Rumours spread immediately of his death, though these were denied by his physicians. It was soon reported and later confirmed that Sharon was in a coma. Ehud Olmert, another member of Sharon's newly formed "Kadima" party, was acting Prime Minister until elections were held in Israel, after which Olmert became Prime Minister of Israel.
Sharon died on 11 January 2014. He died from kidney failure and stroke complications at the hospital in Ramat Gan. He had been in a coma at the time. He was aged 85.
His state funeral was held on 13 January. He was buried in line with Jewish burial customs. It was held as soon after death as possible. The day before the funeral, Sharon's body and coffin were placed in the Knesset building for people to see. His funeral began with an official ceremony held in the Knesset chamber. Politicians from Israel and other countries attended. His funeral was then held at his family's farm in the Negev desert. Sharon was buried there beside his wife, Lily.
Leaders attended his funeral service included U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Czech Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Jameson
Jameson is a famous brand of Irish whiskey. It is amber in color and has quite a strong smell. It is an alcoholic beverage.
In Ireland, people refer to it as "Jemmie".
Syria
Syria is a country in the Middle East, the west part of Asia. It borders (from south to north) on Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey. Its western part faces the Mediterranean Sea. Its eastern and northern parts are mountainous.
The current president and head of state is Bashar al-Assad. Syria's national capital is Damascus. The biggest city is Aleppo. The Syrian civil war began in 2011.
The population of Syria is 74% Sunni, 12% Alawi, 10% Christian.
Syria has a very long history. It was a land of Phoenicians. Later it became part of the Achaemenid Empire, Roman Empire, and then the Eastern Roman Empire. In those days people spoke the Syriac language. The city Antioch was great and one of the important cities in Christendom. The Umayyad Caliphate control of Syria in the 7th century. In this Arab Empire people began to speak the Arabic language. Today most Syrian people believe in Islam but there are still Christians too.
When World War I started, the Ottoman Empire ruled Syria and many other places. When it ended, France controlled Lebanon and Syria. Britain had Iraq, Jordan and Palestine. They drew a border between Iraq and Syria in 1920. France controlled Syria until 1946 when Syria became its own country.
Syria was part of the United Arab Republic with Egypt in 1958-1961. Syria had some wars with Israel and some territories like the Golan Plateau were occupied by Israel.
In 2012 with the Arab Spring a bloody civil war began against President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria is between latitudes 32° and 38° N, and longitudes 35° and 43° E. It is mostly arid plateau. The area bordering the Mediterranean is fairly green. The Euphrates, Syria's most important river, crosses the country in the east.
The climate in Syria is dry and hot. Winters are mild.
Syria is a republic. The old Constitution of Syria was started on 13 March 1971. It made Syria as a secular socialist state. Islam was the majority religion. A new constitution has been in place since 2012.
The executive branch is the president, two vice presidents, the prime minister, and the Council of Ministers. The constitution says the president must be a Muslim. It does not make Islam the state religion. According to the 2012 constitution, the president is elected by Syrian people in a direct election.
The People's Council is the legislative branch.
Nearly all of Syria’s radio and television outlets are state owned. The Ba'ath Party controls nearly all newspapers.
Syria's human rights are among the worst in the world, according to human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch. The authorities arrest democracy and human rights activists, censor websites, detain bloggers, and have travel bans.
Syria has fourteen Governorates, or "muhafazat". The governorates are divided into sixty districts. The governorates are:
The President of Syria is commander in chief of the Syrian armed forces. There are about 400,000 troops. Males must go in the military when they are age 18.
Syria is a middle-income country. The economy is based on agriculture, oil, industry, and tourism.
Syria has three international airports (Damascus, Aleppo and Lattakia). They are hubs for Syrian Air. Foreign airlines also fly to them. Most Syrian cargo is carried by Chemins de Fer Syriens, the Syrian railway company.
Most people live in the Euphrates valley and along the coastal plain, a fertile strip between the coastal mountains and the desert.
Education is free from ages 6 to 12. All children this age must attend school.
The most popular sports in Syria are football, basketball, swimming, and tennis. Damascus was home to the fifth and seventh Pan Arab Games. Many popular football teams are based in Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, and Latakia.
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind. The study also covers thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It also falls under the academic domain; some parts of psychology follow the way of doing science: explains the mind, how it works, and what it shows through our actions.
When doing psychology, it has to deal with humans most of the time but animals beyond humans at some point. People, experts or not, can't study psychology as a whole. So, we divide small parts of it one step at a time. Also, psychology has much in common with other fields that they overlap with one another. Some of these fields fall in natural sciences or not.
Psychologists practice the field in the profession; they undergo long years of schooling than laypeople. These practitioners attempt to explain how minds function in the self (individual) and self with others (social). These attempts might also deal with how the body's way affects the mind--its processes and approaches. They can also be scientists in the field of social, behavioral, and cognitive.
Psychology has been split up into smaller parts called branches. These are subjects in psychology that try to answer a particular group of questions about how people think. Some branches of psychology that are often studied are:
Psychology is a type of science, and research psychologists use many of the same types of methods that researchers from other natural and social sciences use.
Psychologists make theories to try to explain a behavior or pattern they see. Based on their theory they make some predictions. They then carry out an experiment or collect other types of information that will tell them whether their predictions were right or wrong.
Some types of experiments cannot be done on people because the process would be too long, expensive, dangerous, unfair, or otherwise unethical. There are also other ways psychologists study the mind and behavior scientifically, and test their theories. Psychologists might wait for some events to happen on their own; they might look at patterns among existing groups of people in natural environments; or they might do experiments on animals (which can be simpler and more ethical to study).
Psychology shares other things with natural sciences, as well. For example, a good psychological theory may be possible to prove wrong. Just like in any natural science, a group of psychologists can never be completely sure that their theory is the right one. If a theory can be proved wrong, but experiments do not prove it wrong, then it is more likely that the theory is accurate. This is called falsifiability.