In 1960 both British and Italian Somaliland declared independence together as the "Somali Republic". It was chosen the Latin alphabet for the Somali language. Many areas where Somalis lived were still part of Britain, Ethiopia and France. Somalia wanted to get back all the areas that had been colonized by the French, Ethiopians and British. Somalia and Ethiopia had a short war in 1964 over the Ethiopian part of Somalia, and it was obvious that more fighting was to come.
In 1969, the President of Somalia was killed by a man whose clan had been hurt by his policies, and General Mohammed Siad Barre took over the country. Siad Barre built a huge army with help from the Soviet Union and when Ethiopia fell for the fourth time (this time because of a Communist takeover) he invaded. The Soviet Union decided that Ethiopia was more important than Somalia and double-crossed Siad Barre, supplying huge amounts of weapons to Ethiopia. Other countries like Cuba and Israel also sent help to Ethiopia, so in the end Siad Barre lost the war.
Ethiopia's new government then began helping Somali rebel groups, who did not like how Siad Barre took over the country, and these rebel groups toppled Siad Barre' government in 1991 and forced him out of the country. After this, however, all of the rebel groups started fighting amongst themselves over who would be in charge now that Siad Barre was gone.
Eventually, some of the rebel groups decided to make their own governments in the land that they controlled. One, called Somaliland, declared independence from Somalia entirely, while another called Puntland declared independence "for now" until a new Somali national government can be put together. Dozens of attempts to create a new national government failed.
Because there was no government in most of Somalia (except where one had been built from scratch, like Puntland and Somaliland) Somalia's only legal system, beyond the law of the gun, was traditional custom and Islamic Sharia law. Because of this, Sharia legal scholars in the lawless south of Somalia gained quite a bit of influence. Around the same time, the people fighting for Somali lands in Ethiopia to be part of Somalia turned to the example of the Afgani Mujahideen, and created their own group called al-Ittihad al-Islamiyya or the Islamic Union. During the 1990s Ethiopia invaded Somalia several times to attack the Islamic Union, who were helping Somali rebels in Ethiopia.
After 2001, the United States of America became very suspicious of both the Sharia courts and the Islamic Union of being terrorists. Warlords made a group called the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism. The Sharia courts banded together to protect themselves and created the Islamic Courts Union. People liked the Sharia courts and hated the gangsters, so everyone helped the Islamic Courts Union, who defeated the gangsters and drove them out of Mogadishu in 2006. The Islamic Courts Union then formed an army and took over most of southern Somalia.
The United States of America and Ethiopia was alarmed by this takeover, so Ethiopia invaded southern Somalia in 2007 and put a new government in power that was made up of the rebel groups that Ethiopia had funded 15 years earlier. Almost everyone disagreed with this decision, and that same year a rebellion against this new government broke out in Mogadishu and spread across the whole country by 2008. At around the same time, Somali pirates kidnapped westerners from big ships for ransom.
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc (May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor, radio personality and comedian. Nicknamed The Man of a Thousand Voices, he is best known for his voices in "Looney Tunes" and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, among others.
Blanc was born on May 30, 1908 in San Francisco, California. He studied at Lincoln High School in San Francisco. He was married to Estelle Rosenbaum from 1933 until his death in 1989. He has a son, Noel Blanc. Blanc died on July 10, 1989 from heart disease, aged 81.
ConAgra Foods, Inc.
ConAgra Foods, Inc. is a food packing company that packs food for supermarkets, restaurants, and other businesses. It is located in North America.
IPod
The iPod is a range of portable music players designed by the company Apple Inc. in California. The iPod comes with computer cables so that the user can put music from their computer onto the iPod, and play music from it using headphones. Newer iPods allow a user to play games, view pictures, watch videos and use the internet, too.
The first iPod was simply named the iPod. This was released in 2001. Apple still makes iPods like this today, but they are now called "iPod classic".
Apple makes a smaller iPod called the iPod nano. It is much smaller than the iPod, but does not hold as many songs. It uses flash memory, a special kind of memory for very small electronics, instead of a hard drive. It replaced a version of the iPod called the iPod mini.
Another type of iPod, called the iPod shuffle, is very small, and it uses flash memory, like the iPod nano but it has no screen. It is the least expensive iPod.
The most expensive iPod is called the iPod touch. It has a touch screen, like the iPhone. The first iPod touch was released in 2007.
iPods often contain songs downloaded from an online music store, using a program called iTunes. (The name of Apple's music and video store is the iTunes Store.) Songs are sold in AAC file format, not MP3 or WMA. These are popular formats for compressing (making smaller) music until it does not take up much space and can easily be put on a media player such as the iPod.
The App Store is an online shop that is run by Apple Inc. where people can buy software for their iPhone or iPod Touch. It opened on July 11, 2008. Over 100,000 applications (or apps for short) are available for people to buy. Some apps are available for free.
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (officially called Republic of Costa Rica), is a country in Central America. It is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. The official language of Costa Rica is Spanish. The official currency is the colón. It has enjoyed a long period of peace since the 1863 civil war. Because of its natural beauty and political stability, it is nicknamed the "Switzerland of Latin America". Costa Rica has had army since December 1, 1863. Instead of spending money on the military, the government spends money on education and head 1 people live in Costa Rica. The capital city is San José. The current President is Carlos Alvarado Quesada. He was elected in 2014.
The indigenous people of Costa Rica belong to the Intermediate Area. This Intermediate Area is where the Mesoamerican and Andean indigenous cultures mixed together. The country was influenced by various Chibcha speaking indigenous people.
The impact of indigenous peoples' culture on modern Costa Rica has been small. The country did not have a strong native civilization to begin with. Most of the indigenous population was absorbed into the Spanish colony. There are still some small indigenous groups. The largest is the Bribri and Boruca tribes in south Costa Rica.
Christopher Columbus sailed to the eastern shores of Costa Rica during his last trip in 1502. He reported large amounts of gold jewelry among the indigenous people.
During the colonial period, Costa Rica was the most southern province of the Captaincy General of Guatemala. But it mostly ruled itself as a part of the Spanish Empire. Costa Rica's distance from the capital in Guatemala, its legal prohibition to trade with the Viceroyalty of New Granada, and the lack of gold and silver made Costa Rica into a poor, little populated region of the Spanish Empire. Costa Rica was called "the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all America" by a Spanish governor in 1719.