47 Issue | Zarb-e-Jamhoor e-Newspaper | 27 Nov-3 Dec, 2011

Independence Day ALNBANIA- Nov 28 Albania officially known as the Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë pronounced Gheg Albanian: Republika e Shqipnísë), is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea to the southwest. It is less than 72 km (45 mi) from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which links the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea. Albania is a member of the UN, NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Council of Europe, World Trade Organisation, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and one of the founding members of the Union for the Mediterranean. Albania has been a potential candidate for accession to the European Union since January 2003, and it formally applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009. Along with Kosovo, Albania has the distinction of being the only Muslim-majority sovereign countries wholly within Europe, although the population is largely secular.

Albania is a parliamentary democracy with a transition economy. The Albanian capital, Tirana, is home to approximately 600,000 of the country's 3,000,000 people. Free-market reforms have opened the country to foreign investment, especially in the development of energy and transportation infrastructure. Albania was chosen as the No.1 Destination in Lonely Planet's list of ten top countries to visit for 2011.

Independence day (from Spain) PANAMA - Nov 28

Panama is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The capital is Panama City. Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela – named the Republic of Gran Colombia. When the latter dissolved in 1830, Panama and Nueva Granada stayed joined. Nueva Granada later became the Republic of Colombia.

With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing thePanama Canal to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the century.

Revenue from Canal tolls represent today a significant portion of Panama's GDP. Panama has the third or fourth largest economy in Central America and it is also the fastest growing economy and the largest per capita consumer in Central America. In 2010 Panama ranked 4th among Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index, and 54th in the world in 2010. As of 2010, Panama is the second most competitive economy in Latin America as well according to the Global Competitiveness Index from the World Economic Forum (WEF). Panama has the largest rainforest in the Western Hemisphere outside theAmazon Basin and its jungle is home to an abundance of tropical plants, animals and birds – some of them to be found nowhere else in the world.

History Etymology Albania is the Medieval Latin name of the country which is called Shqipëri by its people. In Medieval Greek, the The earliest known inhabitants of Panama were the Cuevas and the Coclé tribes, but they were wiped out

country's name is Albania (Greek: Ἀλβανία) besides variants Albanitia,Arbanitia.

The name may be derived from the Illyrian tribe of the Albani recorded by Ptolemy, the geographer and astronomer from Alexandria who drafted a map in 150 AD that shows the city of Albanopolis (located northeast of Durrës).

The name may have a continuation in the name of a medieval settlement called Albanon and Arbanon, although it is not certain this was the same place. In his History written in 1079–1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was the first to refer to Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the Duke of Dyrrachium. During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbër or Arbën and referred to themselves as Arbëresh or Arbnesh.

As early as the 16th century the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarëgradually replaced Arbëria and Arbëresh. While the two terms are popularly interpreted as "Land of the Eagles" and "Children of the Eagles", they derive from the adverb shqip, which means "understanding each other".

Under the Ottoman Empire Albania was referred to officially as Arnavutluk and its inhabitants as Arnauts (officially, Arnavutlar). These terms remain the same officially and in common usage in the current Republic of Turkey. The word is considered to be a metathesis from the word Arvanite, which was the Medieval Greek name for the Albanians.

History

The history of Albania emerged from the prehistoric stage from the 4th century BC, with early records of Illyria in Greco-Roman historiography. The modern territory of Albania has no counterpart in antiquity, comprising parts of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia (southern Illyricum), Macedonia (particularly Epirus Nova), and Moesia Superior.

The territory remained under Roman (Byzantine) control until the Slavic migrations of the 7th century, and was integrated into the Bulgarian Empire in the 9th century.

The territorial nucleus of the Albanian state formed in the Middle Ages, as the Principality of Arbër and the Kingdom of Albania. The first records of the Albanian people as a distinct ethnicity also date to this period. In 15th century there was a series of confrontations between Albanians led by Scanderbeg and the advancing Ottoman Empire.

Soon after the death of Scanderbeg the organized resistance ceased and the country became part of Ottoman Empire. It remained under Ottoman control as part of the Rumelia province until 1912, when the first independent Albanian state was declared. The formation of an Albanian national consciousness dates to the latter 19th century and is part of the larger phenomenon of rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire. A short-lived monarchy (1914– 1925) was succeeded by an even shorter-lived first Albanian Republic (1925–1928), to be replaced by another monarchy (1928–1939), which was annexed by Fascist Italy during World War II. After the collapse of the Axis powers, Albania became a communist state, the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, which was dominated by Enver Hoxha (d. 1985). Hoxha's political heir Ramiz Alia oversaw the disintegration of the "Hoxhaist" state during the wider collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the later 1980s.

The communist regime collapsed in 1990, and the Republic of Albania was founded in 1991. The old communist party was routed in the elections of March 1992, amid economic collapse and social unrest. An economic crisis spread in the late 1996 following the failure of some Ponzi schemes operating in the country, peaking in 1997 in an armed rebellion, that led to another mass emigration of Albanians, mostly to Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Germany and North America.

In 1999 the country was affected by the Kosovo War, when a great number of Albanians from Kosovo found refuge in Albania.

Albania became a full member of NATO in 2009. The country is applying to join the European Union.

Independence Day MAURITANIA - Nov 28 Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa.

It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest. It is named after the ancient Berber Kingdom of Mauretania, which later became a province of the Roman Empire, even though the modern state covers a territory far to the southwest of the old kingdom. The capital and largest city is Nouakchott, located on the Atlantic coast.

The government of Mauritania was overthrown on 6 August 2008, in a military coup d'état led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. On 16 April 2009, General Aziz resigned from the military to run for president in the 19 July elections, which he won. In Mauritania about 20% of the population live on less than US$1.25 per day.

History

Ancient history:

The Bafours were primarily agriculturalist, and among the first Saharan people to abandon their historically nomadic lifestyle. With the gradual desiccation of the Sahara, they headed south.

Following them came a migration of not only Central Saharans into West Africa, but in 1076, Moorish Islamic warrior monks (Almoravid or Al Murabitun) attacked and conquered the ancient Ghana Empire. Over the next 500 years, Arabs overcame fierce resistance from the local population (Berber and non-Berber alike) and came to dominate Mauritania. The Mauritanian ThirtyYear War (1644–74) was the unsuccessful final effort to repel the Yemeni Maqil Arab invaders led by the Beni Hassan tribe.

The descendants of the Beni Hassan warriors became the upper stratum of Moorish society. Berbers retained Nouakchott is the capital and the largest city influence by producing the majority of the region's Marabouts—those who preserve and teach Islamic tra- of Mauritania. It is one of the largest cities dition. Many of the Berber tribes claimed Yemeni (and in the Sahara sometimes other Arab) origin: there is little evidence to suggest this, though some studies do make a connection between the two. Hassaniya, a Berber-influenced Arabic dialect that derives its name from the Beni Hassan, became the dominant language among the largely nomadic population.

Modern history:

Imperial France gradually absorbed the territories of present-day Mauritania from the Senegal river area and upwards, starting in the late 19th century. In 1901, Xavier Coppolani took charge of the imperial mission. Through a combination of strategic alliances with Zawiya tribes, and military pressure on the Hassane warrior nomads, he managed to extend French rule over the Mauritanian emirates: Trarza, Brakna and Tagant quickly submitted to treaties with the colonial power (1903–04), but the northern emirate of Adrar held out longer, aided by the anticolonial rebellion (or jihad) of shaykh Maa al-Aynayn. It was finally defeated militarily in 1912, and incorporated into the territory of Mauritania, which had been drawn up in 1904. Mauritania would subsequently form part of French West Africa, from 1920.

French rule brought legal prohibitions against slavery, and an end to interclan warfare. During the colonial period, the population remained nomadic, but many sedentary peoples, whose ancestors had been expelled centuries earlier, began to trickle back into Mauritania. As the country gained independence in 1960, the capital city Nouakchott was founded at the site of a small colonial village, the Ksar, while 90% of the population was still nomadic.

The great Sahel droughts of the early 1970s caused massive problems in Mauritania. With independence, larger numbers of indigenous Sub-Saharan African peoples (Haalpulaar, Soninke, and Wolof) entered Mauritania, moving into the area north of the Senegal River. Educated in French language and customs, many of these recent arrivals became clerks, soldiers, and administrators in the new state. This occurred as France militarily suppressed the most intransigent Hassane tribes of the Moorish north, shifting old balances of power, and creating new cause for conflict between the southern populations and Moors. Between these groups stood the Haratin, a very large population of Arabized slaves of sub-Saharan African origins, who lived within Moorish society, integrated into a low-caste social position. Modern-day slavery is still a common practice in this country. According to some estimates, up to 600,000 Mauritanians, or 20% of the population, are still enslaved. This social discrimination concerns mainly the "black Moors" (Haratin) in the northern part of the country, where tribal elites among “white Moors” (Beidane) hold sway, but low-caste groups within the sub-Saharan African ethnic groups of the south are also affected by similar practices.

Moors reacted to the change, and to Arab nationalist calls from abroad, by increasing pressure to Arabize many aspects of Mauritanian life, such as law and language. A schism developed between those Moors who consider Mauritania to be an Arab country and those who seek a dominant role for the non-Moorish peoples, with various models for containing the country's cultural diversity suggested, but none implemented successfully.

This ethnic discord was evident during intercommunal violence that broke out in April 1989 (the “1989 Events” and “Mauritania–Senegal Border War”), but has since subsided. Some 70,000 sub-Saharan African Mauritanians were expelled from Mauritania in the late 1980s.The ethnic tension and the sensitive issue of slavery – past and, in some areas, present – is still a powerful theme in the country's political debate. A significant number from all groups, however, seek a more diverse, pluralistic society.

The government bureaucracy is composed of traditional ministries, special agencies, andparastatal companies. The Ministry of Interior spearheads a system of regional governors and prefects modeled on the French system of local administration. Under this system, Mauritania is divided into thirteen regions (wilaya), including the capital district, Nouakchott. Control is tightly concentrated in the executive branch of the central government, but a series of national and municipal elections since 1992 have produced limited decentralization.

Mauritania, along with Morocco, annexed the territory of Western Sahara in 1976, with Mauritania taking the lower one-third at the request of former imperial power Spain. After several military losses to the Polisario – heavily armed and supported by Algeria, the local hegemon and rival to Morocco – Mauritania retreated in 1979, and its claims were taken over by Morocco. Due to economic weakness, Mauritania has been a negligible player in the territorial dispute, with its official position being that it wishes for an expedient solution that is mutually agreeable to all parties.

While most of Western Sahara has been occupied by Morocco, the UN still considers the Western Sahara a territory that needs to express its wishes with respect to statehood: a referendum is still supposed to be held sometime in the future, under UN auspices, to determine whether or not the indigenous Sahrawis wish to be independent as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, or to be part of Morocco. The Moroccan government has thus far blocked such a referendum from taking place.

Ould Daddah era (1960–78):

After independence, President Moktar Ould Daddah, originally installed by the French, formalized Mauritania into a one-party state in 1964 with a new constitution, which set up an authoritarian presidential regime. Daddah's own Parti du Peuple Mauritanien (PPM) became the ruling organization in a single-party system. The President justified this decision on the grounds that he considered Mauritania unready for western-style multi-party democracy. Under this one-party constitution, Daddah was reelected in uncontested elections in 1966, 1971 and 1976. He was ousted in a bloodless coup on 10 July 1978, after bringing the country to near-collapse through a disastrous war to annex the southern part of Western Sahara, in an attempt to create a “Greater Mauritania”.

CMRN and CMSN military governments (1978–84):

Col. Mustafa Ould Salek's CMRN junta proved incapable of either establishing a strong base of power or extracting the country from its destabilizing conflict with the Sahrawi resistance movement, the Polisario Front. It quickly fell to be replaced by another military government, the CMSN. The energetic Colonel Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah soon emerged as its main strongman, and by giving up all claims to Western Sahara, he found peace with the Polisario and improved relations with its main backer, Algeria – but relations with the other party to the conflict, Morocco, and its European ally France, deteriorated. Instability continued, and Haidallah's ambitious reform attempts foundered. Not only was his regime plagued by attempted coups and intrigue within the military establishment, but it also became increasingly contested because of his harsh and uncompromising line against opponents and political and military dissidents, of whom many were jailed and some were executed.

Ould Taya’s rule (1984–2005):

In 1984 he was deposed by Colonel Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, who relaxed the political climate somewhat, without relinquishing military control. Ould Taya moderated Mauritania's previous pro-Algerian stance, and reconnected with Morocco during the late 1980s. Relations with Morocco deepened during the late 1990s and early first decade of the 21st century, as part of Mauritania's drive to attract support from Western states and Western-aligned Arab states. However, Mauritania has not rescinded its recognition of Polisario's Western Saharan exile government, remaining on good terms with Algeria. Its position on the Western Sahara conflict is, since the 1980s, one of strict neutrality.

The Parti Républicain Démocratique et Social (PRDS), formerly led by President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, dominated Mauritanian politics after the country's first multi-party elections in April 1992 following the approval by referendum of the current constitution in July 1991. President Taya won elections in 1992 and 1997.

Political parties, illegal during the military period, were legalized again in 1991. By April 1992, as civilian rule returned, 16 major political parties had been recognized; 12 major political parties were active in 2004. Most opposition parties boycotted the first legislative election in 1992, and for nearly a decade the parliament was dominated by the PRDS. The opposition participated in municipal elections in January–February 1994 and subsequent Senate elections, most recently in April 2004, and gained representation at the local level and three seats in the Senate.

Ethnic violences and human rigthts abuses:

Mauritania’s people is composed of several ethnics groups : the Moors (White in Arab) or Beidane, the Haratines who are black-skinned descendant of freed slaves still attached to their former masters’ culture, the Wolof , the Soninke , and the Hal-pulaar or Peuls which includes settled farmers called Toucouleur and nomadic stock-breeders . Since its creation in 1960 by the colonial France, Mauritania’s society has been characterised by a constant discrimination towards black population, Peuls and Soninké which are seen as contesting the political, economic and social dominance of Moors.. Mauritanian blacks faced discrimination in employment in the civil service, the administration of justice before the regular and religious courts, access to loans and credits from banks and state owned enterprise, and opportunity for education and vocational training . Between 1990 and 1991, a campaign of extreme violence particularly took place, across a process of arabisation, interference with blacks’ association rights, expropriation, expatriation and slavery, slaves being only black. In April 1986, the Manifesto of the Oppressed Black Mauritanian (Manifeste du négro-mauritanien opprimé) was published by the African Liberation Forces of Mauritania FLAM (Force pour la Liberation Africaine de Mauritanie) which documented discriminations against Mauritania's black populations in every sector of public life. In response, in September 1986, thirty to forty black intellectuals were arrested, suspected to be involved in the publication of the Manifesto and were subjected to brutal interrogations.

They were not allowed to have any visit until November 1987 . In the meantime, the authorities cracked down on black communities, using mass arrests as a form of intimidation.

In October 1987, the government allegedly discovered a tentative of coup d’Etat by a group of black army officers, backed by Senegalaccording to the authorities. Fifty one officers were arrested, and subjected to interrogation and torture without access to their lawyer.. The torture consisted in “beatings, burns, electric shocks, applied to the genitals, stripping prisoners naked and pouring cold water over them, burying prisoners in sand to their necks, and subjected prisoners to jaguar, which consist in tying a victim’s hand and feet, suspending him upside down from a bar, and beating him particularly on the sole of the feet”. They were accused of “endangering the security of the State by participating in a conspiracy to overthrow the government and to provoke killing and devastation among the inhabitants of the country” and tried following a special summary procedure.. Three of the officers arrested in October were sentenced to death; eighteen were sentenced to life imprisonment (including two who died in detention in 1988 due to prison conditions); nine were sentenced to twenty years; five were sentenced to ten years; three were given five years; six were given five-year suspended sentences with heavy fines; and seven were acquitted. None of those convicted were permitted to appeal. These ethnic tensions were catalysis for the events of 1989 which started as a result of a conflict in Diawara between Mauritanian Herders and Senegalese farmers over grazing rights during which Mauritanian guards crossed the rivers, killed 2 Senegalese and took 13 other hostages into Selibaby , Mauritania on April 9, 1989 . This incident has resulted in several events which provoked series of ethnic violence, expulsions of blacks from Mauritania, expropriation extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, torture, rape, and confiscation of property. Following the incident several riots erupted in Bakel, Dakar and other towns in Senegal directed against Mauritanians which dominated the retails. A feature of this conflict is the tendency of Beydanes to see black Mauritanians as Senegalese which lead the latter to response to the attacks by attacking black Mauritanians. Therefore, anti-Mauritanese riots, added to the already existing tensions, lead to a campaign of terror against black Mauritanian. The voluntary confusion between black Mauritanian and Senegalese culminated during the international airlift agreed by Senegal and Mauritania under international pressure to prevent further violence. The Mauritanian Government used it as a way to extradite black Mauritanian, pretending they were Senegalese. It included intellectuals, civil servants, professionals, businessmen, militant trade unionists, those suspected of opposition, as well as farmers and cattle-herders from the Sénégal River Valley.

Expulsion:

The main reason for expulsions and expropriation was economic. Indeed, Moors, usually nomadic, had lost their main source of revenue with the drought of 19681985 which decimated their camel, goats and other cattle and had lost their retails during the anti-Mauritanian riots in Senegal. Moreover, the Mauritanian part of the Senegalese river valley is the most fertile part of the country and, finally, the creation of the Organisation for the Development of the Senegal river ( OMVS , on March 11, 1972 by Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, enhanced the potential value of the valley, with the construction of dams which permitted to increase the territory irrigated. In villages of the South, blacks were indiscriminately expelled by security forces which forced them to cross the Senegalese River to Senegal, taking their identity card and their belongings. Those who resisted or who tried to flee with their belongings were arrested, imprisoned and sometimes executed. Chinguetti was a center of Islamic scholarIn the larger towns and cities, the authorities targeted ship in West Africa black civil servants, employees of private institutions, trade unionists, former political prisoners and, in some instances, the wives of political prisoners.

However Peuls were mainly among those targeted. According to a study conducted by Christian Santoir for a French research company (ORSTOM who became the Institute for research on Development in 1998) some 21,500 Peuls were expelled, which accounts for at least 57 per cent of the Peuls.

Expulsions were accompanied by many violations, such as: arbitrary arrest , rape, confiscation of belongings and of all identity papers. Furthermore, Peuls' liberty of movement was restricted, as they were subjected to harassment at checkpoints, being obliged to show their identity papers and sometimes detained.

The exact number of expulsions is not known but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR) estimates that, as of June 1991, there were 52,995 Mauritanian refugees in Senegal; in June 1993, 52,945 were registered. A smaller number of refugees have also fled into Mali; the official figure for those who have been registered there is about 13,000, but again, the real number is undoubtedly much higher because of the ease of integration into the life of local communities in Mali.

Expropriation:

Starting from 1983, exportation started to be institutionalised through the Ordinance 83.127 of June 5, 1983 which nationalised the all land in the country, abolishing the traditional system of land tenure. The potential nationalisation of the land was based on the concept of dead land , being a land which has not being developed or which development cannot be seen. The Ordinance also made impossible any collective law suit regarding property rights which rendered impossible any law suit based on traditional rights of tenure. Indeed traditional systems of tenure were based on community rights that make them justiciable only collectively. Several methods were used for expropriation . Confiscations are the most used methods. Moors exploited Article 9 of the Ordinance, which provides that registered property rights take precedence, by registering their rights using their relations, in order to prevent blacks from claiming it. Moors also established fake cooperative by which they could become members of previously black cooperative, which were the only registered black rights of property, getting ownership of the whole property of the cooperative.

Massacre of 1990-1991:

From November 1990 to February 1991, between 500 and 600 Peuls and Soninke political prisoners were executed or tortured to death by government forces. They were part of the between 3000 and 5000 blacks arrested between October 1990 and mid-January 1991 and rounded up, detained and tortured, allegedly because they were involved in an attempt to overthrow the government. There were first black officers of the military but then civil servants.

The severity of the torture, combined with the complete lack of medical care, ensured a high death toll, between 500-600 deaths from torture or summary execution is widely accepted. In addition, an unknown number of blacks found death by extrajudicial execution by security forces.

A military investigation was put in place by the government and the results were never made public. However several officials were reportedly involved: Colonel Sid'AhmedOuldBoilil, Colonel CheikhOuld Mohamed Salah, Major Mohamed CheikhOuld El Hadi, and Major Ely Fall .

In order to guarantee immunity for those responsible and to block any attempts at accountability for past abuses, an amnesty was declared by the Parliament in June 1993 covering all crimes committed by the armed forces, security forces as well as civilians, between April 1989 and April 1992. The Government offered compensations to the families of victims but a very few accepted in absence of settlement.

Despite of this amnesty, some have had the courage to denounce the involvement of the government in the arrests and killings. In 1991 an opened letter was sent to President Taya , by 50 prominent Mauritanians, including former ministers, lawyers, doctors, and professors denouncing "the magnitude of the repression that was brought down upon the blacks civilians and military in the last months of 1990” and listing several hundred extrajudicial executions, atrocities, and disappearances. The Mauritanian Workers Union also called for an independent inquiry into the detentions. Women’s also played a role into denouncing the atrocities committed: in April 1991, more than seventyfive women - wives, sisters, nieces, and mothers of some of those presumed to have been killed in the detentions signed a petition addressed to President Taya calling to the government to provide for the family left behind and break the silence.

Discrimination via arabisation:

Since many years and particularly since 1986, Arabisation has been a way to discriminate de facto black Mauritanians. Indeed, "[Arabisation] is the key to the dispossession of blacks in terms of political power, economic opportunities, and employment possibilities.”

Arabisation has been put in practice by a policy of interference with blacks’ rights of association, particularly by out righting private and public black gatherings. Although the law did not prohibit gathering and association to black people, the system of authorisation created by the Government and discriminately applied only to blacks, resulted in a prohibition.

Arabisation was also sought by the way of education. Since January 1966 study in Arabic were compulsory for student at secondary school. This provoked strike among students, which were supported by civil servants. These strikes lead to the issuing of the Manifesto of Nineteen which listed grievance against the Moors’ domination.

The process of making Arabic the primary language of the country culminated in a new constitution, passed by referendum in July 1991 which set Arabic as the official language of the Country, without any reference to French.

Mauritanian international relationship under Ould Taya’s rule:

During the late 1980s, Ould Taya had established a close co-operation with Iraq, and pursued a strongly Arab nationalist line. At the same time, bloody clashes erupted with Senegal in 1989, during which both countries expelled ethnic minorities to the other country. Mauritania grew increasingly isolated internationally, and tensions with Western countries grew dramatically after it took a pro-Iraqi position during the1991 Gulf War. During the mid-to late 1990s, Mauritania shifted its foreign policy to one of increased co-operation with the US and Europe, and was rewarded with diplomatic relaxation and aid projects.

In 1999, Mauritanian Foreign Minister Ahmed Sid’Ahmed and his Israeli counterpart David Levy signed an agreement in Washington DC, USA, on 28 October, establishing full diplomatic relations with Mauritania. The signing ceremony was held at the U.S. State Department in the presence of U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Mauritania thereby joined Egypt, Palestine, and Jordan as the only members of the Arab League to officially recognize Israel.

Ould Taya also started co-operating with the United States in antiterrorism activities, which was criticized by human rights NGOs, who talked of an exaggeration and instrumentation of alleged terrorist activities for geopolitical aims.(See also Foreign relations of Mauritania.)

A group of current and former Army officers launched a bloody but unsuccessful coup attempt on 8 June 2003. The leaders of the attempted coup were never caught. Mauritania's presidential election, its third since adopting the democratic process in 1992, took place on 7 November 2003. Six candidates, including Mauritania's first female and first Haratine (former slave family) candidates, represented a wide variety of political goals and backgrounds. Incumbent President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya won reelection with 67.02% of the popular vote, according to the official figures, with Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla finishing second.

Liberation Day ALBANIA- N o v 2 9

The Liberation Day (Albanian: Dita e Çlirimit) is commemorated as the day, November 29, 1944, in which Albania was liberated from Nazi Germany forces after the Albanian Resistance of World War II.

Background Germany occupied Albania in September 1943,

dropping paratroopers into Tirana before the Albanian guerrillas could take the capital, and the German army soon drove the guerrillas into the hills and to the south. Berlin subsequently announced it would recognize the independence of a neutral Albania and organized an Albanian government, police, and military. Many Balli Kombëtar units collaborated with the Germans against the communists, and several Balli Kombëtar leaders held positions in the German-sponsored regime.

The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on November 29, 1944. The National Liberation Army, which in October 1944 consisted of 70,000 regulars, also took part in the war alongside the antifascist coalition.

The Albanian partisans also liberated Kosovo, and assisted Tito's communist forces in liberating part of Montenegro and southern Bosnia and Herzegovina. By that time, the Soviet Army was also entering neighboring Yugoslavia, and the German Army was evacuating from Greece into Yugoslavia.

Controversy

There is controversy in Albania in regards to the date: several opinion makers think that the date was chosen by the Communist Party of Albania fictitiously in order to have the same liberation date as Yugoslavia's.

Bonifacio Day PHILIPPINES- N o v 3 0

Among the legal holidays in the Philippines is Bonifacio Day, traditionally celebrated every November 30. This was changed, however, under Republic Act 9492 (an Act rationalizing the celebration of national holidays), which moved the official holiday to the Monday nearest November 30 (which is why December 1, 2008, a Monday, is a holiday).

Andres Bonifacio was born to the couple Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro on November 30, 1863. Holidays in honor of heroes or very important figures in the Philippines are usually fixed on the date of death. Rizal Day, in honor of the national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, is traditionally celebrated on the day of his execution — December 30. (See the rest of official/declared Philippine holidays for 2008,2009 and 2010) Bonifacio is considered as the “Father of the Philippine Revolution”. He is the founder and “Supremo” (leader) of the independence movement against Spain, the Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan nang nga Anak ng Bayan(KKK), or simply known as the Katipunan.

He is also a member of La Liga Filipina, just like Jose Rizal. La Liga is a movement to achieve reforms in the Philippines through peaceful means. When these efforts did not bear fruit, Bonifacio subsequently came to believe that independence could be achieved through an armed revolution, thus creating the Katipunan in 1892.

Bonifacio died on May 10, 1897, upon orders of the first President of the Philippine Republic, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo.

Bonifacio then was considered an enemy of the state, charged with treason, although the circumstances surrounding Bonifacio’s death remain unresolved to this day.

Computer Security Day Worldwide- N o v 3 0

Computer Security Day is an annual event that is observed worldwide. It was started in 1988 to help raise awareness of computer related security issues. The goal of Computer Security Day is to remind people to protect their computers and information. Officially, Computer Security Day is November 30th. However, some some organizations choose to have functions on the next business day or week if CSD falls on a weekend.

Computer Security Day is a great opportunity for information security professionals and their organizations to raise the level of awareness within their users. We can help by providing ideas for CSD activities, posters and other resources.

For 2008 the theme for CSD will be "A Good Defense " The poster has yet to be designed but will include an image and text portraying the idea that we must be proactive and active for security to work. Each individual is responsible and plays a part in protecting information assets and resources. These include: Viruses PC security Firewalls Using strong passwords Social engineering Physical security of information resources and assets

Festival of Freedom and Democracy CHAD- D e c 1

Freedom and Democracy Day is a national holiday in Chad, falling on 1 December.

Government offices and businesses close. The holiday commemorates the overthrow of Hissène Habré by Idriss Déby in 1990.

Day of Persons with Disabilities Wor ldwide - D e c 3

International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3) is an international observance promoted by the United Nations since 1992. It has been celebrated with varying degrees of success around the planet. The observance of the Day aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. It was originally called "International Day of Disabled Persons". Each year the day focuses on a different issue.

History

The International Year of Disabled Persons 1981:

In 1976, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 1981 as the International Year of Disabled Persons. It called for a plan of action at the national, regional and international levels, with an emphasis on equalization of opportunities, rehabilitation and prevention of disabilities.

The theme of IYDP was "full participation and equality", defined as the right of persons with disabilities to take part fully in the life and development of their societies, enjoy living conditions equal to those of other citizens, and have an equal share in improved conditions resulting from socio-economic development.

United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons 1983-1992:

To provide a time frame during which Governments and organizations could implement the activities recommended in the World Programme of Action, the General Assembly proclaimed 1983-1992 the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons.

by disease and fighting when the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century.

Pre-Columbian period:

The Isthmus of Panama was formed in a very long process that started 20 million years ago, up to about 3 million years ago when the isthmus finally closed and plants and animals gradually crossed it in both directions (Mayo 2004: 9–10). Dolores Piperno (1984) has located the human occupancy of the isthmus at around the Late Glacial Period (cited in Mayo 2004: 13). Olga Linares (1979: 21–43)points out in turn that the existence of the isthmus had an impact on the dispersal of people, agriculture and technology throughout the American continent from the appearance of the first hunters and collectors to the era of villages and cities (cited in Cooke and Sánchez 2004: 3).

Richard Cooke and Luis Sánchez (2004: 4, 41–42) emphasize the permanence of peoples in the terrestrial bridge of Western America, and the higher probability that Pre-Columbian peoples in the isthmus satisfied their needs by the exchange of goods, by commercial exchange and through social relationships with neighbouring communities, rather than by long distance exchanges (Cooke and Sánchez 2004: 41).

Dendrograms proposed by genetists and linguists and available information about styles and iconography of ceramic and stone objects point to a successively complex dispersal of a population of millenary permanence in the isthmus and neighbouring areas (see, for example, Corrales 2000, cited in Cooke and Sanchez 2004: 39). Cooke and Sánchez (2004: 4) argue therefore that Panama is a singular example of diversity and endemism, and that Christopher Columbus' observations (1501–02) that "although dense, every (village) has a different language and they don't understand one another" (quoted in Jane 1988) describe the ethnographic phenomenon of scattering and diversification of peoples that had inhabited the isthmus for several thousands of years.

The earliest traces of these indigenous peoples include fluted projectile points. Central Panama was home to some of the first pottery-making villages in the Americas, such as the Monagrillo culture dating to about 2500–1700 BC. These evolved into significant populations that are best known through the spectacular burials of the Conte site (dating to c. AD 500–900) and the beautiful polychrome pottery of the Coclé style. The monumental monolithic sculptures at the Barriles (Chiriqui) site were another important clue of the ancient isthmian cultures.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Panama was widely settled by Chibchan, Chocoan, and Cueva peoples, among whom the largest group were the Cueva (whose specific language affiliation is poorly documented). There is no accurate knowledge of the size of the indigenous population of the isthmus at the time of the European conquest. Estimates range as high as two million people, but more recent studies place that number closer to 200,000. Archeological finds as well as testimonials by early European explorers describe diverse native isthmian groups exhibiting cultural variety and suggesting people already conditioned by regular regional routes of commerce.

Conquest era:

Rodrigo de Bastidas, sailing westward from Venezuela in 1501 in search of gold, was the first European to explore the isthmus of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a recPanama. A year later, Christopher Columbus visited the isthmus ognized and popular figure of and established a short-lived settlement in the Darien. Vasco Núñez de Balboa's tortuous trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1513 Panamanian history. demonstrated that the Isthmus was, indeed, the path between the seas, and Panama quickly became the crossroads and marketplace of Spain's empire in the New World. Gold and silver were brought by ship from South America, hauled across the isthmus, and loaded aboard ships for Spain. The route became known as the Camino Real, or Royal Road, although it was more commonly known as Camino de Cruces (Road of the Crosses) because of the abundance of gravesites along the way.

Panama was part of the Spanish Empire for 300 years (1538–1821). From the outset, Panamanian identity was based on a sense of "geographic destiny", and Panamanian fortunes fluctuated with the geopolitical importance of the isthmus. The colonial experience also spawned Panamanian nationalism as well as a racially complex and highly stratified society, the source of internal conflicts that ran counter to the unifying force of nationalism.

In 1538, the Real Audiencia de Panama was established, initially with jurisdiction from Nicaragua to Cape Horn before the conquest of Peru. A Real Audiencia (royal audiency) was a judicial district that functioned as an appeals court. Each audiencia had oidores (Spanish: hearer, a judge).

Spanish authorities exercised little control over much of the territory of Panama, large sections managing to resist conquest until very late in the colonial era. Because of this, indigenous people of the area were often referred to as "indios de guerra" (war Indians), and resisted Spanish attempts to conquer them or missionize them. However, Panama was enormously important to Spain strategically because it was the easiest way to transship silver mined in Peru to Europe. Silver cargos were landed at Panama, and then taken overland to Portobello or Nombre de Dios on the Caribbean side of the isthmus for further shipment.

Because of the incomplete Spanish control, the Panama route was vulnerable to attack from pirates (mostly Dutch and English) and from 'new world' Africans called cimarrons who had freed themselves from enslavement and lived in communes or palenques around the Camino Real in Panama's Interior, and on some of the islands off Panama's Pacific coast. One such famous community amounted to a small kingdom under Bayano, which emerged in the 1552 to 1558. SirFrancis Drake's famous raids on Panama in 1572– 73 were aided by Panama cimarrons, and Spanish authorities were only able to bring them under control by making an alliance with them that guaranteed their freedom in exchange for military support in 1582.

Panama was the site of the ill-fated Darien scheme, which set up a Scottish colony in the region in 1698.

This failed for a number of reasons, and the ensuing debt contributed to the union of England and Scotland in 1707.

When Panama was colonized, the indigenous peoples who survived many diseases, massacres and enslavement of the conquest ultimately fled into the forest and nearby islands. Indian slaves were replaced

by Africans.

The prosperity enjoyed during the first two centuries (1540–1740) while contributing to colonial growth; the placing of extensive regional judicial authority (Real Audiencia) as part of its jurisdiction; and the pivotal role it played at the height of the Spanish Empire -the first modern global empire- helped define a distinctive sense of autonomy and of regional or national identity within Panama well before the rest of the colonies.

In 1744, Bishop Francisco Javier de Luna Victoria DeCastro established the College of San Ignacio de Loyola and on June 3, 1749 founded La Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Javier. By this time, however, Panama's importance and influence had become insignificant as Spain's power dwindled in Europe and advances in navigation technique increasingly permitted to round Cape Horn in order to reach the Pacific.

While the Panama route was short it was also labor intensive and expensive because of the loading and unloading and laden-down trek required to get from the one coast to the other.

During the last half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, migrations to the countryside decreased Panama City's population and the isthmus' economy shifted from the tertiary to the primary sector.

In 1717, the viceroyalty of New Granada (northern South America) was created in response to other Europeans trying to take Spanish territory in the Caribbean region. The Isthmus of Panama was placed under its jurisdiction. However, the remoteness of Santa Fe de Bogotá proved a greater obstacle than the Spanish crown anticipated as the authority of New Granada was contested by the seniority, closer proximity, previous ties to the viceroyalty of Lima and even Panama's own initiative. This uneasy relationship between Panama and Bogotá would persist for a century or two.

Modern Panamanian history has been shaped by its transisthmian canal, which had been a dream since the beginning of Spanish colonization. From 1880 to 1890, a French company under Ferdinand de Lesseps attempted unsuccessfully to construct a sea-level canal on the site of the present Panama Canal.

On the other hand, the Panamanian movement for independence can be indirectly attributed to the abolishment of the encomienda system in Azuero, set forth by the Spanish Crown, in 1558 because of repeated protests by locals against the mistreatment of the native population. In its stead, a system of medium and smaller-sized landownership was promoted, thus taking away the power from the large landowners and into the hands of medium and small sized proprietors.

The end of the encomienda system in Azuero, however, sparked the conquest of Veraguas in that same year. Under the leadership of Francisco Vázquez, the region of Veraguas passed into Castillan rule in 1558.

In the newly conquered region, the old system of encomienda was imposed.

1800s:

On November 10, 1821, the Grito de La Villa de Los Santos (Cry From the Town of Saints) occurred. It was a unilateral decision by the residents of Azuero (without backing from Panama City) to declare their separation from the Spanish Empire. In both Veraguas and the capital this act was met with disdain, although on differing levels. To Veraguas, it was the ultimate act of treason, while to the capital, it was seen as inefficient and irregular, and furthermore forced them to accelerate their plans.

The Grito was an event that shook the isthmus to the core. It was a sign, on the part of the residents of Azuero, of their antagonism towards the independence movement in the capital, who in turn regarded the Azueran movement with contempt, since the separatists in Panama believed that their counterparts in Azuero were fighting selfishly for their right to rule, once the peninsulares(Spaniards born in the Iberian peninsula) were long gone.

It was an incredibly brave move on the part of Azuero, which lived in fear of Colonel José de Fábrega, and with good reason: the Colonel was a staunch loyalist, and had the entirety of the isthmus' military supplies in his hands. They feared quick retaliation and swift retribution against the separatists.

What they had counted on, however, was the influence of the separatists in the capital. Ever since October 1821, when the former Governor General, Juan de la Cruz Murgeón, left the isthmus on a campaign in Quito and left the Veraguan colonel in charge, the separatists had been slowly converting Fábrega to the separatist side. As such, by November 10, Fábrega was now a supporter of the independence movement.

Soon after the separatist declaration of Los Santos, Fábrega convened every organization in the capital with separatist interests and formally declared the city's support for independence. No military repercussions occurred because of the skillful bribing of royalist troops.

Post-colonial Panama:

In the first eighty years following independence from Spain, Panama was a department of Colombia, since voluntarily becoming part of it at the end of 1821. The people of the isthmus made several attempts to secede and came close to success in 1831, and again during the Thousand Days War of 1899–1902. When the Senate of Colombia rejected the Hay-Herran Treaty, the United States decided to support the Panamanian independence movement. In November 1903, Panama proclaimed its independence and concluded the Hay/Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the United States. The treaty granted rights to the United States "as if it were sovereign" in a zone roughly 10 miles (16 km) wide and 50 miles (80 km) long. In that zone, the U.S. would build a canal, then administer, fortify, and defend it "in perpetuity." In 1914, the United States completed the existing 83 km (52 mi) canal. The early 1960s saw the beginning of sustained pressure in Panama for the renegotiation of this treaty.

From 1903 until 1968, Panama was a constitutional democracy dominated by a commercially oriented oligarchy. During the 1950s, the Panamanian military began to challenge the oligarchy's political hegemony.

Amidst negotiations for the Robles-Johnson treaty, Panama held elections in 1967. The candidates were Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, Antonio González Revilla, and Engineer David Samudio, who had the government's support. Samudio was the candidate of Alianza del Pueblo ("People's Alliance"), Arias Madrid was the candidate of Unión Nacional ("National Union"), and González Revilla was the candidate ofDemocracia Cristiana ("Christian Democrats") (see Pizzurno Gelós and Araúz, Estudios sobre el Panamá republicano 508). Arias Madrid was declared the winner of elections that were marked by violence and accusations of fraud against Alianza del Pueblo. On October 1, 1968, Arias Madrid took office as president of Panama, promising to lead a government of "national union" that would end the reigning corruption and pave the way for a new Panama. A week and a half later, on October 11, 1968, the National Guard (Guardia Nacional) ousted Arias and initiated the downward spiral that would culminate with the United States' invasion in 1989. Arias, Santo Domingo Church. who had promised to respect the hierarchy of the National Guard, broke the pact and started a large restructuring of the Guard. To preserve the Guard's interests, Lieutenant Colonel Omar Torrijos Herrera and Major Boris Martínez commanded the first coup of a military force against a civilian government in Panamanian republican history.

The military justified itself by declaring that Arias Madrid was trying to install a dictatorship, and promised a return to constitutional rule. In the meantime, the Guard began a series of populist measures that would gain support for the coup. Amongst them were the freezing of prices on food, medicine and other goods until January 31, 1969, the freezing of renting prices, and the legalization of the permanence of squatting families in boroughs surrounding the historic site of Panama Viejo. Parallel to this, the military began a policy of repression against the opposition, who were labeled communists. The military appointed a Provisional Government Junta that would arrange new elections. However, the National Guard would prove to be very reluctant to abandon power and soon began calling itself El Gobierno Revolucionario ("The Revolutionary Government").

Post-1970:

During Omar Torrijos's control, the military regime transformed the political and economic structure of the country by initiating massive coverage of social security services and expanding public education. The constitution was changed in 1972. For the reform to the constitution, the military created a new organization, the Assembly of Corregimiento Representatives, which replaced the National Assembly. The new assembly, also known as the Poder Popular ("Power of the People"), was composed of 505 members selected by the military without the participation of political parties, which had been eliminated by the military. The new constitution proclaimed Omar Torrijos the "Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution," and conceded him unlimited power for six years, although, to keep a façade of constitutionality, Demetrio B. Lakas was appointed president for the same period (Pizzurno Gelós and Araúz, Estudios sobre el Panamá republicano 541). In 1981, Torrijos died in a planecrash. It has been widely speculated that his death was a CIA assassination due to his resistance to renegotiate the Panama Canal Treaty, negotiated under the Carter administration, with President Ronald Reagan. Torrijos' death altered the tone of Panama's political evolution.

Despite the 1983 constitutional amendments, which proscribed a political role for the military, the Panama Defense Forces (PDF), as they were then known, continued to dominate Panamanian political life. By this time, General Manuel Noriega was firmly in control of both the PDF and the civilian government.

In the 1984 elections, the candidates were Nicolás Ardito Barletta Vallarino, supported by the military in a union called UNADE; Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, for the opposition union ADO; the ex-General Rubén Darío Paredes, who had been forced to an early retirement by Noriega, running for Partido Nacionalista Popular PNP ("Popular Nationalist Party"), and Carlos Iván Zúñiga, running for Partido Acción Popular (PAPO) meaning "Popular Action Party". Nicolás Ardito Barleta was declared the winner of elections that had been clearly won by Arnulfo Arias Madrid. Ardito Barletta inherited a country in economic ruin and hugely indebted to the IMF and the World Bank. Amidst the economic crisis and Barletta's efforts to calm the country's creditors, street protests arose, and so did military repression.

Meanwhile, Noriega's regime had fostered the development of a well-hidden criminal economy that operated as a parallel source of income for the military and their allies, providing revenues from drugs and money laundering. Towards the end of the military dictatorship, a new wave of Chinese migrants arrived on the isthmus in the hope of migrating to the United States. The smuggling of Chinese became an enormous business, with revenues of up to 200 million dollars for Noriega's regime (see Mon 167).

The military dictatorship, at that time supported by the United States, perpetrated the assassination and torture of more than one hundred Panamanians and forced into exile at least another hundred dissidents (see Zárate 15). Noriega also began playing a double role in Central America under the supervision of the CIA. While the Contadora group conducted diplomatic efforts to achieve peace in the region, Noriega supplied the Nicaraguan Contras and other guerrillas in the region with weapons and ammunition (Pizzurno Gelós and Araúz, Estudios sobre el Panamá republicano 602).

On June 6, 1987, the recently retired Colonel Roberto Díaz Herrera, resentful for Noriega's violation of the "Torrijos Plan" of succession that would turn him into the chief of the military after Noriega, decided to denounce the regime. He revealed details of the electoral fraud, accused Noriega of planning Torrijos's death, declared that Torrijos had received 12 million dollars from the Shah of Iran so that Panama would give the exiled Iranian leader asylum, and blamed Noriega for the assassination by decapitation of opposition leader Dr. Hugo Spadafora (Pizzurno Gelós and Araúz, Estudios sobre el Panamá republicano 618).

On the night of June 9, 1987, the Cruzada Civilista ("Civic Crusade") was created and began organizing actions of civil disobedience. The Crusade called for a general strike. In response, the military suspended constitutional rights and declared a state of emergency in the country. On July 10, the Civic Crusade called for a massive demonstration that was violently repressed by the "Dobermans," the military's special riot control unit. That day, later known as El Viernes Negro ("Black Friday"), left six hundred people injured and another six hundred detained, many of whom were later tortured and raped.

United States President Ronald Reagan began a series of sanctions against the military regime. The United States froze economic and military assistance to Panama in the summer of 1987 in response to the domestic political crisis in Panama and an attack on the U.S. Embassy. Yet these sanctions did little to overthrow Noriega but instead severely damaged Panama's economy. The sanctions hit the Panamanian population hard and caused the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to decline almost 25 percent between 1987–1989 (see Acosta n.p.).

On February 5, 1988, General Manuel Antonio Noriega was accused of drug trafficking by federal juries in Tampa and Miami.

In April 1988, the U.S. President Ronald Reagan invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, freezing Panamanian government assets in all U.S. organizations. In May 1989 Panamanians voted overwhelmingly for the anti-Noriega candidates. The Noriega regime promptly annulled the election and embarked on a new round of repression.

On 19 December, President George H. W. Bush decided to use force against Panama, declaring that the operation was necessary to safeguard the lives of U.S. citizens in Panama, defend democracy and human rights, combat drug trafficking, and secure the functioning of the Canal as required by the Torrijos-Carter Treaties (New York Times, A Transcript of President Bush's Address n.p.).

Operation Just Cause was justified by the United States as necessary to secure the functioning of the Canal and re-establish democracy in the country. Although described as a surgical maneuver, the action led to civilian deaths whose estimated numbers range from 400 to 4,000 during the two weeks of armed activities in the largest United States military operation since the end of theVietnam War. For some commentators, the action was not intended only to rid Panama of the dictatorship but served also to reinforce United States authority over the region right at the end of the Cold War, as well as use Panama as practice field for weapons and strategies that would shortly after be used in the Gulf War (Cajar Páez 22).

The urban population, living below the poverty level, was greatly affected by the 1989 invasion, becoming the ‘collateral cost’ of the democratization of the country. As pointed out in 1995 by a UN Technical Assistance Mission to Panama, the bombardments during the invasion caused the displacement of 20,000 persons. The most stricken district was El Chorrillo where several blocks of apartments were completely destroyed. El Chorrillo had been since Canal construction days a series of wooden barracks; these easily caught fire under the United States attack. According to the Technical Mission, the displaced were segregated to unfinished USAID dwellings, far from communications and basic services, or were sent back to live in El Chorrillo's new low-standard multi-family buildings constructed hastily by the Panamanian government in replacement of their lost homes (see Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, n.p.).

As stated by respondents in a 2005 survey conducted in El Chorrillo, after the invasion, crime and drug trafficking increased, and living conditions in the neighborhood worsened. Coleen Acosta points out that "the intervention added further to (Panama's) economic decline. Some sections of Panama City were heavily damaged, leaving thousands homeless, and subsequent looting left businesses with damages in the hundreds of millions. The economic damage caused by the invasion and subsequent civil disobedience has been estimated to be between 1.5 and 2 billion dollars (...) Unemployment rose to record highs as the government infrastructure was left in chaos. According to the Chamber of Commerce, 10,000 employees lost their jobs in the aftermath of the war (n.p.).

The U.S. troops involved in Operation Just Cause achieved their primary objectives, and Noriega eventually surrendered to U.S. authorities. He completed his sentence for drug trafficking charges in September 2007.

In August 2007, a U.S. federal court in Miami found Noriega extraditable to France, where he was convicted in absentia for money laundering. Noriega was extradited to France on April 26, 2010 and his trial started on June 28, 2010 in Paris, France. On July 7, 2010, Noriega was convicted by the 11th chamber of the Tribunal Correctionnel de Paris, and sentenced to seven years in jail. The prosecutor in the case had sought a ten-year prison term. In addition, €2.3 million (approximately US$3.6 million) that has long been frozen in Noriega's French bank accounts was ordered to be seized.

Post-invasion era:

Panama's Electoral Tribunal moved quickly to rebuild the civilian constitutional government, reinstated the results of the May 1989 election on December 27, 1989, and confirmed the victory of President Guillermo Endara and Vice Presidents Guillermo Ford and Ricardo Arias Calderon.

During its five-year term, the often-fractious government struggled to meet the public's high expectations. Its new police force was a major improvement over its predecessor but was not fully able to deter crime. Ernesto Pérez Balladares was sworn in as President on September 1, 1994, after an internationally monitored election campaign.

Perez Balladares ran as the candidate for a three-party coalition dominated by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the erstwhile political arm of military dictatorships. Perez Balladares worked skillfully during the campaign to rehabilitate the PRD's image, emphasizing the party's populist Torrijos roots rather than its association with Noriega. He won the election with only 33% of the vote when the major non-PRD forces splintered into competing factions. His administration carried out economic reforms and often worked closely with the U.S. on implementation of the Canal treaties.

On September 1, 1999, Mireya Moscoso, the widow of former President Arnulfo Arias Madrid, took office after defeating PRD candidate Martin Torrijos, son of Omar Torrijos, in a free and fair election.

During her administration, Moscoso attempted to strengthen social programs, especially for child and youth development, protection, and general welfare. Moscoso's administration successfully handled the Panama Canal transfer and was effective in the administration of the Canal.

The PRD's Martin Torrijos won the presidency and a legislative majority in the National Assembly in 2004. Torrijos ran his campaign on a platform of, among other pledges, a "zero tolerance" for corruption, a problem endemic to the Moscoso and Perez Balladares administrations. After taking office, Torrijos passed a number of laws which made the government more transparent. He formed a National Anti-Corruption Council whose members represented the highest levels of government, as well as civil society, labor organizations, and religious leadership. In addition, many of his closest Cabinet ministers were non-political technocrats known for their support for the Torrijos government's anti-corruption aims. Despite the Torrijos administration's public stance on corruption, many highprofile cases, particularly involving political or business elites, were never acted upon.

Conservative supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli was elected to succeed Martin Torrijos with a landslide victory at the May 2009 presidential election. Mr. Martinelli's business credentials drew voters worried by slowing growth due to the world financial crisis. Standing for the four-party opposition Alliance for Change, Mr. Martinelli gained 60% of the vote, against 37% for the candidate of the governing left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party.

W.V.S. Tubman`s Birthday LIBERIA- N o v 2 9

William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman (November 29, 1895 – July 23, 1971) was a Liberian politician. He was the 19th President of Liberia from 1944 until his death in 1971.

He is regarded as the "father of modern Liberia"; his presidency was marked by the influx of foreign investment in his country and its modernization. During his tenure, Liberia experienced a period of prosperity. He also led a policy of national unity in order to reduce the social and political differences between his fellow Americo-Liberians and the indigenous Liberians. However, further into his years in power, his way of governing became increasingly dictatorial.

Youth and early political career Tubman was born November 29, 1895, in

Harper, Liberia. William Tubman's father, the Reverend Alexander Tubman, was a stonemason, general in the Liberian army and a former Speaker of the Liberian House of Representatives, as well as a Methodist preacher. Alexander Tubman's parents, Sylvia and William Shadrach Tubman, were part of a group of 69 slaves freed and sent to Liberia by Emily Tubman, a philanthropic widow living in Augusta, Georgia, in 1844. Emily Tubman had been instrumental in the manumission and repatriation of African slaves in theantebellum South. They took the name Tubman after arriving in the country, naming their community Tubman Hill. His mother, Elizabeth Rebecca Barnes Tubman, came from Atlanta,Georgia. His father required him and his other four children to attend daily family prayer services and sleep on the floor because, he thought, beds were too soft and therefore "degrading to character development."

Tubman, the second son, went to primary school in Harper, then the Methodist Cape Palmas Seminary, and finally Harper County High School. He participated in several military operations from 1910 and 1917, rising from a private to become an officer. Tubman first planned to be a preacher and was named, at age 19, a Methodist lay pastor.

After studying law under various private tutors, he passed the bar examination and became a lawyer in 1917. Subsequently, he served as a recorder in the Maryland County Monthly and Probate Court a tax collector, teacher, and even a colonel in a militia. He also attended Freemason lodges of the Prince Hall Freemasonry sect.

Having joined the True Whig Party (TWP), the dominating party of Liberia since 1878, Tubman began his career in politics. In 1923, aged 28, he was elected to the Senate of Liberia from Maryland County, holding the record as the youngest senator in the history of Liberia.Labeling himself the "Convivial Cannibal from the Downcoast Hinterlands," he fought for constitutional rights for the indigenous tribal groups that were the majority of Liberians.

Re-elected to his post in 1929, Tubman became, while a Senator, the legal adviser to then-vice president Allen Yancy. He resigned from the Senate in 1931 to defend Liberia before the League of Nations amid allegations that his country was using slave labor. However, Tubman was reelected to the national legislature in 1934, though he resigned in 1937 when President Edwin Barclay appointed him associate justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, a post he held until 1943. An official biography speculates that Tubman's elevation to the Liberian Supreme Court was created to remove him from actively seeking the presidency.

The new president of Liberia

In December 1942, Liberia was faced with the question of the succession of President Edwin Barclay. Six candidates then applied, including two favorites: Tubman and Foreign Minister Clarence L. Simpson. Without much opposition from Simpson, Tubman was elected president on May 4, 1943, at the age of 48, and was inaugurated January 3, 1944.

While Liberia's ally, the United States, had already used Liberia as a military base, it was not until January 27, 1944, that Liberia renounced its neutrality and declared war on Germany and Japan. In April 1944, Liberia signed the Declaration by United Nations.

Severing diplomatic relations with Germany and expelling all German citizens from Liberia was a difficult decision for Liberia to make for several reasons: (1) German merchants in Liberia ran the Liberian economy; (2) Germany was Liberia's major trading partner; and (3), most of the doctors in Liberia were Germans. Despite the fact that Liberia found itself between a rock and a hard place, it agreed to expel all German residents and declare the full might of the Liberian economy against Nazi Germany and the Axis powers.

In foreign policy, Tubman aligned himself with the US (in June, 1944 he and Edwin Barclay traveled to the White House to be guests of President Franklin D. Roosevelt — the first African heads of state to have this happen) while strengthening ties among fellow Africans by participating in the Asian-African Conference of 1955 and the First Conference of Independent African States in Accra, organized by Kwame Nkrumah in 1958. In 1959, Tubman organized the Second Conference of African States.

In 1961, following a Pan-African conference held in Monrovia, Tubman helped in the founding of the group of Monrovia. This association of "moderate" African leaders worked for gradual unification of Africa, unlike the "revolutionary" group of Casablanca.

The "father of modern Liberia" The modernizer of Liberia:

Upon Tubman's succession to the Supreme Court, infrastructure in Liberia was virtually non-existent. Tubman explained this situation by the fact that Liberia never received "benefits of colonization". To remedy this problem, he decided to set up an economic policy, called the "porte ouverte" ("open door") policy. Working to facilitate and encourage foreign businesses to locate in Liberia, this policy was very successful, and between 1944 and 1970, the value of foreign investments, mainly American, increased two hundredfold. From 1950-1960, Liberia experienced an average annual growth of 11.5%.

This economic success for Liberia allowed Tubman to begin its modernization: the streets of Monrovia were paved, a sanitation system was created, hospitals were built, and a literacy program was launched in 1948. Tubman built several thousand kilometers of roads and established a railway line to connect the iron mines to the coast. During this period, he transformed the Port of Monrovia into a free port.

Economic prosperity:

In early 1960, Liberia began to experience its first real era of prosperity, thanks in part to Tubman's modernization of infrastructure.

Regarded as a pro-Western, stabilizing influence in West Africa, Tubman was courted by many Western politicians, notably U.S. PresidentLyndon B. Johnson. Meanwhile, Tubman courted Amy Ashwood Garvey, and had a long-term relationship with her.

A gunman attempted to assassinate Tubman in 1955 at the behest of his political opponents, after which he cracked down brutally on any known opposition politicians.

Legacy:

Tubman's term is best known for the policies of National Unification and the economic Open Door. He tried to reconcile the interests of the native tribes with those of the Americo-Liberian elite, and increased foreign investment in Liberia to stimulate economic growth. These policies led to the crowning achievement of the Liberian economy during the 1950s, when it had the second largest rate of economic growth in the world. At his death in 1971 in a London clinic, Liberia had the largest mercantile fleet in the world, the world's largest rubber industry, the third largest exporter of iron ore in the world and had attracted more than US$1 billion in foreign investment. He was succeeded as President by his long-time vice president William Tolbert. The economic prosperity of Liberia at this time would unleash political dissent with the autocratic rule of Tubman and the True Whig Party, leading to the overthrow of the True Whig oligarchy in 1980 by Samuel Doe. This would also destroy the economic prosperity of Liberia's golden age.

St. Andrew's Day Haiti, Scotland, UK - N o v 3 0

St. Andrew's Day is the feast day of Saint Andrew. It is celebrated on 30 November.

Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, and St. Andrew's Day (Scottish Gaelic: Latha Naomh Anndra) is Scotland's official national day. In 2006, the Scottish Parliament designated St. Andrew's Day as an official bank holiday.

Although most commonly associated with Scotland, Saint Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Romania, Russia and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

In Germany, the feast day is celebrated as Andreasnacht ("St. Andrew's Night"), in Austria with the custom of Andreasgebet ("St. Andrew's Prayer"), and in Poland as Andrzejki ("Andrews").

Traditions and celebrain Scotland tions In 2006, the Scottish Parliament passed the St An-

drew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007, which designated the Day as an official bank holiday. If 30 November falls on a weekend, the next Monday is a bank holiday instead.

The notion that the day should be an official bank holiday was first proposed by Dennis Canavan, Independent Member of the Scottish Parliament for Falkirk West in 2003. However, the Bill he introduced to the Parliament was initially rejected as the Executive did not support it. A compromise deal was reached whereby the holiday would not be an additional entitlement. Then First Minister, Jack McConnell, stated that he believed that employers and employees should mark the day with a holiday, but that this should be as a substitute for an existing local holiday, rather than an additional one.

Although it is a bank holiday, banks are not required to close and employers are not required to give their employees the day off as a holiday. St Andrew's Day is an official flag day in Scotland. The Scottish Government's flag-flying regulations state that the Flag of Scotland (The Saltire) shall fly on all its buildings with a flagpole. The Union Flag is also flown if the building has more than one flagpole. The arrangements for the United Kingdom Government in Scotland are the opposite. They fly the Union Flag, and will only fly the Saltire if there is more than one flagpole.

The flying of the Saltire on St Andrew's Day is a recent development. Prior to 2002, the Scottish Government followed the UK Government's flag days and would only fly the Union Flag on St Andrew's Day. This led to Members of the Scottish Parliament complaining that Scotland was the only country in the world that could not fly its national flag on its national day. The regulations were updated to state that the Union Flag would be removed and replaced by the Saltire on buildings with only one flagpole.

The flying of the Union Flag from Edinburgh Castle on all days, including St Andrew's Day causes anger among some Scottish National Party politicians who have argued that the Saltire should fly on 30 November instead. However, the Union Flag is flown by the British Army at the Castle as it still is an official British Army flag flying station, and all Army installations fly the Union Flag at ratio 3:5. Historic Scotland, a Scottish Government agency, lease part of the Castle to the British Army. The British Army has been criticised for refusing to fly the Saltire above Edinburgh Castle, but dropping the Union Flag in its recruitment campaigns in Scotland instead preferring the Saltire, a decision branded hypocritical by SNP politicians.

The University of St Andrews gives the day for all the students as a free holiday.

traditions in continental Europe Related In parts of Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland,

and Romania, superstitious belief exists that the night before St. Andrew's Day is specially suitable for magic that reveals a young woman's future husband or that binds a future husband to her. Many related customs exist: for example, the pouring of hot lead into water (in Poland, one usually pours hot wax from a candle through a key hole into cold water), divining the future husband's profession from the shape of the resulting piece (related divinations using molten metals are still popular in Germany on Hogmanay). In some areas in Austria, young women would drink wine and then perform a spell, called Andreasgebet(Saint Andrew's prayer), while nude and kicking a straw bed. This was supposed to magically attract the future husband. Yet another custom is to throw a clog over one's shoulder: if it lands pointing to the door, the woman will get married in the same year.

In some parts of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, young women would write down the names of potential husbands on little pieces of paper and stick these into little pieces of dough, called Halusky.

When cooked, the first one to float to the surface of the water would reveal the name of their future husband.

In Poland, some women put pieces of paper (on which they have written potential husbands) under the pillow and first thing in the morning they take one out, which allegedly reveals their future husband.

In Romania, it is customary for young women to put 41 grains of wheat beneath their pillow before they go to sleep, and if they dream that someone is coming to steal their grains that means that they are going to get married next year. Also in some other parts of the country the young women light a candle from the Easter and bring it, at midnight, to a fountain. They ask St. Andrew to let them glimpse their future husband. St. Andrew is also the national saint of Romanians and Romanian Orthodox Church.

Barbados

Saint Andrew's Day is celebrated as the national day of Independence in Barbados. As the patron saint of Barbados, Saint Andrew is celebrated in a number of Barbadian symbols including the cross formation of the Coat of Arms, and the nation's national honours system which styles persons as Knights or Dames of St. Andrew.

Great Union Day ROMANIA - D e c 1

Great Union Day (Romanian: Ziua Marii Uniri, also called Unification Day) occurring on December 1, is the national holiday of Romania. It commemorates the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia, which declared the Union of Transylvania with Romania.

This holiday was set after the 1989 Romanian Revolution and it marks the unification of Transylvania, but also of the provinces of Bessarabia and Bukovina with the Romanian Kingdom, in 1918.

Prior to 1918, the national holiday of Romania was set to be on May 10, which had a double meaning: it was the day on which Carol I set foot on the Romanian soil (in 1866), and it was the day on which the prince ratified the Declaration of Independence (from the Ottoman Empire) in 1877.

In Communist Romania, the date of the national holiday was set to August 23 to mark the 1944 overthrow of the pro-fascist government of Marshal Ion Antonescu.

Alba Iulia National Assembly

On December 1, 1918 (November 18 Old Style), the National Assembly of Romanians of Transylvania and Hungary, consisting of 1,228 elected representatives of the Romanians in Transylvania, Banat, Crişana and Maramureş, convened in Alba Iulia and decreed (by unanimous vote) the unification of those Romanians and of all the territories inhabited by them with Romania.

The Resolution voted by the National Assembly stipulated also the "fundamental principles for the foundation of the new Romanian State". It was conditional, and demanded the preservation of a democratic local autonomy, the equality of all nationalities and religions.

The Assembly also formed from 200 of its members, plus 50 co-opted members aHigh National Romanian Council of Transylvania, the new permanent parliament of Transylvania.

The next day, on December 2, 1918 the High National Romanian Council of Transylvania formed a government under the name of Directory Council of Transylvania (Consiliul Dirigent al Transilvaniei), headed by Iuliu Maniu.

On December 11, 1918, King Ferdinand signed the Law The National Assembly in Alba Iulia regarding the Union of Transylvania, Banat, Crişana, the (December 1, 1918) Satmar and Maramureş with the Old Kingdom of Romania, decreeing that The lands named in the resolution of the Alba-Iulia National Assembly of the 18th of November 1918 are and remain forever united with the Kingdom of Romania.

Restoration Day PORTUGAL - D e c 1

Portuguese Restoration War (Portuguese: Guerra da Restauração) was the name given by nineteenth-century 'romantic' historians to the war between Portugal and Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon (1668). The revolution of 1640 ended the sixty-year period of dual monarchy in Portugal and Spain under the Spanish Habsburgs. The period from 1640 to 1668 was marked by periodic skirmishes between Portugal and Spain, as well as short episodes of more serious warfare, much of it occasioned by Spanish and Portuguese entanglements with non-Iberian powers.

In the seventeenth century and afterwards, this period of sporadic conflict was simply known, in Portugal and elsewhere, as the Acclamation War. The war established the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza, by deposing a foreign king, Philip IV of Spain, and acclaiming another one, João IV of Portugal, who was more legitimate and suitable to the Portuguese. This ended the so-called Iberian Union.

Events leading to revolution

When Philip II of Portugal (known as Philip III in Spain) died, he was succeeded by Philip III (Philip IV of Spain) who had a different approach to Portuguese issues. Taxes on the Portuguese merchants were raised, the Portuguese nobility began to lose its influence at the Spanish Cortes, and government posts in Portugal were increasingly occupied by Spaniards. Ultimately, Philip III tried to make Portugal a Spanish province, and Portuguese nobles stood to lose all of their power.

This situation culminated in a coup d'état organized by the nobility and bourgeoisie, executed on 1 December 1640, sixty years after the crowning of Philip I (Philip II of Spain), the first "dual monarch". The plot was planned by Antão Vaz de Almada, Miguel de Almeida, and João Pinto Ribeiro. They, together with several associates, killed the Secretary of State, Miguel de Vasconcelos, and imprisoned the king's cousin, Margaret of Savoy, who had been governing Portugal in his name.

The moment was well chosen; Philip's troops were, at the time, fighting the Thirty Years' War and also facing a revolution in Catalonia which became known as the Reapers' War. The support of the people became apparent almost immediately, and, within a matter of hours, John, 8th Duke of Braganza was acclaimed as King John IV of Portugal; the news spread like wildfire throughout the country. By 2 December 1640, the day following the coup, John IV, acting in his capacity as sovereign of the country, had already sent a letter to the Municipal Chamber of Évora.

The ensuing conflict with Spain brought Portugal into the Thirty Years War as, at least, a peripheral player. From 1641 to 1668, the period during which the two nations were at war, Spain Acclamation of John IV as King of Portugal, sought to isolate Portugal militarily and diplomatically, and Por- painting by Veloso Salgado in the Military tugal tried to find the resources to maintain its independence Museum, Lisbon.) through savvy political alliances and maintenance of its colonial income.

Preparations for war Immediately after assuming the Portuguese throne, João IV took several steps to strengthen his position. On 11 December 1640,

a 'Council of War' was created to organize all of the operations. Next, the king created the 'Junta of the Frontiers' to take care of the fortresses near the border, the hypothetical defense of Lisbon, and the garrisons and sea ports. A year later, in December 1641, he created a tenancy to assure that all of the country's fortresses would be upgraded and that the improvements would be financed with regional taxes. João IV also organized the army, re-established the 'Military Laws of King Sebastian', and undertook a diplomatic campaign focused on restoring good relations with England.

After gaining several small victories, João tried to make peace quickly. However, his demand that Philip recognize the new ruling dynasty in Portugal was not fulfilled until the reign of his son, Afonso VI, during the regency of Peter of Braganza (another of his sons who later became King Peter II of Portugal.) Difficulties with Spain lasted twenty-eight years.

Context: relations among the European powers Relations between France and Spain:

In 1640, Cardinal Richelieu, then chief adviser to Louis XIII of France, was fully aware of the fact that France was operating under strained circumstances. She was at war with Castile at that time; she had to control rebellions within France that were supported and financed by Madrid; and she had to send French armies to fight the Spanish Habsburgs on three different fronts.

In addition to their shared frontier at the Pyrenees, Philip IV of Spain, formerly Philip III of Portugal as well, reigned, under various titles, in Flanders and Franche-Comté, to the north and east of France. In addition, Philip IV controlled large territories in Italy, where he could, at will, impose a fourth front by attacking French-controlled Savoy. (In Savoy, Christine Marie of France was acting as regent on behalf of her young son, Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy.)

Spain enjoyed a reputation as having the most formidable military force in Europe, a reputation they had gained with the introduction of the arquebus. Therefore, the consummate statesman, Richelieu, decided to force Philip IV to look to his own internal problems. In order to divert the Spanish troops besieging France, Louis XIII, on the advice of Richelieu, supported the claim of João IV of Portugal during the Acclamation War. This was done on the reasoning that a Portuguese war would drain Spanish resources and manpower.

Relations between Portugal and France:

To fulfill the common foreign-policy interests of Portugal and France, a treaty of alliance between the two countries was concluded at Paris on 1 June 1641. It lasted eighteen years before Richelieu's successor as unofficial foreign minister, Cardinal Mazarin, broke the treaty and abandoned his Portuguese and Catalan allies to sign a separate peace with Madrid. The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in 1659, under the terms of which France received the portion of Catalonia north of the Pyrenees, known as the Roussillon, and part of the Cerdanya (French Cerdagne). Most important to the Portuguese, the French recognised Philip IV of Spain as the legitimate king of Portugal.

Seven years later, in the late stages of the Portuguese Restoration War, relations between the two countries thawed to the extent that the young (but sickly) Afonso VI of Portugal married a French princess, Marie Françoise of Nemours.

Relations between Portugal and the Netherlands:

At the time of the coup in Lisbon (December 1640), the Portuguese had been at war with the Dutch for nearly forty years. A good deal of the conflict can be attributed to the fact that Spain and the Netherlands were concurrently engaged in the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648), and, ever since hostilities between Portugal and the Netherlands erupted in 1602, Portugal had been ruled by a Spanish monarch.

The Dutch-Portuguese War was fought almost entirely overseas, with the Dutch mercantile surrogates, the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, repeatedly attacking Portugal's colonial possessions in the Americas, in Africa, in India, and in the Far East. Portugal was in a defensive posture throughout, and it received very little military help from Spain.

After the acclamation of João IV, this pattern persisted all over the Portuguese Empire until the final expulsion of the Dutch from Angola (1648), São Tomé and Príncipe (1649), and Brazil (1654). The Dutch signed a European truce with Portugal, helping each other somewhat against their common enemy, Castile. The Dutch resumed buying salt in the Setúbal salt factories, restarting commerce between the two countries for the first time since 1580, when the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, against whom the Dutch were in revolt, had assumed the Portuguese throne.

Relations between Portugal and England:

England was, at this time, embroiled in its own civil war. Portuguese problems in dealing with England arose from the fact that the English Parliament fought and won its anti-royalist war while, at the same time, Portugal's royal court continued to receive and recognize English princes and nobles. These strained relations persisted during the short-lived Commonwealth period in the British Isles, when the republican government that had deposed Charles I ruled the country.

After the restoration of the Stuart dynasty in England (as well as Scotland and Ireland), it became possible for Portugal to compensate for the loss of limited French support by renewing its traditional alliance with England. This took the form of a dynastic marriage between Charles II and Afonso VI's sister, Catherine of Braganza, which assured Portugal of outside support in its conflict with Castile. It was largely due to the English alliance that peace with Spain became possible at war's end; Spain had been drained by the Thirty Years' War, and it had no stomach for further warfare with other European powers, especially a resurgent England.

war The Militarily, the Portuguese Restoration War consisted mainly of border skirmishes and cavalry raids to sack border towns, combined

with occasional invasions and counter-invasions, many of them half-hearted and under-financed. There were only five major set-piece battles during twenty-eight years of hostilities.

The war may be considered to have had three periods: first, an early stage (1640-1646) when a few major en• gagements demonstrated that the Portuguese could not be easily returned to submission to Spain; second, a long period (1646–1660) of military stand• offs, characterized by small-scale raiding, while Spain concentrated on its military commitments elsewhere in Europe; and, third, a final period (1660–1668) during which the Span• ish king, Philip IV, unsuccessfully sought a decisive victory that would bring an end to hostilities.

The first stage: skirmishes:

Hoping for a quick victory in Portugal, Spain immediately committed seven regiments to the Portuguese frontier, but delays by the count of Monterrey, a commander with more interest in the comforts of life at camp than the battlefield, squandered any immediate advantage. A Portuguese counter-thrust in late 1641 failed, and the conflict soon settled into a stalemate.

The battle of Montijo:

On 26 May 1644, a large column of Spanish troops and mercenaries, commanded by the Neapolitan marquis of Torrecusa, was stopped at the Battle of Montijo by the Portuguese, who were led by the Brazilian-trained Matias de Albuquerque, one of a number of experienced Portuguese colonial officers who rose to prominence during the war.

The siege of Elvas:

Shortly thereafter, in November 1644, Torrecusa crossed from Badajoz, in a rare winter campaign, to attack the Portuguese town of Elvas, which he besieged for nine days. He suffered heavy losses and was forced back across the border.

Atrocities:

The war now took on a peculiar character. It became a frontier confrontation, often between local forces, neighbors who knew each other well, but this familiarity did not moderate the destructive and bloodthirsty impulses of either side. The wanton nature of the combat was often exacerbated by the use of mercenaries and foreign conscripts; incidents of singular cruelty were reported on both sides. The Portuguese settled old animosities that had festered during sixty years of Spanish domination, and the Spanish often took the view that their opponents were disloyal and rebellious subjects, not an opposing army entitled to respectful treatment under the rules of combat.

Scope of the war:

Acclamation of John IV as King of Portugal, painting by Veloso Salgado in the Military Museum, Lisbon.)

Three theaters of warfare were eventually opened, but most activity focused on the northern front, near Galicia, and on the central frontier between Portuguese Alentejo and Spanish Extremadura.

The southern front, where the Portuguese Algarve abuts Spanish Andalusia, was a logical target for Portugal, but it was never the focus of a Portuguese attack, probably because the Portuguese queen, Luisa de Guzmán, was the sister of the duke of Medina Sidonia, the leading noble of Andalusia.

Attrition and corruption:

Spain, at first, made the war a defensive one. Portugal, for its part, felt no need to take Spanish territory in order to win, and it too was willing to make the war a defensive contest. Campaigns typically consisted of correrias (cavalry raids) to burn fields, sack towns, and steal large herds of enemy cattle and sheep. Soldiers and officers, many of them mercenaries, were primarily interested in booty and prone to desertion. For long periods, without men or money, neither side mounted formal campaigns, and when actions were taken, they were often driven as much by political considerations, such as Portugal's need to impress potential allies, as by clear military objectives. Year after year, given the problems of campaigning in the winter, and the heat and dry conditions of summer, most of the serious fighting was confined to two relatively-short "campaign seasons" in the spring and fall.

The war settled into a pattern of mutual destruction. As early as December 1641, it was common to hear Spaniards throughout the country lament that "Extremadura is finished." Tax collectors, recruiting officers, billeted soldiers, and depredations by Spanish and foreign troops were loathed and feared by the Spanish population as much as raids by the enemy. In Extremadura, local militias bore the brunt of the fighting until 1659, and the absence of these part-time soldiers was extremely harmful to agriculture and local finances. Since there was often no money to pay or support the troops (or to reward their commanders), the Spanish crown turned a blind eye to the smuggling, contraband, profiteering, disorder, and destruction that had become rampant on the frontier. Similar conditions also existed among the Portuguese.

The second stage: defensive stand-off:

The war was also expensive. In the 1650s, there were over 20,000 Spanish troops in Extremadura alone, compared to 27,000 in Flanders. Between 1649 and 1654, about 29 percent (over six million ducats) of Spanish defence spending was appropriated for fighting Portugal, a figure that rose during the major campaigns of the 1660s. Portugal was able to finance its war effort because of its ability to tax the spice trade with Asia and the sugar trade from Brazil, and it received some support from the European opponents of Spain, particularly Holland, France, and England.

The 1650s were indecisive militarily but important on the political and diplomatic fronts. The death of João IV in 1656 signalled the beginning of the regency of his wife, followed by a succession crisis and a palace coup (1662). Despite these domestic problems, the expulsion of the Dutch from Brazil (1654) and the signing of a treaty with England (also in 1654) improved Portugal's diplomatic and financial Louis XIII of France. position temporarily and gave it needed protection against a naval raid on Lisbon.

Nonetheless, the overriding goal, a formal pact with France continued to evade Portugal, whose weakness and isolation had been driven home by its virtual exclusion at the negotiations for the European settlement-of-settlements, the new realpolitik of the peace of Westphalia(1648).

With this treaty and the end of hostilities in Catalonia in 1652, Spain was again ready to direct its efforts against Portugal, but it faced a lack of men, resources, and, especially, good military commanders.

The third stage: Portuguese victory:

By 1662, Spain had committed itself to a major effort to end the rebellion. John of Austria the Younger, Philip IV's illegitimate son, led 14,000 men into Alentejo, and, the following year, they succeeded in taking Évora, the major city of the region. The Portuguese, under António Luís de Meneses, 1st Marquess of Marialva and the German soldier of fortune, Friedrich Hermann von Schönberg, the duke of Schomberg, who had been contracted, along with other foreign officers and over 2,000 English troops to bolster the leadership of Portuguese forces, were able to turn the tide. They defeated the Spanish in a major engagement at Ameixial on 8 June 1663, and this forced John of Austria to abandon Évora and retreat across the border.

The Portuguese now had some 30,000 troops in the Alentejo-Extremadura theater, but they could not draw the Spanish into a major engagement until June 1665, when a new Spanish commander, the marquis of Caracena, took over Vila Viçosa with about 23,000 men, including recruits from Germany and Italy. The Portuguese relief column under António Luís de Meneses and Schomberg met them atMontes Claros on 17 June 1665. The Portuguese infantry and gun emplacements broke the Spanish cavalry, and the Spanish force lost over 10,000 men, including casualties and prisoners. Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese retook Vila Viçosa. These were the last major engagements of the war.

Both sides returned to skirmishing campaigns. Portugal, with the intercession of its English ally, had sought a truce, but after the decisive Portuguese victory at Montes Claros and with the signing of a Franco-Portuguese treaty in 1667, Spain finally agreed to recognize Portugal's independence on 13 February 1668.

Recapitulation:

The five major battles of the war were: • the Battle of Montijo on 26 May 1644; • the Battle of the Lines of Elvas on 14 January 1659; • the Battle of Ameixial on 8 June 1663; • the Battle of Castelo Rodrigo on 7 July 1664; and • the Battle of Montes Claros on 17 June 1665.

The Portuguese were victorious in all of these engagements, and peace was concluded, with the help of English mediation, by the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668.

Timeline:

• 1640: A small group of conspirators stormed the royal palace in Lisbon and deposed the Spanish vicereine, the Duchess of Mantua, Margaret of Savoy on 1 December 1640. She, famously, tried to calm the Portuguese people during demonstrations in the Terreiro do Paço, at the time, Lisbon's main square, but her efforts failed. The Duke of Bragança, head of the senior family among the Portuguese nobility, accepted the throne as João IV of Portugal later the same day. João IV's entire reign was dominated by the struggle to establish and maintain independence from Spain.

• 1641: A counter-revolution mounted by the Inquisition failed. It was quelled by Francisco de Lucena, who had its leaders executed. Miguel Luís de Menezes II, 2nd Duke of Caminha, was executed for continuing to support the Habsburgs' claim to the Portuguese throne.

• 1641: Portugal signed alliances with France (1 June 1641) and Cardinal Mazarin Sweden (August 1641).

• 1641: Portugal and the Dutch Republic signed a 'Treaty of Offensive and Defensive Alliance', otherwise known as the Treaty of The Hague, on 12 July 1641. The treaty was not respected by either party; as a consequence, it had no effect on the Portuguese dependencies of Brazil and Angola that were under Dutch occupation.

• 1641: The Dutch began their occupation of São Tomé and of Ano Bom on 16 October 1641, where they remained until 6 January 1649. This was clearly a violation of the agreement made with Portugal only three months earlier.

• 1641: Portugal was ousted from Malacca by the Dutch.

• 1642: The Dutch took over all of the Portuguese Gold Coast (now Ghana).

• 1643: At the Battle of Rocroi (19 May 1643), in the Ardennes, the French defeated the Spanish.

• 1644: The Battle of Montijo near Badajoz, between the Portuguese and the Spanish, was fought on 26 May 1644.

1644: The Portuguese city of Elvas withstood a nine-day siege by Spanish troops.

• • 1648: The Sultan of Oman, in alliance with the Dutch, captured Muscat, which had been a Portuguese trading outpost on the Arabian peninsula.

• 1648: Colonial Brazilian troops under Salvador Correia de Sá landed in Angola, took Luanda, and expelled the Dutch, thereby restoring the African colony to Portugal.

1649: The Dutch were ousted from São Tomé and Príncipe.

• • 1654: The Anglo-Portuguese treaty between João IV and Oliver Cromwell was signed atWestminster. João agreed to prevent the molestation of English traders in Portugal and its possessions; they were allowed to use their own bible and to bury their dead according to Protestant rites even though they were on Catholic soil.

• 1654: Colonial Brazilian troops drove the Dutch out of the great plantation colonies of northeastern Brazil, re-establishing the territorial integrity of Portugal’s South American holdings.

• 1656: Portugal lost control of Colombo in Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) to the Dutch.

1656: João IV died on 6 November 1656 after a reign of fifteen years. His queen, who was bornLuisa de Guzman • (1613-1666), the eldest daughter of the Spanish grandee, the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, then reigned as regent for their son, Afonso VI of Portugal. She began seeking an accommodation with Spain.

• 1658: The Dutch took Jaffnapatam, Portugal's last colony in Sri Lanka.

• 1659: The Battle of the Lines of Elvas was fought on 14 January 1659. Portuguese troops, under the command of the marquis of Marialva, António Luís de Meneses, and Sancho Manoel de Vilhena, scored a resounding victory over the Spanish.

1659: The Spanish besieged the Portuguese town of Monção, on the northern frontier with Galicia, but they were • driven off.

1659: The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed on 7 November 1659, ending Spain's long war with France, and • Spanish troops were free once more to suppress the Portuguese 'rebellion'. The Spaniards besieged Elvas, and they were driven off by António Luís de Menesesonce again.

• 1660: Upon the restoration of Charles II in England, the Queen-Regent re-negotiated the treaty of 1654. Portugal was allowed to recruit soldiers and horses in England for the fight against Spain, to seek the conscription of four thousand mercenaries in Scotland and Ireland, and to charter twenty-four English ships to carry them. The expeditionary force was issued English weapons upon arrival in Portugal and guaranteed freedom of worship.

• 1660: The English began to dominate the trade in port wine from Portugal after a political spat with the French denied them Bordeaux wines. Brandy was added to the Portuguese wines to fortify them for the Atlantic voyage. Together with the restoration of Charles II in England, the "port connection" had an increasingly positive influence on Anglo-Portuguese relations.

• 1661: Bombay and Tangier were ceded to England on 23 June 1661 as a dowry for Afonso's sister, Catherine of Braganza, who had married King Charles II of England on 25 May 1661. In addition to the deeds to Bombay and Tangier, Catherine arrived in London, where she introduced the practice of drinking afternoon tea, with a dowry of two million gold pieces. Servicing this wedding debt burdened the Portuguese exchequer for the next half-century. The marriage with a Protestant monarch was deeply unpopular with those among the Portuguese nobility who favored alliance with France. An anglophile party and a francophile party developed at the Portuguese court.

• 1661: English mediation induced the Netherlands to acknowledge, on 6 August 1661, Portuguese rule in Brazil, in return for uncontested control of Sri Lanka and eight million guilders. This agreement was formalized in the Treaty of The Hague (1661).

• 1662: Shortly after Afonso VI's coming-of-age, Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 3rd Count of Castelo Melhor, saw an opportunity to gain power at court by befriending the mentally-deficient king. He managed to convince the king that his mother, Luisa of Medina-Sidonia, was plotting to steal his throne and exile him from Portugal. As a result, Afonso asserted his right to rule and dispatched his mother to a convent. The king appointed Castelo Melhor his secret notary (escrivão da puridade), a position in which Castelo Melhor was able to exercise the functions of first minister. Because of the weakness of the king, Castelo Melhor became the virtual "dictator of Portugal".

• 1662: Castelo Melhor commenced the final (successful) phase of the Portuguese Acclamation War with the aid of the Franco-German Marshal Schomberg, who brilliantly commanded the international mercenary army that had been assembled with the assistance of England.

• 1663: The Battle of Ameixial was fought on 8 June 1663. After they had spent nearly all spring overrunning the south of Portugal, the Spanish army, under John of Austria the Younger, took the Portuguese city of Évora. Less than three weeks later, they were soundly defeated by Sancho Manoel de Vilhena and Schomberg.

• 1663: The Dutch ousted the Portuguese from the Malabar coast, even though this was a clear violation of their 1661 treaty.

• 1663: The Siege of Évora occurred when the Portuguese army led by Sancho Manoel de Vilhena and by the Duke of Schomberg retook the city from the Spanish occupiers, with little to no casualties. The entire Spanish garrison surrendered.

• 1664: The Battle of Castelo Rodrigo was fought on 7 July 1664. A regional military commander, Pedro Jacques de Magalhães, defeated the Duke of Osuna.

• 1664: The Siege of Valencia de Alcántara results in the successful conquest of the Spanish town of Valencia de Alcántara by Portugal in July 1664.

• 1665: Portugal was again victorious at the Battle of Montes Claros (on 17 June 1665), in which António Luís de Meneses and Schomberg defeated the Spanish army under the Marquis of Caracena; Spain ceased hostilities, but a true peace treaty was not signed for another three years. Montes Claros is considered one of the most important battles in Portuguese history.

• 1666: In an attempt to establish an alliance with France, Castelo Melhor arranged for Afonso VI to marry Marie Françoise of Nemours, the daughter of the Duke of Nemours, but this marriage would not last long.

• 1666: The ambitious Castelo Melhor planned to prosecute the war to the extent of taking Galicia and presenting it to the Portuguese crown as a war indemnity, but he was dissuaded.

• 1667: Marie Françoise petitioned for an annulment of her marriage to Afonso VI, based on the impotence of the king. The Church granted her the annulment.

• 1667: King Afonso VI, Castelo Melhor, and his francophile party were overthrown by the king's younger brother, Pedro, Duke of Beja, (who later ruled as Pedro II of Portugal.) Pedro first installed himself as his brother's regent and then arranged Afonso's exile to the island ofTerceira in the Azores on the pretense that he was incapable of governing. Castelo Melhor fled into exile; ironically, he chose to live in England.

• 1667: The French alliance had been imperilled by the annulment of Afonso's Johan de Wit, Grand marriage, but Pedro strengthened his political position by marrying his brother’s estranged Pensionary of Holland. queen.

• 1668: The Treaty of Lisbon with Spain ended twenty-eight years of war. Spain finally recognized the restoration of Portuguese independence and the legitimacy of its monarch. Portugal kept all of its remaining overseas colonies, with the exception of Ceuta on the north African coast, who didn't recognize the Bragança Dinasty during the war.

Results of the war:

Happily for Portugal, its restoration of independence from Spain was clearly established, and it proved that it could fend for itself, albeit with difficulty. Its victories on the battlefield had re-awakened Portuguese nationalism.

Nonetheless, Portugal remained economically weak, agriculturally underdeveloped, dependent on English grain, and hungry for foreign trade goods in general, especially woven cloth. Luís de Meneses, the Count of Ericeira, economic adviser to the prince regent, advocated the development of a native textile industry based on a Flemish model. Factories were established at Covilhã, in an area of central Portugal where there was easy access to flocks of sheep and clean mountain water, but they were highly unpopular with both local consumers and traditional weavers. Meanwhile, Portuguese attempted to develop a silk industry, but this was undercut by the French, who wanted to monopolize that market.

HUNGARY NEWS AIDS Day Worldwide - Dec 1

World AIDS Day, observed December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. It is common to hold memorials to honor persons who have died from HIV/AIDS on this day. Government and health officials also observe the event, often with speeches or forums on the AIDS topics. Since 1995, the President of the United States has made an official proclamation on World AIDS Day. Governments of other nations have followed suit and issued similar announcements.

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007, and an estimated 33.2 million people worldwide live with HIV as of 2007, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 2 million lives in 2007, of which about 270,000 were children.

History

World AIDS Day was first conceived in August 1987

by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter, two public information officers for the Global Programme on AIDS at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Bunn and Netter took their idea to Dr. Jonathan Mann, Director of the Global Programme on AIDS (now known as UNAIDS). Dr. Mann liked the concept, approved it, and agreed with the recommendation that the first observance of World AIDS Day should be 1 December, 1988.

Bunn, a broadcast journalist on a leave-of-absence from his reporting duties at K PIX-TV in San Francisco, recommended the date of 1 December believing it would maximize coverage by western news media. Since 1988 was an election year in the U.S., Bunn suggested that media outlets would be weary of their post-election coverage and eager to find a fresh story to cover. Bunn and Netter determined that 1 December was long enough after the election and soon enough before the Christmas holidays that it was, in effect, a dead spot in the news calendar and thus perfect timing for World AIDS Day. On 18 June, 1986 K PIX'S “AIDS Lifeline," a community education project, was honored with a Presidential Citation for Private Sector Initiatives presented by President Ronald Reagan. Because of his role as a co-creator of "AIDS Lifeline" Bunn was asked by Dr. Mann, on behalf of the U.S. government, to take a two-year leave-of-absence to join Dr. Mann, an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control, and assist in the creation of the Global Programme on AIDS for the United Nations' World Health Organization. Mr. Bunn accepted and was named the first Public Information Officer for the Global Programme on AIDS. Along with Mr. Netter Bunn conceived, designed, and implemented the inaugural World AIDS Day observance – now the longest-running disease awareness and prevention initiative of its kind in the history of public health.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) became operational in 1996, and it took over the planning and promotion of World AIDS Day. Rather than focus on a single day, UNAIDS created the World AIDS Campaign in 1997 to focus on year-round communications, prevention and education.

In its first two years, the theme of World AIDS Day focused on children and young people. These themes were strongly criticized at the time for ignoring the fact that people of all ages may become infected with HIV and suffer from AIDS. But the themes drew attention to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, helped alleviate some of the stigma surrounding the disease, and helped boost recognition of the problem as a family disease.

In 2004, the World AIDS Campaign became an independent organization.

Each year, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have released a greeting message for patients and doctors on World AIDS Day.

Russian stamp, 1993 the theme Choosing From its inception until 2004, UNAIDS spearheaded the World AIDS Day campaign, choosing annual themes in con-

sultation with other global health organizations.

As of 2008, each year's World AIDS Day theme is chosen by the World AIDS Campaign's Global Steering Committee after extensive consultation with people, organizations and government agencies involved in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. For each World AIDS Day from 2005 through 2010, the theme will be "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.", with a yearly sub-theme. This overarching theme is designed to encourage political leaders to keep their commitment to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care, and support by the year 2010.

This theme is not specific to World AIDS Day, but is used year-round in WAC's efforts to highlight HIV/AIDS awareness within the context of other major global events including the G8 Summit. World AIDS Campaign also conducts "in-country" campaigns throughout the world, like the Student Stop AIDS Campaign, an infection-awareness campaign targeting young people throughout the UK.

AIDS Awareness Month

Different governments and organizations have declared different months as AIDS Awareness Month. The most popular choices are October and December. December is chosen to coincide with World AIDS Day.

National Day UAE - Dec 2

The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.

The UAE is a federation of seven emirates (equivalent to principalities), each governed by a hereditary emir, with a single national president. The constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm alQuwain. The capital is Abu Dhabi, which is also the state's center of political, industrial, and cultural activities.

Prior to independence in 1971, the UAE was known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman, in reference to a 19thcentury truce between the local sheikhs, hereditary rulers of the territories, and the United Kingdom. The term Pirate Coast was also used by some to refer to the emirates from the 18th to the early 20th century, owing to the preponderance of pirates operating from emirati ports.

The UAE's political system, is based on its 1971 Constitution, which is composed of several intricately connected governing bodies. As a federation of seven monarchies, whose rulers retain absolute power within their emirates, but with a UAE president, it is neither a constitutional monarchy nor a republic. The emirs chose one of their members to be the president of the federation, but this does not alter the monarchical character of the government of the individual emirates. The constitution is concerned solely with the relations between the emirates as members of the federation, and does not prescribe a constitutional system of government.

Islam is the official religion of the UAE, and Arabic is the official language.

UAE oil reserves are ranked as the world's sixth-largest and it possesses one of the most developed economies in West Asia. It is the thirty-fifth-largest economy at market exchange rates, and has a high per capita gross domestic product (GDP), with a nominal per capita GDP of US$ 47,407 as per the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It is 15th in purchasing power per capita and has a relatively high Human Development Index for the Asian continent, ranking thirtieth globally. The UAE is classified as a high-income developing economy by the IMF.

History Origins:

The earliest known human habitation in the UAE dated from 5500 BCE. At this early stage, there is proof of interaction with the outside world, particularly with civilizations to the north in Persia. These contacts persisted and became wide-ranging, probably motivated by trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, which commenced around 3000 BCE. Foreign trade, the recurring motif in the history of this strategic region, flourished also in later periods, facilitated by the domestication of the camel at the end of the second millennium BC. By the 1st century AD overland caravan traffic between Syria and cities in southern Iraq began. Also, there was seaborne travel to the important port of Omana (present-day Umm al-Qaiwain) and then to India. These routes were an alternative to the Red Sea route used by the Romans. Pearls had been exploited in the area for millennia but at this time the trade reached new heights. Seafaring was also a mainstay and major fairs were held at Dibba, bringing in merchants from as far as China.

Tamás Fellegi’s Vienna Talks with Aus- Attachés’ Visit to the HDF Geoinformatrian Government and Business Exec- tion Service utives (ONLINE) Tamás Fellegi, Minister that both Nabucco and the Southern for National Development conducted Stream of the Southern Corridor bilateral talks with Reinhold Mitter- were of pivotal significance for Hunlehner, Federal Minister of Economy, Family and Youth and Doris Bures, Minister of Transport, Inand novation Technology of Austria on 21 November 2011 in Vienna. During the official visit, the parties reviewed the current issues of relations in the field of energy and transport.

During his talks Reinhold with M i t t e r l e h n e r, Minister of Economy, Family and Tamás Youth, Fellegi stressed: Tamás Fellegi, Reinhold Mitterlehner the Hungarian G o v e r n m e n t ’s and economy development policy focussed on competitiveness and work.

Discussions were held of cobeoperation tween Hungary and Austria in the field of energy, which has been based, for several years, on joint government meetings. The unaniparties mously declared that in oil industry currently the North-South EnCorridor ergy were projects worth giving priority by both Doris Bures, Tamás Fellegi countries. Agreement was reached gary as well as Austria. between the ministers in the issue During Tamás Fellegi’s talks with

(PR) The Hungarian Standing Conference’s (MÁÉRT) Committee for Hungarians throughout the Carpathian Basin met for the second time last Thursday following a sixyear period of inactivity. The basic principles of the Strategy for Hungarians throughout the Carpathian

Basin formed the pillars of the oneday meeting. The State Secretariat for Hungarian Communities Abroad has asked that delegate members of the Committee make proposals for articulating next year’s financial support priorities and the redefinition of the criteria system for institutions of

Portuguese control:

Portuguese expansion into the Indian Ocean in the early 16th century following Vasco da Gama's route of exploration saw them battle Safavid Persia up the coast of the Persian Gulf. The Portuguese controlled the area for 150 years, in which they conquered the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula. Vasco da Gama was helped by Ahmad Ibn Majid, a navigator and cartographer from Julfar, to find the spice route from Asia.

European domination:

During the 16th century, piecemeal, the entire territory of the nation came under the direct influence of the European colonial empires, with the British eventually getting the upper hand.

The region was known to the British as the "Pirate Coast", as raiders based there harassed the shipping industry despite both European and Arab navies patrolling the area from the 17th century into the 19th. British expeditions to protect the Indian trade from raiders at Ras al-Khaimah led to campaigns against that headquarters and other harbours along the coast in 1819. The next year, a peace treaty was signed to which all the sheikhs of the coast adhered. Raids continued intermittently until 1835, when the sheikhs agreed not to engage in hostilities at sea. In 1853, they signed a treaty with the British, under which the sheikhs (the "Trucial Sheikhdoms") agreed to a "perpetual maritime truce." It was enforced by the United Kingdom, and disputes among sheikhs were referred to the British for settlement.

Dubai in the mid-20th century Primarily in reaction to the ambitions of other European countries, the United Kingdom and the Trucial Sheikhdoms established closer bonds in an 1892 treaty, similar to treaties entered into by Britain with other principalities in the Persian Gulf. The sheikhs agreed not to dispose of any territory except to Britain and not to enter into relationships with any foreign government other than the United Kingdom without its consent. In return, the British promised to protect the Trucial Coast from all aggression by sea and to help in case of land attack. British suppression of piracy meant that pearling fleets could operate in relative security. However, the British prohibition of the slave trade meant an important source of income was lost to some sheikhs and merchants.

Pearling industry:

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the pearling industry thrived in the relative calm sea, providing both income and employment to the people of the Persian Gulf. It began to become a good economic resource for the local people. Then the First World War had a severe impact on the pearl fishery, but it was the economic depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, coupled with the Japanese invention of the cultured pearl, that all but destroyed it. The industry eventually faded away shortly after the Second World War, when the newly independent Government of India imposed heavy taxation on pearls imported from the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

The decline of pearling resulted in a very difficult era, with little opportunity to build any infrastructure.

Beginning of the oil era:

At the beginning of the 1960s, the first oil company teams carried out preliminary surveys and the first cargo of crude was exported from Abu Dhabi in 1962. As oil revenues increased, ruler of Abu Dhabi, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, undertook a massive construction program, building schools, housing, hospitals and roads. When Dubai’s oil exports commenced in 1969, Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the de facto ruler of Dubai, was also able to use oil revenues to improve the quality of life of his people.

In 1955, the United Kingdom sided with Abu Dhabi in the latter's dispute with Oman over the Buraimi Oasis, another territory to the south. A 1974 agreement between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia would have settled the Abu Dhabi-Saudi border dispute; however, the agreement has yet to be ratified by the UAE government and is not recognized by the Saudi government. The border with Oman also remains officially unsettled, but the two governments agreed to delineate the border in May Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan 1999.

Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and the union:

In the early 1960s, oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi, an event that led to quick unification calls made by UAE sheikdoms. Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan became ruler of Abu Dhabi in 1966 and the British started losing their oil investments and contracts to U.S. oil companies. The British had earlier started a development office that helped in some small developments in the emirates. The sheikhs of the emirates then decided to form a council to coordinate matters between them and took over the development office. They formed the Trucial States Council, and appointed Adi Bitar, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum's legal advisor, as Secretary General and Legal Advisor to the Council.

The council was terminated once the United Arab Emirates was formed.

In 1968, the United Kingdom announced its decision, reaffirmed in March 1971, to end the treaty relationships with the seven Trucial Sheikhdoms which had been, together with Bahrain and Qatar, under British protection. The nine attempted to form a union of Arab emirates, but by mid-1971 they were still unable to agree on terms of union, even though the British treaty relationship was to expire in December of that year.

Bahrain became independent in August, and Qatar in September 1971. When the British-Trucial Sheikhdoms treaty expired on December 1, 1971, they became fully independent. The rulers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai decided to form a union between their two emirates independently, prepare a constitution, then call the rulers of the other five emirates to a meeting and offer them the opportunity to join. It was also agreed between the two that the constitution be written

by December 2, 1971. On that date, at the Dubai Guesthouse Palace, four other emirates agreed to enter into a union called the United Arab Emirates. Ras al-Khaimah joined later, in early 1972.

The UAE supported military operations from the United States and other Coalition nations that are engaged in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan (2001) and Saddam Hussein in Iraq (2003) as well as operations supporting the Global War on Terrorism for the Horn of Africa atAl Dhafra Air Base located outside of Abu Dhabi. The air base also supported Allied operations during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and Operation Northern Watch. The country had already signed a military defense agreement with the U.S. in 1994 and one with France in 1995.

On 2 November 2004, the UAE's first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, died. His eldest son, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, succeeded as Emir of Abu Dhabi. In accordance with the constitution, the UAE's Supreme Council of Rulers elected Khalifa as president. Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan succeeded Khalifa as Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. In January 2006, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of the UAE and the ruler of Dubai, died, and the crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum assumed both roles.

Independence Day BARBADOS - Nov 30

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is 34 kilometres (21 mi) in length and as much as 23 kilometres (14 mi) in width, amounting to 431 square kilometres (166 sq mi). It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about 168 kilometres (104 mi) east of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and 400 kilometres (250 mi) north-east of Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados is outside of the principal Atlantic hurricane belt.

Barbados was initially visited by the Spanish around the late 1400s to early 1500s and first appears on a Spanish map from 1511. The Spanish explorers may have plundered the island of whatever native peoples resided therein to become slaves. Thereafter, the Portuguese in 1536 then visited, but they too left it unclaimed, with their only remnants being an introduction of wild hogs for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited. The first English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1625. They took possession of it in the name of 'James I, King of England'. Two years later in 1627 the first permanent settlers arrived from England and it became an English and later British colony.

Barbados has an estimated population of 284,589 people, with around 80,000 living in or around Bridgetown, the largest city and the country's capital. In 1966, Barbados became an independent state and Commonwealth realm, retaining Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State. Barbados is one of the Caribbean's leading tourist destinations and is one of the most developed islands in the region, with an HDI number of 0.788. In 2010 Barbados also ranked in the top 3 in The Americas on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index beating out Chile in 3rd, and coming after Canada in the top spot.

Etymology

According to accounts by descendants of the indigenous Arawakan-speaking tribes in other regional areas, the original name for Barbados was Ichirouganaim, with possible translations including "Red Land with White Teeth","Redstone island with teeth outside (reefs)", or simply "Teeth".

The reason for the later name Barbados is controversial. According to some sources The Portuguese, en route to Brazil, were the first Europeans to come upon the island, while others say it was the Spanish which gave the Spanish name "Los Barbudos". The word Barbadosmeans "bearded ones", but it is a matter of conjecture whether "bearded" refers to the long, hanging roots of the bearded fig-tree (Ficus citrifolia), indigenous to the island; to allegedly bearded Caribs once inhabiting the island; or, more fancifully, to the foam spraying over the outlying reefs giving the impression of a beard. In 1519, a map produced by the Genoese mapmaker Visconte Maggiolo showed and named Barbados in its correct position.

Other names or nicknames associated with Barbados include "Bim", "Bimshire" and "da Rock". The origin is uncertain but several theories exist. The National Cultural Foundation of Barbados says that "Bim" was a word commonly used by slaves and that it derives from the phrase "bi mu" or either ("bem", "Ndi bem", "Nwanyi ibem" or "Nwoke ibem") from an Igbo phrase meaning "my people". In colloquial or literary contexts, "Bim" can also take a more deific tone, referring to the "goddess" Barbados.

The word Bim and Bimshire are recorded in the Oxford English Statue of Lord Nelson in National HeDictionary and the Chamber's Twentieth Century Dictionaries.

Another possible source for "Bim" is reported to be in the Agri- roes Square which predates the more cultural Reporter of 25 April 1868, The Rev. N Greenidge (fa- famous Nelson's Column by some 27 ther of one of the island's most famous scholars, Abel Hendy years.

Jones Greenidge) suggested the listing of Bimshire as a county of England. Expressly named were "Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire and Bimshire". Lastly in the Daily Argosy (of Demerara i.e. Guyana) of 1652 it referred to Bim as a possible corruption of the word "Byam", who was a Royalist leader against the Parliamentarians. That source suggested the followers of Byam became known as Bims and became a word for all Barbadians.

(PR) The Hungarian National Assembly played host last Thursday to the founding meeting of the working group on regional governance within the Forum of Hungarian Representatives in the Carpathian Basin (KMKF). Zoltán Kőszegi (Fidesz), co-chairman of the working group, pointed out that the delegates had decided that the main purpose of the

body should be the realisation of autonomy aspirations. The governing party politician added that national co-operation was in all circumstances an absolute necessity for meeting autonomy ambitions. Cochairman Gábor Harangozó (Hungarian Socialist Party) said that autonomy belonged to that narrow group of questions on which there

(PR) The regulation of national minorities’ situation in Hungary is being been finalised by developing the bill on nationalities, for an Act requiring a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

The new Fundamental Law of Hungary stipulates that ‘the detailed rules for the rights of nationalities living in Hungary and the rules for the elections of their local and national self-governments shall be defined by a cardinal Act’ (Article XXIX). The proposal regulates the basic rights of nationalities, and individual and collective rights; it extends and refines the explanatory regulations; it defines educational and cultural rights;

while a new element concerns the detailed description of media rights.

More exhaustive clauses will relate to the election, operation and management of national minority selfBy inclusive governments. guarantees of legal redress the legality and financial control of nationalities’ self-governments are settled.

According to the proposal, the declaration of belonging to a nationality is an exclusive and inalienable right of an individual, while nurturing historical traditions, the language and culture, the collective use of names, educational and institutional establishment rights and international re-

tional councils of national minorities.

The parties summed up their claims in seven points that include the demand for participation of national councils in the representative sys-

Colonial rule:

From about 1600 the English, French and Dutch began to found colonies in North America and the smaller Caribbean islands. Barbados was the third major English settlement in the Americas (1607: Jamestown, 1620:Plymouth Colony, 1627: Barbados. The British Leeward Islands were occupied at about the same time as Barbados: 1623: St Kitts, 1628: Nevis, 1632: Montserrat, 1632: Antigua.) In the period 1640–60 the West Indies attracted over two thirds of English emigrants to the New World. By 1650 there were 44,000 English in the Caribbean, 12,000 on the Chesapeake and 23,000 in New England. The population of Barbados was estimated at 30,000. Most emigrants arrived as indentured servants. After five years of labor they were given 'freedom dues' of about ₤10, usually in goods.

Before the mid-1630s they also received 5 to 10 acres of land but after that time the island filled up and there was no more free land. Around the time of Cromwell a number of rebels and criminals were also transported. The death rate was very high (Parish registers from the 1650s show, for the white population, four times as many deaths as marriages.) The main export was tobacco, but tobacco prices fell in the 1630s as Chesapeake production expanded.

From the 1640s the introduction of sugar from Dutch Brazil completely transformed society and the economy. A workable sugar plantation required a large investment and a great deal of heavy labor. White smallholders were bought out and the island was filled up with large slave-worked sugar plantations. At first, Dutch traders supplied the equipment, finance and slaves and carried most of the sugar to Europe. In 1644 there were about 800 slaves on the island. By 1660 there were 27,000 blacks and 26,000 whites. By 1666 at least 12,000 white smallholders had been bought out, died or left the island. Many of the remaining whites were increasingly poor. By 1680 there were seventeen slaves for every indentured servant. By 1700 there were 15,000 free whites and 50,000 enslaved blacks. In 1680 over half the arable land was held by 175 large planters who held at least 60 slaves. The great planters had connections with the English aristocracy and great influence on Parliament. (In 1668 the West Indian sugar crop sold for £180,000 after customs of £18,000. Chesapeake tobacco earned £50,000 after customs of £75,000). So much land was devoted to sugar that most food had to be imported from New England. The poorer whites that were squeezed off the island went to the British Leeward Islands or, especially, Jamaica. In 1670 South Carolina was founded from Barbados.

By 1660 Barbados generated more trade than all the other English colonies combined. It was surpassed by Jamaica in 1713. Even though, in 1730–31 the estimated value of the colony of Barbados was as much as ₤5,500,000.

Bridgetown, the capital, was one of the three largest cities in British America (the other two were Boston, Massachusetts and Port Royal, Jamaica.) By 1700 the English West Indies produced 25,000 tons of sugar, compared to 20,000 for Brazil, 10,000 for the French islands and 4,000 for the Dutch islands.

English sailors who landed on Barbados in 1625 arrived at the site of present-day Holetown. The English then took possession of Barbados in the name of James I. From the arrival of the first English settlers in 1627–1628 until independence in 1966, Barbados was under uninterrupted British governance (and was the only Caribbean island that did not change hands during the colonial period). Nevertheless, Barbados always enjoyed a large measure of local autonomy. Its House of Assembly began meeting in 1639. Among the initial important figures was Anglo-Dutchman Sir William Courten.

Fighting during the War of the Three Kingdoms and the Interregnum spilled over into Barbados and Barbadian territorial waters. The island was not involved in the war until after the execution of Charles I, when the island's government fell under the control of Royalists (ironically the Governor, Philip Bell, remained loyal to Parliament while the Barbadian House of Assembly, under the influence of Humphrey Walrond, supported Charles II). To try to bring the recalcitrant colony to heel, the Commonwealth Parliament passed an act on 3 October 1650 which prohibited trade between England and the island, and because the island also traded with the Netherlands, further navigation acts were passed prohibiting any but English vessels trading with Dutch colonies. These acts were a precursor to the First Anglo-Dutch War. The Commonwealth of England sent an invasion force under the command of Sir George Ayscue which arrived in October 1651. After some skirmishing, the Royalists supporters in the Barbados House of Assembly led by Lord Willoughby surrendered. The conditions of surrender were incorporated into the Charter of Barbados (Treaty of Oistins), which was signed in the Mermaid's Inn, Oistins, on 17 January 1652.

With the increased implementation of slave codes, which created differential treatment between Africans and the white workers and planters, the island became increasingly unattractive to poor whites. Black or slave codes were implemented in 1661, 1676, 1682, and 1688. In response to these codes, several slave rebellions were attempted or planned during this time, but none succeeded. Nevertheless, poor whites who had or acquired the means to emigrate often did so. Planters expanded their importation of African slaves to cultivate sugar cane.

Barbados eventually had one of the world's biggest sugar industries after starting sugar cane cultivation in 1640.

One group which was instrumental for ensuring the early success of the sugar cane industry were the Sephardic Jews, who originally been expelled from the Iberian peninsula to end up in Dutch Brazil. This quickly replaced tobacco plantations on the islands which were previously the main export. As the sugar industry developed into its main commercial enterprise, Barbados was divided into large plantation estates that replaced the smallholdings of the early English settlers. Some of the displaced farmers moved to other English colonies in the Americas, most notably North and South Carolina, and British Guiana, as well as Panama. To work the plantations, planters imported enslaved West Africans to Barbados and other Caribbean islands.

The British abolished the slave trade in 1807 but not the institution itself. In 1816, slaves rose up in the largest major slave rebellion in the island's history. Twenty thousand slaves from over 70 plantations rebelled. They drove whites off the plantations, but widespread killings did not take place. This was later termed “Bussa's Rebellion” after the slave ranger, Bussa, who with his assistants hated slavery, found the treatment of slaves on Barbados to be “intolerable”, and believed the political climate in the UK made the time ripe to peacefully negotiate with planters for freedom (Davis, p. 211; Northrup, p. 191). Bussa's Rebellion failed. One hundred and twenty slaves died in combat or were immediately executed; another 144 were brought to trial and executed; remaining rebels were shipped off the island (Davis, pp. 212–213).

Slavery was finally abolished in the British Empire 18 years later in 1834. In Barbados and the rest of the British West Indian colonies, full emancipation from slavery was preceded by an apprenticeship period that lasted four years.

In 1884, the Barbados Agricultural Society sent a letter to Sir Francis Hincks requesting his private and public views on whether the Dominion of Canada would favourably entertain having the then colony of Barbados admitted as a member of the Canadian Confederation. Asked of Canada were the terms of the Canadian side to initiate discussions, and whether or not the island of Barbados could depend on the full influence of Canada in getting the change agreed to by the United Kingdom. Then in 1952 the Barbados Advocate newspaper polled several prominent Barbadian politicians, lawyers, businessmen, the Speaker of the Barbados House of Assemblyand later as first President of the Senate, Sir Theodore Branker, Q.C. and found them to be in favour of immediate federation of Barbados along with the rest of the British Caribbean with complete Dominion Status within five years from the date of inauguration of the West Indies Federation with Canada.

However, plantation owners and merchants of British descent still dominated local politics, owing to the high-income qualification required for voting. More than 70% of the population, many of them disenfranchised women, were excluded from the democratic process. It was not until the 1930s that the descendants of emancipated slaves began a movement for political rights. One of the leaders of this movement, Sir Grantley Adams, founded the Barbados Labour Party in 1938, then known as the Barbados Progressive League.

Adams and his party demanded more rights for the poor and for the people, and staunchly supported the monarchy.

Progress toward a more democratic government in Barbados was made in 1942, when the exclusive income qualification was lowered and women were given the right to vote. By 1949 governmental control was wrested from the planters and, in 1958, Adams became Premier of Barbados.

From 1958 to 1962, Barbados was one of the ten members of the West Indies Federation, an organisation doomed by nationalistic attitudes and by the fact that its members, as British colonies, held limited legislative power. Adams served as its first and only "Premier", but his leadership failed in attempts to form similar unions, and his continued defence of the monarchy was used by his opponents as evidence that he was no longer in touch with the needs of his country. Errol Walton Barrow, a fervent reformer, became the new people's advocate. Barrow had left the BLP and formed the Democratic Labour Party as a liberal alternative to Adams' conservative government. Barrow instituted many progressive social programmes, such as free education for all Barbadians and the school meals system.

By 1961, Barrow had replaced Adams as Premier and the DLP controlled the government.

With the Federation dissolved, Barbados reverted to its former status, that of a self-governing colony. The island negotiated its own independence at a constitutional conference with Britain in June 1966. After years of peaceful and democratic progress, Barbados finally became an independent state on 30 November 1966, with Errol Barrow its first Prime Minister, although Queen Elizabeth II remained the monarch. Upon independence Barbados maintained historical linkages with Britain by establishing membership to the Commonwealth of Nations grouping. A year later Barbados' international linkages were expanded by obtaining membership to the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

Ye m e n f or c e s a t t a c k a r e a s of oppos it ion Mansour Hadi. State media continued to refer to Mr. Saleh as Yemen's president.

Neither Mr. Saleh nor Mr. Hadi has been heard or seen publicly since the release of news videos showing a smiling Mr. Saleh signing his resignation agreement before other Gulf leaders.

Although Mr. Saleh is believed to still be in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, no public announcement has been made.

Mr. Saleh's male relatives still control the strongest branches of Yemen's armed forces. Units commanded by his son, nephew and others have been accused of military attacks on the opposition throughout Yemen's uprising.

Human Rights Watch on Friday said military attacks on hospitals, homes and other civilian sites had killed up to 35 civilians in Taiz since an Oct. 21 U.N. Security Council resolution had ordered Mr. Saleh's government to cease such attacks.

The opposition sought to push forward the powertransfer deal, saying all organized parties would be in the transition. including Mr. Saleh's.

Sa if's ga ngr e nous finge r s ne e d a m puta ting Saif al-Islam has been nursing injuries to his right hand which he says were sustained during a Nato air strike weeks ago.

Fighters from Libya's western mountains captured Saif alIslam on Saturday in the southern desert and flew him to their stronghold town of Zintan, where he is being held pending a handover to the country's provisional government.

"I went to some house in Zintan to dress Saif al-Islam. It was three days ago. And I found him sitting in a room and I dressed him. It was big finger and index on his right hand," Andrei Murakhovsky, a doctor working in Zintan, who treated his appar-

ently mutilated thumb, index and middle fingers.

A reporter who flew to Zintan with Saif al-Islam said he had a heavily bandaged hand but concealed it from view for much of the flight.

Pictures released since his capture show thick dressing on three of his fingers.

Dr Murakhovsky said Saif alIslam's injuries were consistent with a blast of some kind.

"The fingers were cut, half cut and it wasn't cut but sharp, some sharp weapons or some knife or something like this. I suppose it was wounds after some explosion."

"This wound is not [in] good con-

was complete consensus, not just between parties in Hungary, but among all parties and organisations belonging to the Hungarian nation.

Ferenc Kalmár (Christian Democratic People’s Party) laid emphasis on one of tasks of the Hungarian diplomacy being to awaken Europe to the need to address this Hungarian issue.

lations count as collective rights. The proposal also includes an extensive system of native language use rights. Furthermore, the draft law will bring back the restructured legal institution of national minority self-governments (local autonomies) and reregulate the preferential mandate of national minority candidates by applying proportionate positive discrimination. An additional innovation of the draft law is that it introduces the requirement of a public and steadily up-dated electoral register of nationalities.

dition because this wound needs amputation, you know, because this wound is inflamed, with pus, with rotting tissue," Murakhovsky said.

Mohammed Alagy, the interim justice minister since the establishment of the National Transitional Council, said that the process of putting him on trial in Libya, which has been approved by the International Criminal Court, might be faster than the outside world expected.

Mr Alagy was speaking after meeting Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who has agreed that Saif al-Islam's trial will be held in Libya.

tem, the decoupling of the nationalities’ electoral register from the general register of voters, and guaranteed seats for minority representatives in the Serbian Parliament.

Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Transcarpathia (PR) János Hóvári, Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited Transcarpathia last week. On the first day of his visit, he met county governor Oleksandr Ledida, and the foreign affairs representative said that Hungary is striving to cooperate with the county in

projects relating to climate change, environmental protection and the modernisation of education. Issues and problems of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia were discussed with the president and vice-president of the Cultural Association of Hungarians in Transcarpathia

sorkötelezettséggel reply to a question about Csaba Hende said that removing it disagreed, but stated, does not completely stop back. Ivan Csik Imre added to the National Assembly before the proposal, he did not assume such an intention.

Csaba Hende evaluating the results spoke to the reorganization of the army, which had to be made to reduce bureaucracy, but one whose main purpose was to strengthen military capabilities. Ivan Csik Imre raise a "self-termination of officer training" to investigate the response of Csaba Hende stated, the individual officer training is not terminated, but rise to the level of government. He added that the new public university in the management of the ministers involved on an equal footing, he noted also that in addition to this, the military police and civil servants will also cadet!

The military necessity - the audience - in response to the question asking about the conversation partners have agreed that the need for the defense held the security challenges, and the alliance system as a member. "Military strength

can not just charge your shelf," - said Minister of Defence Csaba Hende the ever changing security challenges referring to. Imre Ivacs major achievement of the soldiers called continuous strengthening of operational capacity, and they both stated: We do not enjoy such security to NATO since entering.

Hende Csaba the progress to date in speaking, he noted that was "újraszabni" the army concerning legislation to renew the officer training, the volunteer reserve system, setting up a significant track record in the wallet. Been expanded to the army's military capabilities, reduced bureaucracy, and not least resolved in the third three-dimensional radar placement of a question.

Sharp opposition to the Crown Guard alone showed the establishment of the issue between the two politicians. Ivan Csik Imre determination - that is another meaningful work could imagine the soldiers - Csaba Hende stated, the embodiment of our national surveillance task over the protocol, because "the only woman in the big tree, whose roots go deep!"

(Online) Deputy State Secretary for Global Affairs János Hóvári participated in the international conference „8th Forum for the Future” in Kuwait City on 21-22 November 2011. On the sidelines of the event, János Hóvári also held talks with Khalid Suleiman Al-Jarallah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Kuwait on the Hungarian-Kuwaiti relations.

The conference discussed, among others, various aspects of democ-

racy, elections, good government, human rights, media, the ways of strengthening the role of the youth and women, as well as civil society, education and the economy. Political questions related to the region were included in the wide range of topics as well. Evaluation of the situation in North Africa in the wake of the events of the Arab Spring was also high on the agenda. Hungary contributes to the consolidation efforts following this historic turning point by providing ex-

periences gained in the course of her own transition – a gesture which is highly appreciated by the other participating states.

As the only partner country from Central Europe, Hungary joined the international governmental co-operation „8th Forum for the Future” in 2005, initiated by the USA in 2004 with the aim of supporting the democratization and reform process in the Broader Middle East.

Support for Hungarian filmmakers living beyond the borders (PR) One of the most important factors in strengthening the identity of Hungarians beyond the borders is preservation of our common cultural assets – this naturally requires financial support. The National Media and Authority Infocommunications

(NMHH) has always paid the utmost attention to assisting the production of valuable art among Hungarians beyond the borders. The NMHH has created new structures which help filmmakers beyond the borders to find financial resources. On 19 Octo-

ber 2011 the Board of the National Media Authority released three competition announcements with available funds 340 million forints, which aim to support the making of documentary, educational, and animated films.

(PR) Tamás Wetzel, ministerial commissioner for the simplified naturalisation procedure, paid a visit to Szabadka/Subotica in Serbia to take part once again in an oath-taking ceremony. At the consulate, Mr. Wetzel said in his ceremonial address that

he was told last year at an informative campaign over the new procedure in Szabadka that many had doubted the smooth operation of the procedure. Nevertheless, some 160 000 people have submitted their required documents for acquiring Hun-

garian citizenship already, and their number will continue to grow. He said that obtaining Hungarian citizenship was characterised with a symbolic nature and that this measure was something that is the right of all Hungarians living beyond the borders.

(KMKSZ).

In Beregszász/Berehove, Mr. Hóvári paid a visit to the II. Ferenc TranRákóczi scarpathian Hungarian College and to the Transcarpathian County State Public Records Office, where Hungary wishes to contribute to a modernisation.

Transylvania is to be Switzerland of the East (PR) The Mikó Imre Plan issued by the professional support of the Hungarian Ministry of National Economy and with Transylvanian cooperation is aimed at developing the economy of Transylvania. The Plan was introduced in a conference last week in Nagyvárad/Oradea attended by some sixty entrepreneurs from

Nagyvárad and Partium.

The host of the conference and regional coordinator of the Transylvanian Hungarian People’s Party in Partium, Gyula Zagykó, said that the Romanian national census had revealed that population shrinkage was higher than expected: primarily a result of migration due to bad eco-

nomic conditions. This discussion paper – in the form of a plan – seeks to improve these conditions, outlining the major pillars of economic development with the assistance of Hungarian and Transylvanian economic experts.

Round table talks on dual citizenship in Révkomárom/Komarno (PR) The member organisation of the Rákóczi Association working with the János University in Selye Révkomárom organised talks entitled ’Dual Benchmark’. The round table event attracted some fifty participants. The open discussion was

presided over by István Jobbágy, lecturer of the university, who asked Erzsébet Dolník, retired teacher, Gyula Kassai, Reformed clergyman and László Gubík, parliamentary representative of the Hungarian Coalition Party, to share their views,

experiences and emotions after openly announcing their Hungarian citizenship application in Slovakia.

‘The rights and opportunities that we fail to exert and take advantage of might as well not even exist,’ was the main message of Ms. Dolník.

2011 elections in Slovenia (PR) The campaign preceding the parliamentary elections set on 4 December has commenced in areas inhabited by national minorities. László Göncz, Hungarian minority member of the Parliament, met voters in the

village of Dobronak/Dobrovnik in the Muravidék/Prekmurje region. The politician reviewed the last period and pointed out to the future tasks of the next parliamentary cycle. He set the goal to maintain the development

standards of the region and establish an economic fund for nationalities, as well as to promote the adoption of the Nationalities Act.

NEWS FROM PAKISTAN SC dismisses NRO review petition (ONLINE) The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the repetition view filed by the federation against its December 16, 2009, judgement on the Nat i o n a l Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad C h a u d h r y, heading a 17member larger anbench, the nounced short order, saying the court was of the conview sidered that no case was made out for a review. The bench directed the authorities concerned to comply with its earlier detailed order on the issue in letter and spirit without any delay.

The short order said: “The court from November 21 to November 24 heard the federation counsel Dr Babar Awan at length and considering all the aspects of the review petitions filed under Article 188 of the constitution of Pakistan to revisit the judgement. The counsel failed to make out a case, as a result, the review petition is dismissed.”

Earlier, the bench resumed the hearing, seeking review of certain aspects of the Supreme Court’s December 16, 2009, verdict. The court had declared the NRO void ab initio, unconstitutional and null and void.

Babar Awan filed an application in the Supreme Court on November 19, and sought permission to represent the federation in the review petition. He told the court on November 24 that he wanted to submit some

documents.

It is a settled and recognised principle that additional documents are not allowed at the stage of a review petition. Therefore, initially the court declined the request but after a second thought allowed the counsel to produce and read the documents in the court.

The court during the proceeding on Thursday directed Attorney General of Pakistan Maulvi Anwarul Haq to convey the message to Babar Awan to appear before the court. Despite the Supreme Court direction he did not turn up. Advocate-on-Record Mehmood A Sheikh asked the bench to adjourn the case but the court declined his request.

The court, therefore, asked Law Secretary Masood Chishti who was present in the court, that as he had filed the petition on behalf of the federation, therefore, he should read the document. The law secretary requested the court to allow Babar Awan to come on Monday in the court and he would read the documents, but the court rejected his

plea.

He read one page of the document but refused to read furThe ther. court, therefore, ordered the AGP to read the docu m e n t through-andthrough perto taining cases of Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto and others. court The asked that were how docuthe ments from 1997 to 1999 relevant to the case as the NRO was promulgated in 2007. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa asked the attorney general how these documents were relevant to the case. He said that the court did not like to block the way of justice therefore Babar Awan was allowed to read the documents in the court.

Justice Jawwad S Khawaja said the only reason they did not want the documents to be read in the court was that there were names of dignitaries of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), including the PPP founder, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in them. He further said that they did not want people to know those names.

The court, later, pardoned former solicitor general Syed Nasir Shah. He was issued notice for not cooperating with the court during the NRO proceedings. Appearing before the bench, Nasir sought an unconditional apology, and said: “I throw myself at the mercy of the court.” The court accepted his plea and discharged the case against him.

L H C : P e t i t i o n a g a i n s t S h e r r y ’s a p point m e nt (ONLINE) After a preliminary hearing of the petition against Sherry Rehman’s nomination as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Lahore High Court’s Justice Khalid Mahmood on Friday forwarded the plea to LHC’s

chief justice, media has reported.

During the initial hearing, Justice Mahmood said another petition against Ms Rehman’s disqualification was pending with LHC’s Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh. Therefore, the

recent petition was being sent to LHC Chief Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed so that all pending cases against Ms Rehman could be put together, Justice Mahmood said.

LHC bars PTV from finalising deal wit h India n TV c ha nne l (ONLINE) Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court on Friday restrained the Pakistan Television Corporation from finalising a deal with Indian channel Ten Sports for sub-licensing rights to telecast International Cricket Council (ICC) cricket to be held from 2012 to 2015.

The judge issued the restraining order on a petition moved by Independent Music Group SMC (Pvt) Ltd seeking telecast rights for its channel, Geo Super. Justice Bandial ordered the petitioner to submit the required amount in the bank, give a guarantee to the court and then approach the PTC for rights.

The counsel submitted that the peti-

tioner had acquired four years’ exclusive rights earlier for ICC cricket events from ESPN to telecast certain cricket tournaments, including the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, on cable and satellite TV within the territory of Pakistan. He stated that the PTC had also acquired rights to telecast the world cup matches on its TV channel, PTV, from ESPN, but only through its terrestrial network.

He submitted that after the expiry of the licence this year, ESPN invited bids for the auction of rights to broadcast ICC cricket events for the next four years in Pakistan, including rights to broadcast the next ICC World Cup in 2015.

PPP decides cases (ONLINE) The meeting was held to discuss the Supreme Court verdict dismissing the government’s petition to review its verdict against the National Reconciliation Ordinance.

“The meeting decided to step up consultative process with political forces and coalition partners to overcome the challenges facing the said President’s country,” Spokesman Farhatullah Babar while the meeting was still in progress.

against

Those who attended the meeting included Senator Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Rehman Malik, Syed Khursheed Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Mian Raza Rabbani, Dr Babar Awan, Senator Faisal Raza Abidi, Senator Sardar Ali, Nazar Mohammad Gondal, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Rukhsana Bangash, Fouzia Wahab and Fouzia Habib.

Senator Babar Awan briefed the

He claimed that the PTC made a bid for $30 million and had entered into back-to-back arrangements with Ten Sports. He said that on October 27, after discovering that the PTC was formalising its arrangements with Ten Sports, the petitioner wrote a letter to PTC, which stated that they were willing to form a joint venture with PTV for ICC events on the same terms and conditions which were being offered to the Indian TV channel, but they refused their offer without giving any reasons and entered into a MoU with Ten Sports.

He requested that PTC be restrained from sub-licensing ICC cricket 2012-15 rights to Ten Sports.

(ONLINE) The prime minister reaffirmed government’s desire of conducting impartial probe of the memogate issue on the highest level. Responding to the Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar’s speech, on the floor of the National Assembly, the PM said there was no threat to the government which he said was answerable to the people of Pakistan and not to “anybody else.”

“There is no threat to the government and if there was any, then we would look towards the masses and the opposition,” he said. “We have made a lot of sacrifices for democracy and we don’t

need anybody’s support in this connection,” The PM added.

Clarifying the actual position about resignation of former envoy of Pakistan to Washinton Hussain Haqqani, the prime minister said that he was summoned to the Prime Minister House, and not to the Presidency, at 1am for explanation regarding the issue.

Mr Gilani said that the army and government were on the same page on every issue including memogate. “We would only consult the general public in any danger,” he added.

“I directed him to tender his resignation as the issue de-

Malik urges Taliban to disarm voluntarily (ONLINE) A move of Taliban to end war voluntarily would be welcomed, Rehman Malik, along with United Kingdom’s Home S e c r e t a r y, Theresa May told media persons after visiting Police Lines Headquarters here.

He asked them to surrender by disarming themselves and refrain from playing into the hands of the enemy.

He said Pakistan had suffered billions of dollars losses in its war against terror and the international community should realize that this war was being fought to protect the world from the ravages of terrorism and to promote peace.

He said Pakistan and United Kingdom share a powerful interest in fighting the extremism and terrorism that threatens people in both countries as well as the whole world.

Replying to a question about activities of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, he said, there is a democracy in Pakistan and courts are free to decide independently. Hafiz Saeed has been

freed by court, he added.

On a question about killing of former Afghan President, Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani, Malik said he was a friend of Pakistan and his murder was sorrowful for both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said Prof Rabbani was making efforts for peace and it was Pakistan’s responsibility to hunt down his killers, who had tried to disrupt the peace initiatives and damage Pak-Afghan ties.

The minister also mentioned the recent meetings of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in which it was decided that Pakistan would help the

Afghan authorities in the investigation of his killing.

He said an Afghan delegation during its visit to Pakistan held meetings with Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies’ officials and has been assured cooperation with regard to find out killers of Prof. Rabbani.

Theresa May told media that UK recognises Pakistan’s sacrifices in fighting terrorism and would stand with Pakistan to combat terrorism and extremism.

She also expressed sympathy with the families of those who have sacrificed their lives in the war against terrorism. Around 36,000 Pakistanis including 3,500 policemen have laid down their lives in the war against terror.

Earlier, both leaders met with the families of victims of terrorism and acknowledged their sacrifices.

Upon their arrival at police lines headquarters, they were presented guard of honour and also laid floral wreath at Martyrs’ monument.

Parliamentary panel to probe memogate (Online) Regardless of whether or not the Supreme Court will take up the petition calling for a judicial probe into the memogate, and when and if the prime minister comes around to forming his ‘high-level’ committee to look into the matter, the parliamentary panel on national security will be conducting its own investigation.

The bi-partisan and bi-cameral parliamentary committee on national security, chaired by Senator Raza Rabbani, has started by summoning the foreign and defence secretaries to explain the controversy. In its meeting on Friday, held in-camera, the panel said it would also

call top officials of security agencies for a briefing.

The move came a day after Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani promised a ‘fair and transparent’ probe into the memo at the highest level.

Opposition Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz has already filed a petition in the Supreme Court, asking that all players involved in the scandal be summoned.

The senator from the Pakistan Peoples Party also praised Ambassador Hussain Haqqani for travelling back to Pakistan to make himself available for investigations.

According to participants, opposition

members were not satisfied with the government handling of the issue and called for more transparency.

The committee also decided to seek an explanation from the defence secretary on a statement by the air chief that more than 10,000 strikes against alleged militants’ hideouts in tribal areas had achieved only 15 to 20 per cent results despite huge collateral damage.

Rabbani said that if the defence secretary could not satisfy the committee on the statement, it would summon Air Chief Rao Qamar Suleman to explain it himself.

Parliamentary panel to probe memogate (Online) Regardless of whether or not the Supreme Court will take up the petition calling for a judicial probe into the memogate, and when and if the prime minister comes around to forming his ‘high-level’ committee to look into the matter, the parliamentary panel on national security will be conducting its own investigation.

The bi-partisan and bi-cameral parliamentary committee on national security, chaired by Senator Raza Rabbani, has started by summoning the foreign and defence secretaries to explain the controversy. In its meeting on Friday, held in-camera, the panel said it would also call top

officials of security agencies for a briefing.

The move came a day after Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani promised a ‘fair and transparent’ probe into the memo at the highest level.

Opposition Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz has already filed a petition in the Supreme Court, asking that all players involved in the scandal be summoned. The senator from the Pakistan Peoples Party also praised Ambassador Hussain Haqqani for travelling back to Pakistan to make himself available for investigations.

According to participants, opposition members were not satisfied with the

government handling of the issue and called for more transparency.

The committee also decided to seek an explanation from the defence secretary on a statement by the air chief that more than 10,000 strikes against alleged militants’ hideouts in tribal areas had achieved only 15 to 20 per cent results despite huge collateral damage.

Rabbani said that if the defence secretary could not satisfy the committee on the statement, it would summon Air Chief Rao Qamar Suleman to explain it himself.

PSO warns to cut fuel supply as dues cripple its liquidity reopening

meeting on the NRO issue and said President Zardari enjoyed immunity from prosecution.

The meeting decided that the policy of reconciliation would continue.

The memogate issue also came under discussion and the meeting expressed satisfaction over appointment of Sherry Rehman as Ambassador to the United States.

H a qqa ni’s r e s igna t ion a c c e pt e d f or im pa r t ia l pr obe : PM manded an impartial inquiry with no influence from any circle,” the PM said, adding that every ambassador had sufficient contacts not to need a ‘third person’s help.’

He said the issue would be investigated at top level now as he had ordered to constitute a committee for investigating the matter, adding the opposition had also taken the issue to the Supreme Court.

The PM said a transparent investigation of the memo issue was necessary to satisfy the nation and the opposition.

“The opposition leader should now be satisfied” he added.

(Online) Pakistan State Oil (PSO) warned on Friday to stop fuel supply to defaulting customers until outstanding receivables are recovered.

The piled up huge receivables of Rs 179 billion have crippled company’s liquidity position which may lead to an inevitable breakdown in the supply chain resulting in fuel shortage in the country.

Despite repeated non-payments from power sector, PSO has somehow managed to supply fuel worth an average of Rs 32 billion to the power entities on a monthly basis.

The power sector entities namely Hubco, Wapda and Kapco have continuously defaulted on their payment obligations to PSO. An average shortfall of Rs 10 billion per month has been recorded in payments from the power sector for the past 6 months, with just Rs 5.2 billion being disbursed to PSO in the month of November.

PSO said that a similar situation is occurring with the continuous default by PIA. The national carrier has been violating its agreement with PSO by failing to make regular payments for the fuel it receives.

Keeping in view the national interest, PSO had supported PIA in every possible way including borrowing from banks and accommodating PIA’s requests for deferred payments in order to ensure uninterrupted fuel supply to the airline.

As of today, PIA owes PSO Rs 4.3 billion, while their payments have become irregular and the carrier has increased its daily average fuel upliftment from Rs 60 to Rs 70 million worth of product.

The national carrier had promised to pay back Rs 1 billion of its outstanding bills by the end of October, however, they not only violated this commitment, but they have recently stopped their daily fuel payments to PSO as well.

The situation has now reached a critical level and the continuous non-payment by these entities has left PSO cashstrapped and unable to meet its payment obligations to both local and international suppliers.

If immediate payments are not received from the defaulting entities, be it power sector or the national carrier, the import of future fuel cargoes will have to be deferred as the company has exhausted its financing resources.

With domestic production of fuel oil already in doldrums, any reduction in import would result in fuel shortages, increased load shedding and disruption of flight schedules nation wide, PSO said.

Faced with this situation PSO will be left with no choice but to discontinue supplies to any defaulting customer until its outstanding receivables are recovered.

Body identified as Baloch nationalist Jalel Reki (Online) Two bodies that had been found earlier this week in Mand have now been identified on Thursday as the well known Central Information Secretary of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) Jalel Reki and a Baloch National Movement activist Mohammad Yunus.

“The deceased persons were found shot dead in Kech district in the late hours of Tuesday. The victims were shot in the head and chest,” official sources said. The body of Yunus was handed over to his relatives and shifted to his ancestral town in Panjgur for burial. Reki’s body, which bore multiple marks of torture, was shifted to Quetta.

Reki’s father, Qadir Baloch, who had been on strike outside the Quetta

press club for close to two years, was sitting at the strike camp when he was informed that his missing son’s body had been found. “It was obvious that I would one day receive the body of my son but I have no regret over the recovery of his bullet-riddled body. He has sacrificed his life for a great cause and the Baloch nation,” he told The Express Tribune as he left the camp. “Secret agencies and security personnel in uniform whisked away my son,” Baloch alleged.

Baloch added that an FIR was registered at Quetta’s Shalkot Police Station against the then inspector general of the Frontier Corps MajorGeneral Saleem Nawaz and another security official for their alleged in-

volvement in Reki’s disappearance from his residence.

Reki has left behind a widow, a fiveyear-old son and a three-year-old daughter.

BRP, led by self-exiled nationalist Brahmdug Bugti, has announced a three-day shutter-down strike and 40 days of mourning across Balochistan to condemn the killing of its leader.

Shops and trading centres in Khuzdar, adjoining areas and some parts of Makran remained closed after news broke of the recovery of Reki’s body.

According to the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VFBMP), 236 bodies have been found dumped in public places to date.

WORLD

Early history:

Amerindian settlement of Barbados dates to about the 4th to 7th century AD, by a group known as the SaladoidBarrancoid. In the 13th century, the Caribs arrived from South America.

The Portuguese briefly claimed Barbados from the mid-16th to the 17th centuries, and may have seized the Arawaks on Barbados and used them as slave labour. Other Arawaks are believed to have fled to neighbouring islands. Apart from possibly displacing the Caribs, the Portuguese left little impact and by the 1610s left for South America, leaving the island uninhabited. Some Arawaks arrived from Guyana in the 1800s and continue to live in Barbados.

Forces can not debit the shelf (Online) Forces can not just put it to charge off the shelf, Defense Minister Csaba Hende changing security challenges referring to. The defense minister at the Corvinus University of Budapest, "the Mirror Departmental Public Gases" in professional and public policy series of conversations talking about the current stage in which Ivan Csik Imre took part in the company of a member of Parliament.

The government's current professional activities are presented in the series of events, which events of November 24, Minister of Defense and Ivan Csaba Hende Csik Imre MP, the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Law Enforcement Ministry of Defence has assessed the Vice President of Socialist past fifteen years.

Ivan and Defense Minister Csaba Hende Csik Imre agreed to the basic issues in the conversation. We both thought for example that the change of government after the ministry was necessary due diligence, which resulted in forty-six cases were report.

Turkish political analyst Gabor

The new bill on nationalities is develThe number of Hungarian citizenship applioped cants amounts to 160 000

History

days.

"The agreements signed this week will not force us to go home,'' said Mansoor alSabahi, an activist marching in one of the day's demonstrations in San'a, the capital.

"We have a mission and the millions marching today want a complete revolution and not a leader stripped from presidency."

Marchers in San'a and the southern city of Taiz chanted slogans denouncing the immunity from prosecution promised Mr. Saleh in exchange for his pledge to quit.

Antigovernment protesters in San'a demand Yemen's President Saleh be put on trial.

Mr. Saleh, under growing international pressure, signed an accord Wednesday in Saudi Arabia that commits him to surrender power to his vice president, opening the way for a transition government and presidential elections in 90 days.

Opposition-party leaders also signed the accord, which Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states brokered.

It remained unclear Friday, however, whether Mr. Saleh actually had yielded power to Vice President Abed-Rabbo

national importance. Additionally, the Committee laid out its future objectives and major priorities. Included in these were development of the basis of education and a trusteeship system in areas where Hungarians live.

KMKF launches its working group on regional governance

(PR) Six minority parties (Hungarian, Croatian and Slovakian) in Serbia have turned to the Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković with the aim of amending the law on the na-

The arrival of envoys from the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 630 heralded the conversion of the region to Islam. After Muhammad, one of the major An 18th century watchtower battles of the Ridda Wars was fought at Dibba resulting in the defeat of the in Hatta non-Muslims and the triumph of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.

In 637, Julfar (today Ra's al-Khaimah) was used as a staging post for the conquest of Iran. Over many centuries, Julfar became a wealthy port and pearling center from which dhows travelled throughout the Indian Ocean especially to neighboring land of Sindh and its cities of Thatta and Debal.

ued with a visit to the museum, then finished with an introduction to the work, services and products of the in-

stitution. During the introthe duction, attachés learnt the about state-of-the-art electronic automated data processing (ADP) systems and the mapping and printing methods. military The diplomats, who have visited the institution on a number of occasions, reanceived swers to all questheir tions. As it turned out, this was the last program in the 2011 schedule of the military attachés accredited to Budapest.

Second meeting of MÁÉRT Committee Deputy State Secretary for Global Affairs for Hungarians throughout the János Hóvári participates in the „8th Forum Carpathian Basin for the Future”

Six-party letter to Serbian Premier Cvetkovid

Advent of Islam:

Activists blamed central-security units headed by Mr. Saleh's nephew, Yahya, for rocket attacks on protesters in the center of the capital, San'a, and warplanes commanded by Mr. Saleh's halfbrother Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar bombed residential neighborhoods south of the city.

The attacks killed one civilian and injured 13 others, including two children, medical officials and residents said.

The renewed clashes and continued uncertainty about Ali Abdullah Saleh's leadership status, and even about his whereabouts, underscored the unsettled state of Yemen's political affairs two days after Mr. Saleh signed a long-delayed pledge to end his 33-year rule.

Protesters who have waged more than 10 months of demonstrations beginning in January demanding Mr. Saleh's departure held large rallies in most of the country's governorates on Friday, demanding a true end to the Yemeni leader's regime.

Many protesters said they doubted Mr. Saleh, his family and his inner circle really intend to yield power in 90

minister Doris Bures mention was made of the cross-border clearway connections and various infrastructure issues crossing the border. In Western Hungarian territories directly affectthe ing HungarianAustrian border, numerous infrastructure projects are being prepared at the moment.

The ministers agreed to set up a joint transport working group and reconciled their positions in connection with the current infrastructure develo p m e n t issues in the context of the European Union.

Tamás Fellegi had a working lunch with the heads of the interest representation organisations of most the outstanding companies of the Austrian economy.

(ONLINE) On Tuesday, November 15 the atmilitary tachés accredto ited Budapest visited the HDF Geoinformation Service (HDF GEOS).

Col. (Eng.) László Tóth, the chief of the reService ceived the military attachés, then the guests were briefed on the structure, activities and workings of the GEOS HDF and the MoD Mapping Nonprofit Limited Company.

The November 15 program contin-

S y r i a n s e c u r i t y f o r c e s k i l l 2 6 p r o - Egyptians demand military council to step down testers (ONLINE) he violence, which mainly took place outside of mosques, was seen as a sign that the eight-month uprising could lead to darker days for yet another country in the Muslim world.

The activists said the security forces were firing from outside mosques, apparently in a bid to prevent people who were leaving Friday afternoon prayers from taking part in demonstrations.

On the other side of the deadly incidents, the Syrian military vowed to “cut every evil hand” that targets Assad and the country’s security.

Until recently, most of the bloodshed that has come during the uprising resulted from security forces firing on peaceful protests. But there have increasingly been reports of army defectors and armed civilians fighting against Assad’s forces.

Some say the violence plays into the government’s hands, giving troops a pretext to attack protesters.

“The choice offered by the regime appears clear-cut: preservation of Assad’s rule or collective destruc-

tion,” the International Crisis Group said in a report.

Assad blames the unrest on a foreign plot to destabilize Syria, and maintains that extremists and terrorists, not true patriots and reformers, are leading the charge to oust him.

The military blamed terrorists for an attack Thursday in Homs in which six pilots and four officers were killed.

“The armed forces will continue to carry out its mission ... and will cut every evil hand that targets Syrian blood,” the military said.

Syria’s military is responsible for the deadliest crackdown against Arab Spring protesters. The U.N. reports that more than 3,500 people were killed in the first eight months of the revolt.

At the same time, international pressure has been mounting on Assad to stop the bloodshed.

A U.N. human rights panel on Friday said it has been receiving reports of Syrian security forces torturing children.

The Geneva-based Committee

against Torture cited reports of “extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; arbitrary detention by police forces and the military; and enforced and involuntary disappearances.”

The Arab League gave Syria a 24hour deadline to accept an observer.

But that deadline passed on Friday with Syria seeking more details.

The league plans a meeting on Saturday to decide on whether to impose sanctions, Arab League deputy Secretary-General Ahmed Ben Heli said.

The punishments could include halting air travel into and out of Syria and imposing a freeze on the country’s financial dealings and assets.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency declared Friday that the Arab League had become a “tool for foreign interference.”

Assad, and his father before him, filled the military with members of their minority religious sect — ensuring the loyalty of the armed forces.

Deadlock looms over CO2 cuts at D ur ba n s um m it (ONLINE) Entrenched disagreements over renewing the current climate treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol – between China and India on the one hand and Japan, Canada and Russia on the other – look likely to produce a stalemate at best, and at worst, a collapse of the UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa.

The dispute over Kyoto, essentially an argument between rich and poor countries about who does what to combat global warming, brought the 2009 Copenhagen conference to within a whisker of complete breakdown.

The argument was only prevented from wrecking the conference at Cancun, Mexico, last year by the trick of "parking" the issue. But now it can no longer be delayed because the Kyoto treaty runs out on 31 December 2012. Developing countries, led by China, now the world's biggest carbon emitter, and India, now number three, want Kyoto renewed because it commits them to no action of their own, while imposing binding emissions cuts on indus-

trialised states.

Yet some of the industrialised nations increasingly see this as unfair – America, the world's secondlargest carbon emitter, was the first to do so and pulled out of Kyoto in 2001 – and a group of three major economies, Japan, Canada and Russia, have stated they will not sign a renewed Kyoto under any circumstances.

The looming deadlock is all the more critical because the latest figures on CO2 show emissions soaring above what anyone contemplated four years ago, when the last report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was produced.

Global CO2 emissions in 2010 reached 33.51 billion tonnes, up from 31.63 billion in 2009 – an increase of nearly 6 per cent, believed to be the highest-ever percentage increase year on year.

The figures show the surging Chinese economy is the great driver of growth, with the country's emissions in 2010 up to 8.15 billion tonnes from 7.46 billion the year before – a 9.3

per cent increase. This increase of 694 million tonnes alone dwarfs all the carbon emissions which Britain produces in a year. China has taken over the role of the world's biggest polluter yet it is not involved in any binding treaty to bring its emissions down.

If there is any hope for the Durban conference, it lies with a third group of countries led by Britain and the EU, which are prepared to countenance a Kyoto mark two – but only on condition that China and India eventually agree to take part in a parallel new climate treaty, which would involve all countries in a binding agreement to cut CO2 at different rates. Britain and its Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, have been at the forefront of those pushing for this new deal and Mr Huhne will be leading the effort to bring it about in Durban.

"A global deal may be out of reach today, but we must provide a signal that it is our objective," Mr Huhne said this week. "That is absolutely crucial."

Los A nge le s t o e v ic t Oc c upy c a m p on M onda y (ONLINE) Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court on Friday restrained the Pakistan Television Corporation from finalising a deal with Indian channel Ten Sports for sub-licensing rights to telecast International Cricket Council (ICC) cricket to be held from 2012 to 2015.

The judge issued the restraining order on a petition moved by Independent Music Group SMC (Pvt) Ltd seeking telecast rights for its channel, Geo Super. Justice Bandial ordered the petitioner to submit the required amount in the bank, give a guarantee to the court and then approach the PTC for rights.

The counsel submitted that the petitioner had acquired four years’ exclusive rights earlier for ICC cricket events from ESPN to telecast certain cricket tournaments, including the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, on cable and satellite TV within the territory of Pakistan. He stated that the PTC had also acquired rights to telecast the world cup matches on its TV channel, PTV, from ESPN, but only through its terrestrial network.

He submitted that after the expiry of the licence this year, ESPN invited bids for the auction of rights to broadcast ICC cricket events for the next four years in Pakistan, including rights to broadcast the next ICC World Cup in 2015.

He claimed that the PTC made a bid for $30 million and had entered into back-to-back arrangements with Ten Sports. He said that on October 27, after discovering that the PTC was formalising its arrangements with Ten Sports, the petitioner wrote a letter to PTC, which stated that they were willing to form a joint venture with PTV for ICC events on the same terms and conditions which were being offered to the Indian TV channel, but they refused their offer without giving any reasons and entered into a MoU with Ten Sports.

He requested that PTC be restrained from sub-licensing ICC cricket 2012-15 rights to Ten Sports.(ONLINE) "We're asking the

participants in the Occupy LA encampment to pack their belongings and leave in an orderly manner," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a news conference with Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.

"It is time to close the park and repair the grounds so that we can restore public access to the park," he said.

Protesters need to pack up their tents and dismantle their encampment by 12:01 a.m. local time on November 28, Villaraigosa said.

The Los Angeles encampment is among the oldest and largest on the West Coast aligned with the twomonth-old Occupy Wall Street demonstrations protesting economic inequality in the country and excesses of the U.S. financial system.

Staking its place since October 1 on the grounds surrounding City Hall, the compound has grown to roughly 400 tents and 700 to 800 people, according to estimates by organizers and municipal officials.

Compared to other major cities, Los Angeles has been relatively accommodating to its Occupy group.

Mayor Villaraigosa at one point provided rain ponchos to campers during inclement weather.

A protester from the encampment interrupted the news conference to read a statement he said had been voted on by the group's collective assembly, saying "Occupy Los Angeles would like to express their rejection of the City of Los Angeles' proposal that we leave City Hall by November 28, 2011."

Villaraigosa thanked the protester for his thoughts, but was firm about the eviction deadline.

"It took a couple of hours to put up those tents," he said. "It only takes a couple of hours to take them down."

AT LEAST 700 PEOPLE FACE EVICTION Attorney Jim Lafferty, an advocate for Occupy LA and executive director of the National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles chapter, said on Tuesday the group had been offered the

chance to lease 10,000 square feet of space in an old bookstore inside a downtown shopping mall for $1 a year for 10 years, as well as two plots of land on which it could grow its own food. He did not specify how much acreage was involved.

The group rejected the relocation proposal after a debate Tuesday.

Many protesters called the offer an attempt to co-opt them. By Wednesday, city officials were downplaying the outcome of talks.

Occupy LA has posted an account of a negotiation meeting Wednesday between protesters and police about the future of the encampment on its website. The posting quoted an unnamed police official as telling the group's negotiators: "The use of force will be determined by the actions in the camp. ... I don't want officers shot with paint, fire extinguishers, etc."

Villaraigosa said Friday the police reaction would be different from more violent crackdowns in cities like Oakland.

The Occupy Oakland encampment had been plagued by violence before being shut down by police earlier this month. Oakland's first attempt to evict the encampment sparked confrontations between protesters and police that evolved into one of the most violent episodes since the anti-Wall Street movement began in New York.

Former Marine Scott Olsen was critically injured during those altercations, galvanizing protests nationwide.

"We've not stared each other down across barricades and barbed wire," Villaraigosa said, referring to the riot police and tear gas used in Oakland.

Beck said he wanted to avoid violence and arrests.

"This is a national movement that the city of Los Angeles wanted to accommodate as best we could," Beck said. "We have been reasonable.

We have given 56 days."

M or oc c o a wa it s e le c t ion r e s ult s (ONLINE) The balloting was the first since pro-democracy protesters began calling for a reduction in the monarch’s powers as part of the so-called Arab Spring that spread across North Africa with the ouster of the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Turnout was 45 percent among the 13.6 million registered voters, the interior ministry said yesterday. In 2007, a below- average 37 percent went to the polls.

Among 32 parties that fielded candidates for the 395-member Chamber of Representatives is Prime Minister Abbas el-Fassi’s Istiqlal, or Independence Party, which won the last vote in 2007 and has taken part in almost every government since independence was gained in 1956 with the end of the French and Spanish protectorates. The party said its main aims include maintaining growth of about 5 percent and inflation of about 2 percent The Justice and Development Party, or PJD, which came second in 2007, also sought seats. The Islamist group led by Abdelilah Benkirane pledged to create about 240,000 jobs and ban the media from “objectifying” women’s bodies. Like the other major parties, it is nationalist and pro-monarchy.

Also on the ballot was the newly created Alliance for Democracy, a bloc of eight parties led by Finance Minister Salah Eddine Mezouar that vowed to cut corporate taxes to 25 percent from 30 percent.

Three-Way Race The elections have been a threeway race between the PJD, Istiqlal and the National Rally of Independents or RNI, said Abdellah Tourabi, a researcher at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, or Sciences Po, who specializes in Islamic movements in Morocco.

“The PJD is the front-runner; it has

a big presence in the cities, and much less in rural areas and in the Sahara,” he said yesterday by phone. “Istiqlal, because it is bestmanaged party in Morocco, is very likely to be in the top three. The RNI will benefit from a transfer of candidates from the PAM,” or the Authenticity and Modernity Party.

The results are expected to be announced today. Morocco bans opinion polls that predict the outcome of a vote.

While the shift of power to an elected government makes this contest important for Morocco and for the wider region as it pushes for democracy, voters remained apathetic because only the PJD has a clear ideology, Tourabi said before voting began.

“People don’t see any difference between the parties,” he said. “Voting for left or right comes down to the same thing in a country where only the king is trusted and who in reality controls the country.”

Little Hope While Omar El Hyani, a 27-yearold engineer, voted in the capital of Rabat, he said he had little hope that the elections will bring change.

“In the absence of a real desire from the regime to reform itself, they will remain a tool in the hands of the Makhzen to legitimize its actions,” he said, using the Moroccan term for warehouse, a reference to the royal advisers, business leaders and top bureaucrats who hold power behind the scenes. “I decided to vote this morning to stand in the way of certain corrupted figures. Parliament is a place where many laws are voted on, and we cannot afford to leave it in the hands of a political mafia.”

Yesterday’s balloting, originally scheduled for September 2012, was moved forward in response to the protests that began in Febru-

ary. While pushing Morocco toward change more quickly, the demonstrations haven’t reached the scale of the movements that toppled governments in the region.

Elected Prime Minister In response to the unrest, a new constitution was drafted on the king’s orders and approved by voters in a July 1 referendum. It provides for the naming of a prime minister from the party that comes first in the vote, rather than leaving the appointment to the king’s decision. It also gives the premier the right to dissolve parliament and cedes to lawmakers the right to grant amnesty to prisoners.

While many demonstrators backed the constitution, some said it doesn’t go far enough in shifting power away from the king, who appointed the members of the panel that drafted it. The monarch remains the country’s military, secular and religious leader.

The so-called February 20 youth movement said it was boycotting the election. Its members still take to the streets every Sunday, calling for a parliamentary monarchy and punishment of officials accused of corruption.

Morocco’s macroeconomic policies, put in place over the past decade, and political changes mean it is well placed to respond to the unrest, the International Monetary Fund said in July.

Inflation is under control, credit continues to grow, and non-agricultural gross domestic product may reach 6 percent this year, the IMF said. The main challenge is achieving a GDP rate that will help reduce unemployment, which was at 9 percent and hitting the young, women and graduates hardest, it said.

(ONLINE) Egypt appeared Friday on the cusp of a protracted battle for control of the oncecountry's promising revolution, with military council supporters and anti-government protesters rival staging demonstrations, and neither side willing to concede ground to the other.

Tens of thousands of people flocked to Tahrir Square, the iconic center of Egyptian calls for where change, they denounced as an insult the ruling military council's selection of a 77-year-old politician who once served under deposed President Hosni Mubarak to be the country's new interim prime minister.

For many, it was evidence that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was incapable of meaningful reform, more than nine months after it assumed power when Mubarak resigned.

"Today we're much more lucid about what's wrong with this country: it's military rule," said the acclaimed Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah, who's currently shooting a feature film about the uprising and was part of the Tahrir throng. "A taboo has been broken. Before, no one could criticize the military."

About six miles away, several thousand people rallied to voice their support for the powerful generals after their appointment of Kamal el Ganzouri to lead the caretaker government.

The Obama administration issued a statement that called for the military council to transfer power to civilian authority "as soon as possible." But the U.S. call - timed, White House officials said, to be released at the beginning of the business day in Cairo - was hardly noticed in Tahrir.

"The council's staying in power or leaving is our internal issue and business, and America has no right to interfere," said Islam Othman, 29, a tour guide. "We didn't demand for Obama to leave because of the Wall Street protests or the Palestinian situation."

The "Republic of Tahrir," as the huge crowd of protesters has been called, offered its own solution to the impasse by "voting" to name Nobel laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, 69, as the country's alternative interim leader.

Activists and analysts warned that the country seemed headed toward more internecine bloodshed, with no solution in sight. Any civilian-dominated government would still be beholden to the country's military.

The military council acknowledged that the country is on edge three days before parliamentary elections are set to begin. To

provide better security for those elections, the council announced that each stage of the staggered voting now would be allotted two days instead of one.

With downtown Cairo paralyzed by protests, and clashes erupting anew in Alexandria, the second-largest city, it was anyone's guess whether elections would take place at all - or, if they did, would be considered representative and legitimate.

Egypt's best-organized political force, the Muslim Brotherhood, found itself in a bind.

The influential Islamist group quietly dispatched its young members to join the Tahrir protesters but officially backed the military council's plan to hold elections as scheduled and to hand over power after presidential elections in mid-2012.

The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party is poised to win big if the polls go on, but the group's revolutionary credentials have taken a severe hit amid criticism that by siding with the generals it had sold out long-term reform goals for its own immediate electoral interests.

"If we vote, in a way you're supporting the council, but if you don't vote, you leave the Brotherhood to eat the whole cake," lamented Osama el Hatil, 38, a civil engineer among the Tahrir protesters. "I haven't yet decided if I'm going to vote."

Ibrahim el Houdaiby, a Tahrir activist and ex-Brotherhood member whose family boasts two former senior leaders, said it was "wise" of the group to steer clear of the latest uprising lest Egypt's secular elites not to mention Western powers - see the revolt as Islamist in nature.

However, he said, the Brotherhood stumbled badly in its attempts to explain its stance in a way that didn't burn bridges.

"They lack the political imagination to articulate a position that avoids conflict on the street, but shows a presence in the square," Houdaiby said. "They're portraying themselves as worse than they are."

Tahrir Square itself was relatively calm, if surging with political activism. With concrete barricades installed to seal protesters off from the headquarters of the hated Interior Ministry not far away, there was none of the pitched fighting that for the past week

had sent clouds of tear gas over the square. The was mood lighter, even as protesters contheir tinued chants of, "the people want the fall of the field marshal," referring to the chief of the military council, Field MoMarshal hamed Hussein Tantawi.

Hundreds sat outside the Cabbuilding, inet vowing a fight if Ganzouri tried to enter.

But there were many reminders of the violence of the previous days, including dozens of young Egyptians who marched to the square sporting casts and eye patches.

Waleed Rashed, 28, a founder of the liberal April 6 Youth Movement that helped topple Mubarak, mocked the assertion by the military council that the crowds in Tahrir did not represent the "silent majority" of Egyptians.

"These generals say that Tahrir Square doesn't represent all of Egypt's 80 million," Rashed said. "That 1 million was enough for them to remove Mubarak, but now it's not enough for them to take us seriously?"

Many of those in Tahrir said they were firsttime protesters, drawn by the outrage of Ganzouri's appointment and what it would mean - figurehead rule by a one-time Mubarak crony.

"We'd rather bring back Ramses II," cracked Hatil, the engineer, taking aim not just at Ganzouri's age, but at the entire ossified system that returned him to public office.

Mona Said, an art gallery owner, described Ganzouri's selection as "an insult to the people."

"I was actually against this new uprising. It was time to go to work, to rebuild," she said. "But Ganzouri? Really? I came now because this is it. We're not going to see another January with no change."

Not everyone in Tahrir was sympathetic to the calls for the military council to step down. Adam Skaria, a 21-year-old student and avid supporter of the council, said he would rather have attended the much smaller pro-military rally in the Cairo district of Abbasiya. Instead, he said, he felt obligated to accompany his mother, a supporter of the revolution.

Skaria said he worried that Egypt could not hold together if "a bunch of fragmented political parties" replaced the military's sixdecade hold on the country's government.

Still, he conceded, the voices in Tahrir were important.

"When you have that many people asking for the same thing," he said, "you should listen."

EU looks at banning Iranian oil (Online) EU foreign ministers will meet Thursday to try to hash out a political consensus on the measure.

Teams in Brussels are already meeting to study implementation issues, diplomats said.

"There is a real intent to do this and this is a sector where the Iranians would really be hurt," said one Brussels official.

Brussels diplomats cautioned that any final decision was at least a few weeks away and that it was too early to gauge potential opposition in the 27-member body.

The push for wider sanctions on Iran comes after an International Atomic Energy report earlier this month said the agency was "profoundly and increasingly worried" about Iran's alleged attempt at building a nuclear weapon. Iran says that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

EU officials say efforts to engage Iran diplomatically on its nuclear program have gone nowhere since talks in

January, necessitating increased pressure.

While the U.S. government has banned all trade and financial transactions with Iran since 1995, France and other European Union members still trade with Iran. Sanctions imposed by EU countries, like those adopted by the United Nations, center on banning exports to Iran of weapons and of goods that can be used in weapons manufacturing.

Still, the EU has gradually tightened some sanctions in recent years in response to Iran's alleged nuclear efforts, barring companies such as Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Total SA from undertaking upstream investment in the country.

The EU earlier this year banned oil imports from Syria, but Iran is a far bigger source of oil into Europe, accounting for as much as 18% of the imports of some European countries.

Some experts said the cost of sanctions designed to hurt Iran's econ-

omy could still boomerang on Western consumers. The move "would tighten the European crude market considerably and lead to even higher prices for medium-sour crude," Vienna-based consultancy JBC Energy GmbH said in a note this week.

Oil prices were calmer Friday after spiking the day before on headlines that France planned a unilateral embargo on Iranian crude. French officials later clarified their position to say they would work through the EU. On Friday, a French diplomat reiterated the need for "unprecedented" sanctions on Iran and said the country's diplomats were lobbying their colleagues in the EU. "What concerns us is not the price of petrol in France; it's a report that says Iran is working on nuclear weapons," the French Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Italy's borrowing rates skyrocket (Online) Italy's new government under economist Mario Monti faces a battle to convince investors it has a strategy to cut down the country's €1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) debt. The auction results are also likely to fuel calls for the European Central Bank to use more firepower to cool down a rapidly escalating debt crisis.

Driving market fears is the knowledge that Italy is too big for Europe to bail out, like it has done with smaller nations Greece, Portugal and Ireland. Italy must refinance $200 billion by next April alone, but too-high borrowing rates can fuel a potentially devastating debt spiral that could bankrupt the country.

Friday's auctions showed that investors see Italian debt as increasingly risky. The country had to pay an average yield of 7.814 percent to raise €2 billion ($2.7 billion) in twoyear bills — sharply higher than the 4.628 percent it paid in the previous auction in October. And even raising €8 billion ($10.7 billion) for six months proved exorbitantly expensive, as the yield for that spiked to 6.504 percent, nearly double the 3.535 percent rate last month.

Following the grim auction news, Italy's borrowing rates in the markets shot higher, with the ten-year yield spiking 0.34 percentage point to 7.30 percent — above the 7 percent threshold that forced other nations into bailouts.

Markets so far appeared to be giving Monti no honeymoon since he took power a week ago.

"Mario Monti has failed so far to impress bond markets he has the power and authority to do what is required," said Louise Cooper, markets analyst at BGC Partners.

Solid returns on Wall Street then helped European markets recover from earlier losses Friday.

Italy was not the only member of the 17-nation eurozone to have a disappointing auction this week. Even Germany — the region's strongest economy and the main funder of eurozone bailouts — suffered a shock Wednesday when it failed to raise all the money it sought, its worst auction result in decades. Spain also saw its borrowing rates ratchet sharply higher even after a landslide victory for the conservative Popular Party, which has made getting Spain's bor-

rowing levels down its top priority.

Contagion over Europe's debt crisis also hit Hungary and Belgium.

Moody's downgraded Hungary's sovereign debt to junk status, a decision that government hotly criticized. Hungary is not a member of the eurozone, but trades with many eurozone members. And the Standard & Poor's ratings agency downgraded longterm Belgian debt on Friday, citing a threat to its exports.

Monti emphasized his intention to balance Italy's budget by 2013 and to introduce "fair but incisive" structural reforms," his office said following a Cabinet meeting Friday.

Monti also has pledged to reform the pension system, re-impose a tax on homes annulled by Berlusconi's government, reduce tax evasion, streamline civil court proceedings, get more women and youths into the work force and cut political costs.

Olli Rehn, the EU's monetary chief, told reporters Italy's economic fundamentals were "solid" and praised Monti's economic reforms as "going in the right direction" but said more action was needed.

S&P downgrades Belgium rating (Online) The credit-ratings company cut Belgium's long-term sovereigncredit rating to double-A from doubleA-plus, leaving it two steps below the coveted triple-A rating. The outlook is negative.

A look at the long-term, foreign currency credit ratings assigned to European sovereign borrowers by the three major ratings agencies.

"We think the Belgian government's capacity to prevent an increase in general government debt, which we consider to be already at high levels, is being constrained by rapid private sector deleveraging both in Belgium and among many of Belgium's key trading partners," said S&P. Caretaker Prime Minister Yves Leterme and Finance Minister Didier Reynders reacted to the decision by saying the downgrade was a result of rising borrowing costs across the region. But they said the move underlined the importance of politicians finally agreeing to a budget deal for 2012 that would cut the deficit.

Belgium has been without a federal government since elections in June 2010. Disagreements over how to fund €11.3 billion ($15.2 billion) in savings next year have frustrated the most recent push by six parties to agree to a government.

Belgium was the third EU country to be hit with a downgrade in the past two days, following Portugal and Hungary.

In the first half of the year, robust domestic growth and a budget deficit

that seemed set to decline to a moderate 3% of gross domestic product kept Belgium away from the center of the region's debt crisis, despite the political impasse.

Since then, however, the economy has ground to a halt, and Belgium's borrowing costs have soared with the coalition talks stuck, the euro-zone debt crisis spreading, and FrancoBelgian bank Dexia SA coming close to collapse last month.

The situation has been frustrating to many, including King Albert II, who has repeatedly urged politicians to quickly agree to form a government.

Earlier this week, Belgian Budget Secretary Melchior Wathelet said politicians had done everything possible to drag Belgium into the region's debt crisis.

"We had everything in place to avoid falling into the market storm but we have done everything to now fall into it. Yet people don't seem too worried about this," Le Soir quoted him saying in an interview.

Belgium's 10-year yield was at 5.92% in Friday afternoon trading, according to Tradeweb.It yielded 4.81% a week ago and 4.32% a month ago.

S&P projects Belgium will end 2011 with general government debt at around 93% of gross domestic product in net terms, and at about 97% of GDP in gross terms. It says the budget deficit will be 3.6% of GDP this year.

With exports of more than 80% of GDP, Belgium is one of the most open

economies in the euro zone and, therefore, highly susceptible to any weakening of external demand, S&P said.

The firm said it could lower the rating further if net general government debt were to increase above 100% of GDP, as a consequence of rising economic and fiscal pressures. But S&P also said it could revise the outlook to stable if authorities comply with budget strategy, and if an agreement on impending political, fiscal and structural policy challenges is reached.

In their statement Friday evening, Prime Minister Leterme and Mr. Reynders promised just that. The S&P decision "strengthens even more the need to finalize as soon as possible the 2012 budget," including reducing the deficit to 2.8% of GDP in 2012 and returning to a balanced budget in 2015, it said. "This public finance reduction will have to include structural measures," including labor market reforms.

Meanwhile, there were signs Friday that the political talks could be regaining momentum. After breaking down Monday, political contacts resumed in Belgium over the last 24 hours.

A spokesman for the chief mediator, Elio Di Rupo, said Friday the Francophone Socialist leader is conducting one-on-one talks with leaders of the country's main parties in a bid to rescue negotiations.