One group is the Chamber of Deputies ("Cámara de Diputados"). The Chamber of Deputies is made up of Deputies, who are each elected by voters from their own province. The number of Deputies a province has is based on how many people live there: the more people a province has, the more deputies it gets. No province can have less than two Deputies. Deputies serve 4-year terms. The total number of Deputies for the period 2006-2010 is 178.
The other house is the Senate ("Senado"). In the Senate, each province is represented equally, by one Senator. Senators serve 4-year terms. There are 32 Senators, one for every province and one for the National District, where the capital city is.
The judicial branch is the part of government makes sure that the laws are obeyed and interprets what the law means. The judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court and many lower courts. If the Supreme Court decides that a law is not allowed by the Constitution, then it is not a law anymore. The Supreme Court is made up of at least 11 judges. The head of the Supreme Court is called the President of the Supreme Court. A Supreme Court Justice serves until he or she either dies, or resigns (quits in the middle of his or her term). The Supreme Court controls all the courts in the country.
There is a governor in every province; there is not a governor in the National District, where is the capital of the country. The governors are only representatives of the President of the Republic.
Every province is divided into two or more municipalities (Spanish: "municipios", singular "municipio"); the Distrito Nacional has only one municipality - Santo Domingo.
There are only two branches in the municipalities: the executive and the legislative. They are elected for four years by the people that lives in the municipality.
The Mayor ("Síndico") is the head of the executive branch and the Municipal Council ("Ayuntamiento") is the legislative branch.
The rural parts of a municipality are divided into "Secciones" (singular, "Sección"; in English, "section"); every "Sección" has a person which represents the municipal administration.
The Dominican Republic has 154 municipalities ("municipios") (June 20 2006).
A municipality can have one municipal district ("distrito municipal") or more. A municipal council ("Junta Municipal") for such a municipal district is elected by the municipal council of the municipality to which it belongs and not for the people that lives there.
There are 202 municipal districts ("distrito municipal") in the Dominican Republic (June 20 2006).
Massacres in Harput District
Massacres in Harput District also Kharput were a large scale of massacres that happened in the district.
In May 1915, before the start of the deportations, the authorities in Harput began to mount systematic searches for arms in Armenian shops and homes in the twin cities and the surrounding villages.
In the words of an eye-witness.
Denmark's minister in Turkey during the First World War. "The Turks are vigorously carrying through their cruel intention, to exterminate the Armenian people," Carl Wandel wrote on 3 July 1915. The Bishop of Karput was ordered to leave Aleppo within 48 hours "and it has later been learned that this Bishop and all the clergy that accompanied him have been ... killed between Diyarbekir and Urfa at a place where approximately 1,700 Armenian families have suffered the same fate ... In Angora ... approximately 6,000 men ... have been shot on the road ... even here in Constantinople (Istanbul), Armenians are being abducted and sent to Asia ..."
The first sign of dangers was the appearance on the plain of bands of Kurds from the regions north and east. Villages were attacked, looted and burned, while the villagers were killed or scattered. For a time the marauders seemed to hold aloof from the city itself, but as they kept on their course of pillage their appetite for plunder was whetted, and they looked with avaricious eyes at the city on the hill.
Tour de Pologne
The Tour de Pologne (English: "Tour of Poland") is a road bicycle racing stage race. It consists of seven or eight stages, and was first held in 1928. Until 1952, the race was not held every year, but since then there has been a Tour "annually" (every year). When Eastern Europe was communist-controlled there were no professional cyclists, so until the early 1990s, the race was for amateurs only, and the winners mostly came from Poland.
Although the Tour de Pologne had not reached a high status, and was little known, the International Cycling Union (UCI) decided to make it a part of the UCI ProTour from 2005, which means that the major cycling teams compete in the race.
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a book by the Russian American writer and social philosopher Ayn Rand. It was first published in 1957 in the United States. It was Rand's longest book and the last fiction book she wrote before writing non-fiction.
The main character of the story is Dagny Taggart. Dagny runs a large railroad company that controls the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States. The story takes place in the USA at a time when trains are the main way that people travel and that companies move their products.
Dagny begins to worry that a lot of the country's best minds are going away. The men who were in charge of an industry or the best at science are giving up their work and disappearing. Nobody knows where they go. She starts looking for "the Destroyer", whom she believes is making the leaders stop working.
During her search, the country and the world get worse. Without the leaders, industries grind to a halt. The economy begins to fail, causing problems for society.
Finally, Dagny finds the "Destroyer". His real name is John Galt. She realises that she was wrong and that John is not a bad man. Instead he is a man of high integrity and principle. He thinks that the world has been taking the work of the leaders and scientist without paying them enough. He thinks that the only way to make the worlds better is to make sure that the best minds are treated with respect and given enough payment. By telling the leaders and scientists this, he has convinced them to go on strike. They are hiding in a secret valley in the mountains.
John Galt also convinces Dagny that he is right. She joins this man in his valley. They begin a relationship. Their goal is to bring down society so that they can help make a new society. The new society will respect hard work, intelligence and integrity.
Basilisk
Basilisks are a type of lizard. They are about 70-75 cm long, when fully grown, and weigh about 80 grams. They can be found in South America. Currently, there are four different species. They can be very still and hard to see.
The basilisk lizard can walk on water. It runs across the surface of a pond or pool, without sinking. Its speed keeps it from sinking. At the same time, its long tail helps it to balance.
Hindu calendar
The Hindu calendar is a lunisolar calendar used in ancient times. It has changed, and today there are several regional Indian calendars, and an Indian national calendar.
Taíno
The Taínos were an indigenous people that lived in the Americas before Columbus arrived there. They came from the Caribbean coast of South America. Around 1200 CE, they moved northward to the island chain of the Lesser Antilles and the Greater Antilles.
When Christopher Columbus came to the Americas, the Taínos were living in the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico), and some islands of the northern Lesser Antilles. Their culture was different from the culture of the Arawak people (another indigenous group of South America). They were the first people that the Spanish met in the Americas.
The name Taíno was given by Columbus. When he met some native men, they said "Taíno, Taíno", meaning "We are good, noble". Columbus thought that taíno was the name of the people.