Worldwide events; zarb e jamhoor newspaper; 131 issue; 07 13 jul, 2013

Independence Day Solomon Islands - Jul 07

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of 28,400 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi). The capital, Honiara, is located on the island ofGuadalcanal. The nation of the Solomon Islands is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

The Solomon Islands are believed to have been inhabited by Melanesian people for many thousands of years. Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to arrive in Solomon Islands in 1568 and named them Islas Salomón. The United Kingdom established a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in 1893. In the Second World War there was fierce fighting between the Americans and the Japanese in the Solomon Islands campaign of 1942–45, including the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Self-government was achieved in 1976 and independence two years later. The Solomon Islands is a constitutional monarchy with the Queen of the Solomon Islands, at present Elizabeth II, as the head of state. Gordon Lilo Darcy is the eleventh and current Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands.

Independence Day Argentina - J u l 0 9

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina [reˈpuβlika aɾxenˈtina]), is a country in South America, bordered by Chile to the west and south, Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, and Brazil and Uruguay to the northeast. Argentina claims sovereignty over Antarctica, the Falkland Islands (Spanish:Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

The country is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and the autonomous city of Buenos Aires, its capital and largest city. It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanishspeaking nations. Argentina is a founding member of the United Nations, Mercosur, the Union of South American Nations, theOrganization of Ibero-American States, the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization, and is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies.

A recognised middle power, Argentina is Latin America's third-largest economy, with a "very high" rating on the Human development index. Within Latin America, Argentina has the fifth highest nominal GDP per capita and the highest in purchasing power terms. Analysts have argued that the country has a "foundation for future growth due to its market size, levels of foreign direct investment, and percentage of high-tech exports as share of total manufactured goods", and it is classed by investors as middle emerging economy.

History It is believed that Papuan-speaking settlers began to arrive around 30,000 BC. Austronesian speakers arrived c. History

4000 BC also bringing cultural elements such as the outrigger canoe. It is between 1200 and 800 BC that the ancestors of the Polynesians, the Lapita people, arrived from the Bismarck Archipelago with their characteristic ceramics.

The first European to visit the islands was the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira, coming from Peru in 1568. The people of Solomon Islands were notorious for headhunting and cannibalism before the arrival of the Europeans.

Missionaries began visiting the Solomons in the mid-19th century. They made little progress at first, because "blackbirding" (the often brutal recruitment or kidnapping of labourers for the sugar plantations in Queensland and Fiji) led to a series of reprisals and massacres. The evils of the labour trade prompted the United Kingdom to declare a protectorate over the southern Solomons in June 1893. In 1898 and 1899, more outlying islands were added to the protectorate; in 1900 the remainder of the archipelago, an area previously under German jurisdiction, was transferred to British administration apart from the islands of Buka and Bougainville, which remained under German administration as part of German New Guinea. Traditional trade and social intercourse between the western Solomon Islands of Mono and Alu (the Shortlands) and the traditional societies in the south of Bougainville, however, continued without hindrance.

Under the protectorate, missionaries settled in the Solomons, converting most of the population to Christianity. In the early 20th century, several British and Australian firms began large-scale coconut planting.

Economic growth was slow, however, and the islanders benefited little.

In 1908, the islands were visited by Jack London, who was cruising the Pacific Ocean on his boat, the Snark.

Second World War:

With the outbreak of the Second World War, most planters and traders were evacuated to Australia, and most cultivation ceased. Some of the most intense fighting of the war occurred in the Solomons. The most significant of the Allied Forces' operations against the Japanese Imperial Forces was launched on August 7, 1942, with simultaneous naval bombardments and amphibious landings on the Florida Islands at Tulagi and Solomon Island warriors with spears in orRed Beach on Guadalcanal.

The Battle of Guadalcanal became an important and namented war canoe in 1895 bloody campaign fought in the Pacific War as the Allies began to repulse Japanese expansion. Of strategic importance during the war were the coastwatchers operating in remote locations, often on Japanese held islands, providing early warning and intelligence of Japanese naval, army and aircraft movements during the campaign.

Sergeant-Major Jacob Vouza was a notable coastwatcher who after capture refused to divulge Allied information in spite of interrogation and torture by Japanese Imperial forces. He was awarded a Silver Star Medal by the Americans, which is the United States' third-highest decoration for valor in combat. Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana would be noted by National Geographic for being the first to find the shipwrecked John F. Kennedy and his crew of the PT-109. They suggested using a coconut to write a rescue message for delivery by dugout canoe, which was later kept on his desk when he became the president of the United States.

The Solomon Islands was one of the major staging areas of the South Pacific and was home to the famous VMF214 "Black Sheep" Squadron commanded by Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington. The Slot was a name for New Georgia Sound, when it was used by the Tokyo Express to supply the Japanese garrison on Guadalcanal. Of more than 36,000 Japanese on Guadalcanal, about 26,000 were killed or missing, 9,000 died of disease, and 1,000 were captured.

Independence:

Local councils were established in the 1950s as the islands stabilised from the aftermath of the Second World War. A new constitution was established in 1970 and elections were held, although the constitution was contested and a new one was created in 1974. In 1973 the first oil price shock occurred, and the increased cost of running a colony became apparent to British administrators.

Following the independence of neighbouring Papua New Guinea from Australia in 1975, the Solomon Islands gained self government in 1976. Independence was granted on 7 July 1978. The first Prime Minister was Sir Peter Kenilorea, and the Solomon Islands retained the Monarchy.

Civil War:

Commonly referred to as the tensions or the ethnic tension, the initial civil unrest was mainly characterised by fighting between theIsatabu Freedom Movement (also known as the Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army) and the Malaita Eagle Force (as well as the Marau Eagle Force). (Although much of the conflict was between Guales and Malaitans, Kabutaulaka (2001) and Dinnen (2002) argue that the 'ethnic conflict' label is an oversimplification.

In late 1998, militants on the island of Guadalcanal US marines rest in the field during the commenced and had a campaign of intimidation and Guadalcanal Campaign in 1942 violence towards Malaitan settlers. During the next year, thousands of Malaitans fled back to Malaita or to the capital, Honiara (which, although situated on Guadalcanal, is predominantly populated by Malaitans and Solomon Islanders from other provinces). In 1999, the Malaita Eagle Force(MEF) was established in response.

The reformist government of Bartholomew Ulufa'alu struggled to respond to the complexities of this evolving conflict.

In late 1999, the government declared a four month state of emergency. There were also a number of attempts at reconciliation ceremonies but to no avail. He also requested assistance from Australia and New Zealand in 1999 but this was rejected.

In June 2000, Ulufa'alu was kidnapped by militia members of the MEF who felt that although he was a Malaitan, he was not doing enough to protect their interests. Ulufa'alu subsequently resigned in exchange for his release. Manasseh Sogavare, who had earlier been Finance Minister in Ulufa'alu's government but had subsequently joined the opposition, was elected as Prime Minister by 23–21 over Rev. Leslie Boseto. However Sogavare's election was immediately shrouded in controversy because six MPs (thought to be supporters of Boseto) were unable to attend parliament for the crucial vote (Moore 2004, n.5 on p. 174).

In October 2000, the Townsville Peace Agreement, was signed by the Malaita Eagle Force, elements of the IFM and the Solomon Islands Government. This was closely followed by the Marau Peace agreement in February 2001, signed by the Marau Eagle Force, the Isatabu Freedom Movement, the Guadalcanal Provincial Government and the Solomon Islands Government. However, a key Guale militant leader, Harold Keke, refused to sign the Agreement, causing a split with the Guale groups. Subsequently, Guale signatories to the Agreement led by Andrew Te'e joined with the Malaitan-dominated police to form the 'Joint Operations Force'. During the next two years the conflict moved to the Weathercoast of Guadalcanal as the Joint Operations unsuccessfully attempted to capture Keke and his group.

New elections in December 2001 brought Sir Allan Kemakeza into the Prime Minister's chair with the support of his People's Alliance Party and also the Association of Independent Members. Law and order deteriorated as the nature of the conflict shifted: there was continuing violence on the Weathercoast while militants in Honiara increasingly turned their attention to crime and extortion. The Department of Finance would often be surrounded by armed men when funding was due to arrive. In December 2002, Finance Minister Laurie Chan resigned after being forced at gunpoint to sign a cheque made out to some of the militants. Conflict also broke out in Western Province between locals and Malaitan settlers. Renegade members of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) were invited in as a protection force but ended up causing as much trouble as they prevented.

The prevailing atmosphere of lawlessness, widespread extortion and ineffective police prompted a formal request by the Solomon Islands Government for outside help. With the country bankrupt and the capital in chaos, the request was unanimously supported in Parliament.

In July 2003, Australian and Pacific Island police and troops arrived in the Solomon Islands under the auspices of the Australian-ledRegional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). A sizable international security contingent of 2,200 police and troops, led by Australia and New Zealand, and with representatives from about 20 other Pacific nations began arriving the next month under Operation Helpem Fren. Since this time some commentators have considered the country a failed state. However, other academics argue that rather than being a 'failed state', it is an unformed state: a state that never consolidated after decades since independence.

In April 2006, allegations that the newly elected Prime Minister Snyder Rini had used bribes from Chinese businessmen to buy the votes of members of Parliament led to mass rioting in the capital Honiara. A deep underlying resentment against the minority Chinese business community led to much of Chinatown in the city being destroyed.

Tensions had also been increased by the belief that large sums of money were being exported to China. China sent chartered aircraft to evacuate hundreds of Chinese who fled to avoid the riots. Evacuation of Australian and British citizens was on a much smaller scale. Further Australian, New Zealand and Fijian police and troops were dispatched to try to quell the unrest. Rini eventually resigned before facing a motion of no-confidence in Parliament, and Parliament elected Manasseh Sogavare as Prime Minister.

2007 earthquake and tsunami:

On 2 April 2007, the Solomon Islands were struck by a major earthquake followed by a large tsunami. Initial reports indicated that the tsunami, which mainly affected the small island of Gizo, was several metres high (perhaps as high as 10 metres (33 ft) according to some reports, 5 metres (16 1/3 ft) according to the Foreign Office). The tsunami was triggered by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake, with a hypocenter 349 kilometres (217 miles) northwest of the island's capital, Honiara, at Lat −8.453 Long 156.957 and at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles).

According to the United States Geological Survey the earthquake struck at 20:39:56 UTC on Sunday, 1 April 2007.

Since the initial event and up until 22:00:00 UTC on Wednesday, 4 April 2007, more than 44 aftershocks of a magnitude of 5.0 or greater were recorded in the region.

The death toll from the resulting tsunami was at least 52 people, and the tsunami destroyed more than 900 homes and has left thousands of people homeless.

Land thrust from the quake has extended out from the shoreline of one island, Ranongga, by up to 70 metres (230 ft) according to local residents. This has left many once pristine coral reefs exposed on the newly formed beaches.

Saba Saba Tanzania - Jul 07

Saba Saba Day on July 7 celebrates (among other things) the 1954 founding of the Tanzanian political party, TANU, the Tanganyika African National Union. Saba Saba means "seven seven" in Swahili, the national language of Tanzania (and of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, the two countries whose union created the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964). Saba Saba also may refer to the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair. The fair is held every year at this date [7/7] in Saba Saba grounds near Kurasini in Dar es Salaam.

Constitution Day Palau - Jul 09

Palau adopted its constitution in 1981 and establish a government based on the goveernment of the USA. Since 1359, 137 Presidents have governed Palau.

History Palau was settled by people who landed there for

over 3000 years. During the 15th century, Spain took dominion over the land and took the land under their control. In 1977, democracy was restored to Palau.

The Republic of Palau is a scattered group of islands in the westernmost part of Micronesia. The country’s territory includes some 340 islands east of the Philippines that stretch out over an area 125 miles in length. The total land area of the islands is 170 square miles. Babeldaob, the largest island, covers 153 square miles.

With the entry into force of the Compact of Free Association with the United States. Palau was the last Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands territories to gain its independence. Under the Compact, the U.S. will remain responsible for Palau’s defense for 50 years. Otherwise, Palau is a sovereign nation and conducts its own foreign relations. Since independence, Palau has established diplomatic relations with a number of nations, including many of its Pacific neighbors. Palau was admitted to the United Nations on December 15, 1994, and has since joined several other international organizations.

Celebrations The Palau Arts Festival falls on July 9, Constitution Day. Palau is a country rich in tradition and culture. Today, many

sites of cultural or historical importance remain intact, reminding modern Palauans of a past long ago, while reinforcing the culture and tradition for future generations.

Probably the most noticeable aspect of Palauan culture is the people’s connection with the sea. Traditionally, it was the duty of the family to go to sea to harvest fish and battle against enemy villages. As the sea was the source of their livelihood, men developed a close relationship with the waters of Palau, becoming versant in the currents and the phases of the moon and the behavior of the fish they sought to put on the table.

Palauans are a highly sociable people. Traditionally, history, lore and knowledge were passed down through the generations orally as there was no written language until the late 1800′s. Palauans still practice that traditional method, and at the end of the day, one can often find pockets of Palauans excitingly engaged in the telling of the stories of the more recent past.

HM Hassan II's Birthday Morocco - Jul 09

HM King Hassan II (Arabic: ‫يناثلا نسحلا‬‎, class. pron. (a)l-ḥasan aṯṯānī, dial. (Mar.) el-ḥasan ett(s)âni); July 9, 1929 – July 23, 1999) was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. He was the eldest son of Mohammed V, Sultan, then King of Morocco (1909–1961) and his wife Lalla Abla bint Tahar (1909–1992).

Biography

Youth and education:

King Hassan was educated at the Imperial College at Rabat and earned a law degree from the University of Bordeaux.

He was exiled to Corsica by French authorities on 20 August 1953, together with his father Sultan Mohammed V. They were transferred to Madagascar in January 1954. Prince Moulay Hassan acted as his father's political advisor during the exile. Mohammed V and his family returned from exile on 16 November 1955.

Prince Moulay Hassan participated in the February 1956 negotiations for Morocco's independence with his father, who later appointed him Chief of Staff of the newly founded Royal Armed Forces in April 1956. In the unrest of the same year, he led army contingents battling rebels in the mountains of the Rif. Mohammed V changed the title of the Moroccan sovereign from Sultan to King in 1957. Hassan was proclaimed Crown Prince on 19 July 1957, and became King on 26 February 1961, after his father's death. U.S. Ambassador Charles W. Yost saw King Mohammed V hours before his death and was among those who suspected that Hassan II had a hand in his father's sudden death.

Rule:

Hassan's conservative rule, one characterized by a poor human rights record,strengthened the Alaouite dynasty. In Morocco's first constitution of 1963, Hassan II reaffirmed Morocco's choice of a multi-party political system, the only one in the Maghreb. The constitution gave the King large powers he eventually used to strengthen his rule, which provoked strong political protest from the UNFP and the Istiqlal parties that formed the backbone of the opposition. In 1965, Hassan dissolved Parliament and ruled directly, although he did not abolish the mechanisms of parliamentary democracy. When elections were eventually held, they were mostly rigged in favor of loyal parties. This caused severe discontent among the opposition, and protest demonstrations and riots challenged the King's rule.

In the early 1970s, King Hassan survived two assassination attempts. The first, in 1971, was coup d'état attempt allegedly supported byLibya, organized by General Madbouh and Colonel Ababou and carried out by cadets during a function at the King's summer palace inRabat during his forty-second birthday party. Important guests, including the Belgian Ambassador Marcel Dupert, were placed underhouse arrest, and the King himself was taken to a small pavilion. Rabat's main radio station was taken over by the rebels and broadcastpropaganda stating that the King had been murdered and a republic founded. The coup ended the same day when royalist troops took over the palace in combat against the rebels.

On August 16, 1972, during a second attempt, four F-5 military jets from the Royal Moroccan Air Force fired upon the King's Boeing 727while he was traveling back to Rabat from France, many bullets hit the fuselage but they failed to bring the plane down.

Eight people were killed when the jets strafed the awaiting reception dignitaries. General Mohamed Oufkir, Morocco's defense minister, was the man behind the coup and was officially declared to have committed suicide after the attack. His body, however, was found with several bullet wounds.

In the Cold War era, Hassan II allied Morocco with the West generally, and with the United States in particular. There were close and continuing ties between Hassan II's government and the CIA, who helped to reorganize Morocco's security forces in 1960. Hassan served as a back channel between the Arab world and Israel, facilitating early negotiations between them. This was made possible due to the presence in Israel of a large Moroccan Jewish community.

During his reign, Morocco recovered the Spanish-controlled area of Ifni in 1969, and military seized two thirds of Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) through the "Green March" in 1975. The latter issue continues to dominate Moroccan foreign policy to this day. Relations withAlgeria have deteriorated sharply due to the Western Sahara affair, as well as due to Moroccan claims on Algerian territory (Tindouf and Bechar), which unleashed the brief 1963 Sand War. Relations with Mauritania were tense too, as Morocco only recognized it as a sovereign country in 1969, nearly a decade after Mauritania's independence, because of Moroccan claims on the country (see Great Morocco).

Economically, Hassan II adopted a market-based economy, where agriculture, tourism, andphosphates mining industries played a major role.

The period from the 1960s to the late 1980s was labelled as the "years of lead" and saw thousands of dissidents jailed, killed, exiled or forcibly disappeared.

King Hassan II had extended many parliamentary functions by the early 1990s and released hundreds of political prisoners in 1991, and allowed the Alternance, where the opposition assumed power, for the first time in the Arab World. He set up a Royal Council for Human Rights to look into allegations of abuse by the State.

Death:

Hassan died of natural causes in his birth town at the age of 70 on 23 July 1999. A national funeral service was held for him in at Rabat, Morocco, with some 40 heads of state in attendance. He was buried in the Mausoleum of Mohammed V in Rabat. The coffin of King Hassan II, carried by King Mohamed VI, his brother Prince Moulay Rachid and his cousin Moulay Hicham, was covered with a green fabric, in which the first prayer of Islam, "There is no god but Allah", is inscribed in golden letters.

Death of El Cid Spain - Jul 10

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (1043 – July 10, 1099), known as El Cid Campeador, "The lord-master of military arts"), was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat.

Exiled from the court of the Spanish EmperorAlfonso VI of León and Castile, El Cid went on to command a Moorish force consisting ofMuladis, Berbers, Arabs and Malians, under Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud, Moorish king of the northeast Al-Andalus city of Zaragoza, and his successor, Al-Mustein II. After the Christian defeat at the Battle of Sagrajas in 1086, El Cid was recalled to service by Alfonso VI, and commanded a combined Christian and Moorish army, which he used to create his own fiefdom in the Moorish Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia.

Rodrigo Díaz was educated in the royal court of Castile and became the alférez, the chief general, of Alfonso VI, and his most valuable asset in the fight against the Moors.

He was the subject of the oldest extant Spanish epic poem Cantar de Mio Cid.

Death

El Cid and his wife Jimena Díaz lived peacefully in Valencia for five years until the Almoravids besieged the city. El Cid died June 10, 1099. The cause of death is commonly accepted to be a combination of sorrow for the loss of his only son in 1098, and the increasing impact of the siege on famine and living standards more generally. Valencia was captured by Masdali on May 5, 1102 and it did not become a Christian city again for over 125 years. Jimena fled to Burgos, Castile, in 1101. She rode in with her retinue and the body of El Cid. Originally buried in Castile in the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña, his body now lies at the center of the Burgos Cathedral.

After his demise, but still during the siege of Valencia, legend holds that Jimena ordered that the corpse of El Cid be fitted with his armor and set atop his horse Babieca, to bolster the morale of his troops. In several variations of the story, the dead Rodrigo and his knights win a thundering charge against Valencia's besiegers, resulting in a war-islost-but-battle-is-won catharsis for generations of Christian Spaniards to follow. It is believed that the legend originated shortly after Jimena entered Burgos, and that it is derived from the manner in which Jimena's procession rode into Burgos, i.e. alongside her deceased husband.

Independence Day Bahamas - Jul 10

The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is a country consisting of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets. It is located in theAtlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States (nearest to the state ofFlorida). Its land area is 13,939 km2 (5,382 sq mi), with a population of 353,658. Its capital is Nassau. Geographically, the Bahamas lie in the same island chain as Cuba, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the designation of Bahamas refers normally to the Commonwealth and not the geographic chain.

Originally inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taino people, the Bahamas were the site of Columbus' first landfall in the New World in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonized the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 to 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.

The Bahamas became a Crown Colony in 1718 when the British clamped down on piracy. After the American War of Independence, thousands of American Loyalists and enslaved Africans moved to the Bahamas and set up a plantation economy. The slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807 and many Africans liberated from slave ships by the Royal Navy were settled in the Bahamas during the 19th century. Slavery itself was abolished in 1834 and the descendants form the majority of the Bahamas's population today.

In terms of GDP per capita, the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Western Hemisphere (following the United States and Canada).

History

Taino people moved into the uninhabited southern Bahamas from Hispaniola andCuba around the 11th century AD. These people came to be known as theLucayans. There were an estimated 30,000+ Lucayans at the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492. Christopher Columbus's first landfall in the New World was on an island named San Salvador (known to the Lucayans as Guanahani), which some researchers believe to be present-day San Salvador Island, (also known as Watling's Island) in the southeastern Bahamas.

An alternative theory holds that Columbus landed to the southeast on Samana Cay, according to calculations made in 1986 by National Geographic writer and editor Joseph Judge based on Columbus's log. Evidence in support of this remains inconclusive. On the landfall island, Columbus made first contact with the Lucayans and exchanged goods with them.

The Lucayans throughout the Bahamas were wiped out as a result of Spanish forced migration of the population to Hispaniola for use as forced labour there, and exposure to diseases to which they had no immunity. The smallpox that ravaged the Taino Indians after Columbus's arrival wiped out half of the population in what is now The Bahamas.

It is generally assumed that the islands were uninhabited by Europeans until the mid-17th century. However, recent research suggests that there may have been attempts to settle the islands by groups from Spain, France, and Britain, as well as by other Amerindians. In 1648, the Eleutherian Adventurers migrated from Bermuda. These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named Eleuthera—the name derives from the Greek word for freedom. They later settled New Providence, naming it Sayle's Island after one of their leaders. To survive, the settlers resorted to salvaged goods from wrecks.

In 1670 King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas, who rented the islands from the king with rights of trading, tax, appointing governors, and administering the country. In 1684 Spain's corsair Juan de Alcon raided the capital, Charles Town (later renamed Nassau), and in 1703 a joint Franco-Spanish expedition briefly occupied the Bahamian capital during the War of the Spanish Succession.

18th century:

During proprietary rule, the Bahamas became a haven for pirates, including the infamous Blackbeard. To restore orderly government, The Bahamas were made a British crown colony in 1718 under the royal governorship of Woodes Rogers, who, after a difficult struggle, succeeded in suppressing piracy. In 1720, Rogers led local militia to drive off a Spanish attack.

During the American War of Independence, the islands were a target for American naval forces under the command of CommodoreEzekial Hopkins. The capital of Nassau on the island of New Providence was occupied by US Marines for a fortnight.

In 1782, following the British defeat at Yorktown, a Spanish fleet appeared off the coast of Nassau, and the city surrendered without a fight.

After American independence, some 7,300 Loyalists and their slaves moved to the Bahamas from New York, Florida, and the Carolinas. These Loyalists established plantations on several islands and became a political force in the capital. The small population became mostly African from this point on.

The British abolished the slave trade in 1807, which led to the forced settlement on Bahamian islands of thousands of Africans liberated from slave ships by the Royal Navy. Slavery itself was finally abolished in the British Empire on August 1, 1834.

20th century:

Modern political development began after the Second World War. The first political parties were formed in the 1950s and the British made the islands internally self-governing in 1964, with Sir Roland Symonette of the United Bahamian Party as the first premier.

The fourth James Bond film Thunderball was partly filmed in 1965 in Nassau.

In 1967, Sir Lynden Pindling of the Progressive Liberal Party became the first black premier of the colony, and in 1968 the title was changed to prime minister. In 1973, The Bahamas became fully independent, but retained membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. Sir Milo Butler was appointed the first Bahamian governor-general (the representative of Queen Elizabeth II) shortly after independence.

Based on the twin pillars of tourism and offshore finance, the Bahamian economy has prospered since the 1950s.

However, there remain significant challenges in areas such as education, health care, housing, international narcotics trafficking and illegal immigration from Haiti.

The College of The Bahamas is the national higher education/tertiary system. Offering baccalaureate, masters and associate degrees, COB has three campuses and teaching and research centres throughout The Bahamas. The College is in the process of becoming The University of The Bahamas as early as 2012.

Flemish Community Holiday Belgium - Jul 11

The Day of the Flemish Community of Belgium, also known as the Flemish Community Day, is celebrated every year on 11 July in remembrance for the Battle of Golden Spurs or Guldensporenslag and is observed only by the Flemish Community of Belgium.

History In 1302 the French king Philip IV sent an army to punish the Flemish citizens of Bruges, who earlier that year rebelled

against the king and attacked the French governor of Flanders (the so-called Good Friday of Bruges).

The French army was composed of about 2,500 knights and squires, supported by about 5,500 infantry. The Flemish, in contrast, fielded a town militia force of 9,000 consisting solely of infantrymen.

The two forces clashed on July 11 in an open field outside the Flemish city of Kortrijk and the battle ended with the overwhelming victory of the Flemish militia. The commander of the French army, Robert II of Artois was surrounded and killed on the battlefield. At least a thousand French cavaliers were also killed in the battle and the large number of the golden spurs collected from the field gave the battle its name.

The battle was romanticised in 1838 by Flemish writer Hendrik Conscience in his book De Leeuw van Vlaanderen (English: The Lion of Flanders).

Declaration

Following the establishment of the three cultural and linguistic communities of Belgium in 1970, the Dutch Cultural Community (as it was known then) enacted a law on 6 July 1973, which prescribes the flag, the anthem and the day of the Dutch Cultural Community.

Ever since then the Day of the Flemish community is observed in Flanders. Private employers are not required to award a day's holiday; however the institutions of the Flemish Government and public employers observe this holiday.

Early history and colonial period:

The earliest evidence of humans in Argentina dates from 11,000 BC and was found in Patagonia. These finds were of the Diaguitas, Huarpes, and Sanavirones indigenous peoples, among others. The Inca Empire, under the rule of Sapa-Inca Pachacutec, invaded and conquered present-day north-western Argentina in 1480, a military feat led by his son Túpac Inca Yupanqui. The local tribes were defeated and integrated into a region called Collasuyu. Others, such as the Sanavirones, Lule-Tonocoté, and Comechingones, resisted the Incas and remained independent from them. The Guaraní developed a culture based on yuca, sweet potato, and yerba mate. The central and southern areas were dominated by nomadic cultures, the most populous among them being the Mapuches. TheAtacaman settlement of Tastil in the north had an estimated population of 2,000 people, the highest populated area in pre-Columbian Argentina.

The first European explorer, Juan Díaz de Solís, arrived to the Río de la Plata in 1516. Spain established the Viceroyalty of Peru, encompassing all its holdings in South America. Buenos Aires was established in 1536 but was destroyed by natives. The city was established again in 1580.

The colonization of modern Argentina came from 3 different directions: from Paraguay, establishing the Governorate of the Río de la Plata, from Peru and from Chile.

Buenos Aires became the capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776, with territories from the Viceroyalty of Peru. Buenos Aires and Montevideo resisted two ill-fated British invasions in 1806 and 1807. The The Libertator, José de San resistance was headed both times by the FrenchSantiago de Liniers, who Martín would become viceroy through popular support. The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment and the example of the Atlantic Revolutions generated criticism to the Absolute monarchy. The overthrow of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII during the Peninsular War created great concern in the Americas, so many cities deposed the monarchic authorities and appointed new ones, working under the new political ideas. This started the Spanish American wars of independence across the continent. Buenos Aires deposed the viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros in 1810, during the May Revolution.

Independence and civil wars:

The May Revolution began the Argentine War of Independence between patriots androyalists. The Primera Junta, the new government in Buenos Aires, sent military campaigns to Córdoba, Upper Peru and Paraguay, and supported the rebellions at the Banda Oriental. The military campaigns were defeated, so Buenos Aires signed an armistice with Montevideo. Paraguay stayed Non-interventionist during the remainder of the conflict, Upper Peru defeated further military campaigns, and the Banda Oriental would be captured by William Brown during renewed hostilities.

The national organization, either under acentralized government located in Buenos Aires or as a federation, began the Argentine Civil Wars as well, with the conflicts of Buenos Aires and José Gervasio Artigas.

The Argentine Declaration of Independence was issued by the Congress of Tucumán in 1816.Martín Miguel de Güemes kept royalists at bay on the North, while José de San Martín made the Crossing of the Andes, securing the independence of Chile. With the Chilean navy at his disposal he then took the fight to the royalist stronghold of Lima.

San Martín's military campaigns complemented those of Simón Bolívarin Gran Colombia and led to the independent's victory in the Spanish American wars of independence.

The 1820 Battle of Cepeda, fought between the Centralists and the Federalists, resulted in the end of the centralized national authority. A new centralist constitution was enacted in 1826, during the War with Brazil, and Bernardino Rivadavia was appointed the firstPresident of Argentina. It was rejected by the provinces, forcing Rivadavia to resign.

The new governor Manuel Dorrego was deposed and executed by Juan Lavalle, which exacerbated the civil war.

Juan Manuel de Rosas organized the resistance against Lavalle and restored the deposed authorities. The provinces then reorganized themselves as a loose confederation of provinces that lacked a common head of state. They would instead delegate some important powers to the governor of Buenos Aires Province, such as debt payment or the management of international relations.

Juan Manuel de Rosas ruled from 1829 to 1832, and from 1835 to 1852. During his first term he convened the Federal pact and defeated the Unitarian League. After 1835 he received the "Sum of public power". He faced several a French blockade from 1838 to 1840, the War of the Confederation in the north, an Anglo-French blockade from 1845 to 1850, and the Corrientes province revolt.

Rosas remained undefeated during this series of conflicts and prevented further loss of national territory. His refusal to enact a national constitution, pursuant to the Federal pact, led to Entre Ríos governor Justo José de Urquiza to turn against Rosas and sanction the Constitution of Argentina of 1853. Rejecting it, Buenos Aires seceded from the Confederation and became the State of Buenos Aires. The war between both lasted nearly a decade, and ended with the victory of Buenos Aires at the battle of Pavón.

Buenos Aires rejoined the Confederation, and Bartolomé Mitre was elected the first president of the unified country in 1862. He began Argentine War of Independence military campaigns against both the remaining federals in Argentina, the whites from Uruguay, and Paraguay. The War of the Triple Alliance, in alliance with Uruguay and Brazil, left over 300,000 dead and devastated Paraguay. Unable to influence the election of later presidents, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Nicolás Avellaneda followed him. Albeit unitarians, they were not from Buenos Aires, and had conflicts with him. Mitre attempted twice to secede Buenos Aires from the country once more, but failed. Avellaneda federalized Buenos Aires, after defeating a final failed attempt to secede it.

Since the colonial times, huge territories were under the control of indigenous peoples. All governments since then attempted in some way to stay in good terms, kill them, or push them to ever farther frontiers. The final conflict was the Conquest of the Desert, waged byJulio Argentino Roca. With this military operation, Argentina seized the control of the Patagonia.

Rise of Peronism:

The bases of modern Argentina were established by the Generation of '80, a political movement that opposed Mitre and sought to industrialize the country. A wave of European immigration led to the strengthening of a cohesive state, the development of modern agriculture and to a near-reinvention of Argentine society and economy. The country emerged as one of the ten richest countries in the world, benefiting from an agricultural export-led economy as well as British and French investment. Driven by immigration and decreasing mortality the Argentine population grew fivefold and the economy 15fold. However, the National Autonomist Party (PAN) could not meet its original goals of industrialization, and the country stayed as a pre-industrial society.

President Juárez Celman faced an economic crisis that generated popular discontent and the Revolution of the Park in 1890, led by the Civic Union. With the resignation of Mitre, the Civic Union became the Radical Civic Union (UCR). Although the Coup d'état failed, Celman resigned from the presidency, starting the decline of the PAN. Conservative élites dominated Argentine politics until 1912, when President Roque Sáenz Peña enacted universal male suffrage and the secret ballot. This allowed the UCR to win the country's first free elections in 1916. President Hipólito Yrigoyen enacted social and Belgrano, economic reforms and extended assistance to family farmers and small businesses. Ar- Manuel he took part in the gentina stayed neutral during World War I. The second administration of Yrigoyen faced a huge economic crisis, influenced by the Argentine Wars of international Great Depression. The military made a coup d'état and ousted him from Independence and power, which began the Infamous Decade. José Félix Uriburu led the military rule for created the Flag of two years.Agustín Pedro Justo was elected with electoral fraud, and signed the RocaRunciman Treaty.Roberto María Ortiz and Ramón Castillo stayed neutral during World Argentina War II. Britain supported the Argentine neutrality, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor the United States requested all of South America to join the Allied Nations. Castillo was finally deposed by theRevolution of '43, a new military coup that wanted to end the electoral fraud of the last decade. Argentina declared war to the Axis Powers a month before the end of World War II in Europe. The minister of welfare of the military, Juan Perón, became highly popular among workers. He was fired and jailed, but a massive demonstration forced his liberation. Perón ran for the presidency in 1946, and won by 53,1%.

Juan Perón created a political movement known as Peronism. Taking advantage of the import substitution industrialization and the European devastation left by the immediate aftermath of World War II, he nationalized strategic industries and services, improved wages and working conditions, paid the full external debt and achieved nearly full employment. The economy, however, began to decline in 1950. Perón intensified censorship as well as repression: 110 publications were shuttered, and numerous opposition figures were imprisoned and tortured. His wife Eva Perón was highly popular and played a central political role, mostly through the Eva Perón Foundation and the Female Peronist Party, as women's suffrage was granted in 1947. However, her declining health did not allow her to run for the vice-presidency in 1951, and she died of cancer the following year. The military began to plot against Perón in 1955, andbombed the Plaza de Mayo in an ill-fated attempt to kill him. A few months later, Perón resigned during a new military coup, which established the Revolución Libertadora. Perón left the country, and finally settled in Spain.

The Dirty War:

Pedro Eugenio Aramburu proscribed Peronism and banned all manifestations of it. Peronism, however, did not disappear, as Peronists kept being organized in informal associations. The 1949 amendment of the Constitution was repealed, restoring the one of 1853; but the elections for the Constituent Assembly obtained a majority of blank votes because of the Peronist proscription.Arturo Frondizi from the UCR became popular by opposing the military rule, and got elected in the following elections. The military, however, was reluctant to allow Peronism to influence the new government, and allowed him to take power on condition he stayed aligned with them. The military frequently interfered on behalf of conservative, agrarian interests however, and the results were mixed. His policies encouraged investment to make the country self-sufficient in energy and industry, helping reverse a chronic trade deficit for Argentina. His efforts to stay on good terms with both Peronists and the military, without fully supporting either one, earned him the distrust and rejection of both. Frondizi lifted the Peronist proscription, leading to a Peronist victory in several provinces, rejected by the military. A new coup ousted him from power, but a swift reaction by José María Guido (president of the Senate) applied the laws related to power vacuums and became president instead of the military. The elections were repealed and Peronism proscribed again. Arturo Illia was elected in 1963 but, despite prosperity, his attempts to include Peronists in the political process resulted in the armed forces retaking power in a coup in 1966. The Argentine Revolution, the new military government, sought to rule in Argentina indefinitely.

The new military Junta appointed Juan Carlos Onganía as president. He closed the Congress, banned all political parties and dismantled all student unions and many worker unions. Popular discontent led to two massive protests, the Cordobazo in Córdoba and the Rosariazo in Rosario. Onganía was replaced by Roberto M. Levingston, and shortly after there was a huge political commotion with the kidnapping and execution of the former de facto president Aramburu. The crime was committed by the Montoneros, who, along with the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), began Guerrilla warfare against the military, the Dirty War. Levingston was then replaced byAlejandro Agustín Lanusse, who began negotiations to return to democracy and end the proscription of Peronism. Initially, he sought to allow Peronism but not the return of Juan Perón himself (who was living in Spain) with an agreement stipulating presidential candidates reside in Argentina as of 25 August. Thus, the Peronist candidate was not Perón but Héctor José Cámpora, who won the elections by the 49.59%.

The return of Peronism to power saw violent disputes between its internal factions: right-wing union leaders and left-wing youth from montoneros. The return of Perón to the country generated an armed conflict, the Ezeiza massacre. Overwhelmed by political violence, Cámpora and his vice-president resigned, promoting new elections so Perón could become president. Perón was elected, with his wife Isabel as vice-president, but before taking office the Montoneros murdered the union leader José Ignacio Rucci, with close ties to Perón. Perón expelled them from Plaza de Mayo and from the party, and they became once again a clandestine organization. José López Rega organized the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance(AAA) to fight against them and the ERP. Perón died shortly after, and his wife took office. The AAA maintained operations against the guerrillas, which increased their power. TheOperativo Independencia stopped an attempt to capture and secede territories of Tucumán. A decree ordered the military to "annihilate the subversion". The military made another coup d'état, in March 1976.

The National Reorganization Process closed the Congress, removed the members of the Supreme Court, and banned political parties, unions, student unions, etc. It also intensified measures against ERP and Montoneros, who had kidnapped and murdered people almost weekly since 1970. The military resorted to the forced disappearance of suspected members of the guerrillas, and began to prevail in the war. The losses of Montoneros by the end of 1976 were near 2000. The Junta tried to increase its popularity with theBeagle conflict and the 1978 FIFA World Cup. As of 1977, the ERP was completely defeated. Montoneros was severely weakened, but launched a massive counterattack in 1979. It was defeated, ending the guerrilla threat, but the military Junta stayed in government.Leopoldo Galtieri launched the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de Malvinas), attempting to recover the islands, but he was defeated by the United Kingdom within two months. Galtieri left the government because of the military defeat, and Reynaldo Bignone began to organize the transition to democratic rule, with the free elections in 1983.

Contemporary era:

In the 1983 electoral campaign Alfonsín called to national unity, restoration of democratic rule and prosecution of the responsibles of the dirty war. He established the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP) to investigate the forced disappearances. The CONADEP generated a report detailing 340 centers of illegal detentions and 8961 forced disappearenced. The 1985 Trial of the Juntas sentenced all the heads of government of those years. Alfonsín aimed then to the military of lower ranks, but the discontent among the military and the risk of a new coup increased. To please them, he issued the full stop law, which established a deadline for new trials. This did not work as intended, and the Carapintadas mutinied, forcing the law of Due Obedience that exempted the military that followed orders from superior ranks. This lowered the public support Cristina Fernández incumbent president of to the government, as well as an economic crisis that the Argentine Nation since 2007 led to an hyperinflation. The Peronist Carlos Menem won the 1989 elections, but huge riots caused by the economic crisis forced Alfonsín to resign, handing government to Menem.

Carlos Menem led a change in Peronism, which declined its usual politics and embraced neoliberalism instead. A fixed exchange rateestablished in 1991, the dismantling of protectionist barriers, business regulations and several privatizations normalized the economy for a time. His victories at the 1991 and 1993 elections led to the 1994 amendment of the Argentine Constitution, which allowed him to run for a second term. He was reelected, but the economy began to decline in 1996, with higher unemployment and recession. He lost the 1997 elections, and the UCR returned to the presidency in the 1999 elections.

President Fernando de la Rúa sought to change the political style of Menem, but kept his economic plan regardless of the growing recession. He appointed Domingo Cavallo, who had already been minister of economy during the presidency of Menem. The social discontent led to the appearance of piqueteros and huge blank votes in the 2001 legislative elections. A huge capital flight was responded to with a freezing of bank accounts, generating further discontent. Several riots in the country led the president to establish astate of emergency, received with more popular protests. The huge riots in December finally forced De la Rúa to resign.

Eduardo Duhalde was appointed president by the Legislative Assembly, and derogated the fixed exchange rate established by Menem. The economic crisis began to end by the late 2002, under the management of the minister of Economy Roberto Lavagna. The death of two piqueteros caused a political scandal that forced Duhalde to call to elections earlier. Carlos Menem got the majority of the votes, followed by Néstor Kirchner. Kirchner was largely unknown by the people, but would maintain Lavagna as minister. However, Menem declined to run for the required ballotage, which made Kirchner the new president.

Following the economic policies laid by Duhalde and Lavagna, Kirchner ended the economic crisis, getting fiscal and trade surpluses. However, he distanced from Duhalde once getting to power. He promoted as well the reopening of judicial actions against the crimes of the Dirty War. During his administration, Argentina restructured its defaulted debt with a steep discount (about 66%) on most bonds, paid off debts with the International Monetary Fund and nationalized some previously privatized enterprises. He did not run for a reelection, promoting instead the candidacy of his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

The presidency of Cristina Kirchner began with a conflict with the agricultural sector, caused by an attempt to increase the taxes over exports. The conflict was taken to the Congress, and vice-president Julio Cobos gave an unexpected tie-breaking vote against the bill. The government waged severalcontroversies with the press, limiting the freedom of speech. On 15 July 2010, Argentina became the first country in Latin America and the second country in the Southern Hemisphere to legalize same-sex marriage. Néstor Kirchner died in 2010, and Cristina Fernández was reelected in 2011.

World Population Day Worldwide - Jul 11

World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, approximately the date on which the world's population reached five billion people.

The world population on the 20th anniversary of Five Billion Day, July 11, 2007, was estimated to have been 6,727,551,263.

Independence Day Kiribati - Jul 12

Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 100,000 (2011), and the island nation is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, (1,351,000 square miles) straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Lineat its easternmost point.

The name Kiribati is the local pronunciation of "Gilberts", derived from the main island chain, the Gilbert Islands. The capital of South Tarawa consists of a number of islets connected through a series of causeways, located in the Tarawa archipelago. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999.

History

Early history:

The area now called Kiribati has been inhabited by Micronesians speaking the same Oceanic language since sometime between 3000 BC and AD 1300. The area was not isolated; invaders fromTonga, Samoa, and Fiji later introducedPolynesian and Melanesian cultural aspects, respectively. Intermarriage tended to blur cultural differences and resulted in a significant degree of cultural homogenisation.

Colonial era:

The islands were first sighted by British and American ships in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The main island chain was named the Gilbert Islands in 1820 by a Russian admiral, Adam von Krusenstern, and French captain Louis Duperrey, after a British captain named Thomas Gilbert, who crossed the archipelago in 1788 when sailing from Australia to China.

From the early 19th century, Western whalers, merchant vessels and slave traders visited the islands, introducing diseases and firearms. The first British settlers arrived in 1837. In 1892 the Gilbert Islands consented to become a British protectorate together with the nearby Ellice Islands. They were administered by the Western Pacific High Commission based in Fiji. Together they became the crown colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1916. Christmas Island (or Kiritimati) became part of the colony in 1919 and the Phoenix Islands were added in 1937. Sir Arthur Grimble was a cadet administrative officer based at Tarawa (1913-1919) and became Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony in 1926.

Tarawa Atoll and others of the Gilbert group were occupied by Japan during World War II. Tarawa was the site of one of the bloodiest battles in US Marine Corps history. Marines landed in November 1943; the Battle of Tarawa was fought at Kiribati's former capital Betioon Tarawa Atoll.

Some of the islands of Kiribati, especially in the remote Line Islands, were formerly used by the United States and United Kingdom fornuclear weapons testing including hydrogen bombs in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Independence to present day:

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands gained self-rule in 1971, and were separated in 1975 and granted internal self-government by Britain. In 1978 the Ellice Islands became the independent nation of Tuvalu. The Gilbert Islands became independent as Kiribati on 12 July 1979. Although the indigenous Gilbertese language name for the Gilbert Islands proper is "Tungaru", the new state chose the name "Kiribati", the Gilbertese rendition of "Gilberts", as an equivalent of the former colony to acknowledge the inclusion of Banaba, the Line Islands, and the Phoenix Islands, which were never considered part of the Gilberts chain. In the Treaty of Tarawa, signed shortly after independence and ratified in 1983, the United States relinquished all claims to the sparsely inhabited Phoenix Islands and those of the Line Islands that are part of Kiribati territory.

Overcrowding has been a problem. In 1988 it was announced that 4,700 residents of the main island group would be resettled onto less-populated islands. Teburoro Tito was elected president in 1994. Kiribati's 1995 act of moving the international date line far to the east to encompass the Line Islands group, so that it would no longer be divided by the date line, courted controversy. The move, which fulfilled one of President Tito's campaign promises, was intended to allow businesses all across the expansive nation to keep the same business week. This also enabled Kiribati to become the first country to see the dawn of the third millennium, an event of significance for tourism. Tito was reelected in 1998. Kiribati gained UN membership in 1999.

In 2002 Kiribati passed a controversial law enabling the government to shut down newspapers. The legislation followed the launching of Kiribati's first successful nongovernment-run newspaper. President Tito was reelected in 2003, but was removed from office in March 2003 by a no-confidence vote and replaced by a Council of State. Anote Tong of the opposition party Boutokaan Te Koaua was elected to succeed Tito in July 2003. He was re-elected in 2007.

In June 2008, Kiribati officials asked Australia and New Zealand to accept Kiribati citizens as permanent refugees.

Kiribati is expected to be the first country in which all land territory disappears due to global climate change. In June 2008, the Kiribati president Anote Tongsaid that the country has reached "the point of no return"; he added: "To plan for the day when you no longer have a country is indeed painful but I think we have to do that."

As sea levels continue to rise, the government of Kiribati is negotiating a deal with Fiji to evacuate the entire population to areas of Fiji that the Kiribati government would buy. The area of Fiji proposed for resettlement is the second largest Fijian island of Vanua Levu. The mass migration is expected to include younger, skilled workers first, and then the rest of the population would follow over a period of years.

Independence Day Sao Tome & Principe - Jul 12

São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main islands: São Tomé and Príncipe, located about 140 kilometres (87 mi) apart and about 250 and 225 kilometres (155 and 140 mi), respectively, off the northwestern coast ofGabon. Both islands are part of an extinct volcanic mountain range. São Tomé, the sizable southern island, is situated just north of the equator. It was named in honour ofSaint Thomas by Portuguese explorers who arrived at the island on his feast day.

With a population of 163,000 (2010), São Tomé and Príncipe is the second-smallest African country (the Seychelles being the smallest). It is the smallest country in the world in terms of population that is not a former British overseas territory, a former United Statestrusteeship, or one of the European microstates. It is also the smallest Portuguese-speaking country.

History The islands of São Tomé and Príncipe were uninhabited before the arrival of thePortuguese sometime around 1470.

The islands were discovered by João de Santarémand Pedro Escobar and bore his name until the 20th century.

Portuguese navigators explored the islands and decided that they would be good locations for bases to trade with the mainland.

The dates of discovery are sometimes given as December 21 (St Thomas's Day), 1471 for São Tomé, and January 17 (St Anthony's Day), 1472 for Príncipe, though other sources give different nearby years. Príncipe was initially named Santo Antão ("Saint Anthony"), changing its name in 1502 to Ilha do Príncipe ("Prince's Island"), in reference to the Prince of Portugal to whom duties on the island's sugar crop were paid.

The first successful settlement of São Tomé was established in 1493 by Álvaro Caminha, who received the land as a grant from the crown. Príncipe was settled in 1500 under a similar arrangement. Attracting settlers proved difficult, however, and most of the earliest inhabitants were "undesirables" sent from Portugal, mostly Jews. In time these settlers found the volcanic soil of the region suitable for agriculture, especially the growing ofsugar.

The cultivation of sugar was a labour-intensive process and the Portuguese began to import large numbers of slaves from the mainland. By the mid-16th century the Portuguese settlers had turned the islands into Africa's foremost exporter of sugar. São Tomé and Príncipe were taken over and administered by the Portuguese crown in 1522 and 1573, respectively.

However, superior sugar colonies in the Western Hemisphere began to hurt the islands. The large slave population also proved difficult to control, with Portugal unable to invest many resources in the effort. Sugar cultivation thus declined over the next 100 years, and by the mid-17th century, the economy of São Tomé had changed. It was now primarily a transit point for ships engaged in the slave tradebetween the West and continental Africa.

In the early 19th century, two new cash crops, coffee and cocoa, were introduced. The rich volcanic soils proved well suited to the new cash crop industry, and soon extensive plantations (known as "roças"), owned by Portuguese companies or absentee landlords, occupied almost all of the good farmland. By 1908, São Tomé had become the world's largest producer of cocoa, which remains the country's most important crop.

The roças system, which gave the plantation managers a high degree of authority, led to abuses against the African farm workers. Although Portugal officially abolished slavery in 1876, the practice of forced paid labor continued. Scientific American Magazine documented in words and pictures the continued use of slaves in São Tomé in their March 13, 1897 issue. In the early 20th century, an internationally publicized controversy arose over charges that Angolan contract workers were being subjected to forced labor and unsatisfactory working conditions. Sporadic labor unrest and dissatisfaction continued well into the 20th century, culminating in an outbreak of riots in 1953 in which several hundred African laborers were killed in a clash with their Portuguese rulers. This "Batepá Massacre" remains a major event in the colonial history of the islands, and its anniversary is officially observed by the government.

By the late 1950s, when other emerging nations across the African Continent were demanding independence, a small group of São Toméans had formed the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe (MLSTP), which eventually established its base in nearby Gabon. Picking up momentum in the 1960s, events moved quickly after the overthrow of the Caetano dictatorship in Portugal in April 1974. The new Portuguese regime was committed to the dissolution of its overseas colonies; in November 1974, their representatives met with the MLSTP in Algiers and worked out an agreement for the transfer of sovereignty. After a period of transitional government, São Tomé and Príncipe achieved independence on July 12, 1975, choosing as the first president the MLSTP Secretary General Manuel Pinto da Costa.

In 1990, São Tomé became one of the first African countries to embrace democratic reform, and changes to the constitution — the legalization of opposition political parties — led to elections in 1991 that were nonviolent, free, and transparent. Miguel Trovoada, a former prime minister who had been in exile since 1986, returned as an independent candidate and was elected president. Trovoada was re-elected in São Tomé's second multi-party presidential election in 1996. The Party of Democratic Convergence (PCD) overtook the MLSTP to take a majority of seats in the National Assembly, with the MLSTP becoming an important and vocal minority party. Municipal elections followed in late 1992, in which the MLSTP came back to win a majority of seats on five of seven regional councils. In early legislative elections in October 1994, the MLSTP won a plurality of seats in the Assembly. It regained an outright majority of seats in the November 1998 elections. The Government of São Tomé fully functions under a multi-party system. Presidential elections were held in July 2001. The candidate backed by the Independent Democratic Action party, Fradique de Menezes, was elected in the first round and inaugurated on September 3. Parliamentary elections were held in March 2002. For the next four years, a series of short-lived opposition-led governments were formed.

The army seized power for one week in July 2003, complaining of corruption and that forthcoming oil revenues would not be divided fairly. An accord was negotiated under which President de Menezes was returned to office.

The cohabitation period ended in March 2006, when a pro-presidential coalition won enough seats in National Assembly elections to form and head a new government.

In the 30 July 2006 presidential election, Fradique de Menezes easily won a second five-year term in office, defeating two other candidates Patrice Trovoada (son of former President Miguel Trovoada) and independent Nilo Guimarães.

Local elections, the first since 1992, took place on 27 August 2006 and were dominated by members of the ruling coalition.

On February 12, 2009, there was an attempted coup d'état to overthrow President Fradique de Menezes. The coup plotters were imprisoned, but later received a pardon from President de Menezes.

Statehood Day Montenegro - Jul 13

Statehood Day (Montenegrin: Dan državnosti) is a holiday that occurs every year on July 13 in Montenegro to commemorate the day in 1878 on which the Berlin Congress recognized Montenegro as the twenty-seventh independent state in the world, and that in 1941 the Montenegrins staged an uprising against the Nazi occupiers and sided with the partisan communist movement.

Statehood Day is not to be confused with Montenegro's Independence Day, which is held each year on May 21 in honor of the 2006plebiscite that indicated that 55,5% of Montenegrins were in favor of becoming a sovereign nation.

Battle of Boyne - Jul 12 Canada, Ireland, U.K.

The Battle of the Boyne (Irish: Cath na Bóinne, IPA: was fought in 1690 between two rival claimants of the English, Scottish, and Irish thrones – the Catholic King James and the Protestant King William (who had deposed James in 1688) – across the River Boyne near Drogheda on the east coast of Ireland. The battle, won by William, was a turning point in James' unsuccessful attempt to regain the crown and ultimately helped ensure the continuation of Protestant supremacy in Ireland. Ironically, some contemporary historians have speculated that William's campaign may have been funded, at least in part, by Pope Alexander VIII as part of a shared hostility with William to Louis XIV of France, who at the time was attempting to establish dominance in Europe and to whom James was an ally.

The battle took place on 1 July 1690 in the "old style" (Julian) calendar. This was equivalent to 11 July in the "new style" (Gregorian) calendar, although today its commemoration is held on 12 July. William's forces defeated James' army of mostly raw recruits. The symbolic importance of this battle has made it one of the best-known battles in British–Irish history and it is a key part of the folklore for the Orange Order. Its commemoration today is principally by the Orange Institution.

Background

The battle is seen as the decisive encounter in a war that was primarily about James's attempt to regain the thrones of England and Scotland, resulting from The seven immortal gentlemen'sinvitation to William and James' daughter, Mary, to take the throne. It is especially remembered as a crucial moment in the struggle between Irish Protestant and Catholic interests.

In an Irish context, however, the war was a sectarian and ethnic conflict, in many ways a re-run of the Irish Confederate Wars of 50 years earlier. For the Jacobites, the war was fought for Irish sovereignty, religious toleration for Catholicism, and land ownership. The Catholic upper classes had lost almost all their lands after Cromwell's conquest, as well as the right to hold public office, practise their religion, and sit in the Irish Parliament. They saw the Catholic King James as a means of redressing these grievances and securing the autonomy of Ireland from England. To these ends, under Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, they had raised an army to restore James after the Glorious Revolution. By 1690, they controlled all of Ireland except for the province of Ulster. Most of James II's troops at the Boyne were Irish Catholics.

Conversely, for the Williamites, the war was about maintaining Protestant and English rule in Ireland. They feared for their lives and their property if James and his Catholic supporters were to rule Ireland. In particular, they dreaded a repeat of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, which had been marked by widespread killings. For these reasons, Protestants fought en masse for William III. Many Williamite troops at the Boyne, including their very effective irregular cavalry, were Protestants from Ulster, who called themselves "Inniskillingers" and were referred to by contemporaries as "ScotsIrish".

Opposing forces Commanders:

The opposing armies in the battle were led by the Roman Catholic King James II of England, Scotland, and Ireland and opposing him, his nephew and sonin-law, the Protestant King William III ("William of Orange") who had deposed James the previous year. James's supporters controlled much of Ireland and the Irish Parliament. James also enjoyed the support of his cousin, Louis XIV, who did not want to see a hostile monarch on the throne of England. Louis sent 6,000 French troops to Ireland to support the Irish Jacobites. William was alreadyStadtholder of the Netherlands and was able to call on Dutch and allied troops from Europe as well as England and Scotland.

James was a seasoned officer who had proven his bravery when fighting for his brother — King Charles II — in Europe, notably at the Battle of the Dunes (1658). However, recent historians have noted that he was prone to panicking under pressure and making rash decisions, possibly due to the onset of the dementia which would overtake him completely in later years. William, although a seasoned commander was hardly one of history's great generals and had yet to win a major battle. Many of his battles ended in stalemates, prompting at least one modern historian to argue that William lacked an ability to manage armies in the thick of conflict. William's success against the French had been reliant upon tactical manoeuvres and good diplomacy rather than force. His diplomacy had assembled the League of Augsburg, a multi-national coalition formed to resist French aggression in Europe. From William's point William III ("William of Orof view, his takeover of power in England and the ensuing campaign in Ireland ange") was just another front in the war against King Louis XIV. King of England, Scotland James II's subordinate commanders were Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrcon- and Ireland, Stadtholder in nell, who was Lord Deputy of Ireland and James's most powerful supporter in the Netherlands Ireland; and the French general Lauzun. William's second-in-command was the Duke of Schomberg, a 75-year-old professional soldier. Born in Heidelberg, Germany, Schomberg had formerly been a Marshal of France, but, being a Huguenot, was compelled to leave France in 1685 because of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Armies:

The Williamite army at the Boyne was about 36,000 strong, composed of troops from many countries. Around 20,000 troops had been in Ireland since 1689, commanded by Schomberg. William himself arrived with another 16,000 in June 1690. William's troops were generally far better trained and equipped than James's. The best Williamite infantry were from Denmark and the Netherlands, professional soldiers equipped with the latest flintlock muskets. There was also a large contingent of French Huguenot troops fighting with the Williamites. William did not have a high opinion of his English and Scottish troops, with the exception of the Ulster Protestant irregulars who had held Ulster in the previous year. The English and Scottish troops were felt to be politically unreliable, since James had been their legitimate monarch up to a year before. Moreover, they had only been raised recently and had seen little battle action.

The Jacobites were 23,500 strong. James had several regiments of French troops, but most of his manpower was provided by Irish Catholics. The Jacobites' Irish cavalry, who were recruited from among the dispossessed Irish gentry, proved themselves to be high calibre troops during the course of the battle. However, the Irish infantry, predominantly peasants who had been pressed into service, were not trained soldiers. They had been hastily trained, poorly equipped, and only a minority of them had functional muskets. In fact, some of them carried only farm implements such as scythes at the Boyne. On top of that, the Jacobite infantry who actually had firearms were all equipped with the obsolete matchlock musket.

The battle

William had landed in Carrickfergus in Ulster on 14 June 1690 and marched south to take Dublin. James chose to place his line of defence on the River Boyne, around 30 miles (48 km) from Dublin. The Williamites reached the Boyne on 29 June. The day before the battle, William himself had a narrow escape when he was wounded in the shoulder by Jacobite artillery while surveying the fords over which his troops would cross the Boyne.

The battle itself was fought on 1 July for control of a ford on the Boyne near Drogheda, about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) NW of the hamlet of Oldbridge (and about 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) WNW of the modern Boyne River Bridge).

William sent about a quarter of his men to cross the river at Roughgrange, about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Donore and about 6 miles (9.7 km) SW of Oldbridge. The Duke of Schomberg's son, Meinhardt, led this crossing, which Irish dragoons in picquet under Neil O'Neill unsuccessfully opposed. James, an inexperienced general, thought that he might be outflanked and sent half his troops, along with most of his artillery, to counter this move. What neither side had realized was that there was a deep, swampy ravine at Roughgrange.

Because of this ravine, the opposing forces there could not engage each other, but literally sat out the battle. The Williamite forces went on a long detour march which, later in the day, almost saw them cut off the Jacobite retreat at the village of Naul.

At the main ford near Oldbridge, William's infantry led by the elite Dutch Blue Guards forced their way across the river, using their superior firepower to slowly drive back the enemy foot-soldiers, but were pinned down when the James VII and II Jacobite cavalry counter-attacked. Having secured the village of Oldbridge, some Williamite infantry tried to hold off successive cavalry attacks with disci- Deposed King of England, plined volley fire, but were scattered and driven into the river, with the excep- Scotland and Ireland, by tion of the Blue Guards. William's second-in-command, the Duke of Godfrey Kneller, 1684 Schomberg, and George Walker were killed in this phase of the battle. The Williamites were not able to resume their advance until their own horsemen managed to cross the river and, after being badly mauled, managed to hold off the Jacobite cavalry until they retired and regrouped at Donore, where they once again put up stiff resistance before retiring.

The Jacobites retired in good order. William had a chance to trap them as they retreated across the River Nanny at Duleek, but his troops were held up by a successful rear-guard action.

The casualty figures of the battle were quite low for a battle of such a scale—of the 50,000 or so participants, about 2,000 died. Although three-quarters of them were Jacobites, William's army had far more wounded. At the time most of the casualties of battles tended to be inflicted in the pursuit of an already-beaten enemy; this did not happen at the Boyne, as the counter-attacks of the skilled Jacobite cavalry screened the retreat of the rest of their army. The Jacobites were badly demoralised by the order to retreat, which lost them the battle. Many of the Irish infantrymen deserted.

The Williamites triumphantly marched into Dublin two days after the battle. The Jacobite army abandoned the city and marched to Limerick, behind the River Shannon, where they were unsuccessfully besieged.

After his defeat James did not stay in Dublin, but rode with a small escort to Duncannon and returned to exile in France, even though his army left the field relatively unscathed. James's loss of nerve and speedy exit from the battlefield enraged his Irish supporters, who fought on until the Treaty of Limerick in 1691; he was derisively nicknamed Seamus a' chaca ("James the shit") in Irish.

Aftermath

The battle was overshadowed in its time in England by the defeat of an Anglo-Dutch fleet by the French two days later at the Battle of Beachy Head, a far more serious event in the short term; only on the continent was the Boyne treated as an important victory. Its importance lay in the fact that it was the first proper victory for the League of Augsburg, the first-ever alliance between the Vatican and Protestant countries. Thus the victory motivated more nations to join the alliance and in effect ended the fear of a French conquest of Europe.

The Boyne was not without strategic significance for both England and Ireland, however. It marked the end of James's hope of regaining his throne by military means and probably assured the triumph of the Glorious Revolution. In Scotland, news of this defeat si- Battle of the Boyne between James II and lenced theHighlanders in supporting the Jacobite William III, 11 July 1690, Jan van HuchtenRising temporarily, which Bonnie Dundee had led. In Ireland, the Boyne fully assured the Jacobites of how burg. they could successfully resist William. But it was a general victory for William, and is still celebrated by the ProtestantOrange Order on the Twelfth of July.

The treaty of Limerick was written first and was very generous to Catholics, because they were an incredible annoyance to the throne. It allowed most land owners to keep their land so long as they swore allegiance to William of Orange. It also said that James could take a certain number of his soldiers and go back to France. However, Protestants in England were annoyed with this kind treatment towards the Catholics, especially when they were gaining strength and money. Because of this, the penal laws were introduced. These laws included banning Catholics from owning weapons, reducing their land, and prohibiting them from working in the legal profession.

of the battle Commemoration Originally, Irish Protestants commemorated the Battle of Aughrim on 12 July (old style, equivalent to 23 July new style),

symbolising their victory in the Williamite war in Ireland. At Aughrim, which took place a year after the Boyne, the Jacobite army was destroyed, deciding the war in the Williamites' favour. The Boyne, which in the old Julian calendar, took place on 1 July, was treated as less important, third after Aughrim and the anniversary of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 on 23 October. What was celebrated on "The Twelfth" was not William's "victory over Popery at the Battle of the Boyne", but the extermination of the elite of the Catholic Irish at Aughrim, thereby ending the fear of having to surrender the planted lands.

In 1752, the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Ireland, which erroneously placed the Boyne on 12 July instead of Aughrim (the correct equivalent date was 11 July, as the difference between the calendars for the year in question, 1690, was not 11 days but only 10 days). However, even after this date, "The Twelfth" still commemorated Aughrim.

But after the Orange Order was founded in 1795 amid sectarian violence in Armagh, the focus of parades on 12 July switched to the Battle of the Boyne. Usually the dates before the introduction of the calendar on 14 September 1752 are mapped in English language histories directly onto the Julian dates without shifting them by 10 or 11 days. Being suspicious of anything with Papist connotations, however, rather than shift the anniversary of the Boyne to the new 1 July or celebrate the new anniversary of Aughrim, the Orangemen continued to march on 12 July which was (erroneously) thought to have marked the battle of the Boyne in New Style dates. Despite this, there are also smaller parades and demonstrations on 1 July, the date which maps the old style date of the Boyne to the new style in the usual manner and which also commemorate the heavy losses of the 36th (Ulster) Division on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. The memory of the battle also has resonance among Irish nationalists. Most Irish people see the battle as a major step on the road to the complete British colonisation of Ireland. In 1923, IRA members blew up a large monument to the battle on the battlefield site on the Boyne and destroyed a statue of William III in 1929 that stood outside Trinity College, Dublin in the centre of the Irish capital.

"The Twelfth" in Great Britain and Ireland today:

The Battle of the Boyne remains a controversial topic today, especially in Northern Ireland, where some Protestants remember it as the great victory over Catholics that resulted in the sovereignty of Parliament and the Protestant monarchy.

In recent decades, "The Twelfth" has often been marked by confrontations, as members of the Orange Order attempt to celebrate the date by marching past or through what they see as their traditional route. Some of these areas, however, now have a nationalist majority who object to marches passing through what they see as their areas. This change is mainly due to natural population migrations, whereby rural Irish Catholics, who comprise most but not all of the nationalist community in Northern Ireland, have moved to major cities to be closer to potential employers.

Each side thus dresses up the disputes in terms of the other's alleged attempts to repress them; Nationalists still see Orange Order marches as provocative attempts to "show who is boss", whilst Unionists insist that they have a right to "walk the Queen's highway" and see any attempt to deny them the right to walk through traditional routes used for centuries as a move to marginalise them and restrict their freedom to celebrate their mainly Protestant identity earned in the Glorious Revolution settlement. Since the start of The Troubles, the celebrations of the battle have been seen as playing a critical role in the awareness of those involved in the unionist/nationalist tensions in Northern Ireland.

The battlefield today:

The site of the Battle of the Boyne sprawls over a wide area west of the town of Drogheda. In the County Development Plan for 2000, Meath County Council rezoned the land at the eastern edge of Oldbridge, at the site of the main Williamite crossing, to residential status. A subsequent planning application for a development of over 700 houses was granted by Meath County Council and this was appealed by local historians to An Bord Pleanala. In March 2008 after an extremely long appeal process, An Bord Pleanala approved permission for this development to proceed. However, due to the current economic climate in Ireland, no work has yet started on this development.

The current Interpretive Centre dedicated to informing tourists and other visitors about the battle is about 1-mile (1.6 km) to the west of the main crossing point. This facility was redeveloped in 2008 and is now open for tourists. The battle's other main combat areas (at Duleek, Donore and Plattin – along the Jacobite line of retreat) are marked with tourist information signs.

On 4 April 2007 in a sign of improving relations between unionist and nationalist groups, the newly-elected First Minister of Northern Ireland, the Reverend Ian Paisley, was invited to visit the battle site by the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern later in the year. Following the invitation, Paisley commented that "such a visit would help to demonstrate how far we have come when we can celebrate and learn from the past so the next generation more clearly understands." On 10 May the visit took place, and Paisley presented the Taoiseach with a Jacobite musket in return for Ahern's gift at the St Andrews talks of a walnut bowl made from a tree from the site. A new tree was also planted in the grounds of Oldbridge House by the two politicians to mark the occasion.

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HUNGARY New chapter in HungarianSlovakian relations

Photo: Károly Árvai

(Online 02 Jul) Rebetween lations Hungary and Slovakia are based on political and personal trust, Prime Viktor Minister Orbán stated following the summit of Hungarian and Slovak government officials organised in Budapest. Slovak Head of Government Robert Fico envisaged success for Hungary and and Slovakia stressed the importance of a closer Central European cooperation.

Hungarian The Prime Minister last received his Slovak counterpart in No-

ence and information. He noted that despite the economic crisis, Slovak exports to Hungary had increased by 11 percent in 2012, adding that the two countries are capable of close cooperation. He envisaged successful years for both Hungary and and Slovakia, voiced his conviction that countries in the Central European region will need to strive for an even closer cooperation than before.

The Slovak head of welgovernment comed that Hungary will be chairing the Visegrad Group

countries should be integrated.

The Fundamental Law of Hungary recognises nationalities living in Hungary as constituent elements of the State. Accordingly, Minister Prime Orbán said that Hungary’s Slovak community is an instrumental factor in bilateral ties based on mutual trust.

During the meeting, he informed his Slovak counterpart that the Hungarian Government had recently decided to ensure funds to renovate two Slovak language schools in Hungary. Further-

H u n g a r i a n a n d N AT O c a p a b i l i t y targets coincide

Photo: Szilárd Koszticsák, MTI

(Online 02 Jul) NATO has asked Hungary to establish and further develop capabilities during the period 2014-2028 in a way that coincides with Hungary's national strategy, military Defence Minister Csaba Hende said on Tuesday.

Hungary should develop an infantry unit by 2023, set up a new helicopter strengthen fleet, special operational capabilities and develop stabilisation and reconstruction capabilities – all in line with its national interests, he told a meeting of military and air attaches in Budapest.

As key conditions of Hende success, Hunmentioned gary's NATO-con-

form strategic planning system and the government's guarantee for gradually increasing the defence budget.

Hungary's defencebudget-to-GDP ratio, however, is still the third lowest in NATO, he said. minister The the praised of achievements Hungarian troops serving in peacekeeping missions last year. Concerning next year's tasks, Hende said Hungary that should complete its ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) mission and prepare for the subsequent advisory in mission Afghanistan.

With troops withfrom drawn Afghanistan, Hun-

Photo: László Beliczay, MTI

gary sees a chance for beefing up its peacekeeping force in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo in in the Western Balkans.

Hende noted that Hungary had taken over the presidency of the Visegrad Four group (V4) of countries for the second half of 2013. Priorities of the presidency include developing joint positions for European the Council's December session to focus on the future of the common security and defence policy, coordinating preparations for setting up a V4 army group within the EU, and the harmonising four countries' defence planning and procurement plans.

IAEA Conference with Minister Martonyi as President on enhancing nuclear security

Photo: Csaba Pelsőczy vember 2012, within the framework of the Hungarian-Slovak economic forum organised by the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce Industry and (MKIK). During the course of today’s meeting, several bilateral agreements were concluded by representatives of the two cabinets, which will greatly inrelations fluence between the two countries in the coming period.

In his press statement, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pointed out that Central Europe has a good opportunity to become a determinative economic region within the European Union.

Hungary and Slovakia are following the same path and it is up to the two countries how they utilise Europe’s broadening opportunities, he said.

With regard to handling the economic crisis, Prime Minister Robert Fico called it important that officials of the two countries exchange their experi-

and said that during its EU presidency in 2016, Slovakia will gladly utilise Hungary’s experiences.

Prior to the press briefing, a declaration of intent on funding the development of the transport infrastructure that spans the common border between Hungary and the Slovak Republic; as well as cooperation agreements between the Hungarian and Slovak and Investment Agencies, Trade and between the Association of Electrotechnical Industry of the Slovak Republic (ZEP SR) and the Hungarian Electrotechnical As(MEE) sociation were signed.

According to the agreements, during the period 20142020, 25 new border-crossing road construction projects will be completed and a joint committee will be established to foster cross-border public transport. In addition, it was agreed that the electric and gas supply networks of the two

more, in October 2012, the two prime ministers inaugurated the Pilis Slovakians' Centre in Pilisszentkereszt to support the national and cultural identity of Hungary’s Slovak community.

In addition to the two prime ministers, Hungarian participants at the intergovernmental included summit Deputy Prime Minister Semjén Zsolt, Minister for National Mihály Economy Varga, Minister for Affairs Foreign Martonyi, János Minister for Rural Development Sándor Fazekas, Minister for National Development Zsuzsa Németh and State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó. The Slovak was government represented by Minister of Economy Tomás Malatinsky, Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajcák, Minister of Transport Ján Pociatek and Minister of Agriculture Lubomir Jahnatek.

(Online 02 Jul) A high-level meeting focusing on nuclear security held under the aegis of the International Atomic Agency Energy (IAEA) began in Vienna on 1 July, with Hungarian Foreign Minister Affairs János Martonyi as Conference President.

The five-day conference is the first ministerial open, meeting of all member states focusing on maintaining a highly effective nuclear security, inphysical cluding protection of nuclear materials and facilities, and decreasing the risk of potential thefts and terrorist acts against nuclear facilities.

In his opening remarks, the Hungarian Foreign Minister declared that the events of the past decade had demonstrated that every opportunity

must be made use of to enhance nuclear security globally.

‘The fight against nuclear terrorism requires that all countries work together, while pertheir forming national responsibilities in this regard and coordinating their efforts” – Martonyi János stated. He added the IAEA that should play a central role in strengthnuclear ening globally security and coordinating international activities in this field.

Yukiya Amano, the Director General of the IAEA – which has 159 Member States – claimed that although the responsibility for nuclear security within a State rests entirely with that State, international cooperation is indispensable. “Effective measures can be made only if all

states take the threats seriously” – he emphasised.

Director General Amano Yukiya urged the Member States to use the IAEA’s nuclear security advisory services to check their nuclear facilities, and called on the States that have not yet done so to become party to and fully implement the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) and its 2005 Amendment.

Thirty-five of the Member IAEA States are being represented at ministerial level, including such countries the United as States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, India, Brazil and Argentina. More than 1300 participants from 123 countries are attending the international conference on nuclear security.

Five waste deposit sites successfully recultivated in the Karcag area

Economic cooperation between Hungary and Slovakia (Online 02 Jul) Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga earlier today received Slovakia’s Minister of Economy Tomás Malatinsky within the framework of the Hungarian-Slovakian Government Summit. At the event, the two sides held negotiations about enhancing mutual cooperation and extending the scope of Hungarian-Slovakian economic partnerships.

Due to common in-

terests, HungarianSlovak economic relations cover a wide range of issues, such as joint infrastructure development projects, the trade of products and services, tourism and financial relations, the exchange of labour and regional cooperation. The business relations of the two countries are increasingly characterised by increasing dominance and importance of SMEs and

their share in trade turnover and financial relations.

The two sides have agreed that deepening partnership between economies that have been facing the same difficulties is one of the primary tasks of the upcoming period, from the perspective of both the two countries and the region. Accordingly, more emphasis must be placed on fostering closer ties between Hungary and Slovakia.

Hungary backs US efforts for Syrian, Middle East settlement (Online 01 Jul) Hungary supports the efforts of the United States to promote a political settlement in Syria and the Israeli–Palestinian process, peace Deputy State Secretary of Foreign AfSzabolcs fairs Takács said in Washington on 29 June.

Takács held talks with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Brent Hartley and other officials of the State Department on Syria, Iran, the Israeli–Palestinian process, peace Afghanistan, China, Japan, the Korean and peninsula,

Myanmar.

The two sides discussed overlaps in Hungarian and US foreign policy and ways and the means of supporting one another.

Concerning Syria, Takács said that Hungary supported the joint initiative of Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Russian Sergei Minister Lavrov for resuming the Geneva process and paving the way for a political settlement.

Takács expressed hope that Kerry would put forward a plan that breaks the stalemate in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.

The talks were marked by a conand structive atmosfriendly phere, with no new remarks critical made by the US side, the deputy state secretary said.

On behalf of the Visegrád Four, of which Hungary is currently president, Takács outlined the group’s plans retransatgarding lantic relations to Democrat five members of the House of Representatives Foreign AfCommittee. fairs The meeting was also attended by delegates from the four Visegrád countries.

Hungary wants strong financial ties with Morocco

Photo: Gergely Botár

(Online 01 Jul) Five previously closed waste deposit in four settlements in the Karcag sub-region have been successfully recultivated at a cost of HUF 1.3bn, anLászló nounced Dobos MP (FideszKDNP), Mayor of Karcag, at the event held in the city to mark the closing of the project.

The rehabilitation of one former solid waste disposal sites Karcag, in

waste had been transported from the settlements to fill the old pits left behind by quarrying activities since the 1960s, with no technical or environmental regulawhatsoever. tion The landfills eventually became filled, partly with dangerous materials, and were closed in the 1990s.

Waste continued to be deposited at the old sites on the outskirts of these settlements even after

the quality of life of around 40 thousand people, was realised almost exclusively with the of New help Plan Széchényi funding.

According to the Minister, the project is a significant step forward in the progressive elimination of sources of environmental pollution in the Nagykunság region, and emphasised the fact that Government the would always be a partner in the curing

Photo: Gergely Botár Berekfürdő and Kunmadaras, and two near Kisújszűllás has been completed during the past year. A total of 1.2 million cubic metres of waste was removed from the five sites during the course of rehabilitation spanning 22 hectares.

The Mayor recalled

their closure, which lead to pollution of the groundwater and increased the risk of infection; pests grew in numbers and there was a continuous stink, László Dobos explained.

Minister fro Rural Development Sándor Fazekas stated that the project, which has improved

European left is behind approval o f Ta v a r e s r e p o r t : P M O r b á n

of similar "wounds to the landscape".

"We will continue to support the elimination of illegal waste deposit sites, the creation of the conditions for selective waste collection and the recultivation of similar deposit sites", Sándor Fazekas stressed.

(Online 05 Jul) Prime Minister Viktor Orbán regards the approval of the report about the state of fundamental rights in Hungary submitted by rapporteur Rui Tavares as an operation of the European left, based partly on the idea that the Hungarian Fundamental Law is not a liberal constitution. He also noted on public Kossuth radio’s 180 minutes that the wage increase for teachers is a certainty.

According to Viktor Orbán, the European left wing cannot accept the fact that Hungarians voted against the left-wing government in 2010 with a two-thirds majority, and they want Hungary to withdraw its banking tax and stop public utility rate cuts.

The case of the Tavares report demonstrates a new trend, which is no longer about Hungary, the Prime Minister said.

The question is whether an institution has the right to arbitrarily change the European basic treaty.

The EP is doing something that goes

beyond its authority and it wants to reproach a country that happens to be on the right path.

The Tavares report criticised the Hungarian Constitution on an ideological basis because it goes against the European trend of liberalism, the Prime Minister noted. Instead, it is based on the decision of the Hungarian people and strikes a balance between individual freedoms and the interests of the community. A Hungarian memorandum reacting to the Tavares report has been sent to all European heads of government and state, he added.

Once again, he insisted that the Government will not withdraw bank taxes and will go on reducing public utility costs.

With regard to teachers, the Prime Minister said that "children are our future" and so it is of the utmost importance that the teachers who are involved with them have a suitable level of knowledge, a suitable income and enjoy a secure background. This is

why the Cabinet has decided to increase their wages and also introduce a teacher career model.

The interview also touched the law on the integration of savings cooperatives which President János Áder returned to Parliament for reconsideration. In connection with this, Viktor Orbán said the Cabinet would examine the President’s remarks and change the bill accordingly.

Parliament is expected to adopt the amended proposal next Friday.

Regarding foreign exchange loans, the Prime Minister said that courts should assess whether they were „faulty products” and if so, why they became so widespread. The responsibility of the state and banks could also be examined, he said. The cabinet has tackled the problem of foreign exchange loans three times, introducing an early repayment scheme, offering mortgage holders the option to repay loans at a fixed exchange rate and by setting up an asset manager.

Gov e r nm e nt a s s e s s ing opt ions f or wa ge inc r e a s e in the public s e c t or (Online 03 Jul) The Economy Ministry is assessing various options for increasing wages in the public sector, Government SpokesperAndrás son Giró-Szász said.

He told Hungarian public radio Kossuth that, as well as the wage hike for teachers announced at the weekend, pay in

other areas of the public sector may also be raised. The ministry is currently “the examining scale and scheduling of possible steps on depending growth projections,” he said, adding: “These wage increases ... possibly affecting larger social groups, should implemented be

only if they do not expand the public debt.”

Minister for Human Resources Zoltán Balog announced at the weekend that wages teachers’ would be hiked from September 1, coinwith the ciding launch of the teachers’ career path scheme.

H unga r y will not be f or c e d t o e x e r c is e its v e t o: Enik ő Gy őr i (Online 03 Jul) The negative reference to the judiciary’s independence was removed from the country-specific recommendations of the European Union for Hungary and was replaced by a more general statement on strengthening the judiciary, therefore Hungary will not be forced to exercise its right of veto – said MFA Minister of State Enikő Győri at a press meeting in Budapest on 26 June.

The Hungarian Minister of State responsible for EU Affairs said that the need to strengthen the judiciary was mentioned in the case of several EU Member States.

“This is a text that we can live with, which shows that it is worth struggling and that if negative elements surface that are without justification, then the Commission is willing to consider the facts.” – she said.

Foreign Minister János Martonyi told Hungarian journalists on 25 June that the statement alluding to concerns about the Hungarian judiciary will not be included in the final version of the socalled country-spec i f i c recommendations formulated for Hungary at the end of the European semester. The Minister, who attended the meeting of EU Ministers of European affairs in Luxembourg, revealed that according to the original text Hungary “had to address the concerns about the independence of the judiciary”. Instead – the Minister said – the

text will include a general statement, according to which Hungary has to strengthen the judiciary, a position that the Commission has articulated for at least ten other countries.

Enikő Győri revealed that the objective of the criticised measures was to allow a transfer of court cases, and thus ensure a more balanced distribution of workload across the court system.

(On Wednesday the National Assembly removed the provisions allowing the transfer of cases from the Acts on the Judiciary and on Criminal Procedures, as well as from the Code of Civil Procedure.)

The Minister of State revealed that draft legislation has already been submitted to the National Assembly, which would appropriate another HUF 6 billion to reinforce the courts, enabling the Government to achieve its original objectives – she added.

Enikő Győri reminded the press that Hungary had already asked for political statements to be attached at the meetings of the Employment and Social Policy Council and Economic and Financial Affairs Council in which it objected to other recommendations.

The contested recommendations called for a reduced dominance of the public works scheme in employment policy and stipu l a t e d recommendations concerning the structure of the corporate tax system,

regulatory price setting and statements on the Hungarian business environment.

She explained that this was not unique and that beside Hungary, Belgium and Luxembourg had also attached such statements last year.

Member States usually resort to this tool if they do not wish to obstruct a process, but are of a different opinion, she said, adding that “we would have used our veto if the sentence on the independence of the judiciary remained in the text, but we never got to that point, since we managed to resolve the problem through constructive dialogue”.

The Minister of State explained that growth and employment, with a special emphasis on youth unemployment, figured more prominently than ever on the agenda of the two-day summit beginning on Thursday. The EU Summit will also discuss the EUR6bn budget that will be invested into reducing youth unemployment during the next multiannual framework.

According to Enikő Győri, four Hungarian regions – Southern Transdanubia, Northern Hungary, the Southern Plains and Northern Plains regions – were eligible for support based on the criteria and a total of EUR 48 million in funding may be given to these regions.

The Heads of State and Government will also discuss issues related to enlargement and the interim report on the banking union – said the Minister of State.

HUF 5 billion worth development at Henkel's Körösladány Plant

Foreign trade surplus growth accelerating

Photo: NFM

Photo: Endre Véssey

(Online 05 Jul) Hungary and Morocco are ideally situated to boost each other’s commercial and investment activities in their own respective regions, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said. Morocco is an ideal bridgehead for Hungarian companies into the rest of Africa, Minister Martonyi told a joint

news conference with Saad Addin AlOsmani, his Moroccan counterpart.The whole of the African continent is an important target area of Hungarian foreign and economic policy, he added.

Hungary can play a similar role for as far as Morocco’s economy is concerned, with the potential to become the hub of

its activities in central Europe, serving as the regional distribution centre of Moroccan products, he emphasised.

The formation of bilateral ties is “very important”, and relations in the areas of culture, education and sport are developing in the right direction, the Minister noted.

Swiss-Hungarian project to improve and expand basic services (Online 03 Jul) A Swiss-Hungarian model project has been launched today to improve and expand basic services in Hungary’s underdeveloped regions, the organisers said on Wednesday.

3.7 billion forints (EUR 12.5m) will be made available over three years to the

towns of Berettyóújfalu, Borsodnádasd, Heves and Jászapáti in Hungary’s northern and eastern areas. The programme also aims to involve Roma residents in public health programmes.

Switzerland’s Ambassador to Hungary Jean-Francois Paroz said the programme was vitally

important in the context of Hungary’s health-care reform.

Minister of State for Healthcare Miklós Szócska said the project would cover all basic services, yielding public health data to help professionals assess the conditions in Hungary’s underdeveloped regions.

Foreign trade surplus growth accelerating (Online 02 Jul) A In the fourth month of 2013, exports and imports jumped by 13.7 percent and 10.5 percent, respectively, compared to the level of April last year. As a consequence, the volume of total foreign trade increased by 3 percent in the initial four months of the year – says the latest flash report of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) published earlier today.

According to KSH release on foreign trade data, in the initial four months of this year Hungarian exports and imports totalled HUF 7 949bn (EUR 26.8bn) and HUF 7 211 (EUR 24.3bn), respectively.

Thus, in the period January-April 2013, Hungarian foreign trade accumulated a significant surplus of HUF 738bn (EUR 2.5bn) compared to the level recorded in the same period of the previous year, HUF 113bn (EUR 334 million) higher than the level of the same period one year ago. In the observed period, the volume of exports was up by 3.1 percent, while that of imports increased by 2.7 percent in comparison to the figure of

the corresponding period of last year.

Among main commodity groups, in the significant category of machinery and transport equipment the volumes of exports and imports were 3.5 percent and 2 percent higher, respectively, in comparison to the level of one year ago. The export of road vehicles – thanks to production capacity expansion – increased impressively in the initial four months of 2013 compared to the same period of the previous year. The export growth of office equipment and automatic data processing machines was also dynamic. The import of other transport equipment increased remarkably, which was mainly due to vehicle purchases within the framework of public transport development in Budapest.

The exports and imports of manufactured goods, another commodity group of great weight, both significantly exceeded the levels registered one year ago: the volumes of exports and imports were up by 6.6 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, in the period January-April 2013.

Within this main commodity group, the export of organic chemical products increased substantially. On the other hand, the pace of the export growth of pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical products was slower than before.

The import volume of fuels and electricity was up by 1.5 percent compared to January-April 2012, while exports and imports of food, beverages and tobacco products were both down by 6.3 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

Hungary’s exports and imports to EU member states, the country’s key partners, totalled EUR 20 510 million and EUR 16 921 million, respectively, in the observed period, thus the Hungarian foreign trade surplus with these countries was HUF 1 067bn, which is HUF 151bn higher than the level recorded in the same period of the previous year. Hungary’s trade deficit vis-á-vis non-EU countries came to HUF 329bn. The volume of imports and exports with these countries increased by 7.2 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively, in the initial four months of the year.

Source: KSH

(Online 02 Jul) In the fourth month of 2013, exports and imports jumped by 13.7 percent and 10.5 percent, respectively, compared to the level of April last year. As a consequence, the volume of total foreign trade increased by 3 percent in the initial four months of the year – says the latest flash report of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) published earlier today.

According to KSH release on foreign trade data, in the initial four months of this year Hungarian exports and imports totalled HUF 7 949bn (EUR 26.8bn) and HUF 7 211 (EUR 24.3bn), respectively. Thus, in the period January-April 2013, Hungarian foreign trade accumulated a significant surplus of HUF 738bn (EUR 2.5bn) compared to the level recorded in the same period of the previous year, HUF 113bn (EUR 334 million) higher than the level of the same period one year ago. In the observed period, the volume of exports was up by 3.1 percent, while that of imports increased by 2.7 percent in comparison to the figure of the corresponding period of last

year.

Among main c o m m o d i t y groups, in the significant category of machinery and transport equipment the volumes of exports and imports were 3.5 percent and 2 percent higher, respectively, in comparison to the level of one year ago. The export of road vehicles – thanks to production capacity expansion – increased impressively in the initial four months of 2013 compared to the same period of the previous year. The export growth of office equipment and automatic data processing machines was also dynamic.

The import of other transport equipment increased remarkably, which was mainly due to vehicle purchases within the framework of public transport development in Budapest.

The exports and imports of manufactured goods, another commodity group of great weight, both significantly exceeded the levels registered one year ago: the volumes of exports and imports were up by 6.6 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, in the per i o d January-April 2013. Within this main commodity

group, the export of organic chemical products increased substantially. On the other hand, the pace of the export growth of pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical products was slower than before.

The import volume of fuels and electricity was up by 1.5 percent compared to January-April 2012, while exports and imports of food, beverages and tobacco products were both down by 6.3 percent and 4 perc e n t , respectively.

Hungary’s exports and imports to EU member states, the country’s key partners, totalled EUR 20 510 million and EUR 16 921 million, respectively, in the observed period, thus the Hungarian foreign trade surplus with these countries was HUF 1 067bn, which is HUF 151bn higher than the level recorded in the same period of the previous year. Hungary’s trade deficit visá-vis non-EU countries came to HUF 329bn.

The volume of imports and exports with these countries increased by 7.2 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively, in the initial four months of the year.

(Online 03 Jul) The handover of the new production facility took place on 2 July 2013. Mr Nándor Csepreghy, Deputy State Secretary for Development Projects said that the Government was determined to use 60% of the EU funds available to Hungary during the budget period 2014-2020 for economic development, thus creating as many jobs as possible.

As a result of two successful applications the company had been awarded a total of HUF 907 million worth support toward its HUF 4.6 billion worth invest-

ment under the New Plan.

Széchenyi The complex technology development programme created 16 new jobs at the company.

At the Körösladány Plant of Henkel continuously expanding for more than two decades the latest innovative washing machine are being produced due to a development launched in 2011.

The first tender closed in 2012 provided support for the development activity required for the new production technology. Under the New Széchenyi Plan HUF 317 million worth support was

awarded toward the HUF 705 million worth development.

The recently closed second tender facilitated the implementation of the new production technology and the creation of workplaces. For this HUF 3.9 billion worth project Henkel was awarded HUF 590 million worth The support. amount of the investment included among others the developinternal ment of the production plant, the acquisition of equipment as well as labour force related costs.

Fur t he r r e duc t ion in hous e hold ga s a nd e le c tr ic it y pr ic e s in Oc t obe r (Online 01 Jul) Hungary will reduce household gas and electricity prices by another 10 percent in October, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced at a press conference following an EU summit in Brussels on Friday.

There are more and more encouraging signs proving Hungary is on the right track, the Prime Minister stressed at the press briefing.

He highlighted that unemployment is decreasing, the real value of pensions as well as real wages is increasing, while utility prices are also being reduced.

He also noted that the excessive deficit

procedure has been lifted against Hungary; in addition to which the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has dropped plans to launch a monitoring procedure against the country.

The Prime Minister said he had informed his negotiating partners accordingly in the context of a discussion of the EU's country-specific recommendations.

Hungary agrees with the recommendation for cutting public debt and launching purposeoriented programmes to reduce youth unemployment.

However, it does not accept recommendations for halting cuts in public utility prices: he announced that a further reduction of overhead costs will take place in October. He added that burdens on banks will not be alleviated either as bank contributions are an important element of a long-lasting, fair burden-sharing policy.

With regard to the EU’s expansion policy, which was one of the subjects of the summit, the Prime Minister said that Hungary, along with the other V4 countries, supports Serbia’s EU integration.

Minister Martonyi met with US Ambassador Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis (Online 03 Jul) On July 3, upon the initiative of the Hungarian side, Foreign Minister János Martonyi had a meeting with US Ambassador E l e n i Ts a k o p o u los Kounalakis concerning the recently surfaced documents on NSA informati o n g a th e r i n g .

The Minister req u e s te d i n fo r m a tion from the Ambassador about whether Hungarian governmental or other organizat i o n s w e r e a ffected by this k i n d o f a c ti v i ty.

He underlined th a t H u n g a r y e xpects the United States to respond to the re-

quest in the spirit of the two countries allied relationship and stressed that as a member state of the European Union Hungary would also follow the discussion on this topic between the United States and the EU .