Iraq has been known by the Greek name Mesopotamia which means "(Land between the rivers)" and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing. Iraq was part of several empires, some were Safavid, and Afsharid. During the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I, British Empire troops conquered the Ottoman Empire provinces of Basra and Baghdad and later added the province of Mosul to make Iraq.
The Kurdistan region is an autonomous region of northern Iraq. The Kurds have their own culture and speak the Kurdish language.
Most Iraqis are Shia Muslims.
From 1968 to 2003, Iraq was run by the Ba'ath Party. Saddam Hussein was the President from 1979 until the disbandment of the Ba'ath Party.
After the 1990 invasion of Kuwait many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, France, Italy, Pakistan, and others fought to free Kuwait. Later, some agents believed to be sent by Saddam Hussein tried to kill former President George H. W. Bush with a truck bomb in Kuwait.
The March 2003 invasion of Iraq was led by American, British, Australian, Danish and Polish forces. They forced the Ba'ath Party to surrender. The publicly stated reason for the invasion was that Saddam Hussein refused to let United Nations inspectors look for suspected nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. In the past, Iraq used chemical weapons to kill people. Iraq had done research in making biological and nuclear weapons.
The country was initially split into 3 zones, the American zone, the British zone, and the Polish zone similar to the way Germany was divided in 1945. Forces from Denmark controlled areas in the British zone. A new temporary government was formed on June 28, 2004. The coalition forces were in the country.
There were many U.S., British and multi-national troops in the country until December 15, 2011 when the Iraq War had ended. Tensions between religious groups (Shia and Sunni Muslims, as well as Christians) lead to a great deal of instability in the country.
The country area lies between two rivers; for this reason the area was called Mesopotamia in ancient ages. The rivers Euphrates and Tigris bound what is called the Fertile Crescent. Iraq also has a small coastline along the Persian Gulf, and this coastline was considered the heart of the petroleum trade in Iraq before the First Gulf War. The weather is extremely hot and dry because Iraq is far from seas and oceans and even the close ones are blocked by mountains so that the rainy wind can not reach the inlands. This region has fertile land because of the two rivers.
Iraq is divided into 18 provinces ("muhafazah").
Iraq has a large amount of oil. Iraq is the world's number four in petroleum production and the world's number two in petroleum reserves. In the past, Iraq sold much of this oil to other countries. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the United Nations stopped Iraq from selling the oil. The United Nations later allowed Iraq to sell some oil to buy food, clothes, and medicine so the people would not suffer as much. This was called the "Oil-for-Food" program.
Neutron star
A neutron star is a very small and dense star made almost completely of neutrons. They are small stars with a radius of about 1111.5 kilometres. They have a mass of about twice that of the Sun. They are the smallest and densest stars known to exist in the Universe. They are what is left of a huge star which exploded as a supernova.
The density of the star is like that of the nucleus of an atom. They have strong magnetic fields, between 10 and 10 times as strong as that of Earth. The gravitational field at the neutron star's surface is about 2×10 times stronger than on Earth.
To imagine how dense a neutron star is, take all of the mass of our sun (which has a diameter of ) and push it down into a size that would fit into a ball with a diameter. Another way to understand the density is this: one teaspoon of matter from the neutron star would weigh 6 billion tons.
Neutron stars spin very fast, from 0.001 second up to 30 seconds to turn. They come in different types. They may emit beams of electromagnetic radiation as pulsars. Other types are magnetars and binary pulsars.
They are more than 600,000 degrees Kelvin in temperature. Neutron stars that can be observed are very hot and typically have a surface temperature of around .
In 1934, Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky proposed the existence of neutron stars, only a year after the discovery of the neutron by James Chadwick.
Looking for the origin of a supernova, they suggested that in supernova explosions ordinary stars are turned into stars that consist of extremely closely packed neutrons, which they called neutron stars. Baade and Zwicky suggested that the release of the gravitational binding energy of the neutron stars powers the supernova: "In the supernova process, mass in bulk is annihilated".
Neutron stars were thought to be too faint to be detectable. Little work was done on them until November 1967, when Franco Pacini (1939–2012) pointed out that if the neutron stars were spinning and had large magnetic fields, then electromagnetic waves would be emitted. Radio astronomer Antony Hewish and his research assistant Jocelyn Bell at Cambridge soon detected radio pulses from stars that are now known as pulsars.
Parent
Parents are the mother and father or caretaker of their offspring.
In humans, a parent is the mother or the father figure of a child. They are either biologically or legally related to the person. When parents separate and choose who takes care of a child it is called "custody". Parents who fail in their duty may be guilty of child abuse.
Lee Hsien Loong
Lee Hsien Loong (b. 10 February 1952) is the current Prime Minister of Singapore. His father is Lee Kuan Yew, first Prime Minister of Singapore.
Lee Hsien Loong was born in Kandang Kerbau Hospital (presently known as KK Women's and Children's Hospital). He is the first child of Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo.
In August 2004, Goh Chok Tong stepped down as Prime Minister, while Lee Hsien Loong took over the position. He then became the General Secretary of People's Action Party (PAP).
In 1971, Lee joined the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). Lee was promoted to very high rank quickly in the Singapore Army. In July 1983, he became the youngest Brigadier General in Singapore. He left SAF in 1984.
In the 1980s, Lee Kuan Yew said he will step down as Prime Minister in 1984. Lee Hsien Loong was considered in the list of new leaders in PAP.
In 1984, at 32, He was elected an MP. His father immediately assigned him as a Minister of State for some ministries.
In 1987, he joined in the Cabinet as the Minister for Trade and Industry and Second Minister for Defence.
From 2008 to 2012, Lee's salary is S$3.87 million every year. He had a salary increase of 25%, it was originally S$3,091,200.
In January 2012, his salary was reduced to S$2.2 million due to the public then complaining about his unfair salary. But, he is still the prime minister with the highest salary in the world.
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve are the parents of all humans in the Abrahamic religions. In the Book of Genesis in the Bible, as well as the Qu'ran and the Aqdas, they are the first two people made by God. The Bible says that the Devil entered into the Garden of Eden as a serpent and tempted Eve. The Tempter convinced Eve to go against God's command. Satan told her that God knew that Eve would become self-aware and have the same knowledge as God had if she ate from the fruit of the tree. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden and cursed with pain, death, and sickness. When Adam and Eve were cast out, so was the one who tempted them, Satan. He was cast to the ground and sentenced to always having to wriggle on the ground like a snake.