Fanatic is a word which means someone who loves a thing, or a person, or an idea more than anything else. It is used to talk about people who care a lot about politics, religion or their own group of people. Some fanatics can hurt other people whom they dislike, or who disagree with them.
A short form of the word, Fan, means a person who loves a hobby, a sport (often a team), music, a kind of movie or book, or almost anything. These people mostly do not try to hurt people. This word is used in American English. There are lots of kinds of fans, including science fiction fans and fans of popular music stars, like The Beatles. Fans will meet with each other to talk about and share their interest, often in large groups called conventions.
In British English, supporter is their word for a person who likes and supports a sportsperson or a team. Many teams of some sports have thousands of supporters, for example, the football team Real Madrid.
In American English, supporter is more often used to talk about people in politics. Supporters of a politician, a political party, or an idea such as a particular law may like their subject very much, but usually are not violent.
Formula 1
Formula 1 is a type of motorsport. Teams compete in a series of Grand Prix races, held in different countries around the world. Some of the most popular races are held in Monaco, Japan, Italy and Britain. The cars are very fast, reaching speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour (220 miles per hour). The championship has been won many times by different teams like McLaren, Ferrari and Williams. Teams can consist of as many as 600 people, who all come together every race weekend, and using each of their individual expertise try to obtain the best result - a victory. The winning driver and team each get twenty-five points towards the Drivers' and Constructors' Championship. Teams consist of drivers, test drivers, a team principal, mechanics, engineers, and designers. Winning a race takes a good qualifying position, flawless strategy, perfect pitstops and a fast car. If you get the most poles (first place) then you get a trophy. This was added in 2014.
Drivers are paid huge salaries and money to risk their lives every time they step into the cockpit of the F1 car. Like all types of motor racing, the dangers associated with Formula One are great. Therefore, there are many safety measures. Drivers wear 4 layers of flameproof overalls, made of a fire resistant material called Nomex. A drivers helmet must be able to resist an 800 degree Celsius flame for at least 45 seconds, as well as big G forces. The helmets are so strong that they can be driven over by trucks with no damage being done to them. Carbon fibre is the ideal material for the bodywork of Formula One cars, as it is light and strong. Because of this, the cars are very expensive to build and repair. The design of cars differs from team to team. Each team has two entries into the championship, which means two cars to build. The current tyre suppliers are Pirelli - making sure every car has the right tyre for the differing weather conditions. Wet weather driving is considered a skill in Formula One, as the cars are harder to drive.
The body that runs Formula One, the FIA, is based in France. Although Formula One is a 'billion dollar business', a drop in viewership and attendance figures at races has prompted the FIA to make a number of rule changes in recent years. These changes are meant to make the races more interesting, so more people watch F1 on television.
Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan is the leader of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an influential socialist organization in Turkey. Turkey branded Abdullah Öcalan as a terrorist and has been imprisoned for the rest of his life for terrorist activities in 1999. "Öcalan" means, in Turkish, "he who takes revenge".
He was born on April 4, 1949 into a poor peasant family in the village of Ömerli, in the district of Halfeti in Şanlıurfa Province. He studied at vocational school and then pursued a course at the School of Political Science, Ankara University. He became involved in militant Maoist politics and was first arrested in 1973. In 1975 he went to Syria where he was one of the founder members of the PKK in 1978. At the First Congress in November 1978 he was elected leader.
Although the organization was named the Kurdistan Workers Party, it never became a real political party and it was not registered as one, because it would have been rejected by Turkey which did not agree with its ideology.
He left Turkey in 1979, before the military coup of September 1980, which led to the imprisonment of thousands of members and sympathisers of the organization. In 1982 the PKK decided to resume guerrilla warfare inside Turkey and in August 1984 the military wing, the Liberation Units of Kurdistan (HRK), began operations. In 1985 the political wing was renamed the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK) and in 1986 the HRK became the Peoples Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK). Öcalan's pronouncements had become increasingly moderate through the 1990s, publicly he stated his desire to move the PKK away from violence and towards a political approach.
He was forced out of his group's base in Syria, following pressure from Turkey, in November 1998. He fled to Russia and then Europe, he was arrested after arriving from Moscow at Rome's Fiumicino Airport. He was soon released while he appealed for political asylum, Italian law forbids the extradition of someone to a country where they would face a death sentence. An extradition request from Germany also collapsed amid political maneuvering. He left Italy on January 16, 1999 and returned to Russia but soon left for Greece, apparently intending to fly from there to The Hague. He was refused entry to a number of European states and instead, on February 3 the Greek authorities flew him to Nairobi, Kenya.
On February 15, 1999 Turkey succeeded in kidnapping or arresting him in Nairobi and quickly transported him to Turkey. The details of his capture remain unclear. On February 16, across Europe, Kurdish supporters responded with protests, acts of violence and terrorism. Öcalan was charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey on February 23.
Öcalan was held as the only inmate on the prison island of Imrali. He was tried before a military court on the island from May 31, 1999. The trial had six days of proceedings and he was sentenced to death on June 29. His appeal was rejected in November but the sentence was suspended while there was a review by the European Court of Human Rights. In September 2002 a Turkish court finally reduced his sentence to life imprisonment. The country had abandoned the death penalty in August 2002 as part of the process towards joining the European Union.
Since he was put in prison, Öcalan has had much more time to read and write. He has changed many of his views, and wants more peaceful solutions instead of violence. One of the authors who influenced Öcalan's changed thinking was Murray Bookchin, an American writer whose idea of "Libertarian municipalism" would lead Öcalan to develop
Caribbean Community
The Caribbean Community , or CARICOM, is a group of nations in the Caribbean Sea that have come together founded on 4 July 1973. They share their products, and they have a government to help organize the area. They are mainly together to help trade and their economies.
The full members are:
1747
1762
1620
1520
List of towns in Greenland
This is a list of the towns in Greenland that have over 1,000 people living in them (the first name is in Greenlandic, the second is in Danish):
Qaqortoq