Yolande de Polastron

Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Duchess of Polignac (8 September 17499 December 1793) was the favourite of Marie Antoinette, whom she first met when she was presented at the Palace of Versailles in 1775, the year after Marie Antoinette became the Queen of France. She was considered one of the great beauties of pre-Revolutionary society, but her extravagance and exclusivity earned her many enemies.
Biography.
Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron was born in Paris in the reign of King Louis XV. Her parents were Jean François Gabriel, Count of Polastron, seigneur de Noueilles, Venerque and Grépiac, and Jeanne Charlotte Hérault de Vaucresson. As was customary with aristocrats, most of whom bore more than one Christian name, she was generally known by the last of her names (Gabrielle). She was born into a family of ancient aristocratic lineage, but by the time of Gabrielle's birth the family, despite its exalted ancestry, was encumbered by many debts, and its lifestyle was far from luxurious.
While Gabrielle was still an infant, her parents moved the family to Château of Noueilles, in the province of Languedoc in southern France. When Gabrielle was 3, her mother died and her welfare was entrusted to an aunt, who arranged for her to receive a convent education.
At the age of 16, Gabrielle was betrothed to Jules François Armand, comte de Polignac, marquis de Mancini (1746–1817), whom she married on 7 July 1767, a few months short of her 18th birthday. Polignac's family had a "well-bred" ancestry similar to Gabrielle's family, and was in equally uncomfortable financial straits. At the time of his marriage, Polignac was serving in the "Régiment de Royal Dragons" ("1er régiment de dragons"), on an annual salary of 4,000 livres. Within a few years of the marriage, Jules and Gabrielle had two children: a daughter Aglaé and a son. Two more sons followed several years later, including Jules, prince de Polignac, who became the prime minister of France in 1829, under Charles X.
Appearance.
Most surviving portraits show her to be pretty. One historian said that Gabrielle, in her portraits by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, generally looks "like some harvested and luscious fruit." She had dark brunette hair, very pale white skin, and, perhaps most unusually, lilac or violet-coloured eyes.
Compiling the contemporary accounts of her, one modern historian has summarised her physical appearance thus:
Versailles.
When her sister-in-law Diane de Polignac invited her to the Court at Versailles, Gabrielle came with her husband and was presented at a formal reception in the Hall of Mirrors in 1775, at which time she was formally presented to the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, who was instantly "dazzled" by her, and invited her to move permanently to Versailles. The cost of maintaining oneself at the court of Versailles was ruinous, and Gabrielle replied that her husband did not have the money to finance a permanent move to the palace. Determined to keep her new favourite by her side, the Queen agreed to settle the family's many outstanding debts and to find an appointment for Gabrielle's husband.
Once she was installed in the palace, near the Queen's apartments, Gabrielle also won the friendship of the King's youngest brother, the comte d'Artois, and the approval of King Louis XVI himself, who was grateful for her calming influence on his wife and encouraged their friendship. Gabrielle was, however, resented by other members of the royal entourage, particularly the Queen's confessor and her chief political adviser, the Austrian ambassador. In a letter to the Queen's mother, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the ambassador wrote, "It is almost unexampled that in so short a time, the royal favour should have brought such overwhelming advantages to a family."
Charismatic and beautiful, Gabrielle became the undisputed leader of the Queen's exclusive circle and ensured that few entered without her approval. Gabrielle was considered by many of her friends to be elegant, sophisticated, charming, and entertaining.
The entire Polignac family benefited enormously from the Queen's considerable generosity, but their increasing wealth and lavish lifestyle outraged many aristocratic families, who resented their dominance at Court. Ultimately, the Queen's favouritism towards the Polignac family was one of the many causes which fueled Marie Antoinette's unpopularity with some of her husband's subjects (especially Parisians) and members of the politically-liberal nobility. In 1780, Gabrielle's husband was given the title "duc de Polignac", thus making Gabrielle a "duchesse", a further source of irritation to the courtiers.
By the late 1780s, thousands of pornographic pamphlets alleged that Gabrielle was the Queen's lesbian lover, including accusations that the pair had engaged in tribadism. Although there was no evidence to back up these accusations, they did immeasurable damage to the prestige of the monarchy, especially given the deep-rooted suspicion of homosexuality held by the bourgeoisie and urban working-classes at the time.
Several historians have suggested that reports of Gabrielle's extravagance have been greatly exaggerated, and they point out that, during her 14-year residency at Versailles she spent as much as Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, had spent in one. Others have contended that to some extent she deserved her negative reputation because, despite the inaccuracies of the claims that she was sexually disreputable, other criticisms of her were valid: she was cold, self-centred, self-indulgent, and masked a love of gossip and intrigue behind a sweet-toned voice and flawless manners. This argument was particularly championed by the author and biographer Stefan Zweig, who wrote: "Not even Madame de Maintenon, not even the Pompadour, cost as much as this favourite, this angel, with downcast eyes, this modest and gentle Polignac. Those who were not themselves swept into the whirlpool, stood at the marge contemplating it with astonishment ... [as] the Queen's hand was invisibly guided by the violet-eyed, the lovely, the gentle Polignac."
Another critic is Elisabeth de Feydeau.
Governess of the Children of France.
In 1782, the Governess to the Children of France, Victoire de Rohan, "princesse de Guéméné" and wife of Henri Louis de Rohan, had to resign her post due to a scandal caused by her husband's bankruptcy. The Queen replaced the princess with Gabrielle. This appointment generated outrage at court, where it was felt Gabrielle's social status was insufficient for a post of that magnitude.
As a result of her new position, Gabrielle was given a 13-room apartment for herself in the palace. Technically, this was within the acceptable limits of etiquette, but the size of the apartment was unprecedented, particularly in a place as overpopulated as Versailles. Royal governesses had previously been quartered in four or five room apartments. Gabrielle was even given her own cottage in Marie Antoinette's favorite pastoral refuge, the Hameau de la Reine, built in the 1780s on the grounds of the Petit Trianon in the park of Versailles.
Gabrielle's marriage was cordial, if not successful; it was typical of aristocratic arranged marriages. For many years, she was apparently in love with the captain of the Royal Guard, Joseph Hyacinthe François de Paule de Rigaud, Comte de Vaudreuil, although many of her friends considered Vaudreuil too domineering and too uncouth for the kind of society in which Gabrielle moved. It was rumored at Versailles that Gabrielle's youngest child was actually fathered by Vaudreuil. However, the exact nature of Gabrielle's relationship with Vaudreuil has been debated by some historians, who doubted the liaison was sexual. This theory has recently been resurrected by Catholic novelist and commentator Elena Maria Vidal. Despite the claims that they were lovers, Gabrielle showed no hesitation in distancing herself from Vaudreuil whenever she felt her own social position was threatened by the Queen's dislike of the manipulative courtier. There are hardly any letters surviving from the couple, who either in reality may not have been sufficiently close to write to each other when separated, or may just have been very careful in masking their communications for political reasons. Their letters may have been subsequently destroyed either by themselves or others for precaution's sake.
In England.
Perhaps due to the Queen's intense dislike of the Comte de Vaudreuil, whom she found rude and irritating, Gabrielle's influence over Marie Antoinette temporarily waned after 1785, when the Queen's second son was born. The Queen was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the ambition of her favourites, especially when they championed a politician whom the Queen despised. Marie Antionette confided to another lady-in-waiting, Henriette Campan, that she was "suffering acute dissatisfaction" over the Polignacs. Wrote Campan: "Her Majesty observed to me that when a sovereign raises up favourites in her court she raises up despots against herself". Eventually, Gabrielle felt Marie Antoinette's displeasure and decided to visit friends in England, particularly Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was the leader of London high society and one of Gabrielle's closest friends. During her time in England, she earned the nickname "Little Po," due to her delicate constitution.
Revolution.
The months leading up to the July 1789 outbreak of the French Revolution saw the Queen and the duchesse de Polignac become close again. Politically, Gabrielle and her friends supported the ultra-monarchist movement in Versailles, and Gabrielle became increasingly important in royalist intrigues as the summer progressed, usually in partnership with her friend, the comte d'Artois, the King's youngest brother.
The marquis de Bombelles, a diplomat and politician, remembered Gabrielle's ceaseless work to promote hardline responses against the emergent revolution. Together with the baron de Breteuil, Bombelles' godfather and former diplomat, and the comte d'Artois, Gabrielle persuaded Marie Antoinette to work against the King's popular minister of finances, Jacques Necker. However, without the necessary military support to crush the insurrection, Necker's dismissal fuelled the serious violence in Paris, culminating in the attack on the Bastille fortress.
After the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, all the members of the Polignac family went into exile. On Louis XVI's express orders, the comte d'Artois left, as did Breteuil; Gabrielle went with her family to Switzerland, where she kept in contact with the Queen through letters. After Gabrielle had left, the care of the royal children was entrusted to the Marquise de Tourzel.
Exile.
After her departure from France, she and her family lived an ambulating life, travelling from one place to another. She kept in contact with Marie Antoinette through correspondence, by which her place of residence can be traced. The Polignac family travelled through Switzerland, Turin, Rome and Venice (where she attended the wedding of her son in March 1790), and from Italy to Vienna in Austria in 1791. She was reportedly present in the Austrian Netherlands during the Flight to Varennes, and in July 1791, she is noted as one of the extravagantly dressed women who attended the émigrée court of the count of Provence in Koblenz. The emigree court in Koblenz was however dissolved after the Battle of Valmy in 1792, and she returned to Austria, where she died.
Gabrielle developed a terminal illness while living in Switzerland, although she had arguably been in poor health for several years. She died in Austria in December 1793, shortly after hearing of Marie Antoinette's execution. Gabrielle's family simply announced that she had died as a result of heartbreak and suffering. Most historians have concluded that she died of cancer, and contradictory royalist reports of her death suggested consumption as an alternative cause.
No specific mention of her disease was made in the various allegorical pamphlets which showed the Angel of Death descending to take the soul of the still-beautiful duchesse de Polignac. Her beauty and early death became metaphors for the demise of the old regime, at least in early pamphlets and in subsequent family correspondence, the duchess's beauty was a much-emphasised point.
Progeny.
Gabrielle was the mother of Jules, prince de Polignac, who became Prime Minister for Charles X (the former comte d'Artois) in 1829. She was also the mother of Aglaé de Polignac, duchesse de Guiche, who died in 1803, in an accidental fire. Two of her grandsons were Camille Armand Jules Marie, Prince de Polignac and Prince Edmond de Polignac. Her great-great-grandson, Count Pierre de Polignac, was the father of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco. Her descendants can also be found in France and in Russia, where her granddaughter, daughter of "Guichette", married a nobleman, Aleksandr Lvovich Davydov.
Legacy.
Gabrielle de Polastron's mark in history can be seen in history books, novels, movies, and other media.
For example:
Her critics among historians have argued that the Duchesse de Polignac typified the aristocratic hangers-on at the court of Versailles before the French Revolution and that she embodied the exclusivity, the obliviousness, and the selfish extravagance of the ruling class. However, more sympathetic historians, such as Pierre de Nolhac and the Marquis de Ségur, agree that most of the problems originated with her entourage and that she was certainly no worse than many of the aristocrats or favourites who had preceded her at Versailles.
Assessments of her character aside, it is generally agreed that she was one of the key figures in the ultra-monarchist movement throughout the early summer of 1789, acting under the influence of her friend, the Comte d'Artois.


Nils Blythe

Nils Blythe (born 25 February 1956) is a British journalist who worked for BBC News until 2011. He specialises in business and economics. Before launching his own PR company in 2014, he was the Executive Director of Communications at the Bank of England.
Early life and education.
Blythe is the son of an English father and Danish-born mother. He was educated at Ipswich School and Christ's College Cambridge.
Career.
Blythe worked as an editor for publishers Hodder & Stoughton and then as a researcher/writer for the Consumers' Association. He joined the Investors Chronicle as a reporter in 1987 and moved to the Financial Unit of BBC News in 1988. From 1990 to 1994 he was the Business Correspondent of the "Today Programme" on BBC Radio 4, covering stories including Black Wednesday, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal and the death of Robert Maxwell.
In 1994 he moved to "The Money Programme " on BBC television, reporting on business and economic developments around the world. His films included reports on the economic impact of AIDS in Africa, the aftermath of war in Kosovo, the business of mapping the human genome and an investigation into the role of investment banks in creating the internet share bubble. In 2001 he was the launch presenter of "Business Today", a nightly programme about business and economics on the BBC "News Channel." Edward George, then Governor of the Bank of England, was one of the first programme guests.
In 2004, he returned to radio as a business correspondent and played a leading role in the BBC coverage of the financial crisis, beginning in 2007. In 2005, he accompanied then UK Chancellor Gordon Brown on a visit to China, and also reported from Mumbai on the problems of global population increase. He presented a daily account of developments in the UK's credit crunch on "PM" with Eddie Mair, entitled "Upshares Downshares", a pun on the name of the television drama series "Upstairs Downstairs". Listeners sent in musical variations on the original theme music for "Upstairs Downstairs" by Sandy Faris, which were used to introduce each programme and were eventually collected on a CD sold in aid of BBC "Children in Need".
On 17 February 2011, Blythe announced that he would be leaving the BBC to become Executive Director of Communications at the Bank of England, replacing fellow ex-BBC journalist Jenny Scott. In a tongue-in-cheek homage to Nils Blythe the "PM" programme took to editing together and broadcasting all he said at each Bank of England Quarterly Inflation Report press conference. A podcast of each of these press conferences, which are introduced by Blythe, is available from the Bank of England website.
Personal life.
Blythe is married with three children and lives in Hertfordshire. He is a keen supporter of Arsenal FC.


J. G. Irmler

J. G. Irmler was a piano manufacturer in Leipzig, Saxony.
The owners Emil and Otto Irmler were awarded an Imperial and Royal Warrant of Appointment to the court of Austria-Hungary.


John Fenwick (MP for Morpeth)

John Fenwick (died 2 July 1644) was a Member of Parliament from Northumberland who was killed serving in the Royalist army during the First English Civil War.
Personal details.
Fenwick was the son of Sir John Fenwick, 1st Baronet of Wallington Hall, Northumberland; his mother Catherine was sister of Sir Henry Slingsby, executed in 1658 for his part in a Royalist conspiracy.
He married Mary, daughter of Sir George Selby, of Whitehouse, County Durham.
Career.
Fenwick matriculated from Trinity College, Cambridge at Easter 1628. He was admitted at Gray's Inn on 28 April 1630.
In November 1640, Fenwick was elected Member of Parliament for Morpeth, Northumberland in the Long Parliament. In early 1644, he raised a troop of dragoons for the Royalist Northern Army; and was excluded from Parliament on 22 January 1644.
His troop was at the siege of Newcastle, and a skirmish near Corbridge in 1644. He was killed at the Battle of Marston Moor on 2 July 1644.


Maredudd ab Owain ab Edwin

Maredudd ab Owain ab Edwin (died 1072) was a prince of the kingdom of Deheubarth in south west Wales.
Maredudd was the son of Owain ab Edwin and was hence the male-line heir of Hywel Dda. The throne had been seized from the previous king of this line - Hywel ab Edwin - by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, who claimed the throne through his mother, Angharad. Angharad was the daughter of Maredudd ab Owain ap Hywel, while Hywel claimed the throne through the latter Maredudd's younger brother, Einion (Hywel's grandfather).
Gruffydd had united almost all Wales under his rule, and was the only ruler to be King of Wales, but on Gruffydd's death in 1063 Maredudd reclaimed Deheubarth for his line.
During Maredudd's reign the Normans sacked south-east Wales in response to Welsh support for Saxon revolts like that of Eadric the Wild. After a few attempts to halt this, Maredydd decided not to resist the Norman encroachment on Gwent and was rewarded with lands in England in 1070. In 1072 he was killed in a battle by the river Rhymni. He was succeeded by his brother, Rhys ab Owain, rather than his young son, Gruffydd ap Maredudd.
When Rhys ab Owain died, the realm was seized by Rhys ap Tewdwr (Maredudd's second cousin, descended from a younger son of Einion). Gruffydd lived on his father's lands in England for some years during this period, before being killed when trying to recapture his father's kingdom from Rhys ap Tewdwr.


Joy-Ann Skinner

Joy-Ann Skinner is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Barbados to the European Union, Belgium, and France. On March 29, 2019, she presented her credentials as ambassador to Luxembourg.
Skinner earned a BSc in Political Science from the University of the West Indies and a post graduate diploma in International Relations.


Operation Old Bridge

Operation Old Bridge is the code name for the February 7, 2008 arrests in Italy and the United States that targeted the Gambino crime family. Among the indicted were the reputed acting bosses Jackie D'Amico, Nicholas Corozzo and Joseph Corozzo of the Gambino crime family. The indictments included: murder, drug trafficking, robbery and extortion.
Operation.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was able to collect the needed information through informant Joseph Vollaro, (owner of a truck company on Staten Island) who secretly recorded several conversations with members of the Gambino family. More than 80 people were indicted in the Eastern District of New York. The case is now referred to as "United States of America v. Agate et al." It was initially assigned to Judge Nicholas Garaufis, but later reassigned to Judge Jack B. Weinstein.
Gambino crime family boss Nicholas Corozzo turned fugitive after he was tipped off by his daughter who witnessed her husband and fellow mobster being led away by the US authorities. On May 29, 2008, Corozzo finally couldn't take life on the run anymore and so he turned himself in to authorities with his lawyer by his side. Of the 62 American defendants, 60 pleaded guilty with at least 52 of them facing no more than three years in prison.
The operation broke up a growing alliance between the Gambinos and the Sicilian Mafia, who wanted to get further into the drug trade. One of those arrested in the raids in the US was Frank Cali, a captain in the Gambino family. He was allegedly the "ambassador" in the US for the Inzerillo crime family.
The name of the police operation, "Old Bridge", refers to the historical ties of an exile group of Sicilian Mafiosi across the Atlantic Ocean. After the Second Mafia War in the beginning of the 1980s the surviving members of the Inzerillo mafia family had been "allowed" to migrate to New York to avoid extermination by the Corleonesi faction and then victorious Sicilian boss of bosses Salvatore Riina. The Inzerillo's American relatives and associates of New York's Gambino family intervened on their behalf. They were allowed to settle in the States in exchange for a pledge: neither they nor their offspring would ever again set foot on Sicilian soil. They became known as "gli Scappati", the Runaways. Two decades later, the Runaways were returning to Palermo. The exiles had good reasons: Riina and his successor Bernardo Provenzano were both arrested and are serving life terms in Italy. The runaway Inzerillo clan was allegedly rebuilding the "Old Bridge" between America and Sicily, reestablishing the business and drug trafficking ties between the Sicilian and American mobs.
Convictions.
The following list contains some of the most notable charged and does not include most of those convicted.
Other indicted Mafiosi.
American Mafiosi indicted.
Those without a release date listed either weren't sentenced to jail time or weren't imprisoned in a Federal Bureau of Prisons.


Avrutch (Hasidic dynasty)

The Avrutch branch of the Chabad Hasidic movement was founded after the death of the third rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn. The group was one of several groups that sought to succeed Rabbi Menachem Mendel, whose death created a dispute over his succession. The group was led by its founder, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Avrutch, a son of Rabbi Menachem Mendel, who assumed the role of rebbe in the town of Ovruch. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak died without a successor, thus ending the Avrutch dynasty.


Minister of State for Middle East and North Africa

The Minister of State for Middle East and North Africa is a mid-level position in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the British government. It is currently held by James Cleverly MP who took the office on 13 February 2020.
Responsibilities.
The minister is responsible for the following:


Central Securities Database

The Centralised Securities Database (CSDB) is a single information technology infrastructure that is operated jointly by the members of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB)
The CSDB also includes national central banks (NCBs) of non-euro area Member States where such NCBs voluntarily participate in the operation of the CSDB. The CSDB stores item-by-item data, in particular, data on securities, their issuers and prices.
Aims.
The aim of the CSDB is to hold complete, accurate, consistent and up-to-date information on all individual securities relevant for the statistical purposes of the ESCB. This means securities issued by EU residents; securities likely to be held and transacted in by EU residents; and securities denominated in euro, whoever the issuer is and wherever they are held. The CSDB contains information on over five million debt securities, equities and mutual fund shares/units issued by residents of EU Member States or by others.
History.
Since spring 2009 the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) runs the current “Phase 2” of its Centralised Securities Database (CSDB) platform. The CSDB covers debt securities, equity securities as well as investment fund shares where each security is identified by its ISIN code and defined by more than 50 individual attributes. Regarding the geographical coverage, the system includes all of the above securities issued by European Union (EU) residents, all securities potentially held by EU resident investors and all securities issued worldwide which are denominated in euro. In spring 2013 the CSDB covers about 7 million active securities in total
The CSDB is a joint project of the ECB and the national central banks in the euro area. Its implementation was a basic prerequisite for the introduction of security-by-security systems throughout the ESCB. The common use of reference data is ultimately intended to ensure the consistency and comparability of securities statistics in the Eurosystem and increase the efficiency of data procurement. The CSDB basically contains information on all securities denominated in euro. Furthermore, all securities which are issued, held or traded by EU residents are also included. Therefore, securities holdings can be calculated by nominal or by market values. For the latter, the CSDB data on the reporting date are used. Securities listed in a foreign currency are available in the original currency and in euro. Currently, the CSDB covers the attributes of over five million debt securities, equities and mutual fund shares. The main data providers for the CSDB are the national central banks of the ESCB as well as some commercial data suppliers. The most important securities attributes for the ESCB statistics system in the CSDB can be classified into the following groups:
• Issuer information (Issuer domicile country, Issuer ESA 95 sector, ...)
• Instrument information (ISIN code, Instrument ESA 95 class, ...)
• Price data information (Nominal currency, Quotation basis, Price value, ...)
Governance structure and operational framework.
A certain minimum governance structure is needed in running a supranational securities database of such ambition and complexity. Common agreements are needed on the scope and financial budget of the project; the technical framework, its maintenance and development; as well as on methodological issues. Furthermore, arrangements have to be put in place for the development and regular review of the operational framework and the business procedures (including the tasks, processes and quality benchmarks for the database and the statistics produced on this basis) as well as for the sharing of financial, human and IT resources.
In addition, legal clarity is needed as to the possibility of exchanging confidential data and the terms of usage of commercial source data. The former aspect is addressed in Europe by supranational statutes and guidelines. The same goes for many of the arrangements set out above, in particular the mutual financing of the CSDB project by the ECB and the 19 central banks of the euro area.
Uses.
To provide a single securities database platform with centrally managed access which can serve all uses of a central bank. With the set-up of the CSDB the ESCB has developed a single and consistent securities database platform which even serves all 28 national central banks (NCBs) of the EU
Benefits.
Reference data (information about prices, ratings, etc.) has often been cited as an area of difficulty for Solvency II asset reporting. Data licensing rules can limit the use and sharing of information with third parties, and data variations across vendors can produce inconsistent figures.
For its asset reporting the ECB only requires a small number of details about each asset. For securities and shares, generally speaking, these include identification and the amount held in the portfolio, which eliminates many of the problems associated with reference data.
The ECB uses a single set of reference data for all the securities information it collects. The CSDB holds information on almost all of the securities traded in the euro area. It is a proprietary database, which also relies on information from commercial providers.
Mr Ugazio explained how having a single source from the reference data both simplifies the data collection process and improves analytical capabilities. “This basically means that when an entity reports the list of its asset holdings it is sufficient for the national central bank to simply receive the ISIN code and the nominal amount held for each instrument. Then, using the CSDB, the statistical compilers can not only aggregate all sorts of breakdowns from the granular information, but also derive, for example, price changes and from these infer net disposals and acquisitions of the instrument.”
Insurers, of course, are being asked to obtain and report the reference data because Solvency II requires them to have a full understanding of the risk in their portfolio of assets.


Janata Bank

Janata Bank Ltd. () is a state-owned commercial bank of Bangladesh established in 1972. Its headquarters is situated at Motijheel in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. It is the second largest commercial bank in Bangladesh.
History.
Following the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan at the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, Janata Bank Limited was formed combining the then United Bank Limited and Union Bank Limited under the Bank Nationalisation Ordinance of 1972 (President's Order 26). The management of Janata Bank has been transferred to Janata Bank Limited after transforming the bank into a company following the existing company act under the Enterprise Growth and Bank Modernisation Project' (EGBMP) which has been taken in 2004–05 in order to reform the nationalised commercial banks. Janata Bank Limited has started its operation from 15 November 2007.


Maricopa Wells, Arizona

Maricopa Wells is a former place (locale) situated in Pinal County, Arizona. It has an estimated elevation of above sea level. Historically, it was an oasis around a series of watering holes in the Sierra Estrella, eight miles north of present-day Maricopa, Arizona, and about a mile west of Pima Butte. It developed as a trading center and stopping place for travelers in the mid to late 19th century.
History.
Maricopa Wells was a watering place named by travelers on the Southern Emigrant Trail who used it as a stopping place on the trail. They could rest and feed and water their animals. They traded with the nearby Maricopa and Pima natives for crops produced in their fields, which they irrigated by the Gila River. A settlement developed here when it was the base for the large stage station for the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and Butterfield Overland Mail, and later stage companies. At one time this was the primary military telegraph post for all of Arizona Territory.
It was abandoned after the railroad constructed a route north through Tempe to Phoenix. Maricopaville was planned as a terminus before Tempe won a spot on the line that was constructed. The settlement moved east to what developed as Maricopa Junction, known as Maricopa.


Boynton v. Virginia

Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U.S. 454 (1960), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court. The case overturned a judgment convicting an African American law student for trespassing by being in a restaurant in a bus terminal which was "whites only". It held that racial segregation in public transportation was illegal because such segregation violated the Interstate Commerce Act, which broadly forbade discrimination in interstate passenger transportation. It moreover held that bus transportation was sufficiently related to interstate commerce to allow the United States federal government to regulate it to forbid racial discrimination in the industry.
Thurgood Marshall argued the case for Boynton. The majority opinion was written by Justice Hugo Black.
The significance of "Boynton" was not located in its holding since it managed to avoid deciding any Constitutional questions in its decision, and its expansive reading of Federal powers regarding interstate commerce was also well established by the time of the decision. Its significance is that its outlawing of racial segregation in public transportation led directly to a movement called the Freedom Riders, in which African Americans and whites together rode various forms of public transportation in the South to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation. The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, prompted Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to confront the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) with its failure to enforce a bus desegregation ruling it had handed down in 1955, "Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company", 64 MCC 769 (1955) as well as the companion train desegregation case, "NAACP v. St. Louis-Santa Fe Railway Company", 297 ICC 335 (1955). By presenting the Commission with its own rulings in a May 29, 1961 petition, Kennedy was able to prompt it to do what it had promised in 1955, five years before the "Boynton" ruling was handed down, and six years before the Freedom Riders set out to test "Boynton" across the Deep South. On September 22, 1961, the ICC issued regulations which implemented its 1955 "Keys" and "NAACP" rulings, as well as the Supreme Court's ruling in "Boynton", and on November 1 those regulations went into effect, effectively ending Jim Crow in public transportation.
Boynton's trip and arrest.
In the winter of 1958, Bruce Boynton was a student at Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. While travelling on a Trailways bus for a holiday trip to his home in Selma, Alabama, his bus arrived at the Trailways station on East Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia. Passengers disembarked for a 40-minute layover. Unlike other black passengers, Boynton went into a "whites only" restaurant, where he ordered a cheeseburger and a cup of hot tea. He never had problems in Northern states, but he grew up in Selma and was familiar with segregation of restaurants and movie theaters. It was not his intent to test any laws in the South that night.
Ordered to move to the "black" section and knowing that his arrest was likely, Boynton pointed out to authorities that he was an American citizen with federal rights and, thus, was entitled to his burger and tea. Handcuffed and arrested on a misdemeanor trespass charge, he spent the night in jail and was fined $10 in a Richmond municipal court.
Boynton in the Virginia courts.
In the Richmond Police Court, Boynton was convicted of violating a state statute making it a misdemeanor for any person "without authority of law" to remain upon the premises of another after having been forbidden to do so. His conviction was sustained in Richmond's Hustings Court.
On appeal, he contended that his conviction violated the Interstate Commerce Act and the Equal Protection, Due Process and Commerce Clauses of the Federal Constitution; but his conviction was sustained by the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Boynton's Federal appeal.
Future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argued Boynton's case on appeal in the Federal Courts. On petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court, he raised only the constitutional questions.
Supreme Court Ruling.
1. Notwithstanding the fact that the petition for certiorari presented only the constitutional questions this Court will consider the statutory issue, which involves essentially the same problem—racial discrimination in interstate commerce. P. 364 U. S. 457.
2. Under § 216(d) of the Interstate Commerce Act, which forbids any interstate common carrier by motor vehicle to subject any person to unjust discrimination, petitioner had a federal right to remain in the white portion of the restaurant, he was there "under authority of law", and it was error to affirm his conviction. Pp. 364 U. S. 457–463.
(a) When a bus carrier has volunteered to make terminal and restaurant facilities and services available to its interstate passengers as a regular part of their transportation, and the terminal and restaurant have acquiesced and cooperated in this undertaking, the terminal and restaurant must perform these services without discriminations prohibited by the Act. Pp. 364 U. S. 457–461.
(b) Although the courts below made no findings of fact, the evidence in this case shows such a situation here. Pp. 364 U. S. 461–463.
Reversed.
Page 364 U. S. 455
MR. JUSTICE BLACK delivered the opinion of the Court.
The basic question presented in this case is whether an interstate bus passenger is denied a federal statutory or constitutional right when a restaurant in a bus terminal used by the carrier along its route discriminates in serving food to the passenger solely because of his color.
Petitioner, a Negro law student, bought a Trailways bus ticket from Washington, D.C., to Montgomery, Alabama. He boarded a bus at 8 p.m. which arrived at Richmond, Virginia, about 10:40 p.m. When the bus pulled up at the Richmond "Trailways Bus Terminal", the bus driver announced a forty-minute stopover there. Petitioner got off the bus and went into the bus terminal to get something to eat. In the station, he found a restaurant in which one part was used to serve white people and one to serve Negroes. Disregarding this division, petitioner sat down on a stool in the white section. A waitress asked him to move over to the other section where there were "facilities" to serve colored people. Petitioner told her he was an interstate bus passenger, refused to move, and ordered a sandwich and tea. The waitress then brought the Assistant Manager, who "instructed" petitioner to "leave the white portion of the restaurant and advised him he could be served in the colored portion." Upon petitioner's refusal to leave, an officer was called and petitioner was arrested and later tried, convicted and fined ten dollars in the Police Justice's Court of Richmond on a charge that he "[u]nlawfully did remain on the premises of the Bus Terminal Restaurant of Richmond, Inc. after having been forbidden to do so" by the Assistant Manager. (Emphasis supplied.) The charge was based on § 18-225 of the Code of Virginia of 1950, as amended (1958), which provides in part:
"If any person shall without authority of law go upon or remain upon the lands or premises of another, after having been forbidden to do so by the owner, lessee, custodian or other person lawfully in charge of such land, . . . he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or by confinement in jail not exceeding thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment."


Photographing Fairies

Photographing Fairies is a 1997 British fantasy film based on Steve Szilagyi's 1992 novel "Photographing Fairies". The film explores some of the themes of folklore, such as possession, paganism, animism, hallucinogens, parapsychology and fairies. It was inspired by the Cottingley Fairies hoax, and was released in the United Kingdom on 19 September 1997.
Plot.
In Switzerland in 1912, photographer Charles Castle (Toby Stephens) and Anna-Marie, his fiancée, are married in an Alpine church. The following day, they are walking in the mountains when a snowstorm closes in. They are returning to the village when a crevasse opens and Anna-Marie falls into it. Charles tries to pull her out but he loses his grip and she dies. During the Great War, Castle serves as an army photographer in the trenches of France. While he is photographing corpses with his assistant Roy (Phil Davis), a mortar shell lands close by. Roy returns to the trenches but Castle seems unconcerned and continues photographing. He returns to the trenches just before the shell explodes.
After the war, Castle and Roy run a photographic studio in London. Castle specialises in photographic trick work, including photomontage. He attends a lecture at the Theosophical Society, where Arthur Conan Doyle is examining a projected image of the Cottingley Fairies. Conan Doyle seems convinced they are genuine, but Castle stands, publicly debunks the image, and hands out business cards to the audience.
At his studio, Castle is visited by Beatrice Templeton (Frances Barber), who shows him a photograph of her daughter. She is convinced that a mysterious shape is a fairy, but Castle dismissed the idea. However, he investigates the photograph, sees the shape laterally reflected in the girl's eye, and makes multiple large prints to discover how the picture was made. Unable to explain or debunk the photograph, Castle hastily travels to see Beatrice in a village called Birkenwell, where upon arrival he sees and recognises Templeton's daughters, Ana (Miriam Grant) and Clara (Hannah Bould), and follows them to their home. Beatrice tells Castle that the photograph no longer mattersshe has seen the fairies. She asks him to meet her at "the great tree" in Birkenwell Woods the following day.
At the appointed time, Castle walks to the great tree, where Beatrice is waiting. Before he arrives, she removes her hat and shoes then climbs the tree. When he arrives, Castle discovers Beatrice's removed clothing, then finds her lifeless body on the ground. After making a statement at the local police station, Castle encounters the Templeton girls, who are greeted by their father Nicholas, a Christian minister.
Nicholas reluctantly allows Castle to remain since the girls seem to like him and he is concerned about their behavior. Castle discovers that Beatrice had been documenting her daughters' odd behavior, and in her notes finds that she had been experimenting with a distinctive rare flower. Having already noticed Ana and Clara consuming the flower themselves, Castle takes some himself and discovered that it allows him to see the fairies that Beatrice and her daughters saw.
Castle calls in his business partner and assistant to set up a photo shoot using his most advanced equipment. After consuming the flower again and having them photograph the experience, Castle concludes that fairies do exist, and that the flower allows the brain to slow down enough so that they can be seen and interacted with, as they normally move so fast that only the most advanced of cameras can photograph them. Castle's obsession comes to a head when one day, a fed-up Nicholas starts burning his equipment; although Castle is too deep under the flower's influence to initially care, he flies into a rage when some of the fairies drift too close and catch fire. Castle assaults and kills Nicholas and is subsequently arrested.
Refusing to defend himself, Castle is found guilty and sentenced to hang, while Ana and Clara are put into foster care, though they seem to care little about the situation. Castle bids farewell to his associates and faces his death without fear. The final scene returns to the Alps, where Castle is trying to save Anna-Marie. This time he is successful in pulling her back up to the path, and they embrace and continue walking.
Critical reception.
Time Out London said of "Photographing Fairies" "Aided by a fine cast (notably Kingsley as the girls' vicar father) and, appropriately, stunning photography by John de Borman, it's a fresh, rewarding film, intelligent and very beautiful."


Mokal Singh

Mokal or Mokal Singh (15th century), was the Maharana of Mewar Kingdom. Henry Soszynski dates his reign to , and his lifespan to . S. Devadas Pillai dates his reign to 1397–1433.
He was a son of Maharana Lakha Singh. Maharana Mokal has been described as a great builder, a trait which he had inherited from his father. He created various buildings along with completing those commenced by his father Lakha.
Background.
Mokal was a younger son of Lakha Singh and was born of his wife Hansa bai, a princess of Mandore. His mother was not originally betrothed to his father, but rather to Lakha's eldest son Prince Chunda Sisodia. When the delegation from Mandore had arrived in Chittor to officialise the betrothal, Chunda was away from court. The aging Lakha jested with the delegation, remarking that the proposal was obviously not meant for a "greybeard" like him. When Chunda later learnt of the comment, the proud prince refused the marriage, for he could not accept a proposal which his father, though in jest, had publicly declined. The old Maharana, failing to change his son's mind and fearful of offending Hansa Bai's powerful family, was forced to marry the princess himself. In return, Chunda was required to give up his position as heir to the throne in favour of the eldest son born by Hansa Bai.
Reign.
Maharana Lakha, the 4th Maharana of Mewar died in war, leaving young Mokal as his successor. Being a minor, his eldest brother Chunda Sisodia began to look after the state of affairs as promised to Rana Lakha. But Mokal's mother Hansa Bai disapproved of the influence that Chunda had over the nobles of Mewar. She questioned his integrity and doubted his intentions. Her resentment made Chunda leave Chittor and retire to Mandu, capital of Malwa. Rani Hansa Bai attained help from her brother Ranmal to administer the state of affairs on behalf of Mokal until he reached his majority.
Maharana Mokal had a brief stint as the ruler of Mewar, but rose to fame as the most celebrated warrior of his race. He defeated Nagour, Gujarat and repelled an invasion by the Delhi Sultanate (Sayyid dynasty). But most importantly, he completed palaces that were commenced by his father Maharana Lakha and conspired to build more aesthetic structures. His assassination by his paternal uncles, Chacha and Mera, in 1433 brought an end to a great Maharana in the making at the young age of 24.
Rana Kumbha who was only 13 years old at the time of Mokal's death, ascended the throne at a crucial juncture in the history of Mewar. The young Kumbha may have had the most unfavourable situation after his father's untimely death, but the valour and vision of his father, Maharana Mokal, inspired him to emerge as one of Mewar's greatest rulers.


Shaul Olmert

Shaul Olmert (born 1975) is an Israeli entrepreneur and business executive. He is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Piggy (AKA: Flying Pigs LTD.), a stealth mode start up based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Prior to Piggy, he was the co-founder of Playbuzz, an online content publishing platform where he served as Chief Executive Officer for 8 years before stepping down and assuming a new role as the company's President. He has been involved in numerous other startups including NetAlign, GameGround, and Sundaysky. Olmert also worked as an executive with Nickelodeon/MTV Networks and Conduit.
Early life and education.
Olmert grew up in Israel. As a child he liked to develop computer programs and build machines out of electrical circuits from old radio transistors and walkie-talkie type gadgets. His grandparents Bella and Mordechai Olmert came to Palestine in 1933 after escaping from Odessa during the Russian Civil War in 1919. They traveled to China prior to settling in 1930s Palestine. His father is former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He served in the Israeli Army. After his service, Olmert worked as a high school teacher in Jerusalem where he taught computers, prior to moving to New York to attend college. He went on to attend New York University where he earned a master's degree in Interactive Telecommunications.
Career.
Olmert began his business executive career as the director of business partnerships at Oberon Media prior to beginning his career for Nickelodeon/MTV Networks. Olmert worked as the vice president of digital products for MTV Networks, primarily with MTV Games. During his time with MTV he was in charge of adapting its television properties for the digital game industry. Olmert left MTV in 2007 and served as president and chief marketing officer of SundaySky prior to joining Conduit as that company's chief marketing officer.
In 2008, Olmert co-founded GameGround, a social network for gamers that sends game updates such as high scores to members through a feed. It also provides tips and tricks for playing various video games.
In 2012, Olmert founded the online content publishing platform Playbuzz with Tom Pachys, launching the website in December 2013. The website allows users, digital publishers, and brands to generate content in formats generally associated with viral media, including lists, quizzes, polls, ranked lists, and trivia that can be shared via social media or embedded elsewhere on the web. By September 2014, seven of the 10 biggest stories on Facebook involved content that originated on Playbuzz. The company took over the number one spot as the most shared publisher on Facebook in November 2014 with approximately 9 million shares. It was also listed by Inc. as one of the 15 Israeli Startups Getting Hot at the Turn of 2015. In October 2019, he stepped down as CEO.
Since September 2020 he is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Piggy (AKA: Flying Pigs LTD.), a stealth mode start up based in Tel Aviv, Israel.


Henry Cadogan, Viscount Chelsea

Henry Arthur Cadogan, Viscount Chelsea, (born Henry Arthur Cadogan; 13 June 1868 – 2 July 1908) was a British Army officer, civil servant and politician.
This Viscount Chelsea (the title is a courtesy title) was a Conservative Member of the House of Commons (MP) elected twice to the seat of Bury St Edmunds. He was previously a captain in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers and a civil servant to the Prime Minister. His father was a major developer of part of Kensington and Chelsea and represented the Crown in Ireland. Henry became his expectant heir from the age of 10 but had no sons who survived childhood and he predeceased his father at the age of 40.
His wife, Cecilia Mildred Harriet Sturt, had a less notable career than Henry. She suffered the loss of her husband and two years later, that of their only son but that year married again and being widowed again, married the Duke of Manchester.
Background.
Lord Chelsea was the second son of the 5th Earl Cadogan and his first wife, née Lady Beatrix Craven. On 2 August 1878, his older brother died at the age of twelve, so at the age of ten he became the heir to his father's peerage and acquired the courtesy title Viscount Chelsea (originally granted in 1800 in acknowledgment of the family's inheritance of the manor of Chelsea). His father later was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1895-1902).
Careers.
Lord Chelsea had three careers, that of a captain in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, that of Private Secretary to a Prime Minister (at the time, officially termed the First Lord of the Treasury) and that of an MP for the eight years from his election in 1892.
In 1892 he was elected (as Member of Parliament) for Bury St Edmunds. In February 1904, he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of the County of London.
Marriage and family.
On 30 April 1892, he married Hon. (Cecilia) Mildred H. Sturt, a daughter of politician Lord Alington, at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea and they had six children:
His own death from cancer at age 40 at Temple House, Theobalds Park, Hertfordshire, preceded the death of his only son in childhood illness.
Two years after his death, in 1910, his wife married Hedworth Lambton (later Meux) (a son of the 2nd Earl of Durham); in 1930 she married Lord Charles Montagu (a son of the 7th Duke of Manchester).


Charles Abbott, 3rd Baron Tenterden

Charles Stuart Aubrey Abbott, 3rd Baron Tenterden KCB (26 December 1834 – 22 September 1882), was a British diplomat.
Biography.
Abbott was born in London, the son of Charles Abbott (1803–1838), younger son of Charles Abbott, 1st Baron Tenterden. The title passed to the younger Charles on the death of his uncle John Henry Abbott, 2nd Baron Tenterden (1796–1870). He was educated at Eton College (1848–53), and entered into service at the Foreign Office in 1854 by the patronage of the foreign secretary, Lord Clarendon.
In the 1860s and '70s Abbott was involved in the negotiations of the famous Alabama Claims. His sense of moderation came to good use in the successful arbitration of the dispute. In 1873 Tenterden was promoted to the post of permanent under-secretary, and in 1878 he was created KCB.
He was married twice; his first wife was his cousin Penelope Smyth, with whom he had four children - Audrey Mary Florence born 1861, Geraldine Alice Ellen born 1863, Charles Stuart Henry born 1865, and Gwen Elca Violet born 1868. Penelope died in 1879. The year after Tenterden married the widow Emma Rowcliffe (née Bailey, d. 1928). He died in Lynmouth in 1882.


Zhang Kejian

Zhang Kejian (; born July 1961) is the Director of the China National Space Administration.
Zhang was born in Kunshan, Jiangsu province. He joined the Communist Party in June 1992, ten years after starting work. He graduated from the PLA Academy of Science and Technology with a degree in physics. He worked for most of his career at the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics. He was made party chief of the organization in December 2007. in September 2015, he was transferred to work at the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence as deputy chief.
In May 2018, he became head of the China National Space Administration.
Zhang was named one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People of 2019".


Lewis Stevenson (politician)

Lewis Green Stevenson (August 15, 1868 – April 5, 1929) was an American politician. He was the Illinois Secretary of State from 1914 to 1917 and a member of Illinois' political Stevenson family.
Born in Chenoa, Illinois, Stevenson was educated in the Bloomington public schools, at Phillips Exeter Academy, and at Illinois State Normal University (now Illinois State University). He died of a heart ailment, at his home, in Bloomington, Illinois.
Stevenson's father, Adlai Ewing Stevenson I, was the Vice President of the United States from 1893 to 1897. Stevenson's son, Adlai Ewing Stevenson II, was the Governor of Illinois, the Democratic candidate for President of the United States in 1952 and 1956 and later the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. His grandson, Adlai Ewing Stevenson III, is a former U.S. senator from Illinois. The actor McLean Stevenson was his first cousin twice removed.
Lewis Stevenson married Helen Louise Davis, daughter of "Pantagraph" publisher W. O. Davis and granddaughter of Jesse Fell. They had two children, Elizabeth "Buffy" and Adlai Ewing Stevenson II.
Lewis followed in his father's footsteps as a Democratic Party leader. He served as his father's private secretary while his father was Vice President of the United States. Later, Lewis served as chairman of the Illinois State Board of Pardons, president of the Illinois Centennial Commission, and as Secretary of State under Governor Edward Dunne. He took an active part in the national conventions of the Democratic party and was frequently consulted on party policy.


Reactions to the Black Saturday bushfire crisis

The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of fires that ignited across the Australian state of Victoria during extreme weather conditions on 7 February 2009. Burning around 450,000 ha for over a month, the fires destroyed over 2,100 homes, destroyed several regional towns and were fought by over 5,000 firefighting personnel. The Fires devastated many.
Responses to the Black Saturday bushfires included immediate community response, donations and later, international aid efforts, Government inquiries including a Royal Commission and recommendations and discussions from a wide variety of bodies, organisations, authorities and communities.
Government.
Federal parliament was suspended due to the emergency. The Premier of Victoria, John Brumby, accepted an offer from the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to dispatch members of the Australian Defence Force to provide assistance in that state. Rudd described the bushfires as an "appalling tragedy for Victoria," saying "Hell and all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours."
Queen Elizabeth II made a donation to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Fund, and stated that she "was shocked and saddened to learn of the terrible toll being exacted by the fires this weekend," and sent "heartfelt condolences to the families of all those who have died and... deep sympathy to the many that have lost their homes in this disaster," as well as expressing admiration for the firefighters and other emergency personnel. Similarly, Prince Charles, stated at a reception he hosted for the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia: "Both my wife and I were so horrified along with so many other people in this country by the extent of the bush fires because I know every year Australia suffers from dreadful events, but this year somehow it's even more dreadful... We just wanted people to know how deeply we feel for all those families who have suffered so terribly... The sheer extent of the horrors is hard to comprehend I think to people who don't live in Australia or know Australia." It was then announced on 18 February that Princess Anne would represent the Queen at a memorial service to be held in the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, and to tour some of the areas affected by the fires.
Australian Greens Party leader Bob Brown told Sky News, that "[the fires] are a sobering reminder of the need for [Australia] and the whole world to act and put at a priority the need to tackle climate change," and Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police, Christine Nixon, who was due to retire in March 2009, announced on 10 February that she would be stepping down early in order to lead a state government committee charged with rebuilding the fire-affected areas.
Fire fighting.
More than 4,000 firefighters from the Country Fire Authority (CFA)which is primarily responsible for fires on private propertyand the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE)primarily responsible for fires on public landhave worked to battle the fires. These groups were assisted by the military aid offered by the Commonwealth Governor-in-Council, and the firefighters sent not only by the states of NSW, South Australia, ACT, Tasmania, and Western Australia, but also from firefighting personnel from New Zealand, the latter being limited in number by the extreme fire risk that was concurrent in parts of New Zealand.
Seventy-four firefighters from agencies in the United States travelled to Victoria and assisted in firefighting efforts.
The Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) who are primarily responsible for fires and other emergencies in the Melbourne metropolitan area, also sent firefighters and support staff to aid in the effort.
Aid efforts.
Humanitarian responses to the fires came quickly from government, businesses, individuals and aid agencies, including direct relief efforts as well as fundraising.
The Victorian Government's Department of Human Services offered immediate assistance of up to $1,067 for affected people. The Federal Government announced a $10 million package of emergency assistance, available from 9 February, providing $1,000 per adult and $400 per child for those who had been hospitalised with injuries or who had lost their homes.
The bushfire appeal raised more than $372 million in total. The appeal by the Australian Red Cross raised over $315 million. The Red Cross Blood Service received 6,000 offers of blood donations on the morning of 9 February alone. The Salvation Army appeal raised $17.5 million.
Major banks National Australia Bank, ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank and Westpac each announced $1 million in donations for fire victims. Telstra, Australia's largest telecommunications company, donated $500,000 and pledged to match employee donations to the value of $250,000, bringing the total to over $1 million. Telstra also provided free telephone diversions to those affected and offered free local and mobile calls on selected public phone boxes in bushfire areas. Tabcorp donated $2 million.
BP donated $635,000 to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal, along with donations from employees to be matched from the BP Foundation. BP has offered free food and drinks to emergency service personnel.
Caltex donated $200,000 to be distributed as either cash or fuel. Caltex also stated that they will match dollar for dollar, all contributions to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal made by Caltex employees.
Woolworths Limited donated $1 million.
Wesfarmers donated $500,000. Their supermarket division, Coles, donated profits from all stores on Friday 13 February while Kmart, their discount department store chain, donated $100,000 to The Salvation Army.
Cricket Australia used a match scheduled for 10 February between Australia and New Zealand to raise money for fire victims. Sydney Cricket Ground Trust and Cricket NSW raised money from a Twenty20 Cricket match at the SCG between the Waugh XI and the Taylor XI. The Australian Football League moved the NAB Cup match on 13 February between Essendon Bombers and Western Bulldogs from Darwin to Melbourne as a bushfire appeal match. V8 Supercars Australia donated $100,000 and the use of their main transporter as a communications centre and command post for the duration of the crisis. Football Federation Australia donated $100,000 to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal and will provide replacement football (soccer) equipment to Victorian schools and junior clubs affected by the disaster.
On 12 February, the Nine Network held a telethon to benefit the victims of the bushfires, through the Australian Red Cross. Titled "Australia Unites - The Victorian Bushfire Appeal", the event was hosted by Nine Network personality Eddie McGuire, and accompanied by many celebrities, athletes and entertainers, raising about A$20.5 million.
On 14 March, a charity concert "Sound Relief" was held simultaneously in Melbourne and Sydney with ticket sales exceeding $8.8 million. Some funds also went to aid those affected by floods in Queensland.
Some victims of the Queensland floods that had occurred around the same time (the worst floods in the history of north Queensland) who had received government support donated their grants to the Victorian bushfire appeal, saying that "we're not as bad off as the poor people of Victoria" (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/10/2487237.htm).
Aid for injured wildlife.
As a result of the bushfires, many hundreds of burnt animals required care in wildlife centres across Victoria. Additionally, six wildlife care centres were destroyed by the bushfires. requested help to treat and feed the animals through the Bushfire Appeal. Wildlife Victoria The National Parks and Wildlife Service also requested donations be made for burnt and injured wildlife Foundation National Parks and Wildlife
Aid for local business.
CFA Australia has provided over 120 accountants to assist with business recovery efforts. Working through Small Business Victoria, they will help to reconstruct lost financial records and reestablish businesses in communities affected by the bushfires.
Media and community action.
Australian national flags were lowered to half-mast in remembrance of the victims, and members of the Australian parliament gave speeches and observed a moment of silence, while Roman Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide pledged that Saint Vincent de Paul and other Catholic aid organisations would offer assistance, and offered prayers and condolences on behalf of the Australian Catholic conference of bishops. Pope Benedict XVI, through his Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, offered assistance and assurance of prayers and spiritual support to the Governor General.
During the night of 7 February, the Nine Network showed a 15-minute bulletin at 9pm just on the fire situation and the Seven Network interrupted programming to produce a special news bulletin. From 7 February onwards, all major Australian television channels increased their nightly bulletin times to cover the fires more extensively. ABC Local Radio in Victoria postponed programs to relay up to the minute news of the fires from 7 February, and in March established the temporary station ABC Kinglake Ranges to provide local news and information to the surrounding areas affected by the fires.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation set up a message board where people could offer or request help, which was inundated with replies. Similarly, several organisations and individuals used the microblogging service Twitter to post updates on the developing situation, using a conversion of the Country Fire Authority's RSS stream and the local emergency radio station.
The Yellow Ribbon has become a symbol of support for the emergency services involved in the disaster.
On 2 March, in anticipation and to create awareness of the extreme bushfire weather conditions predicted for the following days, many residents around Victoria received a text message that read: "Msg from Vic Police:Extreme weather in Vic expected Mon night & Tues.High wind & fire risk. Listen to local ABC Radio for emergency updates. Do not reply to this". The message was sent to around 5 million phones throughout Victoria and Tasmania.
International reaction.
Following the Black Saturday bushfires the Australian government received offers of assistance and condolences from a number of foreign heads of state, heads of government, and other leaders. The following is a summary of the response from various countries:
Other nations including Andorra, Brazil, Cuba, Ireland, Nauru, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sweden, Ukraine and Uganda have sent messages of support, as have European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Other emergency organisations' responses.
St John Ambulance.
St John Ambulance Australia were involved from two weeks before and many weeks after 'Black Saturday' providing emergency medical and first aid services to other emergency service personnel involved and local residents. St John Ambulance Australia also assisted with the injured from the fires.
St John volunteers were also sent by their various state commands to join the Victorian volunteers who were already assisting. These included:
Multiple sites were set up across the bushfire-affected areas, mainly at fire-staging grounds where services could be provided to CFA firefighters and other personnel involved.
By 8 February, St John were operating 16 first aid posts and were represented at the Integrated Fire Coordination Centre (IFCC) and 3 Incident Control Centres (ICCs). Around 300 Victorian members were deployed. It was also the largest national deployment to a disaster in Australia by St John Ambulance. By the end of the event, more than 600 volunteer St John members had provided service during the bushfire disaster
Amateur Radio.
Amateur Radio operators from the Victorian branch of the Wireless Institute Civil and Emergency Network (WICEN) were activated for the emergency and the aftermath until 10 March 2009, with assistance from other WICEN jurisdictions (NSW, ACT, SA), providing communications on amateur radio frequencies and also acting as radio operators for other agencies.


Ossietzky Award

The Ossietzky Award () is a prize awarded by the Norwegian chapter of P.E.N., for extraordinary contributions to freedom of speech.
The prize is named after writer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Carl von Ossietzky.


United Nations Security Council Resolution 633

United Nations Security Council resolution 633, adopted unanimously on 30 May 1989, after considering a report by the Secretary-General regarding the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, the Council noted its efforts to establish a durable and just peace in the Middle East.
The resolution decided to call upon the parties concerned to immediately implement Resolution 338 (1973), it renewed the mandate of the Observer Force for another six months until 30 November 1989 and requested that the Secretary-General submit a report on the situation at the end of that period.


Frederick II, Count of Celje

Frederick II (; ) (17 January 1379 – 13 or 20 June 1454) was a Count of Celje and Ban of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia.
Early life.
Frederick was the son of Hermann II, Count of Celje and his wife Anna of Schaunberg.
Marriages.
Frederick II married Elizabeth of Frankopan and after her death in 1422, Veronika of Desenice. The famous Eberhard Windbeck chronicle gives a detailed report on the circumstances of Elizabeth of Frankopan's death, which in the chronicle is described as murder and placed in the year 1424.


National Bank of Greece

The National Bank of Greece (NBG; ) is a global banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Athens, Greece.
85% of the company's pretax preprovision profits are derived from its operations in Greece, complemented by 15% from Southeastern Europe. The group offers financial products and services for corporate and institutional clients along with private and business customers. Services include banking services, brokerage, insurance, asset management, shipping finance, leasing and factoring markets. The group is the largest Greek bank by total assets and the third largest by market capitalisation of 1.06 Billion Euro as at 4 December 2018. It is the second largest by deposits in Greece after Piraeus Bank. It is fourth largest by Greek loan assets trailing Piraeus Bank, Alpha Bank and Eurobank Ergasias.
The bankers Jean-Gabriel Eynard and Georgios Stavros founded NBG in 1841 as a commercial bank. Stavros was also elected as the first director of the Bank until his death in 1869. From NBG's inception until the establishment of the Bank of Greece in 1928, NBG enjoyed the right to issue banknotes. When the Athens Stock Exchange was founded in 1880, NBG immediately listed on the exchange, a listing it has retained to the present.
The bank is currently listed on the Athens Exchange (, ISIN GRS003003019); it is a constituent of the FTSE/Athex Large Cap index. From 1999 to 2015 it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:NBG, ADR, ISIN US6336437057).
History.
NBG was founded in 1841 in Athens, by the decree "On the establishment of (a) National Bank" (Official Gazette, no. 6 of March 30, 1841, p. 59), according to which the National Bank is a private limited company based in Athens with a capital of 5,000,000 drachmas, divided into 5,000 shares of 1,000 drachmas.
At its founding the major shareholder of the National Bank was the Greek state with 1,000 shares out of 3,402. Other major shareholders were Nicholas Zosimas with 500 shares, Jean-Gabriel Eynard with 300 shares, King Louis of Bavaria with 200 shares, Konstantinos Vranis with 150 shares, Adolf Graf with 146 shares and Theodoros Rallis with 100 shares. Rothshild Frères Paris bought 50 shares and Jean-Gabriel Eynard bought another 50 shares in their name to boost the prestige of the new bank. It used to have the sole right of note issue, which it lost in 1928 when the newly established Bank of Greece took over as the country's central bank. In 1899 NBG acquired the Privileged Bank of Epirus and Thessaly (Pronomiouchos Trapeza Epirothessalias). Andreas Syngros had founded the bank in Volos in 1882. Unfortunately, the bank was unable to recover from his death and from the Greco-Turkish War (1897).
The arrival of the 20th Century saw NBG begin its international expansion. In 1904 NBG established Banque d’Orient, together with Nationalbank für Deutschland, which almost immediately withdrew from the venture. The Greeks kept the branches in Thessaloniki (Selanik), Smyrna (İzmir), which were part of the Ottoman Empire at the time, and Alexandria, Egypt. Three years later, NBG chose Cyprus as another location. NBG became government-owned during the First World War when NBG refused to finance new military equipment for the Greek government. The government then passed a law that permitted the government to appoint its own people to the Bank's board.
In 1919 NBG acquired the Bank of Crete (Trapeza Kritis). However, in 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne provided for a compulsory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey, leading to the departure of the Greeks from Smyrna. As a result, Banque d’Orient closed its branch there.
The 1930s saw further international expansion. In 1930 NBG and Bank of Athens combined their activities in Egypt into a joint subsidiary, Banque Nationale de Grèce et d’Athènes. Two years later, NBG acquired Banque d'Orient (Trapeza Anatolis). Then in 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, the NBG established a subsidiary in New York City, the "Hellenic Bank Trust Company". In World War II, the NBG in Greece was managed by Deutsche Bank for the German Occupiers.
Post WWII.
In 1953 the NBG took over the Bank of Athens, which was at that time the second largest Bank in Greece. Both banks cooperated before in their foreign branches in Middle East which were operated as "Banque Nationale de Grèce et d’Athènes". The NBG took over also the affiliated "South African Bank of Athens" (est. 1947), which NBG still owns. The former headquarters of the Bank of Athens are also still used until today. In 1960 Egypt nationalised all banks in Egypt, including Banque Nationale de Grèce et d’Athènes, which it merged into National Bank of Egypt.
In 1965 NBG acquired the Greek "Trapeza Epagelmatikis Pistis" (Professional Credit Bank). The next year bank governor Georgios Mavros founded the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation. In 1978 the Greek government permitted the formation of Arab Hellenic Bank with 49% Arab ownership, as an exception to its prohibition on foreign banks owning more than 40% of the equity of a Greek bank. NBG held 51% and provided most of the bank staff. The Libyan Arab-Foreign Bank and Kuwaiti Investment Organisation held 40% between them while other Arab investors held 9%. That same year NBG opened again a branch in Cairo. In 1994 NBG incorporated its branches in Cyprus into a subsidiary: National Bank of Greece (Cyprus). The next year the Greek government dissolved the insolvent Arab Hellenic Bank at a cost to Greece's Deposit Guarantee Fund of Euro 1.5m in payments to depositors. In 1998 the Swiss architect Mario Botta won the competition for the new wing of the headquarters, the building was completed in 2001. In 1998 NBG merged with the "Ethniki Ktimatiki Trapeza Ellados" (National Mortgage Bank of Greece), itself the result of the merger of the "National Mortgage Bank" and the "National Housing Bank of Greece". In 1999 NBG started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
2000s and after.
After the end of communism in Eastern Europe, NBG took advantage of the opportunity to expand to Southeast Europe. In April, 2000, in a joint deal with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and IFC, NBG acquired a majority stake in Stopanska Banka (Skopje, Republic of Macedonia). In July, National Bank of Greece acquired 89.9% of the United Bulgarian Bank (UBB).
In 2002 NBG merged with "ETEBA" (National Investment Bank for Industrial Development), but NBG's attempted merger with Alpha Bank fell through. The next year, NBG bought Banca Romaneasca, a Romanian bank, and currently holds 88.7% of all outstanding shares. Banca Romaneasca has 90 branches.
However, while it was expanding to Southeast Europe, NBG was retreating in North America and other places serving the Greek diaspora. The first move occurred in 2005 when NBG sold all its operations in Canada to Bank of Nova Scotia. The next year NBG sold its US arm, Atlantic Bank of New York, to New York Community Bancorp for US$400 million (€331 million) in cash. It then used proceeds from the sale to help finance further acquisitions in southeast Europe. In 2004 the Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs was founded by NBG and Deutsche Bank as not-for-profit institute based in Frankfurt.
In 2006 NBG acquired 46% of the shares of Finansbank in Turkey, a share that it increased in 2007 to 80%. Hüsnü Özyeğin reported in the initial press conference when NBG announced its 46% share purchase that he would have "loved to have been offered National Bank of Greece shares instead of cash, however there were no shares available" (outside of the current shares floated in the free market). Still in 2006, NBG acquired 99.44% of Serbia's Vojvođanska banka for €385 mn.
At home, in 2005, as part of the NBG Group's ongoing effort to improve its portfolio structure and effectively respond to changes in the domestic and international markets, the Boards of Directors of National Bank of Greece S.A. and National Investment Company S.A. decided to merge the two companies through absorption of the latter by the Bank. Two years later, NBG merged with "National Management & Organization Co." (the issuer of "Ethnokarta"). At the time, NBG already held 100% of National Management & Organization Co. shares. Also in 2007, NBG concluded the acquisition of "P&K Investment Services SA". The acquisition created the largest provider of brokerage and investment services in Greece. NBG plans to expand this business to all countries where NBG has a presence.
The bank suffered following the Greek government debt crisis holding part of the debt. The bank wrote off more than $19 billion; 10 billion euros ($12.7 billion) of them in the restructuring of the debt.
On 18 February 2011 NBG made an offer to buy Alpha Bank for 2.8 billion Euros. and another offer to buy Emporiki Bank, both offers were not successful, Emporiki Bank was then bought by Alpha Bank.
In January 2013 NBG made an offer to take over the Eurobank Ergasias this was not completed. The 64,000 Eurobank shareholders and the Greek capital market commission agreed. Some weeks after the proposed buyout that fell through, NBG presented the plans to reduce the staff of the new banking group, many of them by taking early retirement. The merger was criticized, as some said that the new bank would be too big if it had to be sold, but one of the bankers said that much bigger banks have been sold. The NBG absorbed the healthy assets and liabilities of the Greek FBBank in 2013. The European Commission in July 2014 approved restructuring plans for NBG after finding that state aid was not hampering competition.
On 28 November 2015, the New York Stock Exchange announced that American depositary receipts (“ADRs”) of National Bank of Greece S.A. were in the process of being delisted following a 14% value decline on Friday 27 November 2015 and a year-to-date slump of 91%. While the year-to-date plunge of 91% was a major factor, the exchange stated that the National Bank of Greece is no longer suitable for listing based on “abnormally low” prices of the ADRs, pursuant to Section 802.01D of the NYSE Listed Company Manual. Also, the bank failed to meet the trading standards and also failed to cross the $1.00 mark since mid-July, resulting in the NYSE’s determination to delist the bank's ADRs.
On 4 December 2015, the European Commission approved state aid amounting to 2.71 billion euros.
In December 2015, the bank announced it would sell Turkish subsidiary Finansbank to the Qatari QNB Group, in order to pay down its expensive central bank debt. Including €910m of subordinate debt, a sum of €2.75bn in cash was agreed upon. It has also been announced that NBGI Private Equity will be sold in 2016.
Branches.
The bank has over 500 branches in Greece and some in Australia, Egypt and United Kingdom. It owns bank subsidiaries in Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, North Macedonia, Malta, Romania, Serbia and South Africa.
Patronage and sponsorship.
The NBG conducts philanthropy through the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation and other endeavours like book printing and theatres.
The NBG organizes the "i-bank Competition Innovation & Technology" competition rewarding original ideas based in new technologies on i-banking and e-commerce (3rd competition in 2012).
During the crisis in Greece the situation of the health sector is very difficult, the NBG built a new wing of the Evangelismos Hospital in Athens. It cost 30 Mio. €.


Courtney Blackman

Sir Courtney Newlands McLaurin Blackman, KA (6 March 1933 – 16 March 2021) was a Barbadian economist, international business consultant, and diplomat. He served as the first Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados from 1972 to 1987. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest central bank governor in the world.
Early life.
Blackman was born on 6 March 1933. Upon completing his studies at Harrison College in 1952, he won a Barbados Exhibition. This financial award allowed him to study Modern History at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Mona, Jamaica, where he earned a BA (hons) in 1956. After graduating, Blackman joined Alcan Jamaica Ltd. as a trainee, eventually becoming a personnel manager. In 1958, he decided to become a teacher; over the next five years, he worked at Kingston College (Jamaica), Sekondi College in Ghana, and his former school Harrison College.
In 1963, Blackman entered the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, where he would graduate with a Master of Business Administration. He received a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University (New York City) in 1969; he had majored in Money and Banking and minored in International Business. He worked on Wall Street as an Economist from 1968 to 1971 at the now-defunct Irving Trust Company, going on to become Associate Professor of Management at Hofstra University on Long Island, New York.
Career.
Blackman served as Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados from June 1972 to March 1987, the longest-serving governor as of 2021. He was offered the position in a 5AM phone call from then-Prime Minister Errol Barrow; Blackman immediately accepted, but later joked that he "would never again accept a job offer while half asleep". He became the youngest central bank governor in the world at the time. He was responsible for growing the bank's organisation from its initial team of five people, as well as setting monetary policy.
As governor, Blackman supervised the 1973 introduction of the Barbadian dollar; although it was initially tied to the pound sterling, Blackman changed the currency to a fixed exchange rate tied to the US dollar in 1975. This rate of BDS$2 = US$1 was still in effect at the time of his death; PM Mia Mottley and later central bank governor Cleviston Haynes credited it with providing economic stability. Blackman also organized the construction of the central bank plaza, which is now the Tom Adams Financial Centre in Bridgetown.
After retiring from the Central Bank in 1987, Blackman became a business consultant to other governments and international institutions. From 1995 to 2000, he served as Ambassador to the United States and Permanent Representative for Barbados to the Organization of American States. He later became an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at the UWI's Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES).
Personal life.
Blackman and his wife Gloria had three sons: Martin is a tennis player and coach, while Chris and Keith are television news producers.
Blackman was known for correcting erroneous statements or reports made about Barbados in the international community.
Death.
Blackman died on 16 March 2021 at the age of 88 in Orlando, Florida, U.S.
Honours.
Blackman received an honorary degree from Hofstra University in 1982, and an honorary LLD from the University of the West Indies in 2007.
Blackman was awarded the Gold Crown of Merit in 1982. In 1998 he received the highest honour in Barbados: he was made a Knight of St. Andrew (KA) of the Order of Barbados.
In 2017, the Central Bank of Barbados renamed its Grand Salle building as the Courtney Blackman Grand Salle.


List of ambassadors of Antigua and Barbuda to China

The Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to China is the official representative of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda to the Government of the People's Republic of China.
The embassy of Antigua and Barbuda is in Beijing.


Cyrus Hamlin (general)

Cyrus Hamlin (April 26, 1839 – August 28, 1867) was an attorney, politician, and a general from Bangor, Maine, who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Early life.
Hamlin was born in Hampden, Maine, a suburb of Bangor. He was the third son of Hannibal Hamlin, the Vice President of the United States, and his wife. His brother, Charles Hamlin, was a Union Army major who was appointed a brevet brigadier general at the end of the war.
Hamlin was educated at the Hampden Academy and studied at Waterville College (now Colby College) in Waterville, Maine. He was admitted to the bar in 1860 and practiced law for a year in Kittery, Maine.
Civil War.
Hamlin was commissioned as a captain in the Union Army in April 1862, serving as an aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont.
Hamlin was among the first to advocate enlisting African-American troops in the Union Army. In February 1863, he was appointed the first colonel of the 80th United States Colored Troops and was assigned to field duty in Louisiana. There he eventually took charge of a brigade of black troops and participated in the Siege of Port Hudson. He was promoted to brigadier general in December 1864 and assigned command of the military district of Port Hudson, Louisiana, Department of the Gulf. Hamlin was mustered out of the United States Volunteers on January 15, 1866.
On February 21, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Hamlin for the award of the honorary grade of brevet major general, U.S. Volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the award on April 26, 1866.
Hamlin was a Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.
Postbellum life.
Hamlin remained in Louisiana after the war during the early days of Reconstruction, but died of yellow fever in 1867. Although he was initially interred in the Girod Street Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana, he was reburied three months later in his family plot at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine.


Jens Weidmann

Jens Weidmann (born 20 April 1968) is a German economist, president of the Deutsche Bundesbank, and Chairman of the Board of the Bank for International Settlements.
Before assuming the top Bundesbank position in 2011, from February 2006, he served as Head of Division IV (Economic and Financial Policy) in the Federal Chancellery. He was the chief negotiator of the Federal Republic of Germany for both the summits of the G8 and the G20.
Early life and academic career.
Weidmann was born in Solingen. In 1987, Weidmann graduated from gymnasium in Backnang, Baden-Württemberg after which he studied economics at Aix-Marseille University, the University of Paris, and University of Bonn. He received his Diplom in economics in 1993. From 1993 to 1994, he commenced his doctoral studies on European monetary policy under the supervision of professor at the University of Mannheim, but later transferred back to Bonn again. He received his Dr. rer. nat. pol. under the auspices of monetary theorist in 1997. During his studies Weidmann had internships at the Banque de France and the National Bank of Rwanda. Due to the resulting knowledge of the French financing sector his later career in German financial politics was welcomed in France and seen as a support of the Franco-German twin engine. His education has been characterized as specialising in monetarist economics.
Professional career.
From 1997 to 1999, Weidmann worked at the International Monetary Fund. Until 2004 he worked as Secretary of the German Council of Economic Experts. During his time at the Council, he played a key role in compiling a 20-point plan for boosting growth and employment that formed the basis of then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Agenda 2010 reforms.
From there he moved to the Bundesbank, where until 2006 he was the head of the Monetary Policy and Monetary Analysis group.
Advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, 2006-2011.
In 2006, Weidmann began working at the Federal Chancellery, where he was responsible for preparing the content and strategy of the G-20 round which was formed to counter the effects of the financial crisis. When he started, he was the youngest department head in the German government. Chancellor Angela Merkel promoted him in December 2009 to the influential role of the Sherpa of the G8 summits as she considers the G8 round to be only a pre-summit of the G20 round in the field of the world-wide financial system as well as that most other subjects need a wider context than the G8 as well (compare Heiligendamm Process for G8+5).
During his time at the Federal Chancellery, Weidmann was involved in a series of major decisions in response to the financial crisis in Germany and Europe: preventing the meltdown of the bank Hypo Real Estate, guaranteeing German deposits and implementing a rescue programme for the banking system, piecing together two fiscal-stimulus programmes, and setting up the Greek bail-out package and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).
In 2011, Weidmann suggested to Merkel that the position of Bundesbank vice president, which had also become vacant, be filled by Sabine Lautenschläger, then director of Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
President of the Bundesbank, 2011–present.
In February, 2011, Weidmann was designated to succeed Axel A. Weber as president of the Deutsche Bundesbank. In September, with the ongoing European sovereign debt crisis, Weidmann was observed by a British commentator, David Marsh, to be taking a "cool" course relative to Chancellor Merkel. Marsh wrote that Weidmann was saying the European Monetary Union (EMU) "has to go in one of two directions. Either it takes the path of a fiscal union in which member countries fuse together their economic and financial systems into a much more robust framework that will protect them from internal dislocation. Weidmann says, coolly, this is somewhat unlikely. Or EMU remains a looser grouping of countries that will face the discipline of the financial markets if they fail to produce economic convergence," namely exit from the EMU and default, looking particularly at Greece. Marsh also noted that Merkel is committed to the first course and so may come into conflict with her one-time economic adviser Weidmann.
In a late November, 2011, speech in Berlin, Weidmann criticized the errors and "many years of wrong developments" of the EMU's peripheral states, particularly the wasted opportunity represented by their "disproportionate investment in private home-building, high government spending or private consumption", David Marsh reported. In early December, with another in a string of Eurozone summits imminent, "Bloomberg" commented that the new ECB head Mario Draghi "knows he can't afford to repeat" his predecessor Jean-Claude Trichet's mistake of alienating the Bundesbank. Draghi was said in the report to be courting Weidmann by, among others, Julian Callow, chief European economist at Barclays in London.
In May, 2012, Weidmann's stance was characterized by US economist and columnist Paul Krugman as amounting to wanting to destroy the Euro.
Weidmann, in late August 2012, was reported to have threatened to resign as Draghi's July 2012 promise to do "whatever it takes" to save the Euro seemed likely to lead to purchases of Italian and Spanish bonds to keep interest rates in those major member economies capped at manageable levels. "In an interview with Der Spiegel last week, Weidmann said the bond buying made it look as if ECB was financing governments directly — and shouldn’t go ahead", reported another "MarketWatch" commentator, Matthew Lynn. Lynn further speculated on the Draghi-Weidmann interaction, reminding readers of Axel Weber's 2011 resignation over a "similar [ECB] scheme" and also of the 1992 failure of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism over German refusal to choose "printing money (taking some small risks with inflation) ... to stabilize the system".
On 24 February 2016, as part of the Bundesbank's annual news conference, Bundesbank president and European Central Bank Governing Council member, Jens Weidmann, dismissed deflation in light of the ECB's current stimulus program, pointing out the healthy condition of the German economy and that the euro area is not that bad off, on the eve of the 9–10 March 2016 meetings.
In April 2019, Weidmann's mandate as Bundesbank president was renewed for another eight years.
Other activities.
Weidmann is member of several public and private organizations.


Itimad-ad-Daula, Qamar-ud-Din Khan

Mir Muhammad Fazil was a Mughal nobleman of Persian descent.
Biography.
He was born the son of Muhammad Amin Khan Turani.
At the close of the reign of the Emperor Aurangzeb he was able to obtain satisfactory rank and was titled as Qamarudin Khan. In the reign of the Emperor Furrukhsiyar he was appointed as "Bakshi of Ahadis" and later led an expedition against the sikhs along with Abdus Samad Khan Diler Jang. In the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Muhammad Shah, (sometime after the killing of Hussain Ali Khan under his father's direction), he repealed an assault on Imperial troops and showed immense valour. For which he was bestowed a mansab of 6000, the office of second Bakshi (His father's former appointment which became vacant upon his resignation) and the position of "Darogah e Ghusl Khana".
At the death of his father, Muhammad Amin Khan, who was then serving as Grand Vizier was replaced by Nizam al Mulk Qamar-ud-din Asaf Jah I who was summoned to court, Qamar Ud Din Khan was further elevated in rank and granted his father's title of Itimad ud Daula. Later Asaf Jah found the court atmosphere to be too hedonistic and debauched for his personal liking and subsequently resigned from the office of Grand Vizier. Upon which the office of grand vizier came to Qamar Ud Din Khan.
His reign as Grand Vizier was largely un-eventful, and he enjoyed his office with happiness except for some excursions against the Marathas in the Malwa subah. Along with another occasion in which he marched with Safdar Jang, Umdat al Mulk and the Emperor Muhammad Shah against Ali Mohammad Khan Rohilla. However, upon finding Ali Mohammad Khan to be a suitable check against Safdar Jang whom he despised. Qamar-ud-din Khan helped Ali find employment in Imperial Services and helped his rehabilitation and eventual appointment as governor of Sirhind. A son of his was further engaged to a daughter of Nawab Ali Mohammad Khan.
Death.
He led an army against Ahmed Shah Abdali and while encamped and praying, he was struck by a canon ball causing his death.
Personality.
He was generally regarded as a "lover of comfort" with a "pleasant disposition" and generally liked by both the higher and lower rungs of society. He did not agree in harming anyone and to that extent he compensated owners whose properties had been confiscated by his oppressive father. Those who did not agree with the suitable compensation had their property returned. He was polite and courteous to the extent that whenever Qamarudin Asaf Jah I visited Delhi, he would get up to greet him in respect of the letters age and despite his own office as Grand Vizier.


Mirza Shah Hossein

Mirza Kamal al-Din Shah Hossein Isfahani (), better simply known as Mirza Shah Hossein (میرزا شاه حسین), was an Iranian nobleman, who served as the "vakil" (vicegerent) and "vizier" of the Safavid Empire. He also briefly held the post of commander of the empire's musketeer corps ("tofangchi-aghasi").
Biography.
A native of Isfahan, Mirza Shah originally served as an architect, but was in 1503 appointed as the personal "vizier" of the powerful Qizilbash magnate Durmish Khan Shamlu, who had recently been appointed as the governor of Mirza Shah's native city. Mirza Shah was appointed as vakil and "vizier" in 1514 after the Battle of Chaldiran, which had a damaging impact on the health of Safavid king Ismail I, who withdrew from affairs of the state and began heavily drinking. The appointment of Mirza Shah to the "vakil" office was because he had after the battle found Ismail's favorite wife who was lost in Azerbaijan. In 1516, Ismail I also appointed Mirza Shah Hossein as commander of the musketeer corps ("tofangchi-aghasi").
Mirza Shah used the absence of the king as an opportunity to expand his authority. Furthermore, Mirza Shah also became a close friend with Ismail and was alongside him during his period of drinking. This made Mirza Shah gain influence over the king himself. In 1521, Mirza Shah chose to confront his former master, Durmish Khan Shamlu, managing to send him far away from the Safavid court—to Herat in Khorasan, where he was forced to serve as its governor.
However, Mirza Shah Hossein outsmarted himself in the end, and as a result was in 14 April 1523 murdered at the hands of furious Qizilbash members. He was succeeded by Jalal al-Din Mohammad Tabrizi.


Frederick Stuart (British politician)

Frederick Stuart (24 September 1751 – 17 May 1802) was a British East India Company employee and politician.
He was born on 24 September 1751, the third son of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, and his wife Mary Wortley Montagu. Lord Bute was to become Prime Minister of Great Britain (1762–63) under George III. Frederick's siblings included: John, a politician; James and Charles, soldiers and politicians; William, an Anglican bishop; and Louisa, a writer. He studied at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford, before running away briefly to Paris. Described as the "black sheep of the family", his father obtained a writership for him at the East India Company in 1769, which was unusual for a family with such as position in society. He worked in Bengal and befriended Warren Hastings, who gave him a mission to the Nawab of Arcot.
After returning from India in 1775, Stuart entered parliament, representing the family interest of Ayr Burghs following a by-election in 1776. No seat was found for him in 1780; indebted, he fled to Paris in 1782. His brother, John, 1st Marquess of Bute, provided refuge and returned him to parliament in 1796 to represent the family interest of Buteshire. There is no evidence of parliamentary activity and he died, unmarried, on 17 May 1802 in London.