WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a 2010 Pentagon budget Monday that reflects major changes in the "scope and significance" of Defense Department priorities. 

One of the high-profile programs on the chopping block is the Air Force's most expensive fighter, the F-22 Raptor. 

The proposed budget cuts several traditional big-ticket items while investing in programs designed to bolster the military's ability to wage an ongoing conflict against terrorists and other extremist elements in multiple regions at the same time. 

Gates acknowledged that parts of the budget are likely to run into significant opposition on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are concerned in part about preserving valuable defense contracts for their districts and states. 

"This is a reform budget, reflecting lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan," Gates said. "There's no question that a lot of these decisions will be controversial." 

He called on Congress to "rise above parochial interests and consider what is in the best interests of the nation as a whole." 

House Armed Service Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, acknowledged that congressmen have concerns about job losses in their home districts but said that ultimately, "the national interest overrides anything." 

"The buck stops with us," he said. "We still have a lot of hard work ahead of us." 

Three key priorities are reflected in the changes, Gates said. 

The priorities are a stronger institutional commitment to the military's all-volunteer force, a decision to "rebalance" defense programs to better fight current and future conflicts, and "fundamental overhauls" of the military's procurement, acquisition and contracting process.  What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Who anounced the budget for the pentagon for 2010?
2. What was one of the more high profile programs on it?
3. was it going to increase the spending or cut it?
4. Did gates think their were going to be any opposition to parts of the budget?
5. What is it that would concern the lawmakers about it?
6. What do the major changes reflect in the budget?
7. What does the house Armed Serive chairman Ike Skelton think about it?
8. What does Gates think the reformed budget reflects?
9. What are the priorities of the budget?
10. What did Gates call on congress to do?
Answer: 1. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
2. the F-22 Raptor.
3. Cut it?
4. yes
5. preserving valuable defense contracts for their districts and states
6. "scope and significance
7. he acknowledged that congressmen have concerns about job losses in their home districts but said that ultimately, "the national interest overrides anything."
8. lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan
9. a stronger institutional commitment to the military's all-volunteer force, a decision to "rebalance" defense programs to better fight current and future conflicts, and "fundamental overhauls" of the military's procurement, acquisition and contracting process.
10. "rise above parochial interests and consider what is in the best interests of the nation as a whole."

Problem: Kolkata is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of East India, while the Port of Kolkata is India's oldest operating port and its sole major riverine port. In 2011, the city had a population of 4.5 million, while the population of the city and its suburbs was 14.1 million, making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. Recent estimates of Kolkata Metropolitan Area's economy have ranged from $60 to $150 billion (GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity) making it third most-productive metropolitan area in India, after Mumbai and Delhi. Kolkata ( is also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001). 

In the late 17th century, the three villages that predated Calcutta were ruled by the Nawab of Bengal under Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the East India Company a trading licence in 1690, the area was developed by the Company into an increasingly fortified trading post. Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Calcutta in 1756, and the East India Company retook it the following year. In 1793 the East India company was strong enough to abolish Nizamat (local rule), and assumed full sovereignty of the region. Under the company rule, and later under the British Raj, Calcutta served as the capital of British-held territories in India until 1911, when its perceived geographical disadvantages, combined with growing nationalism in Bengal, led to a shift of the capital to New Delhi. Calcutta was the centre for the Indian independence movement; it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics. Following Indian independence in 1947, Kolkata, which was once the centre of modern Indian education, science, culture, and politics, suffered several decades of economic stagnation.
1. What was Kolkata know of previously?
2. When did it change?
3. What waterway is it located on?
4. What was the population of the city in 2011, not including the suburbs?
5. What was the population of the city in 2011, including the suburbs?
6. Is it a capital city?
7. What is it a capital of?
8. What country is it located in?
9. Is it the largest city in that country?
10. How many are larger?
11. What are they?
12. What organization was given a trading license for this region in the late 17th century?
13. In what year?
14. In what year did they abolish local rule, and gain full sovereignty of the region?
15. Who did they overthrow?
16. Was Kolkata known as an educational center?
Answer: 1. Calcutta
2. 2001
3. Hooghly River
4. 4.5 million
5. 14.1 million
6. yes
7. West Bengal
8. India
9. no
10. Two
11. Mumbai and Delhi.
12. East India Company
13. 1690
14. 1793
15. Nizamat
16. yes

question: Royal assent is sometimes associated with elaborate ceremonies. In the United Kingdom, for instance, the sovereign may appear personally in the House of Lords or may appoint Lords Commissioners, who announce that royal assent has been granted at a ceremony held at the Palace of Westminster. However, royal assent is usually granted less ceremonially by letters patent. In other nations, such as Australia, the governor-general merely signs the bill. In Canada, the governor general may give assent either in person at a ceremony held in the Senate or by a written declaration notifying parliament of his or her agreement to the bill. 

Royal assent is the method by which a country's constitutional monarch (possibly through a delegated official) formally approves an act of that nation's parliament, thus making it a law or letting it be promulgated as law. In the vast majority of contemporary monarchies, this act is considered to be little more than a formality; even in those nations which still permit their ruler to withhold the royal assent (such as the United Kingdom, Norway, and Liechtenstein), the monarch almost never does so, save in a dire political emergency or upon the advice of their government. While the power to withhold royal assent was once exercised often in European monarchies, it is exceedingly rare in the modern, democratic political atmosphere that has developed there since the 18th century.
1. How does a monarch approve an act of parliament?
2. What does that do?
3. Is this just a formality?
4. Is there a ceremony to go with it?
5. In the UK do they hold a ceremony?
6. where?
7. Who will announce it?
8. Where might the sovereign show up?
9. Does Canada hold a ceremony?
10. Where will it be?
11. Does someone give assent in person?
12. who?
13. What is the other way in Canada?
14. Who will that go to?
15. What does it tell them?
16. Is there a ceremony in Australia?
17. What happens there?
18. Who?
19. How often does the monarch not give assent?
20. When might they not give it?
****
answer:
1. through royal assent
2. makes it a law
3. yes
4. sometimes
5. yes
6. the Palace of Westminster
7. Lords Commissioners
8. in the House of Lords
9. sometimes
10. in the Senate
11. yes
12. the governor general
13. by a written declaration n
14. parliament
15. of the agreement to the bill.
16. no
17. the just sign the bill.
18. the governor-general
19. almost never
20. in a dire political emergency