National Bus Company (UK)

The National Bus Company (NBC) was a nationalised bus company that operated in England and Wales between 1969 and 1988. NBC did not run buses itself, but was the owner of a number of regional subsidiary bus operating companies.
History.
Background.
Following the Labour Party victory at the 1966 General Election, Barbara Castle was appointed Minister for Transport. Castle immediately ordered a review of public transport, with a view to formulating a new transport policy.
Among the issues to be tackled were the ownership and operation of bus services, which were rapidly losing patronage and profitability due to increased prevalence of private motor cars. The state owned a considerable proportion of scheduled bus operators outside the major cities, having obtained the Tilling Group companies in 1948 as a byproduct of nationalising the railways. The Tilling Group was subsequently placed under the ownership of the nationalised Transport Holding Company (THC). London Transport was also nationalised in 1948 and others voluntarily acquiesced, the last being Red & White in 1950. When the Labour Party suddenly lost power to the Conservatives in 1951, the nationalization programme remained unfinished.
Castle proposed forming regional transport authorities, which would take over the THC subsidiaries and municipal transport undertakings in their area, and would also have the power to acquire private bus operators. However, in November 1967 British Electric Traction (BET) unexpectedly offered to sell its bus operations to the government. BET, who had been the only major private bus operating group, received £35 million for its 25 provincial bus companies and 11,300 vehicles. The deal meant that the state or municipal bus operators now operated some 90% of scheduled bus services in England and Wales. Instead of forming the regional authorities, the government published a white paper proposing the merger of the THC and BET organisations into a single National Bus Company.
The recommendations of the White Paper formed part of the Transport Act 1968. The 1968 Act also reorganised the already nationalised bus operation in Scotland, where subsidiaries formed the Scottish Bus Group.
Formation.
The National Bus Company was formed on 1 January 1969.
In 1970, the company was enlarged when it acquired the country area buses of London Transport (as London Country Bus Services), the bus operations of the county boroughs of Exeter and Luton, and the Gosport & Fareham Omnibus Company, trading under the name of Provincial.
Buses were operated by locally managed subsidiary companies, with their own fleetnames and liveries. In the early years of the company, there was some rationalisation, generally leading to the amalgamation of operators into larger units and the transfer of areas between them. One was the merging of Aldershot & District with Thames Valley on 1 January 1972. Another example was the transfer of the 'land-locked' Trowbridge operations from Western National to Bristol Omnibus in 1970.
Corporate identity.
Following the appointment of Fred Wood as chairman in 1972, NBC introduced corporate images. Henceforth, its coaches were branded as National Travel and painted in unrelieved white, with the NBC logo and the 'NATIONAL' name in alternate red & blue letters. The services were rebranded as National Express soon afterwards. The addition of blue and white stripes appeared in 1978. National Travel was the country's first attempt at a uniformly marketable express network, which superseded Associated Motorways and the plethora of other services provided by individual NBC subsidiaries. The coaches were managed by a few areas and included travel agent booking offices based at major bus stations. A hub and spoke system operated with the main hub at Cheltenham (although this did not serve the North of England very well).
Around the same time, the company launched a wide number of UK holiday services under the banner "National Holidays". This brand and its travel agent booking offices existed until the mid-1990s, when the coach holiday division closed.
The National Express overseas travel business was re-launched under the name Eurolines: this brand now operates services from the UK across Europe, booked through the main National Express website.
In the 1970s all local service buses adopted a uniform design, generally in either leaf green or poppy red, initially with white relief, and bearing the company fleetname in white with the new NBC "double-N" arrow logo. There were, however, exceptions: buses operating in the area of the Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive became yellow in a similar fashion to the PTE's own fleet but to the NBC design; some buses operating within West Yorkshire were liveried in WYPTE verona green and cream; Jones (Aberbeeg) and Midland General both liveried in blue until 1980, and the Northern General subsidiary, Sunderland District, also retained blue for a short period.
Area of operation.
Although NBC operated throughout England and Wales, it was not a monopoly. Services were provided by London Transport in Greater London, the fleets of the municipal bus companies and passenger transport executives, and by independent operators in some rural areas and a few small towns.
Bus manufacture.
The NBC inherited from the Transport Holding Company 75% shareholdings in chassis manufacturer Bristol Commercial Vehicles and body builder Eastern Coach Works. In 1969 NBC formed a joint venture with British Leyland (who owned the other 25% of Bristol and ECW), by means of which British Leyland became a 50% owner of the NBC's manufacturing companies. The joint venture designed and built a new single-deck bus, the Leyland National. The first was delivered in 1972, and it remained in production until 1986. The National was also available to other bus operators. In 1982 NBC sold its 50% interest in the joint venture (including Bristol and ECW) to British Leyland.
Service reforms.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s services were reviewed under a process known within instigator Midland Red as the Viable Network Project and subsequently more generally as the "Market Analysis Project" (MAP). Each company carefully considered its existing and potential new demands, surveyed both on and off bus, and recast local networks to reflect the results, indicating to local authorities those services requiring subsidy. As part of the MAP local area identities were invariably introduced, with new fleetnames applied to buses, bus stops, timetables and publicity. The process culminated in the splitting of several larger NBC subsidiaries.
Deregulation and privatisation.
From 1986, bus services in the UK were deregulated and progressively privatised, with the remaining larger companies forcibly broken up.
NBC was divided into 70 units, with the first sale being of National Holidays to Pleasurama in July 1986. The last sale was completed in April 1988.
The sales spawned a renewed interest in individual liveries and the "double-N" logo disappeared. However, it was kept by National Express when it was sold to their management and continued to be used until 2003, when the NBC logo finally disappeared in favour of a new logo, since replaced in 2007. Most local companies passed from state control to management buyouts. The independence of many however, was short lived, as they were acquired by the emerging large private bus groups, represented today by:
Subsidiaries.
Original companies.
The original bus and coach operating subsidiaries of the National Bus Company in 1969 and 1970 were:
In addition, another NBC subsidiary Amalgamated Passenger Transport Ltd. inherited the former British Railways/THC shareholdings in several further Joint Omnibus Committees in Yorkshire, comprising Halifac JOC and Todmorden JOC (merged to form Calderdale JOC in 1971), Huddersfield JOC and Sheffield JOC.
Consolidation.
During its early years, NBC pursued a policy of merging smaller subsidiaries to form larger regional companies. At the same time, some depots were transferred between subsidiaries to reduce overlap between operating territories. In addition to those businesses inherited from the Transport Holding Company, NBC took over the municipal bus operations in Exeter and Luton during 1970, with these operations being absorbed by Devon General and United Counties respectively, while the country area services of London Transport also passed to NBC in 1970 as London Country. Notable independent operators acquired during this period included Jones of Aberbeeg, Venture of Consett, Provincial of Fareham, and Wessex of Bristol which were (at least initially) retained as subsidiaries. 1974 saw the coach-only subsidiaries consolidated into four "National Travel" companies, while a fifth was established to take over another independent coach operator, Don Everall of Wolverhampton.
On the other hand, the NBC shareholdings in Huddesfield and Sheffield JOCs were sold to the respective local authorities in 1969, and most of Hebble's bus operations passed to the jointly owned Halifax JOC during 1970. The 1968 Transport Act gave the new passenger transport executives the right to purchase any bus operations within their territories, including those of the National Bus Company. Not all of the PTEs chose to exercise this power, but on 1 January 1972 SELNEC PTE purchased the majority of North Western Road Car, and in 1973 the services of Midland Red within the West Midlands PTE are passed to that executive. In 1974 the remaining NBC interest in Calderdale JOC was acquired by the newly-formed West Yorkshire PTE.
By 1978 the following bus-operating companies existed:
Break-up and privatisation.
In 1981 Midland Red, weakened by losing its core area, was broken into six smaller operating companies. Most of the National Travel companies were closed down in the mid-1980s, with coaches mainly going to local bus companies. Wessex National was formed from part of National Travel South West, and Pilgrim Coaches from part of National Travel West.
In preparation for the introduction of deregulation in 1986, and for privatisation soon after, many of the companies were broken up into smaller units. In some cases the names of earlier companies – such as Wilts & Dorset or North Western – were revived, although often with quite different areas from their namesakes.
Two additional non-bus-operating subsidiaries were also disposed of in 1988:
The Scarborough operations of United Automobile Services passed to East Yorkshire Motor Services in September 1986.


Vega flight VV04

Vega flight VV04 is the space launch of the IXV experimental re-entry vehicle by the Vega rocket.
Payload.
The flight was a single-payload mission that put the IXV prototype spaceplane into sub-orbital spaceflight. The total payload mass was approximately , including the spacecraft and its adapter.
IXV.
The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (abbreviated "IXV") was long, high, and wide. It had a lift-off mass of approximately , and was the only payload of the flight.
IXV was designed and manufactured by a consortium led by Thales Alenia Space.
Mission description.
Launch time and location.
The launch was initially foreseen for but was postponed to allow further analyses of the flight path.
The successful Vega flight finally took place on at 13:40:00UTC (10:00:00 local time) from the ELV launch pad at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.
Orbit.
The sub-orbital flight was planned to last about 100 minutes from lift-off until splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, near coordinate .
Statistics.
The mission was the launch of the Vega launcher (the out of 3 in ), and the Arianespace mission (the in ).


.224 Boz

The .224 Boz cartridge was developed in the late 1990s with the purpose of defeating body armour.
Design.
The .224 Boz began as a 10mm Auto case necked down to .223. Original trials were successful, with this round firing a 50 gr projectile chronographed at over .


Liquidity adjustment facility

Liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) is a monetary policy which allows banks borrow money through repurchase agreements.
Description.
LAF is used to aid banks in adjusting the day to day mismatches in liquidity. LAF helps banks to quickly borrow money in case of any emergency or for adjusting in their Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR)/Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) requirements. LAF consists of repo (repurchase agreement) and reverse repo operations. Repo or repurchase option is a collaterised lending i.e. banks borrow money from Reserve bank of India to meet short term needs by selling securities to RBI with an agreement to repurchase the same at predetermined rate and date. The rate charged by RBI for this transaction is called the repo rate. Repo operations therefore inject liquidity into the system. Reverse repo operation is when RBI borrows money from banks by lending securities. The interest rate paid by RBI in this case is called the reverse repo rate. Reverse repo operation therefore absorbs the liquidity in the system. The collateral used for repo and reverse repo operations are Government of India securities. Oil bonds have been also suggested to be included as collateral for Liquidity adjustment facility. In LAF, money transaction is done via RTGS (Real time Gross settlement, an online money transfer method).
History.
The origin of repo rates, one of the component of liquidity adjustment facility, can be traced to as early as 1917 in U.S financial market when war time taxes made other sources of lending unattractive. The introduction of Liquidity adjustment facility in India was on the basis of the recommendations of Narasimham Committee on Banking Sector Reforms (1998). In April 1999, an interim LAF was introduced to provide a ceiling and the fixed rate repos were continued to provide a floor for money market rates. As per the policy measures announced in 2000, the Liquidity Adjustment Facility was introduced with the first stage starting from June 2000 onwards. Subsequent revisions were made in 2001 and 2004. When the scheme was introduced, repo auctions were described for operations which absorbed liquidity from the system and reverse repo actions for operations which injected liquidity into the system. However, in international nomenclature, repo and reverse repo implied the reverse. Hence in October 2004, when revised scheme of LAF was announced, the decision to follow the international usage of terms was adopted.
Repo and reverse repo rates were announced separately till the monetary policy statement in 3.5.2011. In this monetary policy statement, it has been decided that the reverse repo rate would not be announced separately but will be linked to repo rate. The reverse repo rate will be 100 basis points below repo rate. The liquidity adjustment facility corridor, that is the excess of repo rate over reverse repo, has varied between 100 and 300 basis points. The period between April 2001 to March 2004 and June 2008 to early November 2008 saw a broader corridor ranging from 150–250 and 200–300 basis points respectively. During March 2004 to June 2008 the corridor was narrow with the rates ranging from 100–175 basis points. A narrow LAF corridor is reflected from November 2008 onwards. At present the width of the corridor is 25 basis points. This corridor is used to contain any volatility in short-term interest rates.
Current status.
Liquidity adjustment facility has emerged as the principal operating instrument for modulating short term liquidity in the economy. Repo rate has become the key policy rate which signals the monetary policy stance of the economy.


Trianon Treaty Day

The Trianon Treaty Day () is a public holiday of Romania celebrated every 4 June to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. The holiday was first proposed in 2015 by the Foreign Minister of Romania, Titus Corlățean, and subsequently promulgated on 18 November 2020 by President Klaus Iohannis.
According to the law that promulgated the holiday, on Trianon Treaty Day, cultural, educational, and scientific events of both local and national level can be held to raise awareness of the treaty and its significance and importance. Civilians, as well as organizations and local or central authorities can support such events through material and logistical support. The Romanian Television and Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company are permitted to broadcast programs related to the observance.
The holiday has elicited negative responses from the Hungarian community of Romania and Hungary itself. It has been claimed that the Romanian decision for promulgating the holiday was because of the earlier establishment of 4 June in Hungary as the "Day of National Cohesion" and to endorse anti-Hungarian sentiments. On the other hand, Corlățean, who proposed the law passed by the Parliament of Romania, declared to the BBC: "I do not understand why the Romanians should be shy of marking what was fundamental for their history, because we don't want to offend anyone."
After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I and following the declaration of the union of Transylvania with Romania on 1 December 1918, the Romanian Army took control of Transylvania from November 1918 to March 1919, during the Hungarian–Romanian War. The Treaty of Trianon was a treaty signed on 4 June 1920 between Hungary and the Allies (including Romania). As a result, Romania gained Transylvania and as well as parts of Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș. Hungary also lost territories to Austria, Czechoslovakia, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and even Poland as a consequence of it.


Elman Rustamov

Elman Rustamov () is an Azerbaijani politician. He has been the governor of Azerbaijan Central Bank since January 1995.
Biography.
Rustamov was born 29 June 1952 in Jabrail district of Azerbaijan.
Education.
In 1969, he entered Azerbaijan National Economy Institute named after D. Bunyadzade (now Azerbaijan State Economic University), faculty of Planning of National Economy. In 1973, he graduated with honors from the University.
Academic activity.
In 1973–1978, he had completed his PhD at the Azerbaijan National Economy Institute named after D. Bunyadzade. In 1986, he successfully defended the scientific thesis at Scientific Research Institute of Economy in Moscow and obtained a diploma.
During 1990-1992 he continued scientific activity towards a Doctorate degree at the Economy Institute under the USSR State Planning Committee. In 1993, he received a degree in Doctor economic science.
Job activity.
Rustamov started his professional life at the Scientific Research Institute of Economy under USSR State Planning Committee as an economist immediately. After six months he joined military service in Smolensk city and completed it in 1975.
In 1978–80, he worked at Baku Fine Broadcloth Union of Azerbaijan SSR Ministry of Light Industry as a head of the department of Economy. After 2 years he returned to his first work place (Scientific Research Institute of Economy under USSR State Planning Committee) and worked there until 1990.
In 1991–1992, he continued his professional activity at the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan as a chief adviser.
Rustamov joined the Central Bank of Azerbaijan in December 1992. In 1993–1994, he worked at the Agrarian – Industrial Union Joint Stock Bank as Deputy Chairman of the Management Board. In 1994, he was appointed to the First Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Azerbaijan Central Bank. In 1995, he was nominated to the governorship by the Order of the Azerbaijan President - Heydar Aliyev. In 2000, 2005 and 2010, he was reappointed the second, third and fourth time.
Since 1995 he has simultaneously been Administrator for Azerbaijan at World Bank Group, MIGA and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Macroeconomic policy activity.
During the world economic crises in 2008-2009 monetary policy orientation of Central Bank of Azerbaijan has strictly expanded: refinancing rate was cut down from 15% up to 2%, reserve requirement ratio from 12% up to 0.5%. In exchange rate policy Rustamov voted for financial stability holding a pegged regime against the US dollar.


Banco Sabadell

Banco de Sabadell, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational financial services company headquartered in Alicante and Barcelona, Spain. It is the fifth-largest Spanish banking group. It includes several banks, brands, subsidiaries and associated banks. It is a universal bank and specialises in serving small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the affluent with a bias towards international trade.
As of January 2016, the total assets of Banco Sabadell Group amounted to €208.628 billion. It has a network of 2,873 branches (2,204 domestic and 669 international), 26,090 employees and 11.4 million customers. It is floated on the Bolsa de Madrid and is part of the IBEX 35.
Strategic plan.
In February 2014, Banco Sabadell started its 2014–2016 business plan, Triple, that aims to leverage its new size and margin-generating capability. The main goal of the 2014–2016 Triple Plan is profitability. Key themes of the new plan are transformation (transformation of the business, transformation of the production process and transformation of the balance sheet) and internationalization (laying the foundations for becoming more international in terms of structure and resources and entering new markets).
History.
On 31 December 1881, a group of 127 businessmen and traders from Sabadell, in the province of Barcelona, founded the Bank with the purpose of financing local industries and providing them with raw materials (wool and coal) under more favourable conditions.
In 1907, Banco Sabadell began a new stage: it ended its non-banking businesses to focus on commercial banking. In 1953, in order to preserve the organisation's independence, the shareholders created a share syndication agreement.
In 1965, Banco Sabadell slowly spread to nearby towns. In 1975, it expanded beyond Catalonia, opening a branch in Madrid. In 1978, Banco Sabadell expanded internationally, initially in the City of London.
The bank is a pioneer in bank computing in Spain. In 1968, it automated accounting and administrative processes. In 1986, it introduced remote banking: the telephone (FonoBanc) and computer (InfoBanc) were incorporated as new channels for communication and service prodivision. In 1998, it launched BancSabadell Net, Spain's first Internet banking service.
In 1988, Sabadell MultiBanca, later Sabadell Banca Privada, opened, specialising in equity management and private banking and the Banco Sabadell group was formed.
In 1996, Banco Sabadell started a new expansion phase, increasing its size and operating capacity.
Banco Sabadell went public in 2001 and became a member of the IBEX 35 in 2004.
Since 2007, the Bank has doubled in size and is currently Spain's fifth largest bank. Acquisitions include NatWest Spain, Banco Herrero, Banco Atlántico, Banco Urquijo, TransAtlantic Bank, Private Banking Business of BBVA (US), Mellon United National Bank, Banco Guipuzcoano, Lydian Private Bank, Banco CAM, Banco Mare Nostrum (BMN) network in Catalonia and Aragon, Lloyds TSB Spain, Banco Gallego, Lloyds TSB Miami and JGB Bank.
On 5 October 2017, the board of Banco Sabadell decided in an emergency session to move their legal base to Alicante in response to growing political insecurity in Catalonia. A few days later, the bank decided to move its fiscal domicile to Alicante too.
In December 2018, it was announced the selling of 80% of Solvia to Intrum.
Branch network.
At the end of the year 2014, Banco Sabadell operated through 2,310 branches and had 17,529 employees.
Banco Sabadell 53 international branches and representative offices in Algiers, Peking, Caracas, Dubai, Istanbul, México DF, New York, New Delhi, Santo Domingo, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Warsaw.
Banco Sabadell has subsidiaries and associated Banks in Andorra, United States, Portugal, United Kingdom; and branches in London, Miami, Paris, Hendaye and Casablanca.
Board of directors.
The members of the Board of Directors of Banco Sabadell are:
Secretary to the Board Miquel Roca i Junyent. Deputy Secretary María José García Beato.*To be ratified at the next shareholders' meeting .


Titular and honorary rank

In the Indonesian military, titular and honorary ranks are two different types of special military ranks. Unlike the normal rank in the Indonesian military, titular and honorary ranks could be given to civilians who served temporarily in the military or contributed to the military.
Titular rank.
Background.
Titular rank have been given since the Indonesian National Revolution. During the revolution, the office of governors, residents, and regents were transformed into military offices, which allowed them to regulate military affairs in their region. In their capacity, they were given titular military ranks. Military governors were given the titular rank of general major, military residents were given the titular rank of lieutenant colonel, and military regents were given the titular rank of major.
Several military offices during the revolution also involve civilian officeholders. An example of this is the Army Political Education Staff and the Military Court. The Army Political Education Staff, which was intended to educate the military on non-military matters, consisted of civilians. As such, these civilians were given the titular rank of major general. Similarly, the military court during the revolution was filled with civilian judges due to the lack of military officers with law backgrounds. These civilian judges were given titular ranks, with the highest being the titular rank of lieutenant general for the chief justice of the supreme army court and the lowest being the titular rank of captain for the court clerk.
Regulation.
The first regulation on titular ranks was enacted on 1 August 1946 with the Government Decree No. 7 of 1946. The regulation specifies the use of titular ranks within the military courts. The decree was later amended with the enactment of Government Decree No. 45 of 1948 on 9 October 1948.
Regulations about special military ranks were later merged to the Government Decree No. 36 of 1959, which was enacted on 26 June 1959.
Honorary rank.
Honorary ranks are usually given as a promotion to retired military officers. Retired military officers who serve as ministers usually received honorary rank promotion.


Money multiplier

In monetary economics, a money multiplier is one of various closely related ratios of commercial bank money to central bank money (also called the monetary base) under a fractional-reserve banking system. It relates to the "maximum" amount of commercial bank money that can be created, given a certain amount of central bank money. In a fractional-reserve banking system that has legal reserve requirements, the total amount of loans that commercial banks are allowed to extend (the commercial bank money that they can legally create) is equal to a multiple of the amount of reserves. This multiple is the reciprocal of the reserve ratio minus one, and it is an economic multiplier. The actual ratio of money to central bank money, also called the money multiplier, is lower because some funds are held by the non-bank public as currency. Also, in the United States most banks hold excess reserves (reserves above the amount required by the US central bank, the Federal Reserve).
Although the money multiplier concept is a traditional portrayal of fractional reserve banking, it has been criticized as being misleading. The Bank of England, Deutsche Bundesbank, and the Standard & Poor's rating agency have issued refutations of the concept together with factual descriptions of banking operations. Several countries (such as Canada, the UK, Australia and Sweden) set no legal reserve requirements. Even in those countries that do, the reserve requirement is as a ratio to deposits held, not a ratio to loans that can be extended. Basel III does stipulate a liquidity requirement to cover 30 days net cash outflow expected under a modeled stressed scenario (note this is not a ratio to loans that can be extended); however, liquidity coverage does not need to be held as reserves but rather as any high-quality liquid assets.
In equations, writing "M" for commercial bank money (loans), "R" for reserves (central bank money), and "RR" for the reserve ratio, the reserve ratio requirement is that formula_1 the fraction of reserves must be "at least" the reserve ratio. Taking the reciprocal, formula_2 which yields formula_3 meaning that commercial bank money is "at most" reserves times formula_4 the latter being the multiplier. (In March 2020, the minimum reserve requirement for all deposit institutions in the United States was abolished, setting RR=0, resulting in an effective infinite multiplier. In practice, however, banks continue to be limited by their capital requirement.)
If banks lend out close to the maximum allowed by their reserves, then the inequality becomes an approximate equality, and commercial bank money is central bank money times the multiplier. If banks instead lend less than the maximum, accumulating excess reserves, then commercial bank money will be "less" than central bank money times the theoretical multiplier.
Definition.
The money multiplier is defined in various ways. Most simply, it can be defined either as the statistic of "commercial bank money"/"central bank money", based on the actual observed quantities of various empirical measures of money supply, such as M2 (broad money) over M0 (base money), or it can be the theoretical "maximum commercial bank money/central bank money" ratio, defined as the reciprocal of the reserve ratio, formula_5 The multiplier in the first (statistic) sense fluctuates continuously based on changes in commercial bank money and central bank money (though it is "at most" the theoretical multiplier), while the multiplier in the second (legal) sense depends only on the reserve ratio, and thus does not change unless the law changes.
For purposes of monetary policy, what is of most interest is the "predicted impact" of changes in central bank money on commercial bank money, and in various models of monetary creation, the associated multiple (the ratio of these two changes) is called the money multiplier (associated to that model). For example, if one assumes that people hold a constant fraction of deposits as cash, one may add a "currency drain" variable (currency–deposit ratio), and obtain a multiplier of formula_6
These concepts are not generally distinguished by different names; if one wishes to distinguish them, one may gloss them by names such as empirical (or observed) multiplier, legal (or theoretical) multiplier, or model multiplier, but these are not standard usages.
Similarly, one may distinguish the "observed" reserve–deposit ratio from the legal (minimum) reserve ratio, and the "observed" currency–deposit ratio from an assumed model one. Note that in this case the reserve–deposit ratio and currency–deposit ratio are "outputs" of observations, and fluctuate over time. If one then uses these observed ratios as model parameters ("inputs") for the predictions of effects of monetary policy and assumes that they remain constant, computing a constant multiplier, the resulting predictions are valid only if these ratios do not in fact change. Sometimes this holds, and sometimes it does not; for example, increases in central bank money may result in increases in commercial bank money – and will, if these ratios (and thus multiplier) stay constant – or may result in increases in excess reserves but little or no change in commercial bank money, in which case the reserve–deposit ratio will grow and the multiplier will fall.
Mechanism.
There are two suggested mechanisms for how money creation occurs in a fractional-reserve banking system: either reserves are first injected by the central bank, and then lent on by the commercial banks, or loans are first extended by commercial banks, and then backed by reserves borrowed from the central bank. The "reserves first" model is that taught in mainstream economics textbooks, while the "loans first" model is advanced by endogenous money theorists.
Reserves first model.
In the "reserves first" model of money creation, a given reserve is lent out by a bank, then deposited at a bank (possibly different), which is then lent out again, the process repeating and the ultimate result being a geometric series.
Formula.
The money multiplier, , is the inverse of the reserve requirement, :
General formula.
To correct for currency drain (a lessening of the impact of monetary policy due to peoples' desire to hold some currency in the form of cash) and for banks' desire to hold reserves in excess of the required amount, the formula:
can be used, where "Currency Drain Ratio" is the ratio of cash to deposits, i.e. C/D, and the Desired Reserve Ratio is the sum of the Required Reserve Ratio and the Excess Reserve Ratio.
The desired reserve ratio is the amount of its assets that a bank chooses to hold as excess and required reserves; it is a decreasing function of the amount by which the market rate for loans to the non-bank public from banks exceeds the interest rate on excess reserves and of the amount by which the federal funds rate exceeds the interest rate on excess reserves. Since the money multiplier in turn depends negatively on the desired reserve ratio, the money multiplier depends positively on these two opportunity costs. Moreover, the public’s choice of the currency drain ratio depends negatively on market rates of return on highly liquid substitutes for currency; since the currency ratio negatively affects the money multiplier, the money multiplier is positively affected by the return on these substitutes.
The formula above is derived from the following procedure. Let the monetary base be normalized to unity. Define the legal reserve ratio, formula_9, the excess reserves ratio, formula_10, the currency drain ratio with respect to deposits, formula_11; suppose the demand for funds is unlimited; then the theoretical superior limit for deposits is defined by the following series:
formula_12.
Analogously, the theoretical superior limit for the money held by public is defined by the following series:
formula_13
and the theoretical superior limit for the total loans lent in the market is defined by the following series:
formula_14
By summing up the two quantities, the theoretical money multiplier is defined as
formula_15
where and formula_16
The process described above by the geometric series can be represented in the following table, where
Table.
This re-lending process (with no currency drain) can be depicted as follows, assuming a 20% reserve ratio and a $100 initial deposit:
Note that no matter how many times the smaller and smaller amounts of money are re-lended, the legal reserve requirement is never exceeded - because that would be illegal.
Loans first model.
In the alternative model of money creation, loans are first extended by commercial banks – say, $1,000 of loans (following the example above), which may then require that the bank borrow $100 of reserves either from depositors (or other private sources of financing), or from the central bank. This view is advanced in endogenous money theories, such as the Post-Keynesian school of monetary circuit theory, as advanced by such economists as Basil Moore and Steve Keen.
Finn E. Kydland and Edward C. Prescott argue that there is no evidence that either the monetary base or Ml leads the cycle.
Jaromir Benes and Michael Kumhof of the IMF Research Department, argue that: the “deposit multiplier“ of the undergraduate economics textbook, where monetary aggregates are created at the initiative of the central bank, through an initial injection of high-powered money into the banking system that gets multiplied through bank lending, turns the actual operation of the monetary transmission mechanism on its head. At all times, when banks ask for reserves, the central bank obliges. According to this model, reserves therefore impose no constraint and the deposit multiplier is therefore a myth. The authors therefore argue that private banks are almost fully in control of the money creation process.
John Whittaker of Lancaster University Management School, describes two systems used by the Bank of England. In both systems, the central bank supplies reserves to meet demand.
Implications for monetary policy.
According to the quantity theory of money, the multiplier plays a key role in monetary policy, and the distinction between the multiplier being the "maximum" amount of commercial bank money created by a given unit of central bank money and approximately "equal" to the amount created has important implications in monetary policy.
If banks maintain low levels of excess reserves, as they did in the US from 1959 to August 2008, then central banks can finely control broad (commercial bank) money supply by controlling central bank money creation, as the multiplier gives a direct and fixed connection between these.
If, on the other hand, banks accumulate excess reserves, as occurs in some financial crises such as the Great Depression and the Financial crisis of 2007–2010, then this relationship breaks down and central banks can force the broad money supply to shrink, but not force it to grow:
Restated, increases in central bank money may not result in commercial bank money because the money is not "required" to be lent out – it may instead result in a growth of unlent reserves (excess reserves). This situation is referred to as "pushing on a string": withdrawal of central bank money "compels" commercial banks to curtail lending (one can "pull" money via this mechanism), but input of central bank money does not compel commercial banks to lend (one cannot "push" via this mechanism).
This described growth in excess reserves has indeed occurred in the Financial crisis of 2007–2010, US bank excess reserves growing over 500-fold, from under $2 billion in August 2008 to over $1,000 billion in November 2009.


London living wage


Takeru Inukai

 was a Japanese politician and novelist active in Shōwa period Japan. Also known as "Inukai Ken", he was the third son of Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi.
Biography.
Inukai was born in the Ushigome district of Tokyo. Although accepted into the Tokyo Imperial University’s School of Philosophy, he left without graduation. Interested in literature from his student days, he gravitated to the "Shirakaba" ("White Birch") literary society due to its liberal humanistic outlook. His works were influenced by Mushanokōji Saneatsu and Nagayo Yoshirō, and he became a member of the Japanese chapter of the International PEN.
He ran for a seat from the Tokyo 2nd District in the lower house of the Japanese Diet, under the "Rikken Seiyūkai" party in the 1930 General Election, and was elected twelve times holding a seat until his death in August 1960. Inukai was a press secretary under the first Konoe Fumimaro administration. He split with the "Rikken Seiyūkai" in 1939, joining a neutral faction led by Tsuneo Kanemitsu. He was held for questioning by the police in the Sorge Spy Incident.
As his father, Inukai Tsuyoshi, had always supported friendly relations with China, Inukai had contacts and good relations with Chinese politicians during the pre-war period. After his father's assassination in the May 15 Incident, he continued to strive for restoration of good Sino-Japanese relations, and especially provided support to the Wang Jingwei government in hopes that it would bring the stability that would allow Japan to withdraw its troops from the China quagmire. Thus throughout 1938 until the formation of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China in 1940, he negotiated with Gao Zongwu and Mei Siping to first come to a peace agreement with Chiang Kai-shek, and after failing that, to organize the defection of Wang Jingwei.
During the 1942 General Election, Inukai was reelected as an independent candidate opposing the Taisei Yokusankai.
After World War II in 1945, Inukai helped organize the Japan Progressive Party, of which he became chairman. The party merged with the Democratic Party, one of the forerunner of the Liberal Democratic Party in 1948. In 1952, under the 4th Yoshida Shigeru cabinet, Inukai became Minister of Justice. He continued in the same position in the 5th Yoshida cabinet in 1953. However, in the Shipbuilding Scandal of 1954 (under pressure from Prime Minister Yoshida), Inukai refused to approve of the prosecution of future prime minister Satō Eisaku, who had been indicted for corruption and misuse of public funds. Afterwards, he resigned as Justice Minister in protest.
Inukai died in 1960 at the age of 64, and his grave is located at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo. His son, Inukai Yasuhiko (b. 1928) was president of Kyodo News.


Qualified Performing Artist Deduction

In United States tax law, certain performing artists are eligible to deduct the expenses incurred in the course of their employment by § 62(a)(2)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code. This is an "above the line" deduction, meaning that it is used while computing a taxpayer's Adjusted Gross Income. It is an exception to the general rule, which requires job-related expenses to be a miscellaneous itemized deduction subject to the "2% haircut" rule of itemized deductions. As such, it is a favorable tax situation for the performing artist taxpayer.
To qualify for this deduction, a taxpayer must fit certain criteria:
In determining who his or her "employers" were for purposes of this statute, the taxpayer must only consider those employers that paid the taxpayer an amount equal to or greater than $200 for the taxpayer's performance. See I.R.C. § 62(b)(2). As a result of this, relatively unknown artists who are paid less than $200 per performance are not allowed to take this exception. Artists who are sometimes paid an amount equal to or greater than $200 and other times paid less than that amount can only claim the instances on which he or she received over $200.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, artists who have an AGI more than $16,000 in a taxable year before this deduction are not allowed to take this deduction. This excludes well-known performing artists who make a large amount of income from playing shows from deducting their income therefrom.
This $16,000 cap has not been raised since 1986, meaning very few artists actually take advantage of the deduction due to inflation. The deduction was intended for performers who pay their own airfare to and from engagements and who have the difficulty of spreading deductions over schedule C and schedule A.
Additionally, any taxpayer who attempts to claim this deduction must either be single or married filing jointly. See I.R.C. § 62(b)(3).
See also.
I.R.C. § 162(a) for further information on deduction of business expenses.
 Article about the cap on the Qualified Performing Artist deduction


Louis Rasminsky

Louis Rasminsky, (February 1, 1908 – September 15, 1998) was the third Governor of the Bank of Canada from 1961 to 1973, succeeding James Coyne. He was succeeded by Gerald Bouey.
Born in Montreal, he was raised in Toronto, graduated at Harbord Collegiate Institute, educated at the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics. In 1930, he started at the League of Nations as a specialist in monetary and banking issues. He joined the Bank of Canada in 1940, becoming executive assistant to the Governors of the Bank from 1943 to 1954 and Deputy Governor in 1955.
He served as Canada's executive director at the International Monetary Fund from 1946 until 1962. He was also executive director at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1950 to 1962.
In 1968, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour, "for his services to Canada and a life-long career in the fields of international economic affairs and central banking". In 1968, he was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award, the highest honour in the Public Service of Canada. He was the first Canadian to receive an honorary degree from Yeshiva University. He also received honorary degrees from Carleton University, Trent University, the University of British Columbia and Concordia University (1975).
In the 1960s, the distinguished Rideau Club in Ottawa declined to admit Rasminsky on the account of the fact that he was Jewish. It succumbed to pressure from Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, among others.
Canadian historian Bruce Muirhead received the Joseph and Fay Tanenbaum Award for Canadian Jewish History for his biography of Rasminsky, "Against the Odds: The Public Life and Times of Louis Rasminsky" (University of Toronto Press, 1999).
His daughter, Lola Rasminsky, is the Founder and Director of the Avenue Road Arts School in Toronto. His son, Dr. Michael Rasminsky, practices neurology at the Montreal General Hospital.


J. Raymond McGovern

J. Raymond McGovern (December 22, 1898 – March 14, 1974) was an American lawyer and politician.
Early life and education.
He was born on December 22, 1898, in New Rochelle, New York. McGovern graduated from Fordham University and the Fordham University School of Law.
Career.
He was a partner in the law firm of McGovern, Connelly & Davidson in New Rochelle.
He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1945 to 1950. He served as New York State Comptroller from 1951 to 1954, elected on the Republican ticket at the New York state election, 1950. In 1954, he ran for Lieutenant Governor of New York as the running mate of Irving Ives, but they were narrowly defeated by the Democratic–Liberal Party nominees.
Death.
He died on March 14, 1974, in New Rochelle, New York.


Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe

Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe (ADBZ), also referred to as Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe, but is commonly known as Agribank, is a commercial bank in Zimbabwe. It is one of the commercial banks licensed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the national banking regulator.
Agribank is middle-tier financial services provider that provides commercial, retail, corporate, and international banking services in Zimbabwe. It offers agricultural loans, in addition to other retail, advisory, treasury and investment services, including foreign currency and money transfer services. As of December 2011, the valuation of the bank's total assets was reported to be US$102.8 million, with shareholders' equity of US$15.1 million.
History.
Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe was established as a commercial bank in 1999, according to the website of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Before that it was known as Agricultural Finance Corporation, which was formerly known as Land and Agricultural Bank, an institution that was established in 1925. In 2003, Agribank transformed into an agricultural development bank, with emphasis on making agricultural loans, but it kept its commercial bank license and function.
Ownership.
Agribank is 100% owned by the Government of Zimbabwe. The table below outlines the shareholding in the bank between the various government ministries:
Branches.
The bank maintains its headquarters at Hurudza House, 14-16 Nelson Mandela Avenue, in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. It also has 47 networked branches in all provinces of the country.


Quill Corp. v. North Dakota

Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992), was a United States Supreme Court ruling, since overturned, concerning use tax. The decision effectively prevented states from collecting any sales tax from retail purchases made over the Internet or other e-Commerce route unless the seller had a physical presence in the state. The ruling was based on the Dormant Commerce Clause, preventing states from interfering with interstate commerce unless authorized by the United States Congress. The case resulted from an attempt by North Dakota seeking to collect sales tax on licensed computer software offered by the Quill Corporation, an office supply retailer with no North Dakota presence, that allowed users to place orders directly with Quill.
The decision in "Quill" has been a point of contention for states as e-Commerce had grown greatly during the 21st century. Spurred by Justice Anthony Kennedy's concurrence in "Direct Marketing Ass'n v. Brohl", which spoke to a review of "Quill", several states passed "kill "Quill"" laws to bring such a review to the Supreme Court. In the first such challenge, "South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.", heard in the 2018 term, the Court found that the physical presence rule defined by "Quill" was "unsound and incorrect", and overturned both "Quill" and the remaining portions of "National Bellas Hess".
Background.
The North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner attempted to require Quill Corporation to collect and pay use tax on sales shipped into the state. The
North Dakota Supreme Court upheld the statute.
Quill Corporation, which is incorporated in Delaware, did not have a physical location in North Dakota. None of its workers were located there. Quill sold office equipment and stationery in North Dakota by using catalogs, flyers, advertisements in national periodicals, and telephone calls. Deliveries were made by post and common carrier from out-state-locations. Quill would have been required to pay back taxes for three years, had the ruling gone in favor of the State of North Dakota.
Opinion of the Court.
North Dakota argued that under due process, Quill Corporation had established a presence, as the floppy disks holding Quill's software provided to in-state customers were physically located in their state. The Supreme Court based its reasoning on analysis of the Commerce Clause rather than due process.
The Commerce Clause gives the federal government power to regulate interstate commerce and prohibits certain state actions, such as applying duties that interfere with trade among the states. In "National Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Department of Revenue of Illinois", the Court had held that a business whose only contacts with the taxing state are by mail or by common carrier lacks the "substantial nexus" required under the Dormant Commerce Clause.
The Court concluded that "Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady" did not limit or undo the "Bellas Hess" rule. A corporation, the court ruled, may have the minimum contacts required by the due process clause and still fall short of the substantial nexus required by the Dormant Commerce Clause. The court noted that the bright-line rule of "National Bellas Hess" "furthers the ends" of the Dormant Commerce Clause. The Court thus reversed the decision of the North Dakota Supreme Court that required Quill Corporation to collect and remit "use" taxes on purchases made by customers from that state.
Effect on taxation of online sales.
In "Quill Corp. v. North Dakota", the Supreme Court ruled that a business must have a physical presence in a state for that state to require the business to collect sales taxes. However, the Court explicitly stated that Congress can overrule the decision through legislation. There have been many attempts by politicians to change this decision through legislation. No bills have made it to law, however, because of the controversy surrounding this matter.
Amazon.com used this ruling to justify not charging sales tax on its online sales, which gave it a competitive advantage over retailers from 1995 until 2012, when pressure from states made Amazon collect sales tax in some of the states.
The soundness of the "Quill" decision has been questioned by legal scholars and judges in the twenty-first century as online sales have largely escaped taxation to the detriment of brick-and-mortar stores and state and local treasuries. In a related 2015 Supreme Court case "Direct Marketing Ass'n v. Brohl", Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his concurrence that the "Quill" decision had a "tenuous nature", that there was "serious, continuing injustice faced by Colorado and many other States" of being able to collect sales taxes only from brick-and-mortar stores, and offered "it is unwise to delay any longer a reconsideration of the Court's holding in "Quill"". Kennedy's opinion suggested urgency for a case for the Supreme Court to review the "Quill" decision according to analysts. This led to several states to draft and purposely enact "kill "Quill"" laws to collect sales taxes for out-of-state purchases as to create the necessary legal vehicle to take to the Supreme Court. States which choose to collect sales taxes on online sales of retailers without a nexus often set minimum values and transactions, under which companies are not required to collect sales taxes.
South Dakota was the first state to complete its bill and establish the need for a Supreme Court judicial review. In October 2017, the state of South Dakota filed a petition for "certiorari" in the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to "abrogate "Quill"s sales-tax-only, physical-presence requirement". In the petition for "certiorari", under the case name "South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.", South Dakota noted that advances in computer technology have made it easier to determine appropriate sales tax based on the purchaser's location and requiring such "poses a minimal obstacle" in an era where retailers can easily tailor their online marketing based on customers' IP addresses. South Dakota argued that "Quill" should be overturned and that the case satisfied the Supreme Court's criteria for declining to maintain its previous ruling under the doctrine of "stare decisis". The Court agreed to hear the case in January 2018, with arguments heard in April 2018. The Court ruled in June 2018 on a 5-4 decision that the physical presence aspect of "Quill" was "unsound and incorrect" with the state of current technology, and overturned "Quill" along with the remaining parts of "National Bellas Hess".


Ajeya Pratap Singh

Ajeya Pratap Singh formerly known as Ajeya Singh, born in 1956, is a politician belonging to Indian National Congress and 42nd Raja Bahadur of Manda.
Political career.
He was President of the Jan Morcha party in which was later on merged with Indian National Congress in June 2009 but left active politics in 2012.
Personal life.
He is the eldest son of 7th Prime Minister of India Shri V. P. Singh. He is married to Rani Saheba Shruti Kumari with whom he has two daughters.
Controversy.
He was fined Rs. 10 Lacs by Allahabad High Court in a Land deal case in the year 2008 over cheating of Rs. 1 crore.
He also stated that there was an attack on his mall in the year 2015.


My Old Lady (film)

My Old Lady is a British–French–American comedy-drama film written and directed by Israel Horovitz in his feature directorial debut. The film was released in 2014, and stars Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Dominique Pinon. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Plot.
Mathias, a down-and-out New Yorker, travels to Paris to sell a large, valuable apartment he has inherited from his estranged father. Once there, he discovers an old woman, Mathilde, living in the apartment with her daughter Chloé.
Mathias quickly learns that the apartment is a "viager" — an ancient French system for buying and selling apartments — and that he will not actually be in possession of the apartment until Mathilde dies, and that until then he owes her a life annuity of €2,400 a month. All this is a surprise to him, since his father never told him and Mathias had language problems with the French lawyer.
Mathias has no money and no place to live, but Mathilde allows him to stay in the apartment with her if he pays rent. However, to pay for the next life annuity payment, he steals and sells furniture from the apartment and also asks a prospective buyer of his contract for advance payments.
Mathias discovers that Mathilde and his father had a long-lasting affair while both were married. Mathias and Chloé fall in love with each other after emotionally bonding over their childhoods. Since Chloé wants to stay in the apartment, Mathias decides at the last minute to decline a multi-million Euro offer for the apartment/contract. Mathilde points out that Mathias does not have to worry about money: he can sell "en viager", allowing him to live in the apartment while also providing him a life annuity, albeit a modest one because of his relatively young age of 57.
Development.
The film "My Old Lady" is an adaptation of Horovitz's play of the same name, which premiered in 1996 at the Gloucester Stage Co., founded by Horovitz in East Gloucester, MA.
Horovitz, principally a playwright and theatre director, and whose plays have been translated and performed in more than 30 languages worldwide, had previously directed only one film, "3 Weeks After Paradise", a 51-minute testimonial from 2002 about his family's experiences following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center.
Production.
"My Old Lady" is a British–French–American film production venture between BBC Films, Cohen Media Group, and Deux Chevaux Films. The film is produced by Rachael Horovitz (Moneyball), Gary Foster (Sleepless in Seattle), Nitsa Benchetrit and David Barrot. Film production began filming on location in Paris and its surrounding suburbs on September 26, 2013.
Reception.
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 61% based on 89 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "Although "My Old Lady" doesn't quite live up to its stars' talents, Kevin Kline and Maggie Smith carry the film capably whenever they're together onscreen." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 53 out 100 based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Kline remains a pleasure to watch, surviving the character's deepening self-pity and making his suspiciously unwriterly carelessness with words (he refers to the trophy head of a wild boar as a "cow") almost charming."
Variety's Andrew Barker gave a mixed review: "Its translation from stage to screen looks to have been a bit rocky, and the film never manages to transcend its actors-workshop aura and develop into something deeper."


Ioannis Drosopoulos

Ioannis A. Drosopoulos (; Sourpi, Magnesia, – Athens, 27 July 1939) was a Greek economist who acted as Subgovernor and Governor of the National Bank of Greece.
Biography.
He was hired in the National Bank at a young age and worked in it for thirty two years in total. In 1911 he was promoted to the position of General Inspector, and then to that of Director and in 1914 was elected Subgovernor. In 1928 he became Governor of the Bank of Greece, a position in which he remained until his death.
He was one of the first settlers of Ekali.
He died on 27 July 1939 in Athens. Athanasios Drosopoulos was his son.


Deborah-Mae Lovell

Dame Deborah Mae Lovell is an Antiguan and Barbudan who served as Ambassador to the US (presenting her credentials August 8, 2005) and the OAS. When she became a Dame, the female equivalent of a “Sir”, on August 4, 2011, she was the only knighthood handed out that year and one of a very small number of Antiguan and Barbudan women to receive such an honor. She received the Dame Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of the Nation (DCN) for services as a civil servant and career diplomat.”


Varvara Nelidova

Varvara Arkadyevna Nelidova (Варвара Аркадьевна Нелидова, 1814–1897) was a mistress of Nicholas I of Russia from 1832 until his death in 1855. Her aunt Yekaterina Nelidova was a mistress of Nicholas' father Paul, and her maternal grandfather was Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden.
Nelidova's liaison with the Emperor was kept more or less secret, giving rise to never ending speculations about its length and the number of children she bore him. According to Nikolay Dobrolyubov, their several children were adopted by her relative, Peter von Kleinmichel, Russia's Minister of Communications.
Nelidova is also claimed to have been the mother of , an 8-year-old boy who was made a Baron of the Austrian Empire in 1839. His surname is derived from the feast of Pascha, for he was born on Easter Sunday. No documentation as to his parentage survives, however.
Nelidova's secretive relationship with the Tsar is the subject of Yuri Tynyanov's novella "Young Vitushishnikov" (1933).


Bahadur Nizam Shah

Bahadur Nizam Shah was the Sultan of Ahmadnagar from 1596 to 1600. Only a small child when he gained the throne, he spent almost his entire reign under the regency of his great-aunt Chand Bibi.
Life.
Born in 1593, Bahadur was the only son of Sultan Ibrahim Nizam Shah. Following his father's death in battle in August 1595, various nobles pressed the rights of opposing claimants to the throne, the most prominent being his cousin Ahmad Nizam Shah II. Bahadur, who was supported by his great-aunt Chand Bibi, was captured and imprisoned by Ahmad's chief benefactor, the Prime minister Miyan Manjhu. However, the latter was forced to leave Ahmadnagar city when the Mughal emperor Akbar dispatched his army to take advantage of the chaos. Chand Bibi retook the city to oppose the Mughals and released Bahadur, proclaiming him sultan under the name Bahadur Nizam Shah.
Akbar's son Murad laid siege to the city while Chand Bibi gained the support of the nobles for Bahadur's rule, including the powerful Bijapuri commander Ikhlas Khan. Following a failed assault by Murad which was thrown back by Chand Bibi, the Mughal prince chose to agree to a settlement in March 1596. In return for the kingdom accepting Mughal suzerainty and seceding the province of Berar, Murad withdrew his forces and recognised Bahadur as the ruler of Ahmadnagar. Chand Bibi was appointed regent for Bahadur by the nobles and administered the kingdom in his name.
However, in spite of the accord, skirmishes and intermittent fighting continued between Ahmadnagar and the Mughals. In 1599, Akbar launched another invasion of the Deccan, sending his younger son Daniyal against Ahmadnagar. After the city was besieged for several months, Chand Bibi eventually chose to surrender, on the condition of the lives of the garrison, as well as her and Bahadur being allowed to retire safely to Junnar. Disagreeing with her, one of her advisers, Hamid Khan, announced to the city that the Regent was in league with the Mughals. A frenzied mob subsequently stormed her apartments and murdered her. The ensuing confusion among the garrison rendered orderly defence impossible and on 18 August 1600, mines planted by the Mughals were detonated, resulting in the destruction of a large section of the city walls. The Mughal troops assaulted and occupied the Ahmadnagar, looting the fort of its valuables.
Bahadur himself was captured and sent, along with all the other children of the royal family, to Akbar at Burhanpur. From there, he was escorted to Gwalior Fort to be imprisoned. He was still confined to the fort in 1633, when he was also joined by his distant cousin Hussain Nizam Shah III. Bahadur's ultimate fate is unknown.


Manuel Trucco

Manuel Trucco Franzani (March 18, 1875 – October 25, 1954) was a Chilean politician and provisional vice president of Chile in 1931.
He was born in Cauquenes, the son of Napoleón Trucco Morano and of María Franzani Monigette. He completed his studies in his native city, and at the Instituto Nacional. Trucco then attended the Universidad de Chile, where he became a civil engineer in 1899. Between 1891 and 1902, while still a student at the university, he started to work at the Liceo de Cauquenes to complement his income, first as the secretary to the principal and then as a teacher of mathematics. After his graduation he became an engineer at the Direction of Public Works and at the State Railroads. The government granted him a scholarship to complete his graduate studies at L’Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées in París between 1902 and 1904. He married Laura Gaete Fagalde, and together they had four children: Marta, Graciela, Rebeca and Manuel.
At his return, he became a Professor of the resistance of materials at the school of architecture of the Universidad de Chile, while continuing his work at the State Railroads, where he designed several railroad bridges (such as the Claro, near Yumbel, the Perquilauquén near Quella, and the viaduct of Las Cucharas in the Santiago-Valparaíso track.) In 1911 he became Dean of Mathematics at the university, and in 1917, also became director of the schools of engineering and architecture. In 1918, Trucco resigned all his positions at the university in order to dedicate himself to his work as General Director of Railroads, a position he held until 1924.
Trucco joined the Radical Party and in 1926 became its president, but resigned shortly afterwards due to his poor health. The same year he was elected Senator for "Arauco, Malleco and Cautín" (1926-1930). After the resignation of president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo in 1931, his successor, vice-President Juan Esteban Montero named Trucco as Minister of the Interior on August 7, 1931. Very soon after, Montero accepted the presidential nomination for the upcoming elections. Since Montero was constitutionally banned from standing as a candidate while still in office, as a way out of the political impasse, and in order to qualify, he resigned his vice-presidency effective on August 20, 1931. The position was assumed by Manuel Trucco as Vice President.
The Trucco administration was only a caretaker one, charged with keeping order in the country until after the presidential elections. Nonetheless it was faced with very difficult moments such as the Sailors' mutiny in the navy, caused by the reduction of the salaries of the enlisted men (September 1–5, 1931), which was controlled only after an aerial bombing of the fleet, but which predicted difficult times ahead. He remained as Vice President until November 15, when Juan Esteban Montero resumed power after sweeping the election.
President Arturo Alessandri named him ambassador to the United States between 1932 and 1938. At his return, Trucco retired from politics, but in 1946, President Gabriel González Videla appointed him President of the Central Bank of Chile, a position he held until 1951. Manuel Trucco died in Santiago in 1954 at the age of 79.


South East South South Governors Forum

The South East South South Governors Forum is a non-partisan organization consisting of state governors from the geopolitical zones of South East and South South in Nigeria. It was established on 9 July 2017 to pursue interregional cooperation for greater integration and to politically work together towards realigning as a people that shared common heritage, culture and affinity.
Akwa Ibom State Governor, Emmanuel Udom was appointed chairman of the Forum at the first meeting held at the Nike Lake Resort in Enugu, the capital of Enugu State. The next meeting is expected to take place in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on 27 August 2017.


Cleveland (Hasidic dynasty)

There are two Hasidic Jewish dynasties known as Cleveland and both are considered to be a part of the Nadvorna dynasty.
History of the Clevelander New York dynasty.
The Cleveland Hasidic dynasty currently located in Williamsburg, New York, was founded by Grand Rabbi Meir Leifer, who died in Los Angeles, California in 1941. The first Clevelander Rebbe was the author of "Oros Hameirim", "Likitei Amorim", and "Hakufes Nadvorne". He was a scion of the Nadvorna Hasidic dynasty. He also was a disciple of Rabbi Moshe Greenwald of Chust, author of "Arugas Habosem". He founded the current synagogue in Williamsburg in 1934 after he moved there from Cleveland, Ohio, making it currently the oldest Hasidic dynasty in Williamsburg. Reb Meir came to USA in 1922, and settled in Cleveland where he was the first rabbi of Congregation Bnei Yaakov Anshei Marmorish (currently known as the Green Road Synagogue Beis Ha Knesseth Shearis Hapleita Bnei Yaakov Kehilas Marmorsh), Glenville and later he founded the congregations "Shomrei Shabbos", and "Shomer Hadass Yisroel". Prior to living in the USA, Reb Meir lived in Budapest, Hungary, where he led a large following.
Reb Meir was succeeded by his son-in-law, Grand Rabbi Usher Mordechai Rosenbaum, author of "Sifsei Riem", and "Amoirois Tehoirois". In 1962 Reb Usher Mordechai founded the Clevelander yeshiva under the name of "Yeshivas Bnei Mordechai". In 1981 the yeshiva was renamed "Yeshivas Bnei Yisachar Ber". Reb Usher Mordechai also founded a kollel under the name of "Kollel Yad Issumer". Reb Usher Mordechai died in 1991; he was succeeded by his son, the present Clevelander Rebbe, Grand Rabbi Yehoshua Heshel Rosenbaum.
History of the Clevelander Ra'anana Dynasty.
The other is currently located in Ra'anana, Israel founded by Grand Rabbi Isaac Rosenbaum (d. 2020), Clevelander Rebbe, also a scion of the Nadvorna Hasidic dynasty


Soviet Republic

A Soviet republic, a republic ruled by soviets (workers' councils), may refer to one of the following:


Dutch nationality law

Dutch nationality law is based primarily on the principle of "jus sanguinis" and is governed by the Kingdom Act on the Netherlands nationality (), which was signed by the monarch on 19 December 1984 and officially promulgated on 27 December 1984. Thus citizenship is conferred primarily by birth to a Dutch parent, irrespective of place of birth. Children born in the Netherlands to two foreign parents do not acquire Dutch citizenship at birth, unless special criteria are met.
Despite the existence of four countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, only one category of citizen is distinguished in Dutch nationality law ("Nederlandse burgers"). The Kingdom Act on the Netherlands nationality was significantly amended with effect from 1 April 2003. A minor revision concerning people born before 1985 to a Dutch mother went into effect on 1 January 2011.
Acquisition of citizenship.
By descent or automatic acquisition of Dutch nationality.
A person born on or after 1 January 1985 to a Dutch father or mother ("afstamming") is automatically a Dutch national at birth ("van rechtswege"). It is irrelevant where the child is born.
A child born to an unmarried Dutch father and a non-Dutch mother must be acknowledged by the Dutch father before birth, in order for the child to be a Dutch national at birth. Before 1 April 2003, an acknowledgement could be given after birth. Since then children who were not acknowledged before birth may nonetheless acquire Dutch citizenship through the option procedure, or through obtaining proof of paternity from a court. In the last case, the child gets Dutch nationality retroactively since the child's birth.
From 1 January 1985 the Kingdom Act on the Netherlands nationality (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 19 December 1984, Stb. 628) permits children of either a Dutch father or mother to receive Dutch nationality by descent. Prior to that date Dutch nationality law (Wet op het Nederlanderschap en het ingezetenenschap (commonly abbreviated as WNI, 12 December 1892, Stb. 268) did not permit children to obtain Dutch nationality through descent from a Dutch mother (through matrilineal descent) and a non-Dutch father. Netherlands nationality was only passed through patrilineal (father) descent. Only if the father was not known or acknowledged did a child born to a Dutch mother receive Dutch nationality prior to 1 January 1985.
Between 1 January 1985 and 31 December 1987 children born after 1 January 1964 but before 1 January 1985 of a Dutch mother and non-Dutch father and who had never been married could use the ‘option procedure’ to acquire Dutch nationality. This possibility was not widely known and many in this situation missed the temporary opportunity to register themselves or their children as Dutch nationals.
In 2004, a number of these children of Dutch mothers and non-Dutch fathers (so-called "latent Dutch" or "latente Nederlanders") began to organise themselves in the hope of persuading the Dutch government that Article 27 of "Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap" condones the discrimination against women enshrined in the earlier Dutch Nationality Law (before its 1985 revision), and it should therefore be revoked. In 2005, several Dutch lawyers agreed to take on the case and formalised the group into “Stichting Ne(e)derlanderschap Ja!”. The legislative change was discussed by parliament in 2006, but then stalled when the government fell and the bill was withdrawn.
In December 2008, a new proposal was presented to the House of Representatives, and in January 2010 Legislative bill 31.831 (R1873) passed a majority vote amending the Kingdom Act on the Netherlands nationality to allow the so-called 'latent Dutch' to opt to receive Dutch nationality, regardless of their current age and marital status, and without requirement to renounce their original nationality. In June 2010, the Dutch Upper House approved the legislation. It was signed into law in July 2010 by Minister of Justice Mr Hirsch Ballin and H.M. the Queen, and published in the official Gazette issued by the Dutch Government ("Staatsblad van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden"), with effect 1 October 2010. Latent Dutch now have the opportunity to receive Dutch nationality by option. Many latent Dutch regard themselves as having been Dutch since birth. However, while latent Dutch are by definition descended from a Dutch mother, nationality granted through the option procedure is not retroactive to the date of their birth. Under the law, these individuals are not considered to be Dutch since birth ("van rechtswege"), but rather are legally ‘Dutch by option’ from the date that the requirements of the ‘option procedure’ are fulfilled.
By option.
The option procedure is a simpler and quicker way of acquiring Dutch citizenship compared to naturalisation. In effect, it is a form of simplified naturalisation.
In order to be eligible for the option procedure, it is necessary to hold a Dutch residence permit and to be any of the following:
Exception: Legislation 31.813 (R1873), "inter alia", amends the Kingdom of the Netherlands' nationality law to allow latent Dutch to opt to receive Dutch nationality, effective 1 October 2010. The conditions of eligibility through the 'option procedure' differ somewhat from those described above. Eligibility criteria for Dutch nationality as a latent Dutch person are that the:
All five conditions must be met. If one or more of the conditions are not met the person is ineligible for nationality by this particular means under the recent changes to the option procedure affecting the latent Dutch. Residency in the Netherlands is "not" an eligibility requirement for latent Dutch applicants.
Applicants for Dutch citizenship through the option procedure are not required by Dutch law to renounce any foreign citizenship they might hold. However, the laws pertaining to their other citizenship may disagree.
"Jus soli".
"Jus soli" is the right of anyone born in the territory of a state to nationality or citizenship of that state. Dutch law has no provisions for the automatic granting of the Dutch nationality based on the actual place of birth, however a child is Dutch if it was born to at least one parent, having his or her main residence in the Netherlands, Curaçao, Sint Maarten or Aruba (or the Netherlands Antilles) at the times of the births of that parent and of the child, provided the child itself has at birth its main residence in one of those countries too.
A child found on Dutch territory (including ships and airplanes with Dutch nationality), whose parents are unknown, is considered Dutch by birth if within five years since being found it does not become apparent that the child had another citizenship by birth.
By naturalisation.
An application for Dutch citizenship by naturalisation must meet all the conditions below:
Since 1 March 2009, anyone who requests naturalization must take an oath promising adherence to the values of the Dutch state: "I swear (declare) that I respect the constitutional order of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, its freedoms and its rights, and I swear (promise) to faithfully fulfil the obligations due to my nationality. So help me God Almighty", or: "This is what I promise and declare." According to Art. 23.3. of the Kingdom Act on the Netherlands Nationality, some categories of people are excepted from declaring their allegiance, through a general administrative measure. According to Art. 60a.6. of the Decree regarding the Obtention and Loss of the Netherlands Nationality, persons with a physical or psychical handicap who are unable to state their allegiance are exempted from doing so.
Exemptions to the residence requirement.
The five-year residence requirement may not apply where the applicant falls into any of the following categories:
Exemptions to the requirement to renounce foreign citizenship.
An applicant for naturalisation does not have to give up his current nationality in the following cases:
These exemptions do not hold for Austrian nationals, since Austria (together with the Netherlands) is party to Chapter I of the Convention on the Reduction of Cases of Multiple Nationality and on Military Obligations in Cases of Multiple Nationality (see Chapter I, art. 1, paragraph 1). This was also the case for nationals of Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Norway, who were parties to the Convention, but have renounced Chapter I of the Convention on different dates.
Children.
Children aged under eighteen may be added to a parent's application for Dutch citizenship. Those aged sixteen and seventeen will only be naturalised if they give their active consent while those aged twelve through fifteen inclusive are given a chance to object.
By resumption.
Former Dutch nationals who hold permanent resident permits and have resided in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, or Sint Maarten) for at least one year may regain Dutch citizenship through the option procedure.
Where the person is not resident in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the person must have lost Dutch citizenship "after" reaching the age of majority and through the "acquisition" of another citizenship. In addition one of the following conditions must be satisfied:
These criteria are similar to the criteria for exemption from loss of Dutch citizenship in place since 1 April 2003. If a former Dutch national lost Dutch nationality prior to 31 March 2003 under one of the three conditions above, that individual may submit an application to regain Dutch nationality through option. The application opting for Dutch nationality may be submitted up to 31 March 2013 (i.e., ten years from the 2003 change in the law).
Loss of Dutch citizenship.
Dutch nationals may lose their citizenship through long residence outside the Netherlands while having more than one nationality, or acquisition of a foreign nationality. In addition, in some cases it is possible to be deprived of Dutch citizenship.
By residence outside the Netherlands.
The Dutch law has contained for many years provisions that removed Dutch citizenship from certain Dutch persons who held another nationality at birth and remained resident outside the Netherlands in adulthood.
Prior to 1985.
Before 1 January 1985, Dutch nationals lost their nationality in cases where they were born outside the Kingdom of the Netherlands, lived for an uninterrupted period of ten years outside the Kingdom after reaching the age of majority (then twenty-one) and did not submit notification that they wished to retain their Dutch nationality before the period of ten years.
These provisions affected Dutch nationals born abroad before 1 January 1954.
1985–2003.
Under the 1985 legislation, Dutch nationals born outside the Netherlands who also held the nationality of the country of their birth lost Dutch citizenship if they lived in the country of their birth for ten years after they turn 18 (and were still citizens or nationals of their country of birth).
Those who were issued a Dutch passport or proof of Dutch citizenship on or after 1 January 1990 are deemed never to have lost Dutch citizenship. This exemption was put in place on 1 February 2001.
Former nationals who were not issued a Dutch passport or proof of Dutch citizenship in 1990 or later were given a limited period of time to acquire Dutch citizenship by option, until 31 March 2005.
Since 2003.
Since 1 April 2003, following an amendment to the Netherlands Nationality Act of 1985, Dutch nationals with dual nationality will lose their Dutch citizenship if they hold a foreign citizenship and reside outside the Kingdom of the Netherlands or the European Union for ten years.
In the case of Dutch nationals who possessed dual nationality on 1 April 2003 and who were then resident outside the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the European Union, the ten years started on 1 April 2003.
The amendment lets Dutch nationals who hold foreign citizenship and reside abroad keep their citizenship by either having a principal residence in the Netherlands or another EU member state for at least a year or applying for a Dutch passport or proof of Dutch nationality before 1 April 2013, the end of the ten years. A new period of ten years starts on the day that the person is issued with a passport or proof of Dutch nationality.
By acquisition of another citizenship.
A person over the age of majority who voluntarily acquired another citizenship before 1 April 2003 automatically lost Dutch citizenship.
From 1 April 2003, loss of Dutch citizenship upon naturalisation in another country is still automatic unless at least one of the following exemptions applies:
If a person already lost Dutch nationality under these three exceptions prior to 1 April 2003, the final date to regain Dutch nationality under these three exceptions was 1 April 2013. Since then, it is no longer possible to reacquire Dutch nationality by option under these three exceptions if the person had already lost Dutch nationality prior to 1 April 2003. The only way to regain Dutch nationality is by naturalisation. These exemptions do not apply in the case of acquisition of Austrian, Norwegian or Danish citizenship. Before 28 April 2008, those exemptions did not apply to obtaining Belgian nationality. Before 10 July 2009, these exemptions did not apply to getting the Luxembourgeois nationality. This is due to the provisions of the "Convention on the Reduction of Cases of Multiple Nationality", to which the Netherlands became party in 1985.
Other exceptions also exist such as the one in which minors who naturalise independently from their parents will not lose their Dutch citizenship. That was particularly helpful prior to 1985, when the age of majority was 21.
The exemptions lead to internal problems in the case of acquisition of Japanese or South Korean citizenship since neither Japan nor South Korea allows its nationals to hold foreign citizenships in their adult years (though limited exceptions exist in South Korea, and Japan requires renunciation of the foreign citizenship within two years). They are strictly Japanese or South Korean internal affairs and have to be solved by Japanese or South Korean citizens themselves, according to the laws of their own country. They are not problems of the Dutch state, and all that the Dutch laws say in this respect is that such Dutch nationals with dual nationality are allowed to renounce to their Dutch nationality.
Dutch nationals are not allowed to renounce their nationality if they become stateless so this renunciation has to occur while they have dual nationality, which is illegal in Japan and South Korea. Therefore, acquiring Japanese or South Korean nationality cannot be done by exempted Dutch nationals without breaking the laws of such countries. Each sovereign state decides for itself who are its citizens, and other states are not allowed to intercede on behalf of individuals in such internal affairs.
By deprivation.
Dutch citizenship by "naturalization" may be withdrawn if procured by fraud or if the naturalized Dutch national does not renounce a foreign citizenship as per the requirements for naturalization (if one did not have the right to be exempted from such requirement or if one did not claim one's right to such exemption before signing a paper wherein one agrees to renounce the original nationality). A similar requirement exists for citizens of Japan and South Korea (see above).
Dutch citizenship may also be revoked in the case of service in a foreign army at war with the Netherlands.
The possibility to reapply for lost Dutch nationality under those three exceptions expired on 31 March 2013.
By joining jihadist groups.
On 29 August 2014, Dutch ministers, in their effort to discourage young Dutch Muslims from joining terrorist organisations involved in a war with the Netherlands or one of its allies, planned to increase the options of withdrawing Dutch citizenship from dual nationals. This will be extended to the people who train in terrorist camps or work in them as instructors.
In addition, passports of people suspected of making plans to travel to a conflict zone and join a terrorist organisation like ISIL may be declared invalid.
Dual citizenship.
Although Dutch law restricts dual citizenship, it is possible for Dutch nationals to legally hold dual citizenship in a number of circumstances, including:
Dispute.
Dutch nationality law is an object of enduring dispute, dissension and debate, since the electoral campaign of Pim Fortuyn turned immigration into a hot issue in Dutch politics. Since the assassination of Pim Fortuyn, anti-immigration politicians like Geert Wilders and Rita Verdonk have opposed dual citizenship.
Citizenship of the European Union.
Because the Netherlands forms part of the European Union, Dutch citizens are also citizens of the European Union under European Union law and thus enjoy rights of free movement and have the right to vote in elections for the European Parliament. When in a non-EU country where there is no Dutch embassy, Dutch citizens have the right to get consular protection from the embassy of any other EU country present in that country. Dutch citizens can live and work in any country within the EU as a result of the right of free movement and residence granted in Article 21 of the EU Treaty.
Impact of UK departure from EU.
The consequences of the UK’s departure from the EU (Brexit) will impact Dutch nationals in the UK and British nationals in the Netherlands. This prospective loss of their original or dual nationality has encourage many to support the European Citizen’s Initiative for Permanent European Union Citizenship.
Former territories.
Before independence, Dutch citizenship was held by many persons in Suriname and Indonesia. In general, those acquiring citizenship of these countries at independence have lost their Dutch citizenship, but a request for determination of citizenship status can be addressed to the Dutch authorities.
Dutch citizenship statistics.
Figures from the Dutch government show that approximately 11,500 people were granted Dutch citizenship by naturalisation in the first six months of 2003. There were close to 20,000 applications.
According to the country's statistics office , nearly 21,000 people were granted Dutch nationality through naturalisation in 2004 (13,000 adults and 8,000 children at the same time). This is 4,000 fewer than in 2003 and half the number in 2002.
Travel freedom of Dutch citizens.
Visa requirements for Dutch citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of the Netherlands. In 2017, Dutch citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 173 countries and territories, ranking the Dutch nationality 4th in the world according to the Henley visa restrictions index.
The Dutch nationality is ranked fourth in The Quality of Nationality Index (QNI). This index differs from the Henley Passport Index, which focuses on external factors including travel freedom. The QNI considers in addition to travel freedom on internal factors such as peace & stability, economic strength, human development as well.


Division of Special Research

The Division of Special Research was a subdivision of the U.S. State Department charged with preparing studies in the field of problems post World War II. The department was secretly established February 3, 1941, subsequent to FDR's Four Freedoms speech, before the United States' involvement in the war, and existed until January 1, 1943, when it was replaced by a Division of Political Studies and a Division of Economic Studies. Leo Pasvolsky was chief of the division and its successors. Harley Notter, Charles W. Yost and H. Julian Wadleigh were assigned by Hull to assist Pasvolsky. During 1942, diplomat Charles W. Yost served as Assistant Chief. From February 1942, Pasvolsky served also as Executive Officer of the Advisory Committee on Postwar Foreign Policy.
Beginning in 1942, one aspect of the Division's work involved keeping a record of all official commitments or statements regarding the postwar settlement issued by Allied or neutral governments, whether made publicly or confidentially. This function was performed initially by the Commitments Unit under Virginia Fox Hartley.


Suez Canal Authority

Suez Canal Authority (SCA) is a state-owned authority which owns, operates and maintains the Suez Canal. It was set up by the Egyptian government to replace the Suez Canal Company in the 1950s which resulted in the Suez Crisis. After the UN intervened, the three invading countries (France, Israel, The United Kingdom) were forced to withdraw.
Establishment and organization.
SCA is an independent authority having legal personality. SCA was established by the nationalization act signed on 26 July 1956 by the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. The act at the same time nationalized the Suez Canal Company and transferred all its assets and employees to the SCA established by this act.
The head office is located in Ismaïlia. In Port Said the administration building of the earlier Suez Canal Company is used. Its board of directors comprises 14 persons, including the chairman and managing director.
Chairmen of the Suez Canal Authority.
Since nationalisation (1956–present):
Presidents of the Suez Canal Company.
Before nationalisation, the owner was the "Suez Canal Company" (1858–1956):
Assets, duties and responsibilities.
SCA owns the Suez Canal and all areas, buildings and equipment pertaining thereto. SCA issues the Rules of Navigation, specifies the tolls for the use of the canal and collects them. The tolls are expressed in XDR and collected in USD, GBP, EUR and other currencies. In 2008, the total revenue in tolls was 5,381.9 million USD for the passage of a total of 21,415 vessels - resulting in an average toll of 251,314.5 USD per vessel.
SCA is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Suez Canal, for the safety of the traffic and for all other matters relating thereto. According to the nationalisation act, SCA is bound by the 1888 Convention of Constantinople, which grants the right of free access and use of the canal at equal conditions to all ships, commercial ships and ships of war, in times of peace or of war, even to ships of belligerent parties.
SCA is responsible for the computerized traffic management supported by radar, for the 14 pilot stations and their pilots. Since 1996, SCA operates the "Maritime Training and Simulation Center" for its pilots. SCA operates some 60 ships and boats, such as tugs, dredgers, cranes, and smaller boats.
According to SCA's web site, its facilities also include 114 ferry connections with 36 ferry boats; the Ahmed Hamdi road tunnel; the Nile Shipyard; the roads alongside the canal; a silk production in a farm at Serabium using treated sanitary waste water for irrigation; water plants in the canal cities; 12,000 housing units; a hospital in Ismailia and emergency hospitals at both ends of the canal; 4 schools and various sports and recreational centers.
Revenues.
In 2020, the total revenue generated amounted to 5.61 billion USD and 18,829 ships with a total net tonnage of 1.17 billion passed through the canal.


Operation Family Secrets

Operation Family Secrets was an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into mob-related crimes in Chicago. The FBI called it one of the most successful investigations of organized crime that it had ever conducted.
The investigation and trial was accurately dubbed "Family Secrets" because of the betrayal from within the Calabrese family. The son, Frank Calabrese Jr., and brother, Nick Calabrese, of Chicago Outfit mob hitman Frank Calabrese Sr. provided testimony that was instrumental to the success of Operation Family Secrets. The investigation led to indictments of 14 defendants who were affiliated with the Chicago Outfit, which has been one of the most prolific organized crime enterprises in the United States.
The most heinous of their crimes investigated were 18 murders and one attempted murder between 1970 and 1986. All of the murders and the other crimes charged to the defendants were allegedly committed to further the Outfit's illegal activities, such as loansharking and bookmaking, and protecting the enterprise from law enforcement.
Operation Family Secrets was a milestone in the FBI's battle against organized crime in Chicago. It is said to have had a significant effect on the operations of the Chicago Outfit. However, it did not end the Outfit's reign in Chicago.
Murders.
The following list is of the murders committed as objectives of the Chicago Outfit that were investigated in Operation Family Secrets:
Investigation.
Frank Jr.'s letter to FBI.
The investigation began on July 27, 1998 when Frank Calabrese Jr., wrote a letter to the FBI saying he wanted help to put his father in jail. The letter was sent without warning from the federal correctional facility in Milan, Michigan, where both Frank Jr. and Frank Sr. had been incarcerated since 1995, when four members of the Calabrese family had been sentenced for collecting "juice loans" and racketeering an auto repair business. In the letter, Frank Jr. requested a face-to-face meeting in which he planned to give the FBI information about his father's crimes, business activities of the Chicago Outfit street crews, and the murder of John Fecorotta: "This is no game. I feel I have to help keep this sick man locked up forever."
He and his father had had rough patches in their relationship over the years. He had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from his father, which he blew on a cocaine addiction and bad business decisions. Afterward, his father allegedly put a gun to his son's head and threatened to kill him. That and many other instances of Frank Sr.'s abuse and poor fathering contributed to Frank Jr.'s desire to help the FBI bring him down. He volunteered to record conversations that he had with his father while they were imprisoned. He wore a pair of headphones around his neck fit by the FBI with a hidden microphone to record conversations between the father and son.
It was not difficult for Frank Jr. to direct his conversations in the prison courtyard and recreational facilities with his father toward information that would benefit the FBI's rapidly assembling investigation. Frank Sr. bragged to his son about past criminal activities.
Nick's co-operation with federal agents.
Federal agents Michael Maseth, Tom Bourgeois, and Michael Hartnett were assigned to the investigation. They began to put together pieces of information on the Fecarotta murder. Newspapers reported that Calabrese had been confronted with DNA evidence implicating him in the 1986 mob hit of mob enforcer Fecarotta, prompting Nick Calabrese to cooperate with law enforcement in the probe.
Trial.
The FBI, in April 2005, turned in a 43-page indictment that was created by the "Family Secrets" investigation. "Family Secrets" was unprecedented for naming the entire Chicago Outfit as a criminal enterprise. Assistant US Attorneys Mitchell Mars, John Scully, and T. Markus Funk would represent the United States in the case. After more than two years, the trial began in June 2007. Judge James Zagel heard the case.
The evidence was presented between June 28, 2007 and August 8, 2007. The trial included testimony from more than 125 witnesses and over 200 pieces of evidence. For Calabrese Sr., James Marcello, Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, Paul "The Indian" Schiro, and Anthony "Twan" Doyle, who were the five main defendants, the trial ended on August 30.
All five men were found guilty on all counts for conspiracy and criminal acts of racketeering. Of the other nine defendants, six pleaded guilty, two died before trial (Frank Saladino and Michael Ricci), and one (Frank "The German" Schweihs [sic]) was too ill to stand trial. Calabrese Sr., was represented by Joe "the Shark" Lopez, who had been involved in many organized crime trials.
Sentencing.
On September 10, 2007, Lombardo was convicted of racketeering, extortion, loan sharking and murder. On September 27, 2007, the same jury found Lombardo guilty of the 1974 Seifert murder. In 2009, Lombardo, seated in a wheelchair, was sentenced to life in prison for the convictions.
On February 5, 2009, Marcello was sentenced to life imprisonment for the Spilotro murders, and United States District Judge James Zagel, agreeing with the presentation made by federal prosecutor Markus Funk, also found Marcello responsible for the D'Andrea murder as well, even though the jury had deadlocked on that count.
On January 28, 2009, Judge Zagel sentenced Frank Calabrese, then 71, to life in prison for his crimes and called the acts he had committed, "unspeakable". On finding prosecutors had proven the murder allegations, the judge sentenced Calabrese for all 13 slayings.
On March 26, 2009, Nick Calabrese was sentenced to 12 years and four months in prison, after several of his government cooperation. Upon sentencing Calabrese, Zagel told him, "I think what you did does make amends by allowing penalties to be paid for the murders of others and for allowing families to know how and why their [loved ones] died." Calabrese had said, "I can't go back and undo what I done ... I stand before you a different man, a changed man." Zagel doubts Calabrese will ever truly be free. No matter how long he lives or in what protected place it will be, Calabrese will always have to look over his shoulder. Zagel said, "The organization whose existence you testified to will not forgive or relent in their pursuit of you."