Pashtuns, sometimes spelled "Pushtuns", or "Pakhtuns", or "Pukhtuns", (, ), are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the second largest in Pakistan. Their mother language is Pashto, but many of them also speak neighboring Urdu, Hindko and Dari languages. They are the original or native people of the area south of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan and west of the Indus River in Pakistan. However, in the modern period, they have spread to cities outside their native land. According to researchers, the total population of the group is estimated to be around 50 million.
Many Pashtuns believe that their ancestors were ancient Hebrews who arrived to what is now Afghanistan over 2,000 years ago and settled there. They were first mentioned by a Greek historian in 500 BC, then by Alexander the Great, and in the 3rd century they are called "Abgans" ("Afghans") by the Persian rulers. In the army of the Ghaznavids and Ghurids, thousands of Afghans were reported to be serving. They ruled Delhi Sultanate in the past and also Persia between 1725 to 1729 until they established the last Afghan empire that became what is now Afghanistan.
The Pashtun people follow a strict code of honor, known as "Pakhtunwali", that requires them to support the poor, the weak, and the challenged; to fight evil; to provide shelter to anyone who needs it and many more. Pashtun are also strict with obedience in their families and society. They are also known as the best at welcoming guests and taking good care of them. They really love to see respectful people around the society, with great manners and obedience.
The Pashtuns are mostly farmers, herdsmen, and warriors but many of them are also businessmen and politicians. Most tribesmen are sedentary farmers, combining cultivation with animal husbandry; some are migratory herdsmen and caravaners. Large numbers of them have always been attracted to military service.
In Afghanistan, Pashtun make up around 50% of the total population. They form about 60 tribes of different size and importance, each of which occupies a different territory. In Afghanistan, where Pashtun are the major ethnic group, the main tribes are the Durrani, who mostly live in the south and west, and the Ghilzai, who live in northern and eastern parts of the country.
They are over 15% of Pakistan's population, with Peshawar and Quetta being their principal cities. They predominate north of Quetta between the Sulaiman Range and the Indus River. Significant number of Pashtuns also live in most other major Pakistani cities, particularly Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Lahore. In the hill areas the main tribes are, from south to north: the Tarin, Kakaṛ, Sherani, and Ustarana south of the Gumal River; the Maḥsud, Darwesh Khel, Waziri, and Biṭani between the Gumal River and Thal; the Turi, Bangash, Orakzay, Afridi, and Shinwari from Thal to the Khyber Pass; and the Mahmand, Utman Khel, Tarklani, and Yusufzay to the north and northeast of the Khyber.
Cod wars
The Cod Wars, also called the Iceland Cod Wars (Icelandic: "Þorskastríðin", "the cod wars", or "Landhelgisstríðin", "the wars for the territorial waters") were a series of confrontations in the 1950s and 1970s between the United Kingdom and Iceland regarding fishing rights in the North Atlantic. The name of the conflict may be derived from a pun on the term "Cold War" (with "cod" reading so similarly to "cold"), possibly via the British tabloid press.
In 1972, Iceland unilaterally declared an Exclusive Economic Zone extending beyond its territorial waters, before announcing plans to reduce over-fishing. It policed its quota system with the coast guard, leading to a series of net-cutting incidents with British trawlers that fished the areas. As a result, a fleet of British Royal Naval warships and tug-boats was employed to act as a deterrent against any future harassment of British fishing crews by the Icelandic craft.
In 1976, a compromise between the two states allowed a maximum of 24 British trawlers access to the disputed 200 nautical mile (370 km) limit. Two-hundred-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zones became recognized internationally on November 14, 1994, after having been agreed at the conference on the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982.
Orion (constellation)
Orion is one of the largest constellations in the sky. It is supposed to look like the warrior Orion from Greek mythology. The constellation has other names in different cultures: it is mentioned under a Hebrew name in the Book of Job.
The constellation has a clear hour-glass shape with "Orion's Belt" in the centre. That part is made up of three bright stars (Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka) in line. The Orion constellation has 81 visible stars, including some of the brightest and most important stars in the night sky. Rigel is the brightest star in it, and Betelgeuse is a huge, rather unstable red supergiant.
The constellation includes a series of starburst nebulae where new stars are forming. The whole group of nebulae is known as the Orion complex. The complex is 1,500 to 1,600 light-years away, and hundreds of light-years across. It includes
In Greek mythology, Orion was a great hunter who joined Artemis's Hunt. He was the first ever male to ever enter the Hunt. Inevitably, he slowly started getting closer to Artemis, and eventually fell in love with her, even though he knew she had sworn an oath of maidenhood. Artemis did not sense this at the time, so she let him stay in the Hunt. The problem was that Orion was too good a hunter, and got in over his head. He killed too many animals, which was against the Hunters' nature, which was not to harm nature if it was not of danger to them. Gaea, the Earth Spirit, sensed this, and sent a giant scorpion to kill him, to punish him for his sins against nature. Artemis mourned his death, and herself made a constellation dedicated him, namely, the Orion's Belt.
The ancient Egyptians equated the constellation with Osiris, god of the afterlife. The ancient Egyptian "First Time", "when Osiris walked on the Earth", has by some fringe archeologists been held to be around 10,500 BC; thanks to precession (which was known to the astronomers of the Early Dynasties), around that time at the Spring Equinox the constellation could be seen "walking" on the horizon just before dawn.
Orion can be used to find the constellations Gemini, Auriga, and Canis Major. Find the belt, and you will find gemini to the northeast, auriga to the north, and ganis minor to the southwest. The Orion Belt is an asterism of 3 stars, all in a straight line. You could find it by finding a very bright red star (Betelgeuse).
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse (from Arabic:إبط الجوزاء Ibṭ al-Jauzā’, meaning "the armpit of Orion") is a large red supergiant star in the Orion constellation. It is usually the ninth-brightest star in the night sky, and the second-brightest in Orion.
Betelgeuse is a semiregular variable star whose apparent magnitude varies between 0.2 and 1.2. This is the widest range of any first-magnitude star.
It is also one of the largest and most luminous observable stars. It has a radius between 950 to 1,000 times wider than the Sun. This means it is 1.322 to 1.392 billion kilometers in diameter. Betelgeuse was the first star other than the Sun whose size was known. The star's distance from Earth is about 640 light-years. Its average absolute magnitude is about −6.02.
Betelgeuse is less than 10 million years old. It evolves rapidly because of its high mass. It is moving through the interstellar medium at a speed of 30 km/s, creating a shock wave over 4 light-years wide.
Betelgeuse is now in a later stage of stellar evolution. It will rapidly go through its life cycle before exploding as a type II supernova sometime in the next million years.
An observation by the Herschel Space Observatory in January 2013 showed that the star's winds are crashing against the surrounding interstellar medium.