Uvalde, Texas

Uvalde ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Uvalde County, Texas, United States. The population was 15,751 at the 2010 census.
Uvalde was founded by Reading Wood Black in 1853 as the town of Encina. In 1856, when the county was organized, the town was renamed Uvalde after Spanish governor Juan de Ugalde (Cádiz, Andalucía, 1729–1816) and was chosen as county seat. It is usually considered the southern limit of the Texas Hill Country or the most northerly part of South Texas. Historically, Uvalde is known for its production of "huajillo" (also spelled "guajillo") honey, a mild, light-colored honey, dating back to the 1870s.
Geography.
Uvalde is located at (29.214313, -99.789644) at the crossroads of U.S Hwy 90 and U.S. Hwy 83.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land.
Uvalde is known as one of the best locations for soaring in the United States. It is the site of the 1991 and 2012 World Gliding Championships.
Climate.
The climate in this area is characterized by hot, dry summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Uvalde has a dry, semi-arid climate, "Cfa", on climate maps.
Demographics.
At the 2010 census, the population was 15,751 people
At the 2000 census, 14,929 people, 4,796 households and 3,716 families resided in the city. The population density was 2,220.2 per square mile (857.8/km). The 5,313 housing units averaged 790.1 per square mile (305.3/km). The racial makeup of the city was 78.3% Hispanic or Latino, 19.2% White, 0.47% African American, 0.62% Native American, 0.48% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 0% from other races, and 2.97% from two or more races.
Of the 4,796 households, 41.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.6% were married couples living together, 16.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.5% were not families; 20.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.02 and the average family size was 3.50.
About 32.4% of the population was under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 25.7% from 25 to 44, 18.3% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.5 males.
The median household income was $25,259 and for a family was $27,897. Males had a median income of $25,600 compared with $15,674 for females. The per capita income for the city was $11,735. About 24.2% of families and 29.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 40.1% of those under age 18 and 23.8% of those age 65 or over.
Education.
The city is served by the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District which serves Uvalde, Real and Zavala Counties. The school district has 10 schools.
Southwest Texas Junior College has a campus near Uvalde, next to Garner Field.
Transportation.
Uvalde, along with San Antonio, Carrizo Springs, Crystal City, and Corpus Christi, was a major stop on the defunct San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad, which operated from 1909 until it was merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1956. From 1909 to 1912, the SAU&G was known as the Crystal City and Uvalde Railroad. The San Antonio-to-Corpus Christi freight route is now within the Union Pacific system.
The City of Uvalde owns Garner Field, a general-aviation airport east of Uvalde.
Notable people.
Uvalde was the home of John Nance "Cactus Jack" Garner, former Speaker of the House and Vice President of the United States; Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey; actress Dale Evans, movie star and singer-songwriter and wife of Roy Rogers; and former Governor of Texas Dolph Briscoe (after whom the post office is named). The city is home to the Grammy Award-winning Tejano/Norteño group Los Palominos.


Voice of Arab Syria

The Voice of Arab Syria () was a Baghdad-based radio channel, broadcasting to a Syrian audience.
Voice of Arab Syria began broadcasting on 26 October 1976, at the time of the Arab summit in Cairo. It did daily broadcasts, providing a platform for opponents of the Assad government to speak out. The location of the broadcaster was undisclosed, but Radio Baghdad first announced the new radio channel. "Voice of Arab Syria" called on the people and army of Syria to revolt against the al-Assad government.
Voice of Arab Syria was closed down in June 1997, as relations between the governments of Syria and Iraq improved (similarly, Syria shut down its Voice of Iraq broadcasts).


John Karimu

John Arouna Karimu is a Mende hailed from Daru Village, Kailahun District, in the Eastern Region of Sierra Leone.
He was a Lecturer at Fourah Bay College, where he met his wife Gertrude Gbessay Karimu née Sellu who was a student there as well. He later worked for the Bo/Pujehun Project. He then became the Director of CUSO in Gambia.
He later became the Finance Minister in Sierra Leone during the military rule of Valentine Strasser (1993-1996). He was the presidential candidate of the National Unity Party in the 1996 national elections. In that election, Karimu received 5.3% of the national vote and lost easily to Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. In December 1996, Karimu accepted a position in the cabinet of Kabbah as the Secretary of Housing and Environment. However, Karimu was eventually deposed, along with the rest of the government, when Major Johnny Paul Koroma overthrew the government on 25 May 1997. During this period, he worked as a Director with The World Bank in Papua New Guinea. He later became the Commissioner of the National Revenue Authority(NRA)-The highest paid civil Servant in Sierra Leone.


Melchor Casco de Mendoza

Melchor Casco de Mendoza (1581–1658) was a Spanish nobleman, alcalde and alferez real of Buenos Aires. He also served as regidor of Asuncion in 1620.
Biography.
Melchor was born in Asuncion, the son of Víctor Casco de Mendoza and Lucía Valderrama, daughter of Juan de Fustes. He was married to Catalina Astor, daughter of and Úrsula Gómez y Luyz.
Melchor Casco de Mendoza was grandson of Gonzalo Casco and María Mendoza, daughter of Gonzalo de Mendoza and Isabel Irala (daughter of Domingo Martínez de Irala).


Wickard v. Filburn

Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), is a United States Supreme Court decision that dramatically increased the regulatory power of the federal government. It remains as one of the most important and far-reaching cases concerning the New Deal, and it set a precedent for an expansive reading of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause for decades to come. The goal of the legal challenge was to end the entire federal crop support program by declaring it unconstitutional.
An Ohio farmer, Roscoe Filburn, was growing wheat to feed animals on his own farm. The US government had established limits on wheat production, based on the acreage owned by a farmer, to stabilize wheat prices and supplies. Filburn grew more than was permitted and so was ordered to pay a penalty. In response, he said that because his wheat was not sold, it could not be regulated as commerce, let alone "interstate" commerce (described in the Constitution as "Commerce... among the several states"). The Supreme Court disagreed: "Whether the subject of the regulation in question was 'production', 'consumption', or 'marketing' is, therefore, not material for purposes of deciding the question of federal power before us... But even if appellee's activity be local and though it may not be regarded as commerce, it may still, whatever its nature, be reached by Congress if it exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce and this irrespective of whether such effect is what might at some earlier time have been defined as 'direct' or 'indirect.'"
The Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution's Commerce Clause, in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution, which permits the US Congress "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." The Court decided that Filburn's wheat-growing activities reduced the amount of wheat he would buy for animal feed on the open market, which is traded nationally, is thus interstate, and is therefore within the scope of the Commerce Clause. Although Filburn's relatively small amount of production of more wheat than he was allotted would not affect interstate commerce itself, the cumulative actions of thousands of other farmers like Filburn would become substantial. Therefore the Court decided that the federal government could regulate Filburn's production.
Background.
The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 limited the area that farmers could devote to wheat production. Its stated purpose was to stabilize the price of wheat in the national market by controlling the amount of wheat produced. It was motivated by a belief by Congress that great international fluctuations in the supply and the demand for wheat were leading to wide swings in the price of wheat, which were deemed to be harmful to the US agricultural economy.
The Supreme Court's decision states that the parties had stipulated as to the economic conditions leading to passage of the legislation:
Roscoe Filburn was a farmer in what is now suburban Dayton, Ohio. He admitted producing wheat in excess of the amount permitted. He maintained, however, that the excess wheat was produced for his private consumption on his own farm. Since it never entered commerce at all, much less interstate commerce, he argued that it was not a proper subject of federal regulation under the Commerce Clause.
In July 1940, pursuant to the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) of 1938, Filburn's 1941 allotment was established at and a normal yield of 20.1 bushels of wheat per acre (). Filburn was given notice of the allotment in July 1940, before the fall planting of his 1941 crop of wheat, and again in July 1941, before it was harvested. Despite the notices, Filburn planted and harvested 239 more bushels () than was allowed from his of excess area.
The Federal District Court ruled in favor of Filburn. The Act required an affirmative vote of farmers by plebiscite to implement the quota. Much of the District Court decision related to the way in which the Secretary of Agriculture had campaigned for passage: the District Court had held that the Secretary's comments were improper.
The government then appealed to the Supreme Court, which called the District Court's holding (against the campaign methods that led to passage of the quota by farmers) a "manifest error." The Court then went on to uphold the Act under the Interstate Commerce Clause.
By the time that the case reached the high court, eight out of the nine justices had been appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt, the architect of the New Deal legislation. In addition, the case was heard during wartime, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized the United States to enter the Second World War. The decision supported the President by holding that the Constitution allowed the federal government to regulate economic activity that was only indirectly related to interstate commerce.
Decision.
The Act's intended rationale was to stabilize the price of wheat on the national market. The federal government has the power to regulate interstate commerce by the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. In this decision, the Court unanimously reasoned that the power to regulate the price at which commerce occurs was inherent in the power to regulate commerce.
Filburn argued that since the excess wheat that he produced was intended solely for home consumption, his wheat production could not be regulated through the Interstate Commerce Clause. The Supreme Court rejected the argument and reasoned that if Filburn had not produced his own wheat, he would have bought wheat on the open market.
That effect on interstate commerce, the Court reasoned, may not be substantial from the actions of Filburn alone, but the cumulative actions of thousands of other farmers just like Filburn would certainly make the effect become substantial.
Therefore, Congress could regulate wholly intrastate, non-commercial activity if such activity, viewed in the aggregate, would have a substantial effect on interstate commerce, even if the individual effects are trivial.
Some of the parties' argument had focused on prior decisions, especially those relating to the Dormant Commerce Clause, in which the Court had tried to focus on whether a commercial activity was local or not. Justice Robert H. Jackson's decision rejected that approach as too formulaic:
The issue was not how one characterized the activity as local. Rather, it was whether the activity "exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce:"
The regulation of local production of wheat was rationally related to Congress's goal: to stabilize prices by limiting the total supply of wheat produced and consumed. It was clear, the Court held,
Aftermath.
"Wickard" marked the beginning of the Supreme Court's total deference to the claims of the US Congress to Commerce Clause powers until the 1990s. The Court's own decision, however, emphasizes the role of the democratic electoral process in confining the abuse of the power of Congress: "At the beginning Chief Justice Marshall described the Federal commerce power with a breadth never yet exceeded. He made emphatic the embracing and penetrating nature of this power by warning that effective restraints on its exercise must proceed from political rather than from judicial processes."
According to Earl M. Maltz, "Wickard" and other New Deal decisions gave Congress "the authority to regulate private economic activity in a manner near limitless in its purview."
That remained the case until "United States v. Lopez" (1995), which was the first decision in six decades to invalidate a federal statute on the grounds that it exceeded the power of the Congress under the Commerce Clause. The opinion described "Wickard" as "perhaps the most far reaching example of Commerce Clause authority over intrastate commerce" and judged that it "greatly expanded the authority of Congress beyond what is defined in the Constitution under that Clause."
In "Lopez", the Court held that while Congress had broad lawmaking authority under the Commerce Clause, the power was limited and did not extend so far from "commerce" as to authorize the regulation of the carrying of handguns, especially when there was no evidence that carrying them affected the economy on a massive scale. (In a later case, "United States v. Morrison", the Court ruled in 2000 that Congress could not make such laws even when there was evidence of aggregate effect.)
The Supreme Court has since relied heavily on "Wickard" in upholding the power of the federal government to prosecute individuals who grow their own medicinal marijuana pursuant to state law. The Supreme Court would hold in "Gonzalez v. Raich" (2005) that like with the home-grown wheat at issue in "Wickard", home-grown marijuana is a legitimate subject of federal regulation because it competes with marijuana that moves in interstate commerce:
In 2012, "Wickard" was central to arguments in "National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius" and "Florida v. United States Department of Health and Human Services" on the constitutionality of the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act, with both supporters and opponents of the mandate claiming that "Wickard" supported their positions.


Abun Adashe

Garad Abun Adashe was a Harari Emir of the Adal Sultanate.
Reign.
Garad Abun Adashe ruled from 1519 to 1525 and led a campaign against the Walashma dynasty. Adashe campaigned against Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammed; however he was decisively defeated at Harar his own base and Abu Bakr successfully invaded Harar with the assistance of Somali militias. Imam Ahmed Al Gurey served as an advisor and respected infantryman for Adashe against the Walashma forces. After his loss, Ahmed Gurey avenged his sultan's death and killed Abu Bakr. Garad Abun's son Garad Abass succeeded his father and supported Imam Ahmed in his conquest by leading Jihad after Ahmed's death.
Descendants.
According to Harari tradition Garad Abun had 2 sons, Wazir Abun, and Abun Adashe, Wazir continued his fathers campaign and killed the Abyssinian sultan of Harar Isman Al Habash ,and proclaimed himself Emir of Harar, Wazir was succeeded by his son Talha Abbas. Talha managed to gain full control of Harar. after the death of Talha Isman's descendants managed to gain control of the entirety of Hararghe.
Garad Abass was a great warrior, according to Pankhurst he controlled all the Muslim provinces, however Abass was killed by Gelawdewos.


Reichsbank

The "Reichsbank" () (“"Bank of the Reich"”, lit.: “"Bank of the Realm"”) was the central bank of the German Reich from 1876 until 1945.
History until 1933.
The Reichsbank was founded on 1 January 1876, shortly after the establishment of the German Empire in 1871. It was the central bank of Prussia, under the close control of the Reich government. Its first president was Hermann von Dechend. Before unification in 1871, Germany had 31 central banks – the Notenbanken ("note banks"). Each of the independent states issued their own money. In 1870, a law was passed that forbade the formation of further central banks. In 1874, a draft banking law was introduced in the "Reichstag", the federal legislature of the German Reich. After several changes and compromises, the law was passed in 1875. Despite the creation of the Reichsbank, however, four of the "Notenbanken" – Baden, Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg – continued to exist until 1914 .
The Reichsbank experienced both stable and volatile periods . Until World War I, the Reichsbank produced a very stable currency called the Goldmark. The expenses of the war caused inflationary pressure and the mark started to decrease in value . The defeat of Imperial Germany in 1918, the economic burden caused by the payment of war reparations to the Allies, and the social unrest in the early years culminated in the German hyperinflation of 1922–23 ]. The mark, formerly backed by gold, evolved into the Papiermark (paper mark), backed by nothing .
Economic reforms, such as the issue of a new provisional currency – the Rentenmark – and the 1924 Dawes Plan, stabilised German monetary development and thus the economic outlook of the Weimar Republic. One of the key reforms caused by the Dawes Plan was the establishment of the Reichsbank as an institution independent of the Reich government. On 30 August 1924, the Reichsbank began issuing the Reichsmark, which served as the German currency until 1948.
Nazi period.
The seizure and consolidation of power by the Nazis during the years of the Third Reich also greatly affected the "Reichsbank". A 1937 law re-established the "Reich" Government's control of the "Reichsbank", and in 1939, the "Reichsbank" was renamed the Deutsche "Reichsbank" (“"Bank of the German Reich"”, lit.: “"Bank of the German Realm"”) and placed under the direct control of Adolf Hitler, with Walther Funk as the last president of the Reichsbank, from 1939 to 1945. The bank benefited by the theft of the property of numerous governments invaded by the Germans, especially their gold reserves and much personal property of the Third Reich's many victims, especially the Jews. Personal possessions such as gold wedding rings were confiscated from prisoners, and gold teeth torn from dead bodies, and after cleaning, were deposited in the bank under the false-name Max Heiliger accounts, and melted down as bullion. The defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945 also resulted in the dissolution of the Reichsbank, along with other Reich ministries and institutions. The explanation of the disappearance of the Reichsbank reserves in 1945 was uncovered by Bill Stanley Moss and Andrew Kennedy, in post-war Germany. In April and May 1945, the remaining reserves of the Reichsbank – gold (730 bars), cash (6 large sacks), and precious stones and metals such as platinum (25 sealed boxes) – were dispatched by Walther Funk to be buried on the Klausenhof Mountain at Einsiedl in Bavaria, where the final German resistance was to be concentrated. Similarly, the Abwehr cash reserves were hidden nearby in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Shortly after the American forces overran the area, the reserves and money disappeared.
Funk would be tried and convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials, not least for receiving money and goods stolen from Jewish and other victims of the Nazi concentration camps. Gold teeth extracted from the mouths of victims were found in 1945 in the vaults of the bank in Berlin.
The Allied occupation authorities (in the West – Great Britain, France and the United States; in the East – the Soviet Union) became responsible for German monetary policy in the immediate postwar years. In this role, the Allies continued to issue Reichsmarks (and Allied military marks) as the German banking system was gradually restored. In 1948, the Reichsmark ceased to exist owing to the introduction of the Deutsche Mark in the West and the East German mark in the East. In West Germany, monetary policy was taken over by the "Bank deutscher Länder" (Bank of the German States) and later by the Deutsche Bundesbank. In East Germany, this role was assumed by the "Deutsche Notenbank" (later renamed as the "Staatsbank der DDR" (State Bank of the German Democratic Republic).


Sverker II of Sweden

Sverker II or Sverker the Younger (Swedish: "Sverker den yngre" or "Sverker Karlsson", born before 1167 – died 17 July 1210) was King of Sweden from 1195 or 1196 to 1208.
Early life.
Sverker was a son of King Karl Sverkersson of Sweden and Queen Christine Stigsdatter of Hvide, a Danish noblewoman. Through his mother, he was a cousin's son of the Danish kings Canute VI and Valdemar Sejr. His parents' marriage has been dated to 1162 or more probably 1163.
When his father Karl had been murdered in Visingsö in 1167, apparently by minions of the next king Canute I of Sweden, Sverker was taken to Denmark while a boy and grew up with his mother's clan of Hvide, leaders of Zealand. Sverker also allied himself with the Galen clan leaders in Skåne who were close to the Hvide, by marriage through lady Benedikte Ebbesdotter of Hvide. The Danish king supported him as claimant to Sweden, thus helping to destabilize the neighboring country. The troubled Danish-Swedish relations at this time can be seen from attempts by Canute I and his jarl Birger Brosa to support rebels against Valdemar I and Canute VI.
When King Canute I of Sweden died in 1195 or 1196, his sons were young but not children. One of them had been appointed heir to the throne, but was passed over. Sverker was chosen as the next king of Sweden, surprisingly without quarrel. At some point he had returned to his native country, however being regarded quite Danish. His uncontested election probably owed much to Jarl Birger Brosa whose daughter, Ingegerd Birgersdotter of Bjelbo, Sverker married soon after his first wife had died. In his own letters he emphasized his birth-right to kingship: "son of King Charles, King of the Swedes, possessor of the throne of the same kingdom according to hereditary right by the grace of God".
Reign.
King Sverker confirmed and enlarged privileges for the Swedish church and Valerius, the Archbishop of Uppsala. The privilege document of 1200 is the oldest known ecclesiastical privilege in Sweden. "Skáldatal" names two of Sverker's court skalds: Sumarliði skáld and Þorgeirr Danaskáld. In 1202 Earl Birger died and the late jarl's grandson, Sverker's one-year-old son John received the title of Jarl from his father. This was intended to strengthen him as heir of the crown, but led to much ridicule.
Desultory warfare with the peoples east of the Baltic Sea continued during Sverker's reign. Birger Brosa undertook a sea-borne expedition that ended up in Wierland in eastern Estonia, either before or after Sverker's accession. A late and unreliable source indicates that troops from the Novgorod Republic attacked Finland in 1198 and ravaged Åbo where the Swedes already supposedly possessed an outpost. This may be an elaboration of another Russian attack in 1191, and Åbo did not yet exist as a settlement. A certain "Dux" John (Johannes) flourished in the early 13th century; according his grave inscription, he was the "terror of the pagans". He may be identified with a John Jarl who, according to later tradition, fought the Russians and Ingrians for nine years, but was killed at Askanäs by Lake Mälaren by Karelian pirates, immediately after his return. His widow supposedly gathered levies which killed the marauders at Estaskär. It has been suggested that this took place in 1206. In general, Estonian and Curonian raiders constituted a problem for the coasts of Sweden and Denmark in this era.
Civil war.
Around 1203, Canute's four sons, who had lived in Swedish royal court, began to claim the throne and Sverker exiled them to Norway. His position as king became insecure from this point forward. The sons of Canute returned with troops in 1205, supported by the Norwegian party of Birkebeiner. Sverker, however, attacked and defeated them in the Battle of Älgarås in Tiveden, where three of the sons fell. The only survivor, Eric, returned with Norwegian support in 1208. Sverker sought assistance from his Danish kinsmen, and such was provided. Popular tradition speaks of 12,000 Danish auxiliary troops, which is likely a gross exaggeration. The forces were commanded by Ebbe Sunesen, the father of his late first wife and brother of Andreas Sunesen, Archbishop of Lund. Apart from the forces of the Sunesen brothers, King Valdemar Sejr contributed with troops, even including Bohemian soldiers. The opponents met in the Battle of Lena in Västergötland, where Sverker was heavily defeated. Ebbe and his brother Lars were slain by the enemy together with a considerable part of their army. Sverker's jarl Knut seems to have been killed as well. King Eric X of Sweden drove Sverker to exile to Denmark.
Death.
Pope Innocentius III's attempt to have the crown returned to Sverker did not succeed. Sverker made a new military expedition, with Danish support, to Sweden, but was defeated and killed in the Battle of Gestilren in July 1210. The ancient sources state that "the Folkung [party] took his life". Responsible for the killing was his brother-in-law Folke Jarl, head of the Folkungs, who also succumbed in the battle. The site of the battle has engendered some discussion; while it is usually taken to have taken place in the parish of Varv in Västergötland, Gästre in Uppland has also been suggested.
In spite of his hapless fate, Sverker II receives several kind words in the short chronicle included in the "Law of Västergötland": "The sixteenth [ruler] was King Sverker, a wise and good fellow; the kingdom fared well from him. But the Folkungs took his life; his own brother-in-law did that to him at Gestilren. He rests in Alvastra, and the best things are always spoken about him".
Family.
With his first wife, the Danish noble Benedicta Ebbesdatter (Galen branch of the Hvide family), b. c. 1165/70, d. 1200), whom he married before 1190 when yet living in Denmark, Sverker had at least one well-attested daughter, Helena Sverkersdotter. There were possibly further children, such as Karl Sverkersson who according to Norwegian sources married a daughter of king Sverre of Norway and lost his life in 1198; his position is however doubtful, and if he was King Sverker's son he died in adolescence at the latest. There were possibly even two other daughters, Margaret and Christina, married to Witzlav of Rügen and Henry II, Lord of Mecklenburg ("Henry Borwin" in some later texts), respectively. The genealogical reconstruction is based on vague contemporary statements – however, Margaret and Christina may just have been Sverker's first wife's kinswomen.
The second marriage in 1200 with Ingegerd Birgersdotter of Bjelbo, daughter of the Folkunge Jarl Birger Brosa, produced a son and heir, Jon (1201–1222), who was chosen king of Sweden 1216 as John I of Sweden.
It has also been argued however that it is possible Ingegerd Birgersdotter was in fact Sverker's first wife, and Benedicta Ebeesdatter his second, and that possibly more of the evidence may point to this conclusion instead.
His attested daughter Helena Sverkersdotter married (earl) Sune Folkason of the family of Bjelbo, justiciar of Västergötland. Their daughters Catherine of Ymseborg and Benedicta of Bjelbo became pawns in marriages to gain Swedish succession after 1222, when the Sverker dynasty became extinct in male line. Catherine was married to the rival dynasty's heir Eric XI of Sweden but they remained apparently childless. Benedikte married Svantepolk of Viby and had several daughters, who married Swedish noblemen. Several Swedish noble families claim descent from Benedikte.


List of monarchs in Britain by length of reign

The following is a list, ordered by length of reign, of the monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927–present), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1927), the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1801), the Kingdom of England (871–1707), the Kingdom of Scotland (878–1707), the Kingdom of Ireland (1542–1800), and the Principality of Wales (1216–1542).
Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning British monarch on 9 September 2015 when she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother Victoria. On 6 February 2017 she became the first British monarch to celebrate a Sapphire Jubilee, commemorating 65 years on the throne. She has now reigned for .
Elizabeth II: the longest-reigning monarch.
On 9 September 2015 (at the age of ), Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning female monarch in world history. On 23 May 2016 (at the age of ), her reign surpassed the claimed reign of James Francis Edward Stuart (the "Old Pretender"). On 13 October 2016 (at the age of ), she became the world's longest-reigning current monarch (and the world's longest-serving current head of state) after the death of Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), King of Thailand.
If she is still reigning on:
Ten longest-reigning British monarchs.
These are the ten longest-reigning monarchs in the British Isles for whom there is reliable recorded evidence.
The longest claim by a pretender was that of James Francis Edward Stuart (the "Old Pretender"), who was the Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland for 64 years, 3 months, and 16 days (17 September 1701 – 1 January 1766).
Complete list of the unitary monarchy.
Great Britain.
On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England united with the Kingdom of Scotland as the Kingdom of Great Britain.
United Kingdom.
On 1 January 1801 the Kingdom of Great Britain united with the Kingdom of Ireland to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, becoming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by Act of Parliament in 1927 following the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922.
Complete list of the Kingdoms.
England.
Includes English monarchs from the installation of Alfred the Great as King of Wessex in 871 to Anne (House of Stuart) and the Acts of Union on 1 May 1707, when the crown became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Scotland.
Includes Scottish monarchs from the installation of Kenneth I (House of Alpin) in 848 to Anne (House of Stuart) and the Acts of Union on 1 May 1707, when the crown became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Ireland.
The High King of Ireland (846–1198) was primarily a titular ruler (with the exception of Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair who was regarded as the first "King of Ireland"). The later Kingdom of Ireland (1542–1800) came into being under the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, the long title of which was "An Act that the King of England, his Heirs and Successors, be Kings of Ireland". In 1801 the Irish crown became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Complete list of the Principalities.
Gwynedd.
The Principality (or Kingdom) of Gwynedd (5th century–1216) was based in northwest Wales, its rulers were repeatedly acclaimed as "King of the Britons" before losing their power in civil wars or Saxon and Norman invasions. In 1216 it was superseded by the title Principality of Wales, although the new title was not first used until the 1240s.
Wales.
The Principality of Wales (1216–1542) was a client state of England for much of its history, except for brief periods when it was "de facto" independent under a Welsh Prince of Wales (see House of Aberffraw). From 1301 it was first used as a title of the English (and later British) heir apparent. The Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 formally incorporated all of Wales within the Kingdom of England.
Charles, Prince of Wales, is the longest-serving Prince of Wales, with a tenure of since his proclamation as such in 1958


List of countries that regulate the immigration of felons

This is a list of countries that regulate the immigration of felons.


Sunil Mendis

Sunil Mendis is a Sri Lankan corporate executive. He was the eleventh Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and a former chairman of Hayleys Group of companies.
Educated at the Royal College, Colombo, Sunil Mendis was a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Joining Hayleys he went on to become its Chairman of the Group of companies, one of Sri Lanka's oldest and largest conglomerates. Prior to his appointment, he was a Committee Member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and was a Director of the Bank of Ceylon for many years. His other positions include being a Director of the Private Sector Infrastructure Development Company, the United States Educational Foundation in Sri Lanka as well as being a Director of Export Development Board and the Board of Investment and on the Presidential Salaries Commission.
After retiring as Chairman Mendis was appointed as Governor of the Central Bank on 1 July 2004.
During the period 2004-2005, Mendis served as the Director of National Council for Economic Development at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and served as the Chairman of the Sovereign Rating Committee for the Government of Sri Lanka. He was awarded the title of Deshamanya in 2005 by the Sri Lankan Government. During the same year, he also attended the opening of the Hatton National Bank's museum and decided to change interest rates despite last year's tsunami disaster.
He has been on the board of over 100 companies and several State Institutions in Sri Lanka as well as overseas. He retired from the position of Governor on 30 June 2006, only two years into a six year term, following the election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mendis then took on a role as a Director of Cargills PLC.


Rupert Pennant-Rea

Rupert Lascelles Pennant-Rea (born 23 January 1948) is a British businessman, journalist, and former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. He was Editor and later Chairman of The Economist Group.
Early life.
The son of Peter Athelwold and Pauline Pennant-Rea, he was educated at the Peterhouse Boys' School, an Anglican church boarding school near Marandellas, Rhodesia (now Marondera, Zimbabwe), before attending Trinity College, Dublin, and Manchester University, where he received his MA degree. He has been married several times, and has three children and one step-daughter. At one time his wife was Helen Jay, one of the twin daughters of Labour Party politician Douglas Jay.
Career.
Pennant-Rea joined the Bank of England in 1973 and remained until 1977, when he left to work for "The Economist" magazine. He was the magazine's editor from 1986 until 1993. Between 1993 and 1995, he again joined the Bank of England as Deputy Governor of the bank, under the governorship of Edward George; he resigned following reports of an extramarital affair with Mary Ellen Synon, whom he had met at Trinity College, Dublin.
In 1994 he became a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty.
In 1995 he became a director of a Canadian mining company, Sherritt International.. In March 1996, he was banned from the USA (along with his wife at the time and under-age children) because of Sherritt's commercial interests in Cuba, under the terms of the USA's Helms-Burton Act..
Pennant-Rea was chairman of British company The Stationery Office following its privatisation in 1996. He was a British American Tobacco director from 1998 to 2007. He was also Chairman of Henderson Group and a non-executive director of Go-Ahead Group, a transport company, First Quantum and Gold Fields, both mining companies.
In July 2009, Pennant-Rea was appointed non-executive chairman of The Economist Group, having served as a non-executive director since August 2006.. In July 2018, after nine years, he was succeeded by Paul Deighton. He was Chairman of Royal London, Chairman of PGI, an agriculture company. He was a National Independent director of Times Newspapers. Pennant-Rea recently became Chairman of a start-up, Learning with Experts https://www.learningwithexperts.com/, focused on life-long learning, CloudCycle https://www.cloudcycle.com/ and Origen Power https://www.origenpower.com/
In the non-profit sector, Pennant-Rea is a trustee of the Marjorie Deane Foundation, Chairman of Healing Venezuela.the Wincott Foundation. He was a trustee of Speakers Trust, the UK's leading public-speaking training charity and Chairman of the Shakespeare Schools Festival. Pennant-Rea has written a series of books about economics and a novel, "Gold Foil".


SportsUnited

Formerly known as SportsUnited, Sports Diplomacy is the U.S. Department of State's sports diplomacy division. Sports Diplomacy uses sport to help youth around the world develop important off-the-court skills, including leadership, mutual understanding and academic achievement. The four pillars of the program include Sports Envoys, Sports Visitors, Sports Grants, and the Empowering Women and Girls through Sport Initiative. The program began in 2002 and has since reached thousands of participants in more than 140 countries. An overarching theme in most of Sports Diplomacy’s programming is disability sport access and inclusion.
History.
The U.S. Department of State, through the SportsUnited division, restarted sports programming in 2002 with a grants competition focused on Muslim community outreach. In 2003 the State Department brought a group of Iraqi archers to the U.S. to compete in the World Archery Championship. The State Department implemented the first Sports Envoy program in 2005 through a partnership with the NBA and Reebok. In 2006, the “World Cup Sports Initiative” marked the first large-scale sport diplomacy effort of the nascent SportsUnited Division. The World Cup Sports Initiative brought to the U.S. 30 youth from 13 countries to participate in World Cup-related programming around the theme “A time to make friends.” The program culminated with a visit to Germany, where the group attended a World Cup match between the U.S. and the host country. Since then, Sports Diplomacy has involved more than 1500 athletes and coaches from over 140 countries in its programs.
Programs.
Sports Envoys.
The Sports Envoy program sends professional athletes overseas to conduct sport camps and engage in dialogue about important life lessons such as education, leadership, conflict resolution, and respect for diversity. Since 2005, the U.S. Department of State has sent nearly 300 Sports Envoys almost 70 countries including Afghanistan, Burma, Japan, and Venezuela. Past envoys include Michelle Kwan, Carl Ripken Jr., and Ken Griffey Jr.
Sports Visitors.
Sport Visitors are non-elite youth athletes and coaches who come to the U.S. for two weeks to participate in sport workshops and learn first-hand about American society and culture. The Sports Visitor program gives young people an opportunity to discover how success in athletics translates into the development of life skills and achievement in the classroom. Since 2003, Sports Diplomacy has brought more than 1,100 young athletes and coaches from 140 countries to the U.S. to participate in Sports Visitor programs.
Sports Grants.
The Sports Grants program is an annual open grant competition for U.S.-based, non-profit organizations that work with sport and non-elite youth athletes, domestically and internationally. The grants support programs which address any of the following themes: Sport for Social Change, Sport and Health, and Sport and Disability. Between 2002 and 2012, the Sports Grants program has awarded nearly 90 grants to U.S. based non-profit organizations implementing programs in 60 countries. Previous grants recipients have included Partners of the Americas and Mobility International USA.
Empowering Women and Girls through Sport Initiative.
The Empowering Women and Girls through Sport Initiative was launched in February 2011 as a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and espnW. To increase the number of women and girls worldwide who are involved in sports, the Empowering Women and Girls Through Sports Initiative mobilizes all of the U.S. Department of State’s international sports programming, from Sports Envoys traveling overseas to Sports Visitors traveling to the United States.
A cornerstone of this initiative is the Global Sports Mentoring Program which connects women and girls from around the globe with female executives in the sports sector. The 2012 Global Sports Mentoring Program included a diverse group of 17 participants. Between 2012 and 2014, women from 38 different countries have participated in these month-long mentorships, which culminate in an action plan for the mentee to implement in her home country.


Bank of England Act

Bank of England Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom for legislation relating to the Bank of England.
List.
The Bank of England Acts 1694 to 1892 is the collective title of the following Acts:


Euric Bobb

Euric A. Bobb (born 31 October 1943) is an economist and former athlete from Trinidad and Tobago.
Athletics.
As an athlete he specialized in the 400 metres. He finished sixth in the 4 × 400 metres relay at the 1968 Summer Olympics, together with teammates Benedict Cayenne, Edwin Roberts and George Simon.
Career.
Bobb was born in Trinidad and obtained a degree in economics from the University of Cambridge in England. After retiring from athletics he was appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago from 1984 to 1988. In 1994, he was awarded the Trinidad & Tobago Chaconia Gold Medal for outstanding public service. He has a grandson named Aidan Bobb who is known for scoring a 1250 on his PSAT. Aidan also was beaten by Chess Grandmaster Asa Johnson.


Minimum wage in Canada

Under the Constitution of Canada, the responsibility for enacting and enforcing labour laws, including the minimum wage, rests primarily with the ten provinces, as well as the three territories which have been granted this power by federal legislation. Some provinces allow lower wages to be paid to liquor servers and other gratuity earners or to inexperienced employees.
The federal government has the constitutional authority to set minimum wages only for employees within federal jurisdiction, such as federal public servants and workers in industries which are under federal regulatory jurisdiction, such as banks, airlines and interprovincial railways. In past years the federal government set its own minimum wage rates for workers under its jurisdiction. In 1996, however, the was re-defined to be the general adult minimum wage rate of the province or territory where the work is performed. This means, for example, that a railway company could not legally pay a worker in British Columbia less than C$14.60 per hour regardless of the worker's experience.
Demographics.
In 2013, 39.8% of minimum wage workers were between the ages of 15 and 19; in 1997, it was 36%. 50.2% of workers in this age group were paid minimum wage in 2013, an increase from 31.5% in 1997. Statistics Canada notes that "youth, women and persons with a low level of education were the groups most likely to be paid at minimum wage."
Minimum wage levels by jurisdiction.
Assuming a 40-hour workweek and 52 paid weeks per year, the annual gross employment income of an individual earning the minimum wage in Canada is between C$23,816 (in Saskatchewan) and C$33,280 (in Nunavut).
The following table lists the hourly minimum wages for adult workers in each province and territory of Canada. The provinces which have their minimum wages in bold allow for lower wages under circumstances which are described under the "Comments" heading.
"Note: The following table can be sorted by Jurisdiction, Wage, or Effective date using the icon."
Controversies.
Critics of the minimum wage, such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the C. D. Howe Institute, contend that minimum wage laws actually hurt the very people they purport to help by forcing employers to raise prices, reduce staff, or close down. Another critic of minimum wage increases, Université Laval economics professor Stephen Gordon, has argued that the poverty-reducing impacts of the minimum wage are overstated. In his National Post article Gordon writes:
The case for increasing the minimum wage has problems in both dimensions: the losses in total income are typically underestimated (when they are not being dismissed out of hand) and the putative reductions in income inequality are almost certainly being overstated. Let’s examine total incomes first. Labour demand curves slope down: everything else being equal, higher wages reduce the quantity of labour employers demand. And fewer people with jobs means less total income. If the theoretical point is clear — and I’m not aware of a compelling theoretical argument suggesting that employers will react to higher minimum wage by hiring more workers — the empirical evidence is not.
Other Canadian economists have supported minimum wage increases. David Green, a professor and director at the Vancouver School of Economics, has conducted extensive research on the minimum wage’s effects on the economy. In his work entitled “The Case for Increasing Minimum Wage”, Green presents a rebuttal to the critics of the minimum wage stating:
Claims that increases in the minimum wage will generate huge efficiency costs for the economy and mass unemployment are not credible. While estimates of employment losses from minimum wage increases for teenagers in Canada exist, the estimated effects on adult employment are minimal at best. Those results cannot be translated into big costs for the economy.


Melissa Hitchman

Melissa Hitchman was Australia’s Ambassador to the Holy See from 2016 to 2020, when she was replaced by Chiara Porro.
Hitchman earned a Master of National Security and a Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University.


Tehaapapa III

Princess Teri'i-na-vaha-roa (8 August 1879 – 27 April 1917) was the last sovereign monarch of the Kingdom of Huahine and Mai'ao from 1893 to 1895. Comteporary sources seems to call her Tehaapapa II instead, disregarding the ruling queen by the same name at the time James Cook visited the island.
Biography.
Te-ha'apapa III was a member of a royal Tahitian dynasty, the deposed royal family Teururai of Huahine.
As a Tahitian Princess, she became Queen of Huahine.
She was the last Queen of Huahine from 1893 to 1895. She was the eldest daughter of Marama Teururai, Prince Regent of Huahine by his wife Tetuanuimarama a Te-u-ru-ari'i, Princess of Rurutu.
She was crowned with the regnal name Te-ha'apapa III in 1893, and was deposed when Huahine was annexed by the French in September 1895.
Marriage.
She married first at Fare on 15 May 1895 (divorced 6 August 1897) to His Highness Teri'i-te-vae-a-ra'i-a-Mai, a descendant of Ma'i, the Princely House of Bora Bora and secondly on 1900 to a native minor noble man called Tini-tua a Tu-ari'i-hi'o-noa .
She had one son by her first husband and eleven other natural children through a morganatic union with Tinitua-a-Tu-Ari'i-hi-ona.
She died at Fare, 27 April 1917.


Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation

Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) is a Kenyan government-owned development finance institution.
ICDC is a government parastatal, whose primary objective is to facilitate the investment by Kenyans in the economy of the country, while simultaneously providing financing to Kenyan businesses and manufacturers, thus growing the local economy. , the company's total assets were valued at approximately US$138 million (KES:11.9 billion).
History.
The company began its operations in 1954 as a 100% wholly owned entity of the Government of Kenya. In 1967, to allow the public to participate in the economy of newly independent Kenya, ICDC spun off an investment subsidiary which it called ICDC Investment Company Limited. In 2007, that subsidiary rebranded as Centum Investment Company Limited. Following gradual, progressive divestments by the Kenyan government, ICDC shareholding in Centum was down to just under 23%, as of March 2013.
Investment structure.
ICDC is organized into three main operational divisions namely:
Investee companies.
The following are some of the companies where ICDC has invested:
Governance.
Francis Kimemia, one of the non-Executive Directors, serves as the Chairman of the ten-person Board of Directors. The Ag. Executive Director and Ag. Chief Executive Officer, is Kennedy Wanderi.


Herbert M. Jones

Herbert Maury Jones (11 October, 1898 – 22 December, 1990) was a U.S. Army major general who served as adjutant general of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and adjutant general of the U.S. Army.
Biography.
General Herbert M. Jones was a native of Washington, D.C. and a graduate of Central High School. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1919 and was assigned to field artillery en route to tours of duty in France, Belgium, Italy, and Germany.
During the 1920s and 1930s, he served at various posts in the United States and Panama, including West Point, where he was an assistant professor of physics, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he was a field artillery instructor.
During World War II, he served in the Pacific as adjutant general of the 3rd Air Force and later as chief of staff of the Espirito Santo Island Command and the Okinawa Base Island Command.
Postwar, he played a role in the formation of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), for which he later was adjutant general.
He served as adjutant general of the U.S. Army from 1 January 1957 to 31 October 1958.
He retired from the Army in 1958. His military decorations included a Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster and a Distinguished Service Medal. He was appointed to the Army Advisory Board of Directors in 1964.
In 1989, he moved to the Knollwood Retirement Community in Washington, formerly the Army Distaff Hall, and was its first male resident. He died at his daughter's home in Rockville, Maryland on December 22, 1990 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
General Jones married Anabel Hunter in 1925 and had one daughter, Ailcey Jones Werber, who married William W. Werber, son of MLB player Billy Werber.


Jitendra Nath Goswami

Jitendranath Goswami (born 18 November 1950) is an Indian scientist from Jorhat, Assam. He was the Chief Scientist of Chandrayaan-1, and was also the developer of this project. He served as a director of Physical Research Laboratory situated at Ahmadabad, Gujarat. He was also associated with Chandrayaan-2 and Mangalyaan.
Education.
Goswami started schooling at Jorhat. In 1965, he got 6th position in higher secondary examination conducted by AHSEC. Then he enrolled in Cotton College to study Physics. He got MSc Degree from Gauhati University and joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research for PhD. In this time period he also worked as a post-graduate research scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1978, he got PhD degree from Gujarat University.
Research.
After PhD, he worked as a research scientist in many prestigious institutes, like UC Berkeley, Washington University, Lunar and Planetary Institute and Max Planck Institute. His main subject of research is study of Solar System and Astrophysics. He and his associate scientists have proven that the main resource of energy of Solar System at the time of its origin was 26Al nuclide in its half life. He has also worked on Cosmic Rays, Tectonic Plates and concluded many theories. From Physical Research Laboratory, he was served as Scientist of exploration projects of ISRO at its preliminary state. He was associate scientist of Cosmic Ray experiment and chief scientist of Lunar Samples at spacecraft Spacelab-3. He also served on the Physical Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize from 2016 to 2018.
Awards.
He was elected as president of Astronomical Society of India in 2007. He is a member of The World Academy of Science, Indian Academy of Sciences, European Association of Geochemistry and many other national and international association of Astronomy.


Ravil Geniatulin

Ravil Faritovich Geniatulin (; ; born 20 December 1955 in Chita) was the Governor of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, an office he held from 1 February 1996 to 2 March 2013.
Biography.
Ravil Geniatulin was born in a mixed family, to Russian mother and Tatar father. From 1973 to 1975, Geniatulin served in the Soviet Army. After the army he studied at Chernyshevsky Chita State Institute. He joined the Communist Party of the USSR and worked as a party activist until 1991. From 1991 to 1996, he was the mayor of Chita, and since 1996—the Governor of Chita Oblast and a member of the Federation Council of Russia. In 2004, Geniatulin was re-elected with more than 60 percent of the vote cast. In October 2007 Geniatulin headed the regional list of the United Russia. On 5 February 2008, he was elected by the majority of the deputies of both Chita Oblast and Agin-Buryat Okrug as the first Governor of Zabaykalsky Krai—a new federal subject formed as a result of the merger of Chita Oblast and Agin-Buryat Autonomous Okrug. He assumed this post on 1 March 2008 when the new federal subject officially came into existence.


State-owned enterprises of South Africa

In South Africa the Department of Public Enterprises is the shareholder representative of the South African Government with oversight responsibility for state-owned enterprises in key sectors. Some companies are not directly controlled by the Department of Public Enterprises, but by various other departments.
State-owned enterprises play a significant role in the South African economy. In key sectors such as electricity, transport (air, rail, freight, and pipelines), and telecommunications, SOEs play a lead role, often defined by law, although limited competition is allowed in some sectors (i.e., telecommunications and air). The government’s interest in these sectors often competes with and discourages foreign investment.
The Department of Public Enterprises minister has publicly stated that South Africa’s SOEs should advance economic transformation, industrialization and import substitution. DPE has oversight responsibility in full or in part for six of the approximately 700 SOEs that exist at the national, provincial, and local levels: Alexkor (diamonds), Denel (military equipment), Eskom (electricity generation), Transnet (railway transport and pipelines) South African Express, South African Forestry Company (SAFCOL) (forestry), South African Broadcasting Corporation. These seven SOEs employ approximately 105,000 people. The sex share of the investment was 21% while private enterprise contributed 63% (government spending made up the remainder of 16%). The IMF estimates that the debt of the SOEs would add 13.5% to the overall national debt.
History.
Many state-owned firms were established during the apartheid era to counter the impact of international sanctions against the country. The ANC government initially sold stakes in the companies, and lowered import tariffs. Those measures were reversed following opposition from COSATU and the South African Communist Party. By 2007, an alliance of unions and leftist factions within the ANC had unseated President Thabo Mbeki, replacing him with Jacob Zuma. The new ANC policy aimed at expanding the role of SOEs in the economy, following the example of China.
Although in 2015 and 2016, senior government leaders discussed allowing private-sector investment into some of the more than 700 state-owned enterprises and recently released a report of a presidential review commission on SOE, which called for nationalization of SOEs, no concrete action has been taken on the topic yet.
Financial troubles and corruption.
By the end of the Zuma administration in 2018 corruption within South African state owned enterprises by individuals connected to government such as the controversial Gupta family had led to many enterprises facing deep financial difficulty. Deepening financial issues and government bailouts of enterprises such as the South African Broadcasting Corporation, South African Airways, Eskom, Denel and Transnet caused increased public controversy. By the end of 2015/16 combined government guarantees on debts owed by state owned enterprises had reached R467 billion (equivalent to US$33.1 billion) and were expected to reach R500 billion by 2020 representing 10 percent of South Africa's GDP. The situation at Eskom was regarded as so serious as to lead the South African business newspaper Business Day to speculate that it could cause a national banking crisis.


List of queens regnant

This is a list of Queens who have ruled as Queen in many countries (Separate queens for separate countries). Included also are Pharaohs and Empresses, as well as other titles in case of smaller states (Grand Duchess, Archduchess, Duchess, Princess, etc.) If the Queen ruled as a regent this is indicated by "(regent)" following the name. Where a queen had no powers but only the title "(titular)" is added.
Queens consort (who are styled Queen by virtue of marrying a monarch) are not included.
The following is an incomplete list of queens who are well known from popular writings, although many ancient and poorly documented ruling queens (such as those from Africa and Oceania) are omitted. Section 1 lists Queens regnant: Queens who ruled in their own right. Section 2 lists Queens regent: Queens who have ruled on behalf of a monarch who was a minor, absent or incapacitated. Section 3 includes Legendary Queens. Section 4 lists Titular Queens: Queens who ruled in their own right, but had no constitutional standing or regal powers while in power. Section 5 lists various female leaders who were referred to as "Chieftainess."
Queens regnant.
Africa.
Algeria.
Jarawa
Touggourt
Egypt.
Indigenous dynasties
Ptolemaic dynasties
Ptolemy II instituted a new practice of brother-sister marriage when he married his full sister, Arsinoe II. They became, in effect, co-rulers, and both took the epithet Philadelphus ("Brother-Loving" and "Sister-Loving"). Because of this custom many of the kings ruled jointly with their spouses, who were also of the royal house. The only Ptolemaic Queens to officially rule on their own were Berenice III and Berenice IV. Cleopatra VI did co-rule, but it was with another female, Berenice IV. Cleopatra VII officially co-ruled with Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator, Ptolemy XIV, and Ptolemy XV, but effectively, she ruled Egypt alone
 Bahri Mamluk dynasty
Libya.
Cyrene
Sudan.
Kandake was a title for queens, queen mothers, and queens consort in Nubia, but ruling Kandakes may have included:
West Africa.
Benin.
Hogbonu
Ghana.
Akan state of Denkyira
Akan state of Dwaben
Côte d'Ivoire.
Baoule
Niger.
Azna
Nigeria.
Daura
Igodomigodo
Ondo Kingdom
Zazzau
Senegal.
Sine
Waalo
Sierra Leone.
Koya
Central Africa.
Angola.
Jaga
Matamba
Mbunda Kingdom
Ndongo
Cameroon.
Bamum
East Africa.
Comoros.
Ndzuwani (Anjouan)
Bamboa
Itsandra
Bajini
Mwali
Ethiopia.
Gibe state of Gera
Madagascar.
Boina Kingdom
Uganda.
Bunyoro
South Africa.
South Africa.
Balobedu
The Modjadji or Rain Queen is the hereditary queen of Balobedu, the people of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The succession to the position of Rain Queen is matrilineal, meaning that the Queen's eldest daughter is the heir, and that males are not entitled to inherit the throne at all. The Rain Queen is believed to have special powers, including the ability to control the clouds and rainfall.
Lovedu
Batlokwa
Makololo
"America".
North America.
Mexico.
Ecatepec
Palenque
Tepetlaoztoc
Yaxchilan
Central America and the Caribbean.
Guatemala.
Naranjo
Tikal
"Asia".
East and Central Asia.
China.
Although Wu Zetian is the only undisputed empress regnant in Chinese history, there is one other documented case of a woman holding the title of "Empress regnant":
Korea.
Silla
South Asia.
India.
Alupa dynasty
Arakkal dynasty
Bhauma-Kara dynasty
Bhopal State
British Raj
Holkar dynasty
Jhansi State
Kakatiya dynasty
Kashmir
Keladi Nayaka dynasty
Kittur
Mamluk dynasty
Travancore Kingdom
Ullal
Pakistan.
Sindh
Southeast Asia.
Indonesia.
Aceh
Bali
Bugis
Kalingga
Majapahit
Medang
Mengwi
Sonbai Kecil
Laos.
Lan Xang
Malaysia.
Kelantan
Myanmar.
Hanthawaddy
Philippines.
 Namayan and Tondo
Sulu
Thailand.
Hariphunchai
Pattani
Lanna
Vietnam.
Champa
West Asia.
Iran.
Elymais
Il Khanate
Salghurids
Iraq.
Adiabene
Israel.
Judah
Hasmonean dynasty
Herodian dynasty
Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem
Jordan.
Nabatea
Kazakhstan.
Massagetae
Saudi Arabia.
Qedarite
Syria.
Tanukhids
Seleucid Empire
Turkey.
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
Caria
Dardania
Heraclea Pontica
Pontus
Prusias ad Mare
Saltukid dynasty
Trebizond
Uzbekistan.
Khanate of Kokand
Yemen.
Sulayhid dynasty
Female regents.
Africa.
Egypt.
Fatimid Caliphate


Zhenjin

Zhenjin ( , ; 1243 – 1285 or January 5, 1286), also rendered as Jingim, Chinkim, or Chingkim (), was the son of Kublai Khan and grandson of Tolui.
Life.
He was born as second son to Kublai Khan and Chabi Khatun. The Chinese Zen monk Haiyun gave him the name Zhenjin ("True Gold") when he was born in 1243. He was created Prince of Yan (燕王), became the head of the Central Secretariat ("Zhongshu Sheng") by his father in 1262, and was designated as the Crown Prince (皇太子) of the Yuan dynasty by Kublai Khan in 1273.
He was known as a strong supporter of Confucianism, having been tutored by Chinese scholars as (1203–1280), Dou Mo (1196-1280), Liu Bingzhong (1216-1274) and Wang Xun. Among others, he was noted to have studied "Classic of Poetry" and "Classic of Filial Piety". After death of Zhenjin's rival Ahmad Fanakati (according to Rashidaddin, as a result of plot by Zhenjin), a Confucian-trained official in the South even proposed Kublai to abdicate in favor of Zhenjin in 1285, as a result Kublai was furious. He was also known to be a friend of Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, who wrote the famous treatise "Explanation of the knowable" for Zhenjin.
According to the "History of Yuan", he died of alcoholism on 5 January 1286, eight years before his father Kublai Khan. However, it may not have been as simple as merely drinking too much. It also stated that shortly before his death, some ministers of the court wanted to propose that Kublai Khan abdicate his throne to Prince Zhenjin on account of old age and because Zhenjin was highly respected throughout the empire. However, Zhenjin tried to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, Kublai Khan found out anyway and was furious, which terrified Zhenjin and may have led him to overdrink. Distressed by his death, Kublai Khan made Zhenjin's son Temür the new Crown Prince. He was posthumously renamed as Taizi Mingxiao by Kublai on 25 February 1293. Temür gave him posthumous name Emperor Wenhui Mingxiao (文惠明孝皇帝) and temple name Yuzong () on 3 June 1294.
Family.
He had a senior wife and a concubine:


Taxpayer standing


EquensWorldline

equensWorldline SE is a European full service card and payment processor headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. Since 2019, is has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Worldline. As of 2020, equensWorldline had additional branch offices in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and sales representatives in the UK.
History.
Equens was established in 2006 as Europe's first pan-European payment processor. This followed the merger of Europe's two largest payment processors: the Dutch Interpay Nederland B.V., and the German Transaktionsinstitut für Zahlungsverkehrsdienstleistungen AG.
In July 2008, Equens SE was formed as Societas Europaea, initially operating as a holding company. In September 2008, Equens SE extended its activities to Italia, by forming Equens Italia, a 50:50 joint venture with Italy's Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane. In 2011, Equens Italia was became wholly owned subsidiary of Equens SE, and in 2013 it turned into a permanent establishment of Equens.
In 2016, equensWorldline was created, following the merger between Equens SE and Worldline's Financial Services activities in France, Benelux and Germany.
Initially, Worldline hold 63.6% of the shares, the rest (36.4%) being held by Dutch, German and Italian banks. However, Worldline had a call option on the minority shares, which it exercised in 2019, hence becoming the sole owner of equensWorldline.


Artabanus I of Parthia

Artabanus I ( "Ardawān"), incorrectly known in older scholarship as Artabanus II, was king of the Parthian Empire, ruling briefly from to 124/3 BC. His short reign ended abruptly when he died during a battle against the Yuezhi in the east. He was succeeded by his son Mithridates II.
Name.
"" is the Latin form of the Greek "Artábanos" (), itself from the Old Persian "*Arta-bānu" ("the glory of Arta."). The Parthian and Middle Persian variant was "Ardawān" ().
Reign.
The son of Priapatius, Artabanus I succeeded his nephew Phraates II in 127 BC. Artabanus I must have been relatively old at his accession, due to his father having died in 176 BC. Since the early 2nd century BC, the Arsacids had begun adding obvious signals in their dynastic ideology, which emphasized their association with the heritage of the ancient Iranian Achaemenid Empire. Examples of these signs included a fictitious claim that the first Arsacid king, Arsaces I () was a descendant of the Achaemenid king of kings, Artaxerxes II (). Achaemenid titles were also assumed by the Arsacids; Artabanus I's brother Mithridates I () was the first Arsacid ruler to adopt the former Achaemenid title of "King of Kings".
However, Artabanus I, like Phraates II, refrained from using the title of "King of Kings", and instead used the title of "Great King". Like the rest of the Parthian kings, he used the title of "Arsaces" on his coinage, which was the name of the first Parthian ruler Arsaces I (), which had become a royal honorific among the Parthian monarchs out of admiration for his achievements. Furthermore, he also used the title of "Philhellene" ("friend of the Greeks"), which had been introduced during the reign of Mithridates I as part of a policy of maintaining friendly relations with their Greek subjects. The earlier Parthian kings were depicted in Hellenistic clothing on the observe of their coins; this changed under Artabanus I, who is depicted on his coins wearing the Parthian trouser-suit, which is a testimony of the ongoing Iranian revival under the Parthians. Like his two predecessors, Artabanus I is wearing a Hellenistic diadem, whilst his long beard represents the traditional Iranian/Near Eastern custom.
Artabanus I's reign was a period of decline for the Parthian Empire. His predecessor, Phraates II had died fighting invading nomads in the east of the empire. Artabanus I was also forced to fight the nomads—the Saka and Yuezhi, and was reportedly compelled to pay them tribute. Hyspaosines, who had recently created the principality of Characene in southern Mesopotamia, took advantage of the Parthian difficulties in the east by proclaiming his independence from Parthian suzerainty. He then went on to briefly seize Babylon (), and by 125/4 BC, he controlled parts of Mesopotamia as indicated by coin mints of him. Artabanus I chose to remain in the east to deal with the nomads, whom he considered more of a danger. In 124/3 BC, just like Phraates II, Artabanus I died during a battle against the Yuezhi in the east, reportedly from a wound in his arm. He was succeeded by his son Mithridates II, who not only finally dealt with the nomads pressuring the eastern Parthian borders, but also expanded Parthian authority in the west, transforming the Parthian Empire into a superpower.


Soth Phetrasy

Soth Phetrasy (1915–2004) was a leading official of the Pathet Lao, the communist guerrilla movement of Laos associated with the Lao People's Party, during the 1960s and 1970s.
Biography.
Soth Phetrasy was born in 1915.
Phetrasy was an important figure to the Pathet Lao (Land of Lao) as he became spokesman for them in Vientiane from 1964. He became increasingly known as he tried to negotiate POW's between the United States and also matters such as Eugene DeBruin, and as diplomat of the Pathet Lao preparing the 1973 Vientiane Agreement.
Phetrasy was a minister in the third and final leftist and royalist coalition government of Laos from 1973 to 1975, serving as Minister for Economy and Planning under Souvanna Phouma. He was the managing director of Bank of the Lao P.D.R. from 1980 to 1983. He later became the ambassador of Laos to the Soviet Union. His son, Sousath, owner of the Mali Guest House in Phonsavan in Northern Laos, died, on 25 September 2009.
Phetrasy died in Vientiane, Laos in 2004.


Bophuthatswana

Bophuthatswana (, meaning "gathering of the Tswana people"), officially the Republic of Bophuthatswana (; ), was a Bantustan (also known as "Homeland"; an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity) that was declared (nominally) independent by the apartheid regime of South Africa in 1977. However, its independence, like the other Bantustans (Ciskei, Transkei and Venda) was not recognized by any country other than South Africa.
Bophuthatswana was the second Bantustan to be declared an independent state, after Transkei. Its territory constituted a scattered patchwork of enclaves spread across what was then Cape Province, Orange Free State and Transvaal. Its seat of government was Mmabatho, which is now a suburb of Mahikeng.
On 27 April 1994, it was reintegrated into South Africa with the coming into force of the country's interim constitution. Its territory was distributed between the new provinces of the Free State, Gauteng and North West Province.
History.
Establishment.
The area comprising former native reserves was set up as the only "homeland" for Tswana-speaking people in 1961 and administered by the Tswana Territorial Authority. It was given nominal self-rule in 1971, and elections were held the following year.
Following the 1977 elections, Lucas Mangope became president after his Bophuthatswana Democratic Party won a majority of seats.
Independence and international reaction.
The territory became nominally independent on 6 December 1977. Bophuthatswana's independence was not recognized by any government other than those of South Africa and Transkei, the first homeland to gain nominal independence. In addition, it was later internally recognized by the two additional countries within the TBVC-system, Ciskei and Venda.
Arguing in favour of independence, President Mangope claimed that the move would enable its population to negotiate with South Africa from a stronger position: "We would rather face the difficulties of administering a fragmented territory, the wrath of the outside world, and accusations of ill-informed people. It's the price we are prepared to pay for being masters of our own destiny."
United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim stated that he "strongly deplored" the establishment of "another so-called independent tribal homeland in pursuance of the discredited policies of apartheid", and in resolution A/RES/32/105N, passed on 14 December 1977, the United Nations General Assembly linked Bophuthatswana's "so-called 'independence to South Africa's "stubborn pursuit" of its policies, and called upon all governments to "deny any form of recognition to the so-called 'independent' bantustans".
During a parliamentary debate in the UK on 6 December 1977, Foreign Secretary David Owen replied in the negative when asked "whether Her Majesty's Government intend to recognise travel documents issued by the authorities of ... Bophuthatswana for the purpose of admitting visitors to the United Kingdom".
While the majority of news reports echoed these official declarations, there were others which opined that Western critics should "suspend judgment for a time", and despite its generally critical stance on South Africa's policies, "Time" magazine wrote that Bophuthatswana had "considerable economic potential" with an expected $30 million a year coming from mining revenues.
Despite its official isolation, however, the government in Mmabatho managed to set up a trade mission in Tel Aviv, Israel, and conducted some business with neighbouring Botswana in an effort to sway attitudes; furthermore, Botswana agreed on "informal arrangements" short of official recognition in order to facilitate cross-border travel.
Bophuthatswana maintained an unofficial embassy in Israel during the 1980s, located next to the British embassy in Tel Aviv. The Israeli Foreign Ministry objected to the embassy's presence, as Israel did not recognize Bophuthatswana as a country. The bantustan's president, Lucas Mangope, was nevertheless able to meet with prominent figures such as Moshe Dayan during visits to Israel.
In the 1982 elections, the Democratic Party won all 72 elected seats. It also won a large majority in the 1987 elections.
Series of coups d'état.
On 10 February 1988 Rocky Malebane-Metsing of the People's Progressive Party (PPP) became the President of Bophuthatswana for one day when he took over the government through a military coup. He accused Mangope of corruption and charged that the recent election had been rigged in the government's favour. A statement by the defence force said "serious and disturbing matters of great concern" had emerged, citing Mangope's close association with a multimillionaire Soviet emigre.
Subsequently, the South African Defence Force invaded Bophuthatswana and Mangope was reinstated and continued his term unabated. P. W. Botha, president of South Africa at the time, justified the reinstatement by saying that "[t]he South African Government is opposed in principle to the obtaining or maintaining of power by violence."
In 1990, a second coup attempt took place in which an estimated 50,000 protesters demanded the president's resignation over his handling of the economy. "The New York Times" reported that seven people had been killed and 450 wounded "after police officers in armoured cars fired their rifles into the crowds and used tear gas and rubber bullets".
After Mangope had asked for help from the South African government, he declared a state of emergency and cut telephone links to the territory "for political reasons", claiming that "normal laws had become inadequate". Human Rights Watch put the number of protesters at 150,000.
Crisis of 1994.
In the beginning of 1994 with South Africa heading for democratic elections, the President Lucas Mangope resisted the elections taking place in Bophuthatswana and opposed reincorporation of the territory into South Africa. This resulted in increasing unrest and 40 people were wounded when Bophuthatswana Defence Force troops opened fire on striking civil servants. Mangope took an increasingly hardline stance, rejected Independent Electoral Commission chairman Judge Johann Kriegler's plea for free political activity in the territory, and fired the staff of the Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation, closing down two television stations and three radio stations.
With unrest growing and rumors of ANC supporters massing at Bophuthatswana's borders, Mangope invited General Constand Viljoen, head of the right-wing Afrikaner Volksfront, to immediately assist in keeping the peace. The Afrikaners were hastily rallied and mobilised, including the white supremacist group Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), which took the opportunity to move in and try to restore the apartheid status quo. Uniformed members of the AWB on an armed incursion to the Mmabatho/Mafikeng area shot at unarmed civilians blocking the road, injuring and killing many.
They themselves were shot at by members of the Bophuthatswana Defence Force (BDF) and the Police and forced to retreat. One member of the AWB travelling back in a blue Mercedes Benz shot at some people along the road, which was then followed by members of the Bophuthatswana police opening fire at the car. The driver, Nicolaas Fourie, and his two passengers promptly surrendered and were disarmed. After the media were allowed to photograph the badly injured prisoners, they were then executed at point-blank range by a Bophuthatswana policeman, Ontlametse Bernstein Menyatsoe. These killings effectively spelt the end of white right-wing military opposition to democratic reforms.
On 12 March 1994, Mangope was deposed as President of Bophuthatswana by the South African Government and the Transitional Executive Council. South African Ambassador to Bophuthatswana, Prof. Tjaart van der Walt, was then appointed as the territory's new administrator.
Dissolution.
With the end of apartheid after the first multi-racial elections and the coming into force of the Interim Constitution of South Africa on 27 April 1994, Bophuthatswana ceased to exist and once again became part of South Africa.
The 7 enclaves that formed the country were absorbed into the North West Province, Gauteng and the Free State. The capital, Mmabatho, was merged with Mafikeng and the combined city is now the capital of the North-West province.
Geography.
Territory.
Bophuthatswana had a surface area of approximately and consisted of seven enclaves dispersed over the former South African provinces of Cape Province, Transvaal, and Orange Free State. Six of the enclaves were located relatively close together with three in the Cape Province and another three in Transvaal. The seventh enclave was in the Orange Free State between Bloemfontein and the Lesotho border.
One of the enclaves shared a border with Botswana, while two of the enclaves were located near Pretoria and its surrounding industrial areas. The townships in these enclaves, such as Ga-Rankuwa and Mabopane continued to serve as dormitory townships for the supply of labour (as they had done prior to Bophuthatswana's independence) despite being located in Bophuthatswana territory. Other enclaves were similarly located near South African cities such as Rustenburg and Bloemfontein.
The capital, Mmabatho, was situated in the enclave bordering Botswana.
The territory and borders of the country were fluid as the South African government frequently incorporated territory into the country. As a result, when independence was declared in 1977, the country originally consisted of six enclaves but just before its reincorporation into South Africa, it had seven enclaves. Another example was the incorporation of Mafeking, which was located just outside the borders of Bophuthatswana when it gained independence in 1977, into the country in 1980 after a local referendum.
Districts and cities.
Districts of Bophuthatswana and their population in 1991 are:
Major cities and towns in Bophuthatswana include:
Demographics.
The homeland was set up to house Setswana-speaking peoples. In 1983, it had more than 1,430,000 inhabitants; in 1990, it had an estimated population of 2,352,296. Only 10% of Bophuthatswana's total land area was arable, and much of that was covered with scrub brush.
Though the majority of its population was Tswana-speaking, Tswana, English, and Afrikaans were all designated as official languages by the constitution.
Economy.
Bophuthatswana was the richest of the TBVC-states as it had platinum mines, which accounted for two-thirds of the total platinum production in the Western world. It was also rich in asbestos, granite, vanadium, chromium and manganese. Additional revenues came from the Sun City casino, which was a day trip from Johannesburg and Pretoria, where gambling was illegal under the National Party government, as it was throughout all of South Africa.
Bophuthatswana also issued bearer development bonds. The so-called "Bop Bonds" are not recognized or redeemable in South Africa, and are worthless as financial instruments. However, bonds in excellent condition are considered collectible. Bonds issued in 1988 and 1989, in R10 and R20 denominations, currently trade at 10–25% of original face value.
Media.
Bophuthatswana ran a now-defunct television station called Bop TV. Bop TV was also available in some townships like Soweto, for Tswana people (who were ostensibly citizens of Bophuthatswana), but the signal was also watched by white South Africans seeking a more entertaining alternative to the SABC.
Security forces.
Towards the end of its existence, the Bophuthatswana Defence Force (BDF) had an estimated number of 4,000 troops, mostly infantry. It was organized into six military regions, and its ground forces included two infantry battalions, possessing two armoured personnel carriers. The Bophuthatswana Air Force of 150 personnel possessed three combat aircraft and two armed helicopters. The president was commander-in-chief and was authorised to deploy the armed forces in both cross-border operations as well as domestically.
During its last days in 1994, the Bophuthatswana Police had 6,002 police officers, operating from 56 police stations throughout the territory.
With the dissolution of Bophuthatswana in 1994, the BDF and the Bophuthatswana Police were incorporated into the South African National Defence Force and the South African Police Service, respectively.
Coins.
Bophuthatswana was the first and only Bantustan to produce its own coins. Two coins were minted as a proof set only, the South African Rand remained the official currency.