prominent individuals:
Organizations: (2)Campaign Life Coalition,
Canadian Taxpayers Federation Generation Screwed projectMedia:
Policies
Running as a social conservative, opposes a carbon tax, transgender bathrooms, tax increases generally, assisted suicide and abortion, deficit financing, and legalization of marijuana  Has been outspoken against abortion and against same-sex marriage and argued unsuccessfully at the 2016 Conservative policy convention to retain the party's definition of marriage as "the Union of one man and one woman"  Advocates privatization of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 

Withdrawn candidates
Tony Clement
BackgroundTony Clement, 62, is the MP for Parry Sound—Muskoka, Ontario (2006–2019) and has been Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs (2015–2016), President of the Treasury Board (2011–2015), Minister of Industry (2008–2011), Minister of Health (2006–2008), and a 2004 leadership candidate, placing third  He was an MPP in the Ontario legislature (1995–2003) and a provincial cabinet minister (1997–2003) under Premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves  Clement also ran for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in 2002, placing third 
Date campaign announced: July 12, 2016
Date withdrawn: October 12, 2016
Endorsements
MPs:
Senators: (1)Leo Housakos (Quebec; Speaker of the Senate, 2015)Provincial politicians:
Municipal politicians:
Former MPs: (1)Brad Butt (Mississauga—Streetsville, 2011–2015)Former Senators:
Former provincial politicians: (1)Gary Mar (Alberta MLA for Calgary Nose Creek, 1993–2004, and Calgary-Mackay, 2004–2007)Former municipal politicians: (1)Stephen Sparling (Halton Regional Councillor for Oakville, 1991–2000)Other prominent individuals: (2)Sandra Buckler (Director of Communications, Prime Minister's Office 2006–2008),
John Capobianco (FleishmanHillard National Lead)Organizations:
Media:
Other information
Said he would bring in coherent environmental policies in the wake of the Paris climate change accord, end government subsidies to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation  Withdrew after he was unable to meet fundraising targets he'd set for his campaign 
Later endorsed Maxime Bernier 

Daniel Lindsay
BackgroundDaniel Lindsay, 60, president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, radiologist, has done five tours as a civilian medical specialist with the Canadian Armed Forces, including in Kandahar, Afghanistan 
Date campaign announced: May 25, 2016
Date withdrawn: December 28, 2016
Endorsements
MPs:
Senators: (1)Betty Unger (Alberta)Provincial politicians:
Municipal politicians:
Former MPs:
Former Senators:
Former provincial politicians:
Former municipal politicians:
Other prominent individuals:
Organizations:
Media:
Other information
Withdrew after he was unable to fundraise enough money to meet December 31 deadline for paying the party the $50,000 leadership campaign compliance fee  Later endorsed Erin O'Toole 

Kevin O'Leary
Kevin O'Leary, 68, is a businessman, investor, journalist, writer, financial commentator and Emmy award-winning television personality 

Policies
O'Leary supported using a "big stick" federally in order to bring provincial governments in-line with federal policies, cutting waste in military spending, supports a peacekeeping role for the military, cutting carbon emissions through criminal sanctions rather than a carbon tax, supports current immigration policy but also wishes to "fast-track" the citizenship applications of skilled immigrants, asserted he would support LGBTQI people, legalize marijuana and defend reproductive rights 
Date campaign announced: January 18, 2017
Date withdrawn: April 26, 2017
Other information
O'Leary withdrew from the election despite polls showing he was the frontrunner  He stated that while he believed he could win the leadership election, he would be unable to defeat Justin Trudeau in the next federal election due to his inability to speak French fluently and his lack of support in Quebec  He endorsed Maxime Bernier  As his withdrawal took place after the deadline, O'Leary remained on the final leadership ballot 

Adrienne Snow
BackgroundAdrienne Snow, 49, Toronto-based communications consultant, former director of policy for National Foundation for Family Research and Education  Former executive director of Centre for the Study of Civic Renewal  Announced on August 23, 2016, that she intended to be a candidate but failed to register and announced in January that she was ending her campaign 
Date campaign announced: August 23, 2016
Date withdrawn: January 4, 2017

Declined
Rona Ambrose – Interim Leader of the CPC and Leader of the Official Opposition (2015–2017), MP for Sturgeon River—Parkland (2015–2017) and Edmonton—Spruce Grove, Alberta (2004–2015), Minister of Health (2013–2015), Minister of Public Works and Government Services (2010–2013), Minister of Labour (2008–2010), Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs (2007–2008), Minister of the Environment (2006–2007)  Ambrose is barred from running for permanent leader due to her position as interim leader and has declined interest in the permanent position 
John Baird – MP for Ottawa West—Nepean, Ontario (2006–2015), Minister of Foreign Affairs (2011–2015), Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (2010–2011), Minister of the Environment (2007–2008, 2010–2011), Minister of Transport (2008–2010), President of the Treasury Board, (2006–2007), Ontario Progressive Conservative Party MPP (1995–2005) and provincial cabinet minister (1999–2003) 
Candice Bergen – Opposition House Leader (2016–2020), Shadow Minister of Natural Resources (2015–2016), State for Social Development (2013–2015), MP for Portage—Lisgar, Manitoba (2008–present) 
Paul Calandra – Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada and for Intergovernmental Affairs (2013–2015), MP for Oak Ridges—Markham, Ontario (2008–2015) Endorsed Scheer 
Jean Charest – Premier of Quebec (2003–2012), Leader of the Quebec Liberal Party (1998–2012), Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (1993–1998), Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (1993), Minister of the Environment (1991–1993), MP for Sherbrooke (1984–1998)
Christy Clark – Premier of British Columbia (2011–2017), Leader of the B C  Liberal Party (2011–2017)
Gérard Deltell – Quebec lieutenant and Shadow Finance Minister (2016–present), Shadow Minister of Employment and Workforce Labour (2015–2016), MP for Louis-Saint-Laurent, Quebec (2015–present), Quebec MNA for Chauveau (2008–2015) and leader of the Action démocratique du Québec (2009–2012)  Endorsed O'Toole 
Ed Fast – Shadow Minister for the Environment (2015–present), MP for Abbotsford, British Columbia (2006–present), Minister of International Trade (2011–2015)  Endorsed O'Toole 
Doug Ford – former Toronto city councillor (2010–2014) and mayoral candidate (2014) 
Daniel Fournier – real estate development and investor 
Jason Kenney – Chair of Shadow Cabinet Committee on Strategic Operations (2015–2016), MP for Calgary Midnapore, Alberta (2015–2016) and Calgary Southeast, Alberta (1997–2015), Minister of National Defence (2015), Minister for Multiculturalism (2013–2015), Minister of Employment and Social Development (2013–2015), Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (2008–2013)
Bernard Lord – Premier of New Brunswick (1999–2006), Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick (1997–2006)
Peter MacKay – MP for Central Nova, Nova Scotia (2004–2015) and Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, Nova Scotia (1997–2004), Minister of Justice and Attorney General (2013–2015), Minister of National Defence (2007–2013), Minister of Foreign Affairs (2006–2007), Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party (2003)
Caroline Mulroney – investment management executive, daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney 
Mark Mulroney – head of capital equity markets at the National Bank of Canada, son of former prime minister Brian Mulroney 
James Moore – MP for Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, British Columbia (2000–2004) and Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, British Columbia (2004–2015), Minister of Industry (2013–2015), Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages (2008–2013)  Elected as a Canadian Alliance MP in 2000 
Michelle Rempel – Shadow Minister of Immigration (2015–present), MP for Calgary Nose Hill, Alberta (2015–present) and Calgary Centre-North, Alberta (2011–2015), Minister of Western Economic Diversification (2013–2015)
Brad Wall – Premier of Saskatchewan (2007–2018), Leader of the Saskatchewan Party (2004–2018) 
Dianne Watts – Shadow Minister of Infrastructure & Communities (2015–present), MP for South Surrey—White Rock, British Columbia (2015–present), Mayor of Surrey (2004–2015) Endorsed O'Toole 

Opinion polling
Some of the polls below were conducted before nominations for the leadership closed and therefore include potential candidates for the leadership race  Rona Ambrose, as interim leader, is ineligible to run for the permanent leadership unless there is a change to the party's constitution 

Conservative Party members
Conservative Party supporters
All Canadians
See also
2017 United Conservative Party leadership election
2017 New Democratic Party leadership election
Passage 8:
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu (born February 12, 1949) is a Canadian politician and victim's rights activist, who was appointed to the Senate of Canada on January 29, 2010 on the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, representing the province of Quebec under the banner of the Conservative Party of Canada 

Career
Boisvenu is the founding president of the Murdered or Missing Persons' Families' Association, which he founded after the 2002 kidnaping, forcible confinement, rape and murder of his daughter Julie 
In 2006, the Association that he leads won a battle for the rights of victims of crime with the adoption of Bill 25 by the National Assembly of Quebec  This bill provides better compensation for victims of crime He is also co-founder of the Le Nid centre, a shelter for abused women in Val-d'Or, and of a camp for underprivileged youth in Estrie Professionally, Boisvenu is a former provincial civil servant in Quebec, and was regional director for the Department of Recreation, Game and Fisheries and for the Department of the Environment before becoming Deputy Minister for the Department of Regions Boisvenu has a bachelor's degree in educational psychology from the Université de Montréal and a master's degree in administration from L'École nationale d'administration publique in Quebec City Boisvenu serves on the following  committees: Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs; Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications and the Standing Committee on National Security and Defence 
He sponsored both government and private Members’ bills: Bill C-37 (Increasing Offenders’ Accountability for Victims Act); Bill C-23 (Eliminating Pardons for Serious Crimes Act); Bill C-310 (An Act to amend the Criminal Code-trafficking in persons), Bill C-316 (An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act - incarceration); Bill C-293 (An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act-vexatious complainants); Bill C-452 (An Act to amend the Criminal Code - exploitation and trafficking in persons) and Bill C-479 (An Act to bring Fairness for the Victims of Violent Offenders]) 
On February 24, 2015, he introduces Bill C-32 ([An Act to Enact the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights and to amend certain Acts) 
In February 2012, Boisvenu, a key Conservative spokesman on crime issues, stated that convicted murderers should be given the choice of suicide rather than spending life in jail  He retracted the statement after it sparked controversy and later issued an apology "if his comment offended people whose close ones committed suicide" In June 2013, it was reported that a Senate ethics complaint was filed against Boisvenu  The complaints relate to Boisvenu using his position of senator to influence the clerk of the Senate and another Senator to arrange a job and time off for his assistant, with whom he had a romantic relationship  Furthermore, objections were raised because of Boisvenu's six-month delay in complying with a previous ethics order In June 2014, Senate ethics officer Lyse Ricard found that Boisvenu had acted inappropriately by renewing his assistant's contract while the two were involved in a relationship, and that he also violated the code by promising her a two-week period of sick leave between jobs  He then contacted Senate clerk Gary O'Brien and Senate leader David Tkachuk in a bid to have the time off counted as sick leave and not vacation time  However, Ricard concluded that Boisvenu was responsible for "an error of judgment made in good faith" and did not recommend he be sanctioned  In 2012, there were media reports that, after his divorce, Boisvenu continued to charge the Senate for $20,000 in out-of-town living expenses, even though he had left his home in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and was living in Gatineau, Quebec Boisvenu resigned from the Conservative caucus in June 2015 after learning that he is the subject of an RCMP investigation into his expense claims  He was readmitted to the Conservative caucus on November 22, 2016 after the RCMP decided not to lay charges against the Senator 

Alleged links to the far-right
In 2017, it was reported that Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu was a member of Facebook group for "PEGIDA Quebec" and the group for La Meute  Although Boisvenu actively participated in both groups, he later said joined one group "by accident" and the other "out of curiosity"  He initially insisted he would remain a member, but later left the two groups  Conservative Senator Leo Housakos distanced himself from Boisvenu: "In the case of Mr  Boisvenu, it seems that he's decided to endorse certain organizations that are blatantly racist, and unfortunately that doesn't represent at all who we are in the Conservative caucus "In 2019, Boisvenu was found to be actively participating in the far-right Facebook groups "Canadian Coalition of Concerned Citizens (C4)" and Yellow Vests Canada In May 2018, and again in February 2019, Boisvenu gave an interview on YouTube Channel "Le Stu-Dio", which promotes far-right conspiracy theories, including the 9/11 truther movement 

Personal life
Boisvenu founded the "Murdered or Missing Persons' Families' Association" after the 2002 kidnapping, forcible confinement, rape and murder of his daughter Julie  Boisvenu then began advocating for the rights of victims of crime, especially for the families of murdered or missing persons  In 2004, he co-founded with three other fathers of missing or murdered women, the association 
In 2005, his second daughter, Isabelle, died in a car accident 
Passage 9:
Congress of the New Right
The Congress of the New Right (Polish: Kongres Nowej Prawicy, Nowa Prawica or just KNP) is an economically libertarian, socially conservative and Eurosceptic political party in Poland  The party was founded on 25 March 2011 by Janusz Korwin-Mikke, from the merger of the Liberty and Lawfulness (WiP) with several members of the Real Politics Union (UPR)  The former leader Korwin-Mikke was ousted from the party in 2015, upon revelations that he had fathered 2 children out of wedlock  The party assumed the official name Congress of the New Right on 12 May 2011 

History
The political organisation KNP was founded by supporters of Liberty and Lawfulness leader, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who finished fourth in the 2010 Polish presidential election, receiving 2 5% votes (over 400,000)  Taking advantage of his rising popularity, a group of political activists derived from both the former party of Janusz Korwin-Mikke, the Real Politics Union, and the Liberty and Lawfulness (dissolved three days earlier), came together on 9 October 2010 to form a new party: the "Real Politics Union – Liberty and Lawfulness"  The new party took part in the 2010 local Polish elections, represented by commissioner Tomasz Sommer   The committee put forward candidates in thirteen voivodeships  The "Congress of the New Right" equaled the results of its leader in two voivodeships, Lesser Poland (2 69%) and Mazovia (2 32%)  In terms of overall country-wide votes, the party concluded the election at seventh place  The committee had candidates for the position of mayor in some main cities in Poland in the same 2010 elections  Janusz Korwin-Mikke ended fourth in the mayoral election in Warsaw, gaining 3 90% of the eligible votes  Afterwards, the new party, the Congress of the New Right was founded on 25 March 2011, a day after the "Real Politics Union – Liberty and Lawfulness" had ceased to exist 

Activity
The first meeting of the new party was held on 16 April 2011 in the Palace of Culture and Science  Over 2,000 sympathizers attended the meeting, including notable people like Krzysztof Rybiński, Andrzej Sośnierz, Krzysztof Bosak, Romuald Szeremietiew, Stanisław Michalkiewicz or Tomasz Sommer  One month later, "Congress of the New Right" was formally acknowledged on 12 April 2011 as a new name of the party 
The Congress registered an electoral committee under the name "Nowa Prawica - Janusz Korwin Mikke" for the upcoming 2011 parliamentary elections  The National Election Committee ("Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza", PKW) accepted the party in 21 of 41 electoral districts, refusing the Congress to enlist for the rest on the grounds of not delivering a 'list of supporters' on time  The decision was generally received as controversial  The PKW rejected to submit motives of the refusal despite being constitutionally obliged to do so  This move effectively denied the Congress of the New Right access to the Polish Parliament as it effectively had to receive twice the votes of the constitutional threshold of five percent in order to be elected to the Polish Parliament  The party could not put forward candidates in most of the largest cities in Poland, including Warsaw, where Janusz Korwin-Mikke was denied enlistment  Representatives of other parties (UPR, LPR and others) were put on the lists of the Congress of the New Right  In the elections to the Polish Senate the party was allowed to put forward candidates on 10 out of 100 electoral districts (the number of electoral districts differ for the Polish Parliament and the Polish Senate)  The elections were disastrous for the party as it received merely 1 06% votes (151 837), a result that placed it at seventh place  Therefore, none of the party's candidates were voted into the Senate 
On 9 January 2013 The KNP Youth Section was officially founded  Access is granted to both young adults as well as those who have not reached the age of majority (18) 
In the 2015 party's leader Janusz Korwin-Mikke, along with party's MP Przemysław Wipler and MEP Robert Iwaszkiewicz split into Liberty, whose leader became Janusz Korwin-Mikke 
In the parliamentary election in 2015 KNP stood for the Sejm from the lists of Kukiz'15, gaining 1 MP 

Aims
KNP is against interfering with the current election system  It calls for enacting a new libertarian-minded constitution, reduction of the size of the Polish Parliament and forming a State Council, which would replace the Parliament as the legislative branch  KNP is also in favor of more regional autonomy The party's main priorities are lowering taxes (including the abolition of income tax) and reducing the national debt by cutting down social programs and allowing the economy to flourish KNP is for the total decriminalisation of using and producing drugs KNP is for establishing a presidential system instead of the current parliamentary system 
KNP opposes same-sex marriage The party is for the restoration of capital punishment [10]The party supports Polish withdrawal from the European Union and wants to maintain the Polish zloty and to make it a gold-based currency 
KNP is anti-abortion only allowing in case of risk for the mother's life 

Election results
Sejm
Senate
Presidential
Regional assemblies
European Parliament
Footnotes
Further reading
Bachrynowski, Szymon (2015)  "Between Europe and Russia: The Foreign Policy of Janusz Korwin-Mikke's New Right in Poland"  The Polish Quarterly of International Affairs (2): 135–144 
Szczerbiak, Aleks (10 June 2014)  "The Congress of the New Right is the latest anti-establishment party to have success in Poland, but it may struggle to secure long-term support"  EUROPP — European Politics and Policy blog  London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) 

External links
Official website (in Polish)
Passage 10:
Patrick Brown (politician)
Patrick Brown may refer to:

Patrick Brown (cricketer) (born 1998), English cricketer
Patrick Brown (ice hockey) (born 1992), American ice hockey player
Patrick Brown (journalist), British-Canadian journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Patrick Brown (Canadian politician) (born 1978), Canadian politician and mayor of Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Patrick Brown (Northern Irish politician), Northern Irish politician
Patrick Brown (photographer) (born 1969), Australian photojournalist, recipient of World Press Award 2018
Sleepy Brown (Patrick Brown, born 1970), American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer
Patrick O  Brown (born 1954), American professor of biochemistry at Stanford University
Patrick (Bischoff) Brown (born 1978), American engineer, producer and studio owner
Patrick Brown (American football) (born 1986), American football offensive tackle
Patsy Brown (Patrick A  Brown, 1872–1958), Irish-American maker of the uilleann pipes

See also
Pat Brown (disambiguation)
Patrick Browne (disambiguation)
Sir Patrick Broun, 1st Baronet (c  1630–1688), of the Broun baronets
Brown (surname), a surname of English and Scottish origin



ground_truth: Andrew Scheer

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

Question: In which county is Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative headquartered?

The following are given passages.
Context 4:  At the time one of the last open questions of the European exploration of Africa was whether the Lualaba River fed the Nile (Livingstone's theory), the Congo, or even the Niger River  Financed in 1874, Stanley's first trans-Africa exploration started in Zanzibar and reached the Lualaba on October 17, 1876  Overland he reached Nyangwe, the center of a lawless area containing cannibal tribes at which Tippu Tip based his trade in slaves  Stanley managed to hire a force from Tippu Tip to guard him for the next 150 kilometres (90 mi) or so, for 90 days  
The party left Nyangwe overland through the dense Matimba forest  On November 19 they reached the Lualaba again  Since the going through the forest was so heavy, Tippu Tip turned around with his party on December 28, leaving Stanley on his own, with 143 people, including eight children and 16 women  They had 23 canoes  His first encounter with a local tribe was with the cannibal Wenya  In total Stanley reports 32 unfriendly meetings on the river, some violent, even though he attempted to negotiate a peaceful thoroughfare  But the tribes were wary as their only experience of outsiders was with slave traders 
On January 6, 1877, after 640 kilometres (400 mi), they reached Boyoma Falls (called Stanley Falls for some time after), consisting of seven cataracts spanning 100 kilometres (60 mi) which they had to bypass overland  It took them to February 7 to reach the end of the falls  Here Stanley learned that the river was called Ikuta Yacongo, proving to him that he had reached the Congo and that the Lualaba did not feed the Nile 
From this point, the tribes were no longer cannibals but possessed firearms, apparently as a result of Portuguese influence  Some four weeks and 1,900 kilometres (1,200 mi) later he reached Stanley Pool (now Pool Malebo), the site of the present day cities Kinshasa and Brazzaville  Further downstream were the Livingstone Falls, misnamed as Livingstone had never been on the Congo: a series of 32 falls and rapids with an elevation change of 270 metres (900 ft) over 350 kilometres (220 mi)  On 15 March they started the descent of the falls, which took five months and cost numerous lives  From the Isangile Falls, five falls from the foot, they beached the canoes and Lady Alice and left the river, aiming for the Portuguese outpost of Boma via land  
On August 3 they reached the hamlet Nsada  From there Stanley sent four men with letters forward to Boma, asking for food for his starving people  On August 7 relief came, being sent by representatives from the Liverpool trading firm Hatton & Cookson  On August 9 they reached Boma, 1,001 days since leaving Zanzibar on November 12, 1874  The party then consisted of 108 people, including three children born during the trip  Most probably (Stanley's own publications give inconsistent figures), he lost 132 people through disease, hunger, drowning, killing and desertion Kinshasa was founded as a trading post by Stanley in 1881 and named Léopoldville in honor of Leopold II of Belgium  The Congo Basin was privately claimed by Leopold II as Congo Free State in 1885 where the many Atrocities in the Congo Free State were committed until the region was called the Belgian Congo 

See also
List of crossings of the Congo River
2021 Congo River disaster

Notes
Passage 13:
Rufiji River
The Rufiji River lies entirely within Tanzania  It is also the largest and longest river in the country  The river is formed by the confluence of the Kilombero and Luwegu rivers  It is approximately 600 kilometres (370 mi) long, with its source in southwestern Tanzania and its mouth on the Indian Ocean opposite Mafia Island across the Mafia Channel, in Pwani Region  Its principal tributary is the Great Ruaha River  It is navigable for approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) 
The Rufiji river is approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of Dar es Salaam  The river's delta contains the largest mangrove forest in eastern Africa 

History
A branch of ancient sea routes led down the East African coast called "Azania" by the Greeks and Romans in the 1st century CE as described in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (and, very probably, Chinese: 澤散 in the 3rd century by the Chinese), at least as far as the port known to the Romans as Rhapta, which was probably located in the delta of the Rufiji River in modern Tanzania During the First World War, from October 1914 to July 1915, the river delta was the scene of a protracted naval operation  These were the attempts, and later achievement, by the Royal Navy to neutralize and destroy the German cruiser Konigsberg 

Basin
The catchment basin for the Rufiji River complex is 177,429 square kilometres (68,506 sq mi) 

Hydroelectric Project
Tanzania president John Magufuli has approved the construction of a controversial new dam and power station on the river at Stiegler's Gorge  The power station is expected to provide 2,100 megawatts of electricity, more than triple Tanzania's existing installed hydropower capacity which is only 562 megawatts  Construction of the dam started on July 26, 2019, and it is expected be ready by 2022 
Passage 14:
Mangalam River
Mangalam River is the main tributary of the river Gayathripuzha, which in turn is a tributary of Bharathapuzha, the second longest river in Kerala, India   It is around 30 km long in length, with its source from Nelliyampathi forests, and passing through Vadakkencherry, Kannambra, Puthucode, Padur, etc  and joining Gayathripuzha at Plazhi in the border of Thrissur and Palakkad districts 
Cherukunnapuzha is a tributary of Mangalam River and Mangalam Dam is constructed across this river  A canal system for irrigation purpose was completed and opened in 1966, in Alathur taluk, Palakkad district 

Tributaries of the river Mangalam river
Cherukunnapuzha

See also
Bharathapuzha - Main river
Gayathripuzha - One of the main  tributaries of the river Bharathapuzha

Other tributaries of the river Gayathripuzha
Ayalurpuzha
Vandazhippuzha
Meenkarappuzha
Chulliyar
Passage 15:
Cagne
The Cagne is a river that flows through the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France  Its source is near Coursegoules, and it flows into the Mediterranean Sea in Cagnes-sur-Mer  It is 27 5 km (17 1 mi) long  The Malvan is one of its tributaries 
Passage 16:
Thoré
The Thoré (French pronunciation: ​[tɔʁe]) is a 61 6-kilometre-long (38 3 mi) river in the Hérault and Tarn departments in southern France  Its source is in the northern part of Rieussec  It flows generally northwest  It is a left tributary of the Agout, into which it flows between Navès and Castres 

Departments and communes along its course
This list is ordered from source to mouth: 

Hérault: Rieussec, Verreries-de-Moussans,
Tarn: Labastide-Rouairoux, Anglès, Lacabarède, Rouairoux, Sauveterre, Albine, Saint-Amans-Valtoret, Saint-Amans-Soult, Bout-du-Pont-de-Larn, Mazamet, Pont-de-Larn, Aussillon, Payrin-Augmontel, Aiguefonde, Caucalières, Labruguière, Castres, Navès,
Passage 17:
Klehini River
The Klehini River is a large, glacially fed stream in the vicinity of Haines in the U S  state of Alaska 
The Klehini River is about 42 miles (68 km) long from its source in British Columbia to its mouth at the Chilkat River, of which it is the largest tributary   The Klehini River is renowned for its salmon runs, its biannual congregation of bald eagles—the second largest in the Haines area after the Chilkat River's Council Grounds—and for the Klehini Falls  The Klehini also delineates the northern boundary of the Chilkat Range 
The name Klehini appears to be derived from the Tlingit phrase l’éiw héeni, which translates to river with sand or gravel in it    The Klehini River contains abundances of both sand and gravel 
The lower Klehini is located within the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve 
Walt Disney's 1991 rendition of White Fang was filmed along the Klehini River 

Klehini Falls
The Klehini Falls are a series of four cataracts in far northwestern British Columbia occurring in a narrow gorge near the headwaters of the Klehini River  The falls are separated from one another by a distance of approximately 300 feet (91 m), with an average plunge of 30 to 40 feet (9 1 to 12 2 m)  The individual cataracts are currently unnamed 

See also
List of rivers of Alaska
List of British Columbia rivers
Passage 18:
Orange River
The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: Oranjerivier) is a river in Southern Africa  It is the longest river in South Africa  With a total length of 2,432 km (1,511 mi), the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north  It rises in the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho, flowing westwards through South Africa to the Atlantic Ocean  The river forms part of the international borders between South Africa and Lesotho and between South Africa and Namibia, as well as several provincial borders within South Africa  Except for Upington, it does not pass through any major cities  The Orange River plays an important role in the South African economy by providing water for irrigation and hydroelectric power  The river was named the Orange River in honour of the Dutch ruling family, the House of Orange, by the Dutch explorer Robert Jacob Gordon  Other names include simply the word for river, in Khoekhoegowab orthography written as !Garib, which is rendered in Afrikaans as Gariep River with the intrusion of a velar fricative in place of the alveolar click, Groote River (derived from Kai !Garib) or Senqu River (used in Lesotho), derived from ǂNū "Black"  It is known in isiZulu as isAngqu 

Course
The Orange rises in the Drakensberg mountains along the border between South Africa and Lesotho, about 193 km (120 mi) west of the Indian Ocean and at an altitude of over 3,000 m (9,800 ft)  The extremity of the Orange River inside Lesotho is known as the Senqu  Parts of the Senqu River freeze in winter because of the high altitude  This creates droughts downstream, which mainly affect goat and cattle production 

The Orange River then runs westward through South Africa, forming the south-western boundary of the Free State province  In this section, the river flows first into the Gariep Dam and later into the Vanderkloof Dam  From the border of Lesotho to below the Vanderkloof Dam, the river bed is deeply incised  Further downstream, the land is flatter, and the river is used extensively for irrigation 
At the western point of the Free State, southwest of Kimberley, the Orange meets with its main tributary, the Vaal River, which forms much of the northern border of the province  From here, the river flows further westward through the arid wilderness of the southern Kalahari region and Namaqualand in the Northern Cape province to meet with Namibia at 20°E longitude  From here, it flows westward for 550 km (340 mi), forming the international border between the province and Namibia's ǁKaras Region  On the border, the river passes the town of Vioolsdrif, the main border post between South Africa and Namibia 

In the last 800 km (500 mi) of its course, the Orange receives many intermittent streams, and several large wadis lead into it  In this section, the Namib Desert terminates on the north bank of the river, so under normal circumstances, the volume of water added by these tributaries is negligible  Here, the bed of the river is once again deeply incised  The Augrabies Falls are located on this section of the Orange, where the river descends 122 m (400 ft) in a course of 26 km (16 mi) 
The Orange empties into the Atlantic Ocean between the small towns of Oranjemund (meaning "Orange mouth") in Namibia and Alexander Bay in South Africa, about equidistant between Walvis Bay and Cape Town  Some 33 km (21 mi) from its mouth, it is obstructed by rapids and sand bars and is generally not navigable for long stretches 
The river has a total length of 2,432 km (1,511 mi) 

Catchment and rainfall
In the dry season, the volume of the water in the river is considerably reduced because of the rapid run-off and evaporation  At the source of the Orange, the rainfall is about 2,000 mm (79 in) per annum, but precipitation decreases as the river flows westward; at its mouth, the rainfall is less than 50 mm (2 0 in) per year  The factors that support evaporation, though, tend to increase in a westerly direction  In the wet season (summer), the Orange river becomes a brown colored torrent  The huge mass of sediment carried constitutes a long-term threat to engineering projects on the river The total catchment of the Orange River (including the Vaal) extends over 973,000 km2 (376,000 sq mi), i e  equivalent to about 77% of the land area of South Africa (1,221,037 km2 (471,445 sq mi))  Around 366,000 km2 (141,000 sq mi) (38%), however, are situated outside the country in Lesotho, Botswana, and Namibia 

Tributaries
Vaal River - 1,458 km (906 mi)
Caledon River - 642 km (399 mi)
Khubelu River - 144 km (89 mi)

Dams
Armenia Dam
Egmont Dam
Gariep Dam
Newberry Dam
Vanderkloof Dam
Welbedacht Dam

History
Etymology
Some of the earliest precolonial inhabitants called the river ǂNūǃarib, referring to its black colour, or sometimes just Kai !Arib ("Great River"), from which is derived the Afrikaans version Gariep, and translation "Groote Rivier"  The early Dutch name for the river was just that translation, Groote Rivier, meaning "Great River"  The river was named the Orange River by Colonel Robert Gordon, commander of the United East India Company (VOC) garrison at Cape Town, on a trip to the interior in 1779  Gordon named the river in honor of William V of Orange  A popular but incorrect belief is that the river was named after the supposedly orange color of its water, as opposed to the color of its tributary, the Vaal River, which name is derived from the name ǀHaiǃarib "pale river" (vaal being Afrikaans for pale or grey)  Since the end of apartheid, the name "Gariep" has had greater favour in official correspondence in South Africa, although the name "Orange" has greater international recognition  In Lesotho, where the river rises, it is known as the Senqu River, derived from the original Khoemana name 

The Eastern Cape Geographical Names Committee has advertised its intention to consider a name change from the colonial name, for that portion of the river that forms the border between the Eastern Cape and the Free State, with suggestions being IGqili or Senqu  The advertisement placed in the Aliwal Weekblad newspaper states that the "present name is perceived to have a strong association with the history of colonial subjugation and has therefore no place under the current democratic dispensation "

The Grootslang
In South African folklore, the Orange River is often associated with the Grootslang, a mythical being resembling a giant serpent, which is often connected to the river's alluvial diamonds  The Grootslang is described as living in a gem-filled cave connected to the Orange River by a natural pipe through which the diamonds gradually enter the river  Other sites said to be lairs of the creature include the pool beneath the King George Cataract at Aughrabies Falls, which is also said to be a source of diamonds, and a large rock in the middle of the river itself  In this version of the legend, the Grootslang is also said to prey on cattle from the river's banks 

Economy
As the collection point for the majority of South Africa's water, the Orange River plays a major role in supporting agriculture, industry, and mining  To assist in this, two large water schemes have been created, the Orange River Project and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project  Historically, the river played an important role in the South African diamond rush, with the first diamonds in the country being discovered in alluvial deposits on the Orange  Today, several commercial diamond mines operate along the final stretch of the Orange River and around its mouth 
Because of the lack of dangerous animals and high water levels during summer, the river is used for recreational canoeing and rafting  Orange River rafting has become very popular with many companies using their camps along the river from which to operate  The most popular trips are four-day and six-day river trips that take place either along the gorge below the Augrabies Falls or along the Richtersveld area 

Orange River Project
The Orange River Project (ORP) was one of the largest and most imaginative projects of its kind in South Africa  It was constructed by Hendrik Verwoerd's government at the height of the apartheid era  The ORP was built to exploit the waters of the Orange River—which, without the Vaal River, represents some 14 1% of the total runoff in South Africa—and in the process, to satisfy an increasing demand for water  The main objectives of the project were:

to stabilise river flow,
the generation and transmission of hydroelectric power,
to provide a reliable water supply for users in the Orange River basin, and
to give a new lease on life to water-deficient areas in the Eastern Cape, such as the Great Fish and Sundays River valleys The Gariep Dam near Colesberg is the main storage structure within the Orange River  From here, the water is supplied in two directions, westward along the Orange River (via hydroelectric power generators) to the Vanderkloof Dam and southward through the Orange-Fish Tunnel to the Eastern Cape 

Hydroelectricity
Eskom operates hydroelectric power stations at both the Gariep Dam and the Vanderkloof Dam  The hydroelectric power station at the Vanderkloof Dam was the first power-generation station in South Africa situated entirely underground  The towns Oviston and Oranjekrag were established to facilitate the construction and operation of the new infrastructure 

Irrigation
Irrigation in the vast area downstream of the Vanderkloof Dam, which has turned thousands of hectares of arid veld into highly productive agricultural land, was made possible by the construction of the Gariep and Vanderkloof Dams  Old established irrigation schemes such as those at Buchuberg, Upington, Kakamas, and Vioolsdrif have also benefitted because regulation of the flow is now possible  On the Namibian side of the river, Aussenkehr produces grapes with the help of water from the Orange 
In recent years, the wine-producing areas along the Orange River have grown in importance  Irrigation in the Eastern Cape has also received a tremendous boost, not only from the additional water being made available, but also owing to improvement in water quality  Without this improvement, the citrus farmers along the Lower Sundays River would almost certainly have continued to suffer losses of productivity 

Lesotho Highlands Water Project
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project was conceived to supplement the water supply in the Vaal River System  Water is delivered to South Africa by means of the delivery tunnel which passes under the Lesotho South Africa border at the Caledon River, and then under the Little Caledon River south of Clarens in the Free State, and discharges into the Ash River about 30 kilometres (19 mi) further to the north  The scheme became viable when water demands in Gauteng reached levels that could no longer be supported economically by alternative schemes such as the Tugela River-Vaal River pumped storage scheme, which used the Sterkfontein Dam, located near Harrismith in the Free State 

Alluvial diamonds
In 1867, the first diamond discovered in South Africa, the Eureka Diamond, was found near Hopetown on the Orange River  Two years later, a much larger diamond known as the Star of South Africa was found in the same area, causing a diamond rush  This was soon eclipsed by the diamond rush to mine diamonds directly from kimberlite at Kimberley in 1871, although alluvial diamonds continued to be found in the Orange  Today, several commercial diamond mines operate on the last stretch of the river, as well as the beaches around its mouth  Diamond mines also operate on the middle stretch of the river 

Rafting and canoeing
During the temperate months of March and April, given good rains and the sluices of the dams being open, a canoeist (or rafter) can easily travel 30 kilometres (19 mi) per day  The lower reaches of the river are most popular, because of the spectacular topography  Commercial tours are available, and these expeditions depart from the border town of Vioolsdrif 

Wildlife
The Orange River has no large animals  It lies outside the range of the Nile crocodile, and although hippopotami were once abundant, they were hunted to extermination in the 19th century  The Orange River has a relative paucity of species diversity  A 2011 survey of 13,762 fish found only 16 species of fish present   Three of these, the common carp, the Mozambique tilapia, and the western mosquitofish are not indigenous   Another exotic species, rainbow trout, is found in the river headwaters in Lesotho 
Seven species are endemic to the Vaal-Orange River system:
Rock-catfish (Austroglanis sclateri)
Maluti redfin or Maloti minnow (Pseudobarbus quathlambae)
Namaquab barb (Barbus hospes)
River sardine (Mesobola brevianalis)
Smallmouth yellowfish (Labeobarbus aeneus)
Largemouth yellowfish (Labeobarbus kimberlyensis)
Orange River Mudfish (Labeo capensis)

See also
List of rivers in South Africa
List of international border rivers
List of crossings of the Orange River
Passage 19:
Bhilangna River
Bhilangna River is a Himalayan river in Uttarakhand, India, which is the major tributary of the Bhagirathi river, the source stream of the Ganges River of India  Bhilangana is a combination of Bhil and Ganga The mainstem, Bhilangna, rises at the foot of the Khatling Glacier (elevation 3,717 m (12,195 ft)) approximately 50 km (31 mi) south of the ice cave at Gaumukh, traditionally considered the source of both the Bhagirathi and the Ganges and flows into the Bhagirathi at Old Tehri, the site of the Tehri dam   It meets its major tributary the Bal Ganga at Ghansali (elevation 976 m (3,202 ft)) 
The Bal Ganga, whose headwaters are formed at the foot of Mount Kukhli Dhar (elevation 4,600 m (15,100 ft)), itself has a minor tributary, the Dharam Ganga, which meets it at Thati Kathur (also Budha Kedar) at elevation 1,524 m (5,000 ft)
The Khatling trek route passes alongside the Bhilangna, starting from the last point accessible by road, Ghuttu, until the glacier, which stands at 3700 metres  If one were to go further on the trail past the glacier, one could reach Kedarnath 

See also
Bhagirathi River
Ganges
Alaknanda River



ground_truth: Charles County

Charles County, Maryland