78 Issue | Zarb-e-Jamhoor e-Newspaper | 01-07 Jul, 2012

Canada Day Canada - J u l 0 1

Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada) is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act, 1867 (today called the Constitution Act, 1867, in Canada), which united three colonies into a single country called Canada within the British Empire. Originally called Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), the name was changed in 1982, the year the Canada Act was passed. Canada Day observances take place throughout Canada as well as internationally.

Commemoration

Frequently referred to as "Canada's birthday", particularly in the popular press, the occasion marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. Canada became a kingdom in its own right on that date, but the British Parliament kept limited rights of political control over the new country that were shed by stages over the years until the last vestiges were surrendered in 1982 when the Constitution Act patriated the Canadian constitution.

Under the federal Holidays Act, Canada Day is observed on July 1 unless that date falls on a Sunday, in which case July 2 is the statutory holiday, although celebratory events generally take place on July 1 even though it is not the legal holiday. If it falls on a Saturday, any businesses normally closed that day will generally dedicate the following Monday as a day off.

Activities Most communities across the country

will host organized celebrations for Canada Day, usually outdoor public events, such as parades, carnivals, festivals, barbecues, air and maritime shows, fireworks, and free musical concerts, as well as citizenship ceremonies for new citizens. There is no standard mode of celebration for Canada Day; professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford Jennifer Welsh said of this: "Canada Day, like the country, is endlessly decentralized. There doesn't seem to be a central recipe for how to celebrate it—chalk it up to the nature of the federation." However, the locus of the celebrations is the national capital, Ottawa, Ontario, where large concerts and cultural displays are held on Parliament Hill, with the governor general and prime minister typically offici- Children watch the Canada Day parade in Montreal ating, though the monarch or another member of the Royal Family may also attend or take the governor general's place. Smaller events are mounted in other parks around the city and in Gatineau, Quebec Given the federal nature of the holiday, celebrating Canada Day can be a cause of friction in the province of Quebec, where the holiday is overshadowed by Quebec's National Holiday, on June 24. For example, the federal government funds Canada Day events at the Old Port of Montreal—an area run by a federal Crown corporation—while the National Holiday parade is a grassroots effort that has been met with pressure to cease, even from federal officials.

The nature of the event has also been met with criticism outside of Quebec, such as that given by Ottawa Citizen columnist David Warren, who said in 2007: "The Canada of the government-funded paper flag-waving and painted faces—the 'new' Canada that is celebrated each year on what is now called 'Canada Day'—has nothing controversially Canadian about it. You could wave a different flag, and choose another face paint, and nothing would be lost."

Canada Day also coincides with Quebec's Moving Day, when many fixed-lease apartment rental terms expire. The bill changing the province's moving day from May 1 to July 1 was introduced by a federalist member of the Quebec National Assembly, Jérôme Choquette in 1973, in order not to affect children still in school in the month of May.

International celebrations:

Canadian expatriates will organize Canada Day activities in their local area on or near the date of the holiday. For instance, since 2006, annual Canada Day celebrations have been held at Trafalgar Square—the location of Canada House—in London, England; initiated by the Canadian community in the United Kingdom, endorsed by the Canadian High Commission, and organzied by a private promotions company, the event features Canadian performers and a demonstration of street hockey, among other activities. Annual celebrations also take place in Hong Kong, entitled Canada D'eh and held on June 30 at Lan Kwai Fong, where an estimated attendance of 12,000 was reported in 2008; in Afghanistan, where members of the Canadian Forces mark the holiday at their base; and in Mexico, at the American Legion in Chapala, and the Canadian Club in Ajijic.

Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, have, since the 1950s, celebrated both Dominion or Canada Day and the United States' Independence Day with the International Freedom Festival; a massive fireworks display over the Detroit River, the strait separating the two cities, is held annually with hundreds of thousands of spectators attending.

A similar event occurs at the Friendship Festival, a joint celebration between Fort Erie, Ontario, and neighbouring Buffalo, New York, and towns and villages throughout Maine, New Brunswick, and Quebec come together to celebrate both anniversaries together.

History On June 20, 1868, Governor General

the Viscount Monck issued a royal proclamation asking for Canadians to celebrate the anniversary of the confederation. However, the holiday was not established statutorily until 1879, when it was designated as Dominion Day, in reference to the designation of the country as a Dominion in the British North America Act. The holiday was initially not dominant in the national calendar; up to the early 20th century, Canadians thought themselves to be primarily British, being thus less interested in celebrating distinctly Canadian forms of patriotism.

No official celebrations were therefore held until 1917—the golden anniversary of Confederation—and then none again for a further decade.

In 1946, Philéas Côté, a Quebec member of the House of Commons, introduced a private member's bill to Canada Day fireworks in Barrie, Ontario rename Dominion Day as Canada Day. His bill was passed quickly by the House of Commons but was stalled by the Senate, which returned the bill to the Commons with the recommendation that the holiday be renamed The National Holiday of Canada, an amendment that effectively killed the bill.

Beginning in 1958, the Canadian government began to orchestrate Dominion Day celebrations, usually consisting of Trooping the Colour ceremonies on Parliament Hill in the afternoon and evening, followed by a mass band concert and fireworks display. Canada's centennial in 1967 is often seen as an important milestone in the history of Canadian patriotism, and in Canada's maturing as a distinct, independent country, after which Dominion Day became more popular with average Canadians. Into the late 1960s, nationally televised, multi-cultural concerts held in Ottawa were added, and the fête became known as Festival Canada; after 1980 the Canadian government began to promote the celebrating of Dominion Day beyond the national capital, giving grants and aid to cities across the country to help fund local activities.

Some Canadians were, by the early 1980s, informally referring to the holiday as Canada Day. However, this practice did cause some controversy: Numerous politicians, journalists, and authors, such as Robertson Davies, decried the change at the time, and some continue to maintain that it was illegitimate and an unnecessary break with tradition.

Proponents argued that the name Dominion Day was a holdover from the colonial era, an argument given some impetus by the patriation of the Canadian Constitutionin 1982, and others asserted that an alternative was needed as the term does not translate well into French. Conversely, these arguments were disputed by those who claimedDominion was widely misunderstood, and conservatively inclined commenters saw the change as part of a much larger attempt by Liberals to "re-brand" or re-define Canadian history. Columnist Andrew Cohen called Canada Day a term of "crushing banality" and criticized it as "a renunciation of the past [and] a misreading of history, laden with political correctness and historical ignorance".

The holiday was officially renamed as a result of a private member's bill that was introduced in the House of Commons when only twelve Members of Parliament were present. (This was actually eight members less than a quorum, but, according to parliamentary rules, the quorum is enforceable only at the start of a sitting or when a member calls attention to it.) The bill passed the House in five minutes, without debate. It met with stronger resistance in the Senate—some Senators objected to the change of name; Ernest Manning, who argued that the rationale for the change was based on The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the official a misperception of the name, andGeorge McIl- Canada Day celebration in Ottawa, 2011 raith, who did not agree with the manner in which the bill had been passed and urged the government to proceed in a more "dignified way"—but finally passed.

With the granting of Royal Assent, the name was officially changed to Canada Day on October 27, 1982.

As the anniversary of Confederation, Dominion Day, and later Canada Day, was the date set for a number of important events, such as the first national radio network hookup by the Canadian National Railway (1927), the inauguration of the CBC's cross-country television broadcast (1958), the flooding of the Saint Lawrence Seaway (1958), the first colour television transmission in Canada (1966), the inauguration of the Order of Canada (1967), and the establishment of "O Canada" as the country's national anthem (1980). Other events fell on the same day coincidentally, such as the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916—shortly after which Newfoundlandrecognized July 1 as Memorial Day to commemorate the Newfoundland Regiment's heavy losses during the battle—and the enactment of the Chinese Immigration Act in 1923—leading Chinese-Canadians to refer to July 1 as Humiliation Day and boycott Dominion Day celebrations until the act was repealed in 1947.

Queen Elizabeth II was present for the official Canada Day ceremonies in Ottawa in 1990, 1992, 1997, and 2010, when more than 100,000 people attended the ceremonies on Parliament Hill. The Queen also helped celebrate Canada's 100th anniversary on July 1, 1967. Prince William and his wife took part in the events in Ottawa for Canada Day, 2011, the first time a member of the Royal Family other than the monarch and her consort had done so.

Independence Day Burundi - J u l 0 1

Burundi officially the Republic of Burundi is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura. Although the country is landlocked, much of the southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika.

The Twa, Tutsi, and Hutu peoples have occupied Burundi since the country's formation five centuries ago. Burundi was ruled as a kingdom by the Tutsi for over two hundred years. However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Germany and Belgium occupied the region, and Burundi and Rwanda became a European colony known as Ruanda-Urundi.

Political unrest occurred throughout the region, in part, because of social differences between the Tutsi and Hutu, provoking civil war in Burundi throughout the middle twentieth century. Presently, Burundi is governed as a presidential representative democratic republic.

Burundi is one of the five poorest countries in the world. It has one of the lowest per capita GDPs of any nation in the world. Burundi has a low gross domestic product largely due to civil wars, corruption, poor access to education, and the effects of HIV/AIDS. Burundi is densely populated, with substantial emigration. Cobalt and copper are among Burundi's natural resources. Some of Burundi's main exports include coffee and sugar.

History

Belgian mandate:

After its defeat in World War I, Germany handed control of a section of the formerGerman East Africa to Belgium.

On October 20, 1924, this land, which consisted of modern-day Rwanda and Burundi, became a Belgian League of Nations mandate territory, in practical terms part of the Belgian colonial empire, known as Ruanda-Urundi. However, the Belgians allowed Ruanda-Urundi to continue its kingship dynasty.

Following World War II, Ruanda-Urundi was a United Nations Trust Territory under Belgian administrative authority.

During the 1940s, a series of policies caused divisions throughout the country. On October 4, 1943, powers were split in the legislative division of Burundi's government between chiefdoms and lower chiefdoms. Chiefdoms were in charge of land, and lower sub-chiefdoms were established. Native authorities also had powers. In 1948, Belgium allowed the region to form political parties. These factions would be one of the main influences for Burundi's independence from Belgium.

Independence and civil war:

On January 20, 1959, Burundi's ruler Mwami Mwambutsa IV requested from the Belgian Minister of Colonies a separation of Burundi and Rwanda and a dissolution of Ruanda-Urundi. Six months later, political parties were formed to bring attention to Burundi's independence from Europe and to separate Rwanda from Burundi. The first of these political parties was the Union for National Progress (UPRONA).

Burundi's push for independence was influenced to some extent by the instability and ethnic persecution that occurred in Rwanda. In November 1959, Rwandese Hutu attacked the Tutsi and massacred them by the thousands.

Many Tutsi escaped to Uganda and Burundi to find freedom from persecu- Flag of the Kingdom of Bution. The Hutu took power in Rwanda by winning Belgian-run elections in rundi (1962–1966) 1960.

The UPRONA, a multi-ethnic unity party led by Prince Louis Rwagasore and the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) became the most prominent organizations throughout Burundi-Urundi. After UPRONA's victory in legislative elections, Prince Rwagasore was assassinated on October 13 in 1961, allegedly with the help of the Belgian colonial administration.

The country claimed independence on July 1, 1962, and legally changed its name from Ruanda-Urundi to Burundi.

Mwami Mwambutsa IV was named king. On September 18, 1962, just over two months after declaring independence from Belgium, Burundi joined the United Nations.

Upon Burundi’s independence, a constitutional monarchy was established and both Hutus and Tutsis were represented in parliament. When King Mwambutsa appointed a Tutsi prime minister, the Hutus, who were the majority in parliament, felt cheated. An ensuing attempted coup by the Hutu-dominated police was ruthlessly suppressed by the Army, then led by a Tutsi officer, Captain Michel Micombero. When the next Hutu Prime Minister, Pierre Ngendandumwe, was assassinated in 1965, Hutus engaged in a series of attacks on Tutsi, which the government repressed ruthlessly, fearing the killings of Tutsis by Hutus, who wanted to follow the "Model Rwanda". The Burundi police and military were now brought under the control of the Tutsi.

Mwambutsa was deposed in 1966 by his son, Prince Ntare V, who claimed the throne. That same year, Tutsi Prime Minister Captain Michel Micombero deposed Ntare, abolished the monarchy, and declared the nation a republic, though it was in effect a military regime.

In 1972, an all Hutu organization known as Umugambwe w'Abakozi b'Uburundi or Burundi Workers' Party (UBU) organized and carried out systematic attacks on ethnic Tutsi with the declared intent of annihilating the whole group.

The military regime responded with large-scale reprisals targeting Hutus. The total number of casualties was never established, but estimates for the Tutsi genocide and thereprisals on the Hutus together are said to exceed 100,000 at the very least, with a similar number of asylum-seekers in Tanzania and Rwanda. In 1976, another Tutsi, Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, led a bloodless coup and promoted various reforms. A new constitution was promulgated in 1981, keeping Burundi a one-party state. In August 1984, Bagaza was elected head of state. During his tenure, Bagaza suppressed political opponents and religious freedoms.

Major Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, overthrew Bagaza in 1987 and suspended the constitution, dissolved the political parties, and reinstated military rule under the Military Committee for National Salvation (CSMN). Anti-Tutsi ethnic propaganda disseminated by the remnants of the 1972 UBU, which had re-organized as PALIPEHUTU in 1981, led to killings of Tutsi peasants in the northern communes of Ntega and Marangara in August 1988. The death toll was put at 5,000 by the government, though some international NGOs believe this understates the losses.

The new regime did not unleash harsh reprisals (as in 1972), but the trust it gained was soon eroded when it decreed an amnesty for those who had called for, carried out, and taken credit for the killings on ethnic grounds, which amounts to genocide in international law. Many analysts consider this period as the beginning of the "culture of impunity." But other analysts consider the "culture of impunity" to have started from 1965 and 1972, when the revolt of a small and identifiable number of Hutus unleashed massive killings of Tutsis on the whole territory.

In the aftermath of the killings, a group of Hutu intellectuals wrote an open letter to Pierre Buyoya, asking for more representation of the Hutus in the administration. The signatories were sent to prison. Nevertheless, only a few weeks later, Buyoya appointed a new government with an equal number of Hutu and Tutsi, and a Hutu, Adrien Sibomana, as Prime Minister. Buyoya also created a commission in charge of addressing the issue of national unity.

In 1992, a new constitution that provided for multi-party system was promulgated, and a civil war sprang up from Burundi's core.

An estimated 250,000 people died between 1962 and 1993. Since Burundi's independence in 1962, there have been two events called genocides in the country. The 1972 mass killings of Hutus by the Tutsi-dominated army, and the 1993 mass killings of Tutsis by the Hutu populace are both described as genocide in the final report of the International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi presented to the United Nations Security Council in 2002.

First attempt at democracy:

In June 1993, Melchior Ndadaye, leader of the Hutu-dominated Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), won the first democratic election and became the first Hutu head of state, leading a pro-Hutu government. However, in October 1993, Tutsi soldiers assassinated Ndadaye, which started further years of violence between Hutus and Tutsis. It is estimated that some 300,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the years following the assassination.

In early 1994, the parliament elected Cyprien Ntaryamira, also a Hutu, to the office of president. He and the president of Rwanda bothdied together when their airplane was shot down. More refugees started fleeing to Rwanda. Another Hutu, parliament speaker Sylvestre Ntibantunganya was appointed as president in October 1994. Within months, a wave of ethnic violence began, starting with the massacre of Hutu refugees in the capital, Bujum- Independence Square and monubura, and the withdrawal of the mainly Tutsi Union for National ment in Bujumbura Progress from the government and parliament.

In 1996, Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, took power through a coup d’état. He suspended the constitution and was sworn in as president in 1998. In response to the rebel attacks, the population was forced by the government to relocate to refugee camps. Under his rule, long peace talks started, mediated by South Africa. Both parties signed agreements in Arusha, Tanzania and Pretoria, South Africa, to share power in Burundi. The agreements took four years to plan, and on August 28, 2000, a transitional government for Burundi was planned as a part of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement. The transitional government was placed on a trial basis for five years. After several aborted cease-fires, a 2001 peace plan and power sharing agreement has been relatively successful. A cease-fire was signed in 2003 between the Tutsi-controlled Burundian government and the largest Hutu rebel group, CNDD-FDD (National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy).

In 2003, FRODEBU Hutu leader Domitien Ndayizeye was elected president. In early 2005, ethnic quotas were formed for determining positions in Burundi's government. Throughout the year, elections for parliament and president occurred. As of 2008, the Burundian government is talking with the Hutu-led Palipehutu-National Liberation Forces (NLF) to bring peace to the country. In 2005, Pierre Nkurunziza, once a leader of a Hutu rebel group, was elected to president.

Peace agreements:

African leaders began a series of peace talks between the warring factions following a request by the United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali for them to intervene in the humanitarian crisis. Talks were initiated under the aegis of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere in 1995; following his death, South African President Nelson Mandela took the helm. As the talks progressed, South African President Thabo Mbeki and United States President Bill Clinton also lent their respective weight.

The peace talks took the form of Track I mediations. This method of negotiation can be defined as a form of diplomacy involving governmental or intergovernmental representatives, who may use their positive reputations, mediation or the “carrot and stick” method as a means of obtaining or forcing an outcome, frequently along the lines of “bargaining” or “win-lose”.

The main objective framing the talks was a structural transformation of the Burundian government and military as a way to bridge the ethnic gap between the Tutsis and Hutus. This would be accomplished in two ways. First, a transitional power sharing government would be established, with the presidents holding office for three year terms. The second objective involved a restructuring of the military, where the two groups would be represented equally.

As the protracted nature of the peace talks demonstrated, there were several obstacles facing the mediators and negotiating parties. First, the Burundian officials perceived the goals as “unrealistic” and viewed the treaty as ambiguous, contradictory and confusing. Second, and perhaps most importantly, the Burundians believed the treaty would be irrelevant without an accompanying cease fire. This would require separate and direct talks with the rebel groups. The main Hutu party was skeptical of the offer of a power-sharing government; they alleged that they were deceived by the Tutsis in past agreements.

In 2000, the Burundian President signed the treaty, as well as 13 of the 19 warring Hutu and Tutsi factions. However, disagreements persisted over which group would preside over the nascent government and when the ceasefire would commence. The spoilers of the peace talks were the hardliner Tutsi and Hutu groups who refused to sign the accord; as a result, violence intensified. Three years later at a summit of African leaders in Tanzania, the Burundian president and the main opposition Hutu group signed an accord to end the conflict; the signatory members were granted ministerial posts within the government. However, smaller militant Hutu groups – such as the Forces for National Liberation – remained active.

UN involvement:

Between 1993 and 2003, many rounds of peace talks, overseen by regional leaders in Tanzania, South Africa, and Uganda, gradually established power-sharing agreements to satisfy the majority of the contending groups. Initially the South African Protection Support Detachment was deployed to protect Burundian leaders returning from exile, which then became part of the African Union Mission to Burundi, deployed to help oversee the installation of a transitional government. In June 2004, the UN stepped in and took over peacekeeping responsibilities as a signal of growing international support for the already markedly advanced peace process in Burundi.

The mission’s mandate, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, has been to monitor cease-fire; carry out disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of former combatants; support humanitarian assistance and refugee and IDP return; assist with elections; protect international staff and Burundian civilians; monitor Burundi’s troublesome borders including halting illicit arms flows; and assist in carrying out institutional reforms including those of the Constitution, judiciary, armed forces, and police. The mission has been allotted 5,650 military personnel, 120 civilian police, and about 1,000 international and local civilian personnel. The mission has been functioning well and has greatly benefited from the existence of a fairly functional transitional government, which is in the process of transitioning into a more legitimate, elected entity.

The main difficulty the operation faced at first was the continued resistance to the peace process by the last Hutu nationalist rebel group. This organization continued its violent conflict on the outskirts of the capital despite the UN’s presence. By June 2005, the group had stopped fighting and was brought back into the political process. All political parties have accepted a formula for inter-ethnic power-sharing, which means no political party can gain access to government offices unless it is ethnically integrated.

The focus of the UN’s mission had been to enshrine the power-sharing arrangements in a popularly voted constitution, so that elections may be held and a new government installed. Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration were done in tandem with elections preparations. In February 2005, the Constitution was approved with over 90% of the popular vote. In May, June, and August 2005, three separate elections were also held at the local level for the Parliament and the presidency.

While there are still some difficulties with refugee returns and securing adequate food supplies for the war-weary population, the mission has managed to win the trust and confidence of a majority of the formerly warring leaders as well as the population at large. It has also been involved with several “quick impact” projects including rehabilitating and building schools, orphanages, health clinics, and rebuilding infrastructure such as water lines.

2006 to present:

Reconstruction efforts in Burundi started to practically take effect after 2006. The UN shut down its peacekeeping mission and re-focused on helping with reconstruction. Toward achieving economic reconstruction, Rwanda, D.R.Congo and Burundi relaunched the regional economic bloc: The Great Lakes Countries Economic Community.

In addition, Burundi, along with Rwanda, joined the East African Community in 2007.

However, the terms of the September 2006 Ceasefire between the government and the last remaining armed opposition group, the FLN (Forces for National Liberation, also called NLF or FROLINA), were not totally implemented, and senior FLN members subsequently left the truce monitoring team, claiming that their security was threatened.

In September 2007, rival FLN factions clashed in the capital, killing 20 fighters and causing residents to begin fleeing.

Rebel raids were reported in other parts of the country. The rebel factions disagreed with the government over disarmament and the release of political prisoners. In late 2007 and early 2008, FLN combatants attacked governmentprotected camps where former combatants were living. The homes of rural residents were also pillaged.

The 2007 report of Amnesty International mentions many areas where improvement is required. Civilians are victims of repeated acts of violence done by the FLN. The latter also recruits child soldiers. The rate of violence against women is high. Perpetrators regularly escape prosecution and punishment by the state. There is an urgent need for reform of the judicial system. Genocide, war crimes andcrimes against humanity remain unpunished. The establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Special Tribunal for investigation and prosecution has not yet been implemented. The freedom of expression is limited; journalists are frequently arrested for carrying out legitimate professional activities. A total of 38,087 Burundian refugees have been repatriated between January and November 2007.

In late March 2008, the FLN sought for the parliament to adopt a law guaranteeing them ‘provisional immunity’ from arrest. This would cover ordinary crimes, but not grave violations of international humanitarian law like war crimes or crimes against humanity . Even though the government has granted this in the past to people, the FLN has been unable to obtain the provisional immunity.

On April 17, 2008, the FLN bombarded Bujumbura. The Burundian army fought back and the FLN suffered heavy losses. A new ceasefire was signed on May 26, 2008. In August 2008, President Nkurunziza met with the FLN leader Agathon Rwasa, with the mediation of Charles Nqakula, South Africa’s Minister for Safety and Security. This was the first direct meeting since June 2007. Both agree to meet twice a week to establish a commission to resolve any disputes that might arise during the peace negotiations.

Refugee camps are now closing down, and 450,000 refugees have returned. The economy of the country is shattered – Burundi has the lowest per capita gross income in the world. With the return of refugees, amongst others, property conflicts have started.

Republic Day Ghana - Jul 01

The West African nation of Ghana celebrates its Republic Day on July 1st. Political independence from British colonizers was hard-won through a series of massive political upheavals that lasted for over a century. But finally, in 1957, Ghana was declared an independent republic. Three years later, the government instituted the first Republic Day celebrations, on July 1st, 1960.

History

Before colonization, Ghana was home to one of the largest and most influential tribes in the region: the Empire of Ashanti. But when Portuguese explorers first found the area in the 15th century, they realized it was rich in gold, ivory and other precious materials. The Portuguese and other European nations began fighting the Ashanti Empire for control in the 1800s, but the British won, and began establishing colonies in 1874.

After World War II, the war-weary British Crown did not have the resources to maintain control of its colonies. Ghana was the first of many African nations to become fully independent. The process started in 1952, when a man named Kwame Nkrumah won during a parliamentary election. Dr. Nkrumah had previously been jailed for encouraging boycotts, strikes and other forms of civil disobedience, but was released when he won the election. From his new position of power, he was able to negotiate peace, and eventually freedom, with the British in 1957.Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a peaceful period in the nation’s history was interrupted by a series of political coups, initially sparked by the CIA in the United States.

Dr. Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, and fighting continued until 1981, when a man named Jerry Rawlings seized control. He suspended elections, political parties and slowly drove the country into economic ruin. In the 1980s, he realized the error of his ways, and changed many of his policies. Elections resumed in 1996, and several peaceful transfers of power mean that Ghana is finally reaching a stable democracy.

Celebrations

Because of the long and bloody history behind Ghana’s independence, Republic Day is celebrated with great enthusiasm in the nation. The people visit their families, attend political rallies, award functions, and other entertaining programs. The day is also used to honor the senior citizens of the nation, who worked hard to build Ghana into what it is today.

Flag Day Curacao - Jul 02

The local inhabitants of the island of Curacao commemorate the founding of the island by the Spanish sailor Alonso de Ojeda in 1499.

History The Arawak Amerindians were the original in-

habitants of Curacao. The Spanish were first Europeans to see the island under the leadership of Alonso de Ojeda on this day in 1499.

The indigenous populations were exported to other colonies where the Spaniards needed workers. In 1634, the Dutch occupied the island . The Dutch West India Company on the banks of an inlet called the ‘Schottegat’ founded the capital of Willemstad. Colonists previously ignored Curacao because it lacked gold deposits.

The natural harbor of Willemstad, however, proved quickly to be an ideal spot for trade.

With the discovery of oil in 1914, the fortune of the island was drastically changed. Royal Dutch Shell and the Dutch Government built extensive oil refinery facilities, thereby creating an abundant source of employment for the local populace and energizing a wave of immigration from neighboring countries. Away from the social and civil unrest of the South American mainland, Curacao was an ideal site for the refinery but near enough to the Maracaibo Basin oil fields. The excellent natural harbor provided excellent accommodation for large oil tankers. The company brought affluence to the island. Large housing projects were provided and Willemstad was able to develop its own infrastructure.

Curacao joined the rest of the Caribbean in a loud clamor for independence after World War II. Instead, what it got was a status of autonomy as an entity within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Curacao, along with , Bonaire, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten, they became to be known as the Netherlands Antilles. The administrative center is in Willemstad, where it remains today. Aruba separated later from the other five islands. The kingdom today has only three partners left: The Netherlands, the five islands of the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba.

In recent years, the island had capitalized on its unique history and heritage to develop its tourism industry.

Independence Day U.S.A. - Jul 04

The United States of America (commonly called the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district.

The country is situated mostly in North central America, where its forty-eight constates tiguous and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific Atlantic and Oceans, bordered

by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP atpurchasing-power parity).

Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.

Indigenous peoples descended from forebears who migrated from Asia have inhabited what is now the mainland United States for many thousands of years. This Native American population was greatly reduced by disease and warfare after European contact. The United States was founded by thirteen British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their right to selfdetermination and their establishment of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated the British Empire in the American Revolution, the first successful colonial war of independence. The current United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a stronger central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.

Through the 19th century, the United States displaced native tribes, acquired the Louisiana territory from France, Florida from Spain, part of the Oregon Country from the United Kingdom, Alta California and New Mexico from Mexico, and Alaska from Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over the expansion of the institution of slavery and states' rights provoked the Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent The Bald Eagle, national bird split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States.

By the 1870s, its national economy was the world's largest. The Spanish– of the United States since American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military 1782 power. It emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for 41% of global military spending, and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.

History

Native American and European settlement:

The indigenous peoples of the U.S. mainland, including Alaska Natives, are believed to have migrated from Asia, beginning between 40,000 and 12,000 years ago. Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. After Europeans began settling the Americas, many millions of indigenous Americans died from epidemics of imported diseases such as smallpox.

In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached several Caribbean islands, making first contact with the indigenous people. On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first documented European arrival on what would become the U.S. mainland. Spanish settlements in the region were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Virginia Colony in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634,New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies.Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.

In 1674, the Dutch ceded their American territory to England; the province of New Netherland was renamed New York. Many new immigrants, especially to the South, were indentured servants—some two-thirds of all Virginia immigrants between 1630 and 1680.By the turn of the 18th century, African slaves were becoming the primary source of bonded labor. With the 1729 division of the Carolinas and the 1732 colonization of Georgia, the thirteen British colonies that would become the United States of America were established. All had local governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self-government stimulating support for republicanism. All legalized the African slave trade. With high birth rates, low death rates, and steady immigration, the colonial population grew rapidly. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty. In the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. Excluding theNative Americans (popularly known as "American Indians"), who were being displaced, those thirteen colonies had a population of 2.6 million in 1770, about one-third that of Britain; nearly one in five Americans were black slaves. Though subject to The Mayflower transported Pilgrims to the British taxation, the American colonials had no representa- New World in 1620, as depicted in William tion in the Parliament of Great Britain.

Halsall's The Mayflower in Plymouth Har-

Independence and expansion:

bor, 1882.

Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 to 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Proclaiming that "all men are created equal" and endowed with "certain unalienable Rights", the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. That date is now celebrated annually as America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak confederal government that operated until 1789.

After the British defeat by American forces assisted by the French and Spanish, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states' sovereignty over American territory west to the Mississippi River. Those wishing to establish a strong federal government with powers of taxation organized a constitutional convention in 1787. The United States Constitution was ratified in 1788, and the new republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and president—George Washington—took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.

Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the Atlantic slave trade only until 1808.

The Northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution". The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind various social reform movements, including abolitionism.

Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of Indian Wars. The Louisiana Purchase of Frenchclaimed territory under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of U.S. military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that stripped the native peoples of their land. The United States annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845, amid a period when the concept of Manifest Destiny was becoming popular. The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican-American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further spurred western migration. New railways made relocation easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a halfcentury, up to 40 million American bison, or buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the buffalo, a primary resource for the plains Indians, was an existential blow to many native cultures.

Civil War and industrialization:

Declaration of Independence, by John

Tensions between slave and free states mounted with ar- Trumbull, 1817–18 guments about the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession—which the federal government maintained was illegal—and formed the Confederate States of America. With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 declared slaves in the Confederacy to be free. Following the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution ensured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves, made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power. The war remains the deadliest conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers.

After the war, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln radicalized Republican Reconstruction policies aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction; Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many African Americans. In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe hastened the country's industrialization. The wave of immigration, lasting until 1929, provided labor and transformed American culture. National infrastructure development spurred economic growth. The 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the indigenous monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in a coup led by American residents; the United States annexed the archipelago in 1898.

Victory in the Spanish–American War the same year demonstrated that the United States was a world power and led to the annexation of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines gained independence a half-century later; Puerto Rico and Guam remain U.S. territories.

World War I, Great Depression, and World War II:

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. Most Americans sympathized with the British and French, although many opposed intervention. In 1917, the United States joined the Allies, and the American Expeditionary Forces helped to turn the tide against the Central Powers. After the war, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations. The country pursued a policy of unilateralism, verging on isolationism. In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage. The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a range of policies increasing government intervention in the economy, including the establishment of the Social Security system.

The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.

The United States, effectively neutral during World War II's early stages after Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939, began supplying materiel to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to join the Allies against the Axis powers as well as the internment of Japanese Americans by the thousands. Participation in the war spurred capital investment and industrial capacity.

Among the major combatants, the United States was the only nation to become richer—indeed, far richer—instead of poorer because of the war. Allied conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined a new system of international organizations that placed the United States and Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As victory was won in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war. The United States, having developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Japan surrendered on September 2, ending the war.

Battle of Gettysburg, lithograph by Currier

Cold War and protest politics:

& Ives, ca. 1863

The United States and the Soviet Union jockeyed for power after World War II during the Cold War, dominating the military affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact, respectively. While they engaged in proxy wars and developed powerful nuclear arsenals, the two countries avoided direct military conflict. Resisting leftist land and income redistribution projects around the world, the United States often supported authoritarian governments. American troops fought Communist Chinese forces in the Korean War of 1950–53. The House Un-American Activities Committee pursued a series of investigations into suspected leftist subversion, while Senator Joseph McCarthy became the figurehead of anticommunist sentiment.

The 1961 Soviet launch of the first manned spaceflight prompted President John F. Kennedy's call for the United States to be first to land "a man on the moon", achieved in 1969. Kennedy also faced atense nuclear showdown with Soviet forces in Cuba. Meanwhile, the United States experienced sustained economic expansion. A growing civil rights movement, symbolized and led by African Americans such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., used nonviolence to confront segregation and discrimination. Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 andVoting Rights Act of 1965 were passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He also signed into law the Medicare and Medicaidprograms. Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, expanded a proxy war in Southeast Asia into the unsuccessful Vietnam War. A widespread countercultural movement grew, fueled by opposition to the war, black nationalism, and the sexual revolution. Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and others led a new wave of feminism that sought political, social, and economic equality for women.

As a result of the Watergate scandal, in 1974 Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign, to avoid being impeached on charges including obstruction of justice and abuse of power. The Jimmy Carter administration of the late 1970s was marked by stagflation and the Iran hostage crisis. The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 heralded a rightward shift in American politics, reflected in major changes in taxation and spending priorities. His second term in office brought both the Iran-Contra scandal and significantdiplomatic progress with the Soviet Union. The subsequent Soviet collapse ended the Cold War.

Contemporary era:

Under President George H. W. Bush, the United States took a lead role in the UN–sanctioned Gulf War. The longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history—from March 1991 to March 2001—encompassed the Bill Clinton administration and the dot-com bubble. A civil lawsuit and sex scandal led to Clinton's impeachment in 1998, but he remained in office. The 2000 presidential election, one of the closest in American history, was resolved by a U.S. Supreme Court decision—George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president.

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City and The Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly three thousand people. In response, the Bush administration launched the global War on Terror, invading Afghanistan and removing the Taliban government and al-Qaeda training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war. In 2002, the Bush administration began to press for regime change in Iraq on controversial grounds. Forces led by the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, ousting Saddam Hussein. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused severe destruction along much of theGulf Coast, devastating New Orleans. In 2008, amid a global economic recession, the first African American president, Barack Obama, was elected. Major health care and financial system reforms were enacted two years later. In 2011, a raid by Navy SEALs in Pakistan killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The Iraq War officially ended with the pullout of the remaining U.S. troops from the country in December 2011.

Independence Day Rwanda - Jul 01

Rwanda is a country in central and eastern Africa. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. All of Rwanda is at high elevation, with a geography dominated by mountains in the west, savanna in the east, and numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons every year.

The population is young and predominantly rural, with a density among the highest in Africa. Rwandans form three groups: the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. The Twa are a pygmy people who descend from Rwanda's earliest inhabitants, but scholars disagree on the origins of and differences between the Hutu and Tutsi; some believe that they are derived from former social castes, while others view them as being races or tribes. Christianity is the largest religion in the country, and the principal language is Kinyarwanda, which is spoken by most Rwandans. Rwanda has a presidential system of government. The President is Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Rwanda has low corruption compared with neighbouring countries, but human rights organisations allege suppression of opposition groups, intimidation, and restrictions on freedom of speech. The country has been governed by a strict administrative hierarchy since precolonial times; there are currently five provinces, which are delineated by borders drawn in 2006.

Hunter gatherers settled the territory in the stone and iron ages, followed later by Bantusettlers. The population coalesced, first into clans and then into kingdoms. The Kingdom of Rwanda dominated from the mid-eighteenth century, with the Tutsi Kings conquering others militarily, centralising power, and later enacting anti-Hutu policies. Germanycolonised Rwanda in 1884, followed by Belgium, which invaded in 1916 during World War I. Both European nations ruled through the Kings and perpetuated pro-Tutsi policy. The Hutu population revolted in 1959, massacring a large number of Tutsi and ultimately establishing an independent Hutu-dominated state in 1962. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a civil war in 1990, which was followed by the 1994 Genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to 1 million Tutsi and moderate Hutu. The RPF ended the genocide with a military victory.

Rwanda's economy suffered heavily during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, but has since strengthened. The economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture. Coffee and tea are the major cash crops for export. Tourism is a fastgrowing sector and is now the country's leading foreign exchange earner; Rwanda is one of only two countries in whichmountain gorillas can be visited safely, and visitors are prepared to pay high prices for gorilla tracking permits.

Music and dance are an integral part of Rwandan culture, particularly drums and the highly choreographed intore dance. Traditional arts and crafts are produced throughout the country, including imigongo, a unique cow dung art.

History

Humans moved into what is now Rwanda following the last glacial period, either in theNeolithic period around 8000 BC, or in the long humid period which followed, up to around 3000 BC. Archaeological excavations have revealed evidence of sparse settlement by hunter gatherers in the late stone age, followed by a larger population of early Iron Age settlers, who produced dimpled pottery and iron tools. These early inhabitants were the ancestors of the Twa, a group of aboriginal pygmy hunter-gatherers who remain in Rwanda today. Between 700 BC and 1500 AD, a number of Bantu groups migrated into Rwanda, and began to clear forest land for agriculture. The forest-dwelling Twa lost much of their habitat and were forced to move on to the slopes of mountains. Historians have several theories regarding the nature of the Bantu migrations; one theory is that the first settlers were Hutu, while the Tutsi migrated later and formed a distinct racial group, possibly of Cushitic origin. An alternative theory is that the migration was slow and steady, with incoming groups integrating into rather than conquering the existing society. Under this theory, the Hutu and Tutsi distinction arose later and was a class distinction rather than a racial one.

The earliest form of social organisation in the area was the clan (ubwoko). Clans existed across the Great Lakes region, with around twenty in the area that is now Rwanda. The clans were not limited to genealogical lineages or geographical area, and most included Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. From the 15th century, the clans began to coalesce into kingdoms; by 1700 around eight kingdoms existed in present-day Rwanda. One of these, the Kingdom of Rwanda, ruled by the Tutsi Nyiginya clan, became increasingly dominant from the mid-eighteenth century. The kingdom reached its greatest extent during the nineteenth century under the reign of King Kigeli Rwabugiri. Rwabugiri conquered several smaller states, expanded the kingdom west and north, and initiated administrative reforms; these included ubuhake, in which Tutsi patrons ceded cattle, and therefore privileged status, to Hutu or Tutsi clients in exchange for economic and personal service, and uburetwa, a corvée system in which Hutu were forced to work for Tutsi chiefs.

Rwabugiri's changes caused a rift to grow between the Hutu and Tutsi populations. The Twa were better off than in pre-Kingdom days, with some becoming dancers in the royal court, but their numbers continued to decline.

The Berlin Conference of 1884 assigned the territory to Germany as part of German East Africa, marking the beginning of the colonial era. The explorer Gustav Adolf von Götzen was the first European to significantly explore the country in 1894; he crossed from the south-east to Lake Kivu and met the king. The Germans did not significantly alter the social structure of the country, but exerted influence by supporting the king and the existing hierarchy and delegating power to local chiefs. Belgian forces took control of Rwanda and Burundi during World War I, beginning a period of more direct colonial rule. Belgium simplified and centralised the power structure, and introduced large-scale projects in education, health, public works, and agricultural supervision, including new crops and improved agricultural techniques to try to reduce the incidence of famine. Both the Germans and the Belgians promoted Tutsi supremacy, considering the Hutu and Tutsi different races. In 1935, Belgium introduced identity cards labelling each individual as either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or Naturalised. While it had previously been possible for particularly wealthy Hutu to become honorary Tutsi, the identity cards prevented any further movement between the classes.

Belgium continued to rule Rwanda as a UN Trust Territory after World War II, with a mandate to oversee independence. Tension escalated between the Tutsi, who favoured early independence, and the Hutu emancipation movement, culminating in the 1959Rwandan Revolution: Hutu activists began killing Tutsi, forcing more than 100,000 to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. In 1962, the now pro-Hutu Belgians held a referendum and elections in which the country voted to abolish the monarchy. Rwanda was separated from Burundi and gained independence in 1962. Cycles of violence followed, with exiled Tutsi attacking from neighbouring countries and the Hutu retaliating with largescale slaughter and repression of the Tutsi. In 1973, Juvénal Habyarimana took power in a a military coup. Pro-Hutu discrimination continued, but there was greater economic prosperity and a reduced amount of violence against Tutsi.

The Twa remained marginalised, and by 1990 were almost entirely forced out of the forests by the government; many became beggars. Rwanda's population had increased from 1.6 million people in 1934 to 7.1 million in 1989, leading to competition for land.

In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda, initiating the Rwandan Civil War. Neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage in the war, but by 1992 it had weakened Habyarimana's authority; mass demonstrations forced him into a coalition with the domestic opposition and eventually to sign the 1993 Arusha Accords with the RPF. The cease-fire ended on 6 April 1994 when Habyarimana's plane was shot down near Kigali Airport, killing the President. The shooting down of the plane served as the catalyst for the Rwandan Genocide, which began within a few hours. Over the course of approximately 100 days, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed in well-planned attacks on the orders of the interim government. Many Twa were also killed, despite not being directly targeted. The Tutsi RPF restarted their offensive, and took control of the country methodically, gaining control of the whole country by mid-July. The international response to the Genocide was limited, with major powers reluctant to strengthen the already overstretched UN peacekeeping force. When the RPF took over, approximately two million Hutu fled to neighbouring countries, in particular Zaire, fearing reprisals; additionally, the RPF-led army was a key belligerent in the First and Second Congo Wars. Within Rwanda, a period of reconciliation and justice began, with the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the reintroduction of Gacaca, a traditional village court system. During the 2000s Rwanda's economy, tourist numbers and Human Development Indexgrew rapidly; between 2006 and 2011 the poverty rate reduced from 57% to 45%, and child mortality rates dropped from 180 per 1000 live births in 2000 to 111 per 1000 in 2009.

Sir Seretse Khama Day Botswana - Jul 01

Sir Seretse Khama, KBE ( July 1, 1921 – July 13, 1980) was a statesman from Botswana. Born into one of the more powerful of the royal families of what was then theBritish Protectorate of Bechuanaland, and educated abroad in neighbouring South Africaand in the United Kingdom, he returned home—with a popular but controversial bride—to lead his country's independence movement. He founded the Botswana Democratic Party in 1962 and became Prime Minister in 1965. In 1966, Botswana gained independence and Khama became its first president. During his presidency, the country underwent rapid economic and social progress.

Childhood and education

Seretse Khama was born in 1921 in Serowe, in what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate. He was the son of Sekgoma Khama II, the paramount chief of theBamangwato people, and the grandson of Khama III, their king. The name "Seretse" means “the clay that binds", and was given to him to celebrate the recent reconciliation of his father and grandfather; this reconciliation assured Seretse’s own ascension to the throne with his aged father’s death in 1925. At the age of four, Seretse became kgosi (king), with his uncle Tshekedi Khama as his regent and guardian.

After spending most of his youth in South African boarding schools, Khama attended Fort Hare University College there, graduating with a general B.A. in 1944. He then travelled to the United Kingdom and spent a year at Balliol College, Oxford, before joining the Inner Temple in London in 1946, to study to become a barrister.

Marriage and exile

In June 1947, Khama met Ruth Williams, an English clerk at Lloyd's of London, and after a year of courtship, married her. The interracial marriage sparked a furore among both theapartheid government of South Africa and the tribal elders of the Bamangwato. On being informed of the marriage, Khama's uncle Tshekedi Khama demanded his return to Bechuanaland and the annulment of the marriage. Sir Seretse Khama Khama did return to Serowe but after a series of kgotlas (public meetings), was re-affirmed by the elders in his role as the kgosi in 1949. Ruth Williams Khama, travelling with her new husband, proved similarly popular. Admitting defeat, Tshekedi Khama left Bechuanaland, while Khama returned to London to complete his studies.

However, the international ramifications of his marriage would not be so easily resolved. Having banned interracial marriage under the apartheid system, South Africa could not afford to have an interracial couple ruling just across their northern border. As Bechuanaland was then a British protectorate (not a colony), the South African government immediately exerted pressure to have Khama removed from his chieftainship. Britain’s Labour government, then heavily in debt from World War II, could not afford to lose cheap South African gold and uranium supplies. There was also a fear that South Africa might take more direct action against Bechuanaland, through economic sanctions or a military incursion. The British government therefore launched a parliamentary enquiry into Khama’s fitness for the chieftainship. Though the investigation reported that he was in fact eminently fit to rule Bechuanaland, "but for his unfortunate marriage", the government ordered the report suppressed (it would remain so for thirty years), and exiled Khama and his wife from Bechuanaland in 1951.

Return to politics

The sentence would not last nearly so long. Various groups protested against the government decision, holding it up as evidence of British racism. In Britain itself there was wide anger at the decision and calls for the resignation of Lord Salisbury, the minister responsible. A deputation of six Bamangwato travelled to London to see the exiled Khama and Lord Salisbury, in an echo of the 1895 deputation of three Bamangwato kgosis to Queen Victoria, but with no success. However, when ordered by the British High Commission to replace Khama, the people refused to do so.

In 1956, Seretse and Ruth Khama were allowed to return to Bechuanaland as private citizens, after he had renounced the tribal throne. Khama began an unsuccessful stint as a cattle rancher and dabbled in local politics, being elected to the tribal council in 1957. In 1960 he was diagnosed with diabetes.

In 1961, however, Khama leapt back onto the political scene by founding the nationalist Bechuanaland Democratic Party. His exile gave him an increased credibility with an independence-minded electorate, and the BDP swept aside its Socialist and Pan-Africanist rivals to dominate the 1965 elections. Now Prime Minister of Bechuanaland, Khama continued to push for Botswana's independence, from the newly-established capital of Gaborone. A 1965 constitution delineated a new Botswana government, and on 30 September 1966,Botswana gained its independence, with Khama acting as its first President. In 1966 Elizabeth II appointed Khama Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Presidency

At the time of its independence, Botswana was among the world’s poorest countries, even poorer than most other African countries. Khama set out on a vigorous economic programme intended to transform it into an export-based economy, built around beef, copper and diamonds. The 1967 discovery of Orapa’s diamond deposits aided this programme. However, other African countries have had abundant resources and still proved poor.

Between 1966 and 1980 Botswana had the fastest growing economy in the world. Much of this money was reinvested into infrastructure, health, and education costs, resulting in further economic development. Khama also instituted strong measures against corruption, the bane of so many other newly-independent African nations. Unlike other countries in Africa, his administration adopted market-friendly policies to foster economic development. Khama promised low and stable taxes to mining companies, liberalized trade, and increased personal freedoms. He maintained low marginalincome tax rates to deter tax evasion and corruption. He upheld liberal democracy and non-racialism in the midst of a region embroiled in civil war, racial enmity and corruption.

On the foreign policy front, Khama exercised careful politics and did not allow militant groups to operate from within Botswana. According to Richard Dale "The Khama government had authority to do so by virtue of the 1963 Prevention of Violence Abroad act, and a week after independence, Sir Seretse Khama announced before the National Assembly his government’s policy to insure that Botswana would not become a base of operations for attacking any neighbor."

Shortly before his death, Khama would play a major role in negotiating the end of the Rhodesian civil war and the resulting creation and independence of Zimbabwe.

On a personal level, he was known for his intelligence, integrity and sense of humour.

Legacy Khama remained president until his death from pancreatic cancer in 1980, when he was succeeded by Vice President

Quett Masire. Forty thousand people paid their respects while his body lay in state in Gaborone. He was buried in the Khama family graveyard on a hill inSerowe, Central District.

Twenty-eight years after Khama's death, his son Ian succeeded Festus Mogae as the fourth President of Botswana; in the 2009 general election he won a landslide victory in which a younger son, Tshekedi Khama, was elected as a parliamentarian from Serowe North West.

Birthday of Queen Sonja Norway - Jul 04

Queen Sonja of Norway (née Sonja Haraldsen, born 4 July 1937) is the wife of King Harald V of Norway.

to marriage Prior Sonja was born in Oslo on 4 July 1937 as the daughter of clothing

merchant Karl August Haraldsen (1889–1959) and Dagny Ulrichsen (1898–1994).

Queen Sonja grew up at 1B Tuengen Allé in the district of Vinderen in Oslo and completed her lower secondary schooling in 1954. She received a diploma in dressmaking and tailoring at the Oslo Vocational School, as well as a diploma from École Professionelle des Jeunes Filles in Lausanne, Switzerland. There, she studied accounting, fashion design, and social science.

She returned to Norway for further studies and received an undergraduate degree (French,English and Art History) from the University of Oslo.

As Crown Princess of Norway

She became engaged to then Crown Prince Harald in March 1968. They had been dating for nine years, although this had been kept secret because of opposition to her non-royal status.

The Crown Prince made it clear to his father, King Olav V, that he would remain unmarried for life unless he could marry her.

This would in effect have put an end to the rule of his family and probably to the monarchy in Norway, as he was the sole heir to the throne. Faced with having to choose one of his relatives from the Danish Royal Family, the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein or even the Grand Dukes of Oldenburg as his new heir in place of his son, Olav V consulted the government for advice and the result was that the couple were wed on 29 August 1968, at Oslo Domkirke in Oslo. She thus acquired the style of Royal Highness and the title of Crown Princess of Norway.

Immediately after the wedding, the new Crown Princess began to carry out her royal duties, traveling extensively in Norway and abroad. In 1972 she was involved in establishing Princess Märtha Louise’s Fund, which provides assistance to disabled children in Norway. She has taken active part in large-scale initiatives to raise funds for international refugees and spent time in the 1970s visiting Vietnamese boat refugees inMalaysia.

From 1987 to 1990, Crown Princess Sonja served as Vice President of the Norwegian Red Cross. She was responsible for the organisation’s international activities. She took part in a Red Cross delegation to Botswana and Zimbabwe in 1989.

The Queen Sonja International Music Competition:

The then-Crown Princess Sonja established this music competition in 1988. It was originally for pianists, but in 1995 the competition became only for singers. The jury consists of diverse authoritative figures in opera and the winners receive a cash amount and prestigious engagements at Norwegian music institutions.

As Queen

Following the death of King Olav V on 17 January 1991, Sonja became Norway's firstqueen consort in 53 years. Queen Sonja accompanied King Harald V when he swore his oath to uphold the Constitution in the Storting on 21 January 1991. It was the first time in 69 years that a Norwegian queen had been present in the Storting. Queen Sonja has accompanied the King to the formal opening of the fall session of the Storting and the reading of the Speech from the Throne since his accession.

In accordance with their own wishes, the King and Queen were consecrated in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim on 23 June 1991. Following the consecration, the King and Queen conducted a 10-day tour of Southern Norway. In 1992, the entire Royal Family conducted a 22-day tour of Norway’s four northernmost counties.

The Queen accompanies the King on official state visits abroad. She acts as the hostess when foreign heads of state officially visit Norway. The Queen has also given lectures on Norway as a tourist destination on several occasions during official state visits abroad.

In 2005, Queen Sonja became the first queen ever to visit Antarctica. The Queen was there to open the Norwegian Troll research station in the country's Antarctic dependency,Queen Maud Land. The Queen flew in on one of the Royal Norwegian Air Force's C-130H Hercules transport aircraft, landing at Troll airfield.

The Queen is appointed a Rear Admiral in the Royal Norwegian Navy and a Brigadier in the Norwegian army. She has undergone a basic officer training course and has participated in exercises.

Queen Sonja’s School Award:

Queen Sonja’s School Award was established in 2006 and is awarded to schools who have "demonstrated excellence in its efforts to promote inclusion and equality".

Issue

Her Highness Princess Märtha Louise, born on 22 September 1971. She married Ari Behn, born on 30 September 1972, on 24 May 2002. They have 3 daughters: Maud Angelica Behn, born 29 April 2003 Leah Isadora Behn, born 8 April 2005 Emma Tallulah Behn, born 29 September 2008 His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon Magnus, born on 20 July 1973. He married Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby, born 19 August 1973, on 25 August 2001. She has a son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby, 13 January 1997. They have 2 children: Her Royal Highness Princess Ingrid Alexandra, born 21 January 2004, Hereditary Princess of Norway His Highness Prince Sverre Magnus, born 3 December 2005

Patronages Red Cross Nordic United World College

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Norwegian Folk Art and Craft Association Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments Norwegian Association of Museums Norwegian National Opera Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra Oslo Chamber Music Festival Førde International Folk Music Festival National Association of Folk Music and Dance Royal Norwegian Society for Development Norwegian Horticulture Society Norwegian Institute in Rome Norwegian Institute at Athens

Honours

In 1982 she was awarded the Nansen Refugee Award. In 2007, she received the Holmenkollen medal with Simon Ammann, Frode Estil,Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset, and her husband, King Harald V. • Grand Cross with Collar of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav° • Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit° • The Royal House Centenary Medal° • Haakon VIIs Centenary Medal° • Olav Vs Commemorative Medal of 30. January 1991° • Olav Vs Jubilee Medal 1957-1982° • Olav Vs Centenary Medal° • Royal Family Order of King Olav V of Norway° • Royal Family Order of King Harald V of Norway° • Norwegian Red Cross Badge of Honour° • The Nansen Medal° • Oslo Military Society Badge of Honour in Gold°

ForeignGrand Orders Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria °

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Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold ° Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross° Grand Cross of the Order of Stara Planina ° Croatia - Grand Order of Queen Jelena ° Knight of the Order of the Elephant ° 1st Class of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana ° Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland ° Grand Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite ° Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany ° Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer ° Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary ° The Golden Olympic order (IOC) ° Grand Cross of the Order of the Falcon ° Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ° Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown ° Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Renaissance ° (Order of Al-Nahda) Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Three Stars ° Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great ° Grand Cross of the Order of Adolph of Nassau ° Knight of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau ° Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion ° Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown ° Medal to commemorate the enthronement of Queen Beatrix ° Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle° Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Portugal ° (02/01/1981) Grand Cross of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique ° (13/02/2004) Grand Cross of the Order of Christ ° (26/05/2008) Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III ° Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic ° Member of the Order of the Seraphim ° King Carl XVI Gustaf's 50th Anniversary Medal°

Special Administrative Region Establishment Day Hong Kong - Jul 01

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day is celebrated every 1 July, in Hong Kong since 1997. The holiday commemorates the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The day is customarily marked by an officially organised extravagant fireworks display in the evening, and is also the platform for political rallies demanding universal suffrage. In 2007, to commemorate the 10th Anniversary celebration the Hong Kong Government published a song, "Just Because You Are Here" (Chinese: 始終有你). It was sung by many Hong Kong singers and composed by Peter Kam (金培達) with lyric by Keith Chan ( 陳少琪).

Current festivities Protest marches:

On 1 July of each year since the 1997 handover, a march is led by the Civil Human Rights Front. It has become the annual platform for demanding universal suffrage, calling for observance and preservation civil liberties such as free speech, venting dissatisfaction with the Hong Kong Government or the Chief Executive, rallying against actions of the Pro-Beijing camp.

However, it was only in 2003 when it drew large public attention by opposing the bill to enact the Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23. Most notably, in 2003, the HKSAR Government proposed to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law. However, fears that by legislating against acts such as treason, subversion, secession and sedition, the legislation would infringe human rights by adopting the mainland's concept of "national security" into the HKSAR. Together with the general dissatisfaction with the Tung administration, about 500,000 people participated in this protest. Article 23 enactment was "temporarily suspended".

Fireworks display:

A fireworks display is usually held on the evening of 1 July in Victoria Harbour.

History

Colonial history:

Hong Kong's territory was acquired by United Kingdom from China through three separate treaties: the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, the Treaty of Beijing in 1860, and The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory in 1898, which gave the UK the control of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon (area south of Boundary Street), and the New Territories (area north of Boundary Street and south of the Shenzhen River, and outlying islands), respectively. Although Hong Kong Island and Kowloon had been ceded to the United Kingdom in perpetuity, the control on the New Territories was a 99-year lease.

Sino-British Joint Declaration:

The Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed by the Prime Ministers of the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom governments on 19 December 1984 in Beijing. The Declaration entered into force with the exchange of instruments of ratification on 27 May 1985. In the Joint Declaration, the PRC Government stated that it had decided to resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong (including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories) with effect from 1 July 1997, and the UK Government declared that it would restore Hong Kong to the PRC with effect from 1 July 1997. In the document the PRC Government also declared its basic policies regarding Hong Kong.

In accordance with the "One country, two systems" principle agreed between the UK and the PRC, Hong Kong would become a special administrative region where the socialist system of PRC would not be practised, and Hong Kong's capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years from the date of handover.

Handover ceremony:

The Hong Kong handover ceremony officially marked the transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom. It was an internationally televised event with the ceremony commencing on the night of 30 June 1997 and finishing on 1 July 1997 at the new wing of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) in Wan Chai.

Origins of the holiday, controversy:

The day was made into a holiday by the Provisional Legislative Council on 10 May 1997 when it passed the Holidays (1997 and 1998) Bill, its first bill.

The Legislative Council under the colonial government adopted the Public Holiday (Special Holidays 1997) Bill on 17 June 1997 by 27 votes to nine, with the Liberal Party abstaining. The government tabled the bill for first reading in Legco in April 1997, two weeks after the provisional legislature had completed the first and second readings of its own holidays bill. The government was fiercely criticised by provisional legislature members who said it was a political tactic to embarrass the interim body.

The bill gave legal existence of 1 and 2 July as public holidays in 1997 in addition to the then current holidays under the Holidays Ordinance (Cap 149). The bill's purpose was to ensure both are paid holidays in the absence of a functioning government during the handover.

Declaration of Independence Venezuela - Jul 05

The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by a congress of Venezuelan provinces on July 5, 1811 through which Venezuelans made the decision to break away from the Spanish Crown in order to establish a new nation based on the premises of equality of individuals, abolition of censorship and dedication to freedom of expression. These principles were enshrined as a constitutional principal for the new nation and were radically opposed to the political, cultural, and social practices that had existed during three hundred years of colonization.

Seven of the ten provinces belonging to the Captaincy General of Venezueladeclared their independence and explained their reasons for this action, among them, that it was baneful that a small European nation ruled the great expanses of the New World, that America recovered its right to self-government after the abdications of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII at Bayonne, and that the political instability in Spain dictated that Venezuelans rule themselves, despite the brotherhood they shared with Spaniards. The seven provinces were Caracas Province, Cumaná Province, Barinas Province,Margarita Province, Barcelona Province, Mérida Province and Trujillo Province.

The three remaining provinces (Maracaibo Province, Coro Province and Guayana Province) which did not take part in the Venezuelan congress opted to stay under Spanish rule.

The declaration proclaimed a new nation called the American Confederacy of Venezuela and was mainly written by Juan Germán Roscio. It was ratified by Congress on July 7, 1811 and recorded in the Congress's Book of Minutes on August 17, 1811 in Caracas.

The anniversary of this declaration is celebrated as Independence Day. The original Book of Minutes of the first Congress of Venezuela is in the Federal Legislative Palace in Caracas.

Independence Day - Jul 05 Cape Verde Islands

Cape Verde officially the Republic of Cape Verde, is an island country, spanning anarchipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa. The islands, covering a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi), are of volcanic origin and while three of them (Sal,Boa Vista and Maio) are fairly flat, sandy and dry, the remaining ones are generally rockier and have more vegetation.

However, because of the infrequent occurrence of rainfall the overall landscape is not particularly green.

The name of the country stems from the nearby Cap Vert, on the Senegalesecoast, which in its turn was originally named "Cabo Verde" when it was sighted by Portuguese explorers in 1444, a few years before the islands were discovered (verdeis Portuguese for "green").

The previously uninhabited islands were discovered and colonized by the Portuguesein the 15th Century, and became important in the Atlantic slave trade for their location. The islands' prosperity often attracted privateers and pirates, including Sir Francis Drake, a corsair (privateer) under the authority of the British crown, who twice sacked the (then) capital Ribeira Grande, in the 1580s. The islands were also visited by Charles Darwin's expedition in 1832. The decline in the slave trade in the 19th century resulted in an economic crisis for the islands. With few natural resources, and without strong sustainable investment from the Portuguese, the citizens grew increasingly discontent with the colonial masters, who nevertheless refused to provide the local authorities with more autonomy. This discontent festered and culminated in 1975, when a movement originally led by Amílcar Cabral (who was assassinated on 20 January 1973) then passed onto his half-brother Luís Cabral, achieved independence for the archipelago.

The country has an estimated population (most of creole ethnicity) of about 500,000, with its capital city Praia accounting for a quarter of its citizens. Nearly 38% of the population lives in rural areas according to the 2010 Cape Verdean census; about 20% lives below the poverty threshold, and the literacy rate is around 85%. Politically, the country is a very stable democracy, with notable economic growth and improvements of living conditions despite its lack of natural resources, and has garnered international recognition by other countries and international organizations, which often provide development aid. Since 2007, Cape Verde has been classified as a developing nation.

Tough economic times during the last decades of its colonization and the first years of Cape Verde's independence led many to migrate to Europe, the Americas and other African countries. This migration was so significant that the number of Cape Verdeans and their descendants living abroad currently exceeds the population of Cape Verde itself.

Historically, the influx of remittances from these immigrant communities to their families has provided a substantial contribution to help strengthen the country's economy. Currently, the Cape Verdean economy is mostly service-oriented with a growing focus on tourism and foreign investment, which benefits from the islands' warm climate throughout the year, diverse landscape, welcoming people and cultural wealth, especially in music.

History Before the arrival of Europeans, the Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited. The islands of the Cape Verde archipelago

were discovered by Italian and Portuguese navigators around 1456. According to Portuguese official records the first discoveries were made by Genoese born Antonio de Noli, who was afterwards appointed governor of Cape Verde

by Portuguese King Afonso V. Other navigators mentioned as contributing with discoveries in the Cape Verde archipelago are Diogo Gomes, Diogo Dias, Diogo Afonso and the Italian Alvise Cadamosto.

In 1462, Portuguese settlers arrived at Santiago and founded a settlement they called Ribeira Grande (now called Cidade Velha, to avoid being confused with the town of Ribeira Grande on the Santo Antão island). Ribeira Grande was the first permanent European settlement in the tropics.

In the 16th century, the archipelago prospered from the transatlantic slave trade. Piratesoccasionally attacked the Portuguese settlements. Sir Francis Drake, a British corsair, sacked Ribeira Grande in 1585. After a French attack in 1712, the town declined in importance relative to nearby Praia, which became the capital in 1770.

With the decline in the slave trade, Cape Verde's early prosperity slowly vanished. However, the islands' position astride mid-Atlantic shipping lanes made Cape Verde an ideal location for re-supplying ships. Because of its excellent harbour, Mindelo (on the island of São Vicente) became an important commercial centre during the 19th century.

In 1951, Portugal changed Cape Verde's status from a colony to an overseas province in an attempt to blunt growing nationalism. In 1956, Amilcar Cabral, and a group of fellow Cape Verdeans and Guineans organised (in Portuguese Guinea) the clandestine African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which demanded improvement in economic, social and political conditions in Cape Verde and Portuguese Guinea and formed the basis of the two nations' independence movement. Moving its headquarters to Conakry, Guinea in 1960, the PAIGC began an armed rebellion against Portugal in 1961. Acts of sabotage eventually grew into a war in Portuguese Guinea that pitted 10,000 Soviet bloc-supported PAIGC soldiers against 35,000 Portuguese and African troops.

By 1972, the PAIGC controlled much of Portuguese Guinea despite the presence of the Portuguese troops, but the organization did not attempt to disrupt Portuguese control in Cape Verde. Portuguese Guinea declared independence in 1973 and was granted de jureindependence in 1974. Following the April 1974 revolution in Portugal, the PAIGC became an active political movement in Cape Verde. In December 1974, the PAIGC and Portugal signed an agreement providing for a transitional government composed of Portuguese and Cape Verdeans. On June 30, 1975, Cape Verdeans elected a National Assembly which received the instruments of independence from Portugal on July 5, 1975.

Immediately following the November 1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau, relations between Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau became strained. Cape Verde abandoned its hope for unity with Guinea-Bissau and formed the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde(PAICV). Problems have since been resolved and relations between the countries are good. The PAICV and its predecessor established a one-party system and ruled Cape Verde from independence until 1990.

Responding to growing pressure for pluralistic democracy, the PAICV called an emergency congress in February 1990 to discuss proposed constitutional changes to end one-party rule. Opposition groups came together to form the Movement for Democracy (MPD) in Praia in April 1990. Together, they campaigned for the right to contest the presidential election scheduled for December 1990.

The one-party state was abolished September 28, 1990, and the first multi-party elections were held in January 1991.

The MPD won a majority of the seats in the National Assembly, and MPD presidential candidate António Mascarenhas Monteiro defeated the PAICV's candidate with 73.5% of the votes. Legislative elections in December 1995 increased the MPD majority in the National Assembly. The party won 50 of the National Assembly's 72 seats.

A February 1996 presidential election returned President Monteiro to office. Legislative elections in January 2001 returned power to the PAICV, with the PAICV holding 40 of the National Assembly seats, MPD 30, and Party for Democratic Convergence (PCD) and Party for Labor and Solidarity (PTS) 1 each. In February 2001, the PAICV-supported presidential candidate Pedro Pires defeated former MPD leader Carlos Veiga by only 13 votes.

John Huss Day Czech Republic - Jul 06

Jan Hus often referred to in English as John Hus or John Huss, was a Czech priest, philosopher, reformer, and master at Charles University in Prague. After John Wycliffe, the theorist of ecclesiastical Reformation, Hus is considered the first Church reformer (living prior to Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli).

He is famed for having been burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of theCatholic Church, including those on ecclesiology, the Eucharist, and other theological topics.

Hus was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century, and his teachings had a strong influence on the states of Europe, most immediately in the approval for the existence of a reformist Bohemian religious denomination, and, more than a century later, on Martin Luther himself.

Between 1420 and 1431, the Hussite forces defeated five consecutive papal crusades against followers of Hus. Their defence and rebellion against Roman Catholics became known as the Hussite Wars. A century later, as many as 90% of inhabitants of the Czech lands were non-Catholic and followed the teachings of Hus and his successors.

Early life Hus was born in Husinec, Kingdom of Bohemia in 1369. He

traveled to Prague at an early age where he supported himself by singing and serving in churches. His conduct was positive and his commitment to his studies was remarkable.

In 1393, Hus earned a degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Prague and he earned his master's degree in 1396. In 1400, he was ordained as a priest and became rector of the university in 1402–03. He was appointed a preacher at the newly built Bethlehem chapel around the same time. Hus was a strong advocate for the Czechs, and therefore the Realists, and he was influenced by the writings of John Wycliffe. Although many works of Wycliffe were proscribed in 1403 by the church, Hus translated Trialogus into Czechand helped to distribute it.

Execution

The executioners undressed Hus and tied his hands behind his back with ropes, and bound his neck with a chain to a stake around which wood and straw had been piled up so that it covered him to the neck. In the same truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached, drawing upon the sayings and positions of the holy doctors, I am ready to die today." He was then burned at the stake, and his ashes thrown into the Rhine River.

Anecdotally, it has been claimed that the executioners had some problems scaling up the fire. An old woman came closer to the bonfire and threw a relatively small amount of brushwood on it.

Hus, seeing it, then said, "Sancta Simplicitas!" (Holy Simplicity!)

This sentence's Czech equivalent ("svatá prostota!", or, in vocative form "svatá prostoto!") is still used to comment upon a stupid action.

Tynwald Day Isle of Man - Jul 05

Tynwald Day (Manx: Laa Tinvaal) is the National Day of the Isle of Man, usually occurring on 5 July.

On this day the Isle's legislature, Tynwald, meets at St John's, instead of its usual meeting place, Douglas. The session is held partly in the Royal Chapel of St John the Baptist and partly in the open air on the adjacent Tynwald Hill (an artificial mound). The meeting, the first recorded instance of which dates to 1417, is known as Midsummer Court. It is attended by members of the two branches of Tynwald: the House of Keys, and the Legislative Council. The Lieutenant Governor, the representative of the Lord of Mann, presides except on the occasions when the Lord or another member of the British Royal Family is present.

All bills that have received the Royal Assent are promulgated on Tynwald Day; any Act of Tynwald which is not so promulgated within 18 months of passage ceases to have effect.

Other proceedings include the presentation of petitions and the swearing in of certain public officials.

Saba Saba Tanzania - Jul 07

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

C s a ba H e nde Vis it s N ATO B a s e in Ge r m a ny

Independence Day Algeria - Jul 05

Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a large country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.

When referring to its land area, Algeria is the largest country in Africa, Maghreb and the Arab World. It is also the largest of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea; it is also the tenthlargest country in the world. The country is bordered in the northeast by Tunisia, in the east by Libya, in the west by Morocco, in the southwest by Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Mali, in the southeast by Niger, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Its size is almost 2,400,000 square kilometres (926,645 sq mi) with an estimated population of 37.1 million as of 2012. Algeria is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, OPEC and the United Nations. The country is also a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union.

History

Algeria has been populated since 10.000 BC, as depicted in the Tassili national Park. The indigenous peoples of northern Africa are a distinct native population, called the Berbers, by Greeks and Romans then by Arabs.

Prehistoric period:

The cave painting found around the Tassili n'Ajjer in northern Tamanrasset, and in other places, depicts scenes from every day life in the prehistoric Algeria, between 8000-BC and 4000-BC. They were executed by hunters during the Capsian period of theNeolithic age who lived in a savanna region, known then as the Green Sahara. Those paintings show giant buffalos, elephants, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, animals that no longer exist in the now-desert area.

The pictures provide the most complete record of a prehistoric Algerian history.

Earlier inhabitants of Algeria also left a significant amount of remains. At Ain Hanech region (Saïda Province), early remnants (200.000-BC) of hominid occupation in North Africa were found. Neanderthal tool makers produced hand axes in the Levalloisian and Mousterian styles (43.000-BC) similar to those in the Levant.

According to some sources, Algeria was the site of the highest state of development of Middle Paleolithic Flake tool techniques. Tools of this era, starting about 30.000-BC, are called Aterian (after the archeological site of Bir el Ater, south of Annaba) and are marked by a high standard of workmanship, great variety, and specialization.

The earliest blade industries in North Africa are called Iberomaurusian (located mainly in Oran region). This industry appears to have spread throughout the coastal regions of the Maghreb between 15.000-BC and 10.000-BC. Neolithic civilization (animal domestication and agriculture) developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean Maghrib between 6.000 and 2.000-BC. This life richly depicted in the Tassili n'Ajjer paintings, predominated Algeria until the classical period.

The amalgam of peoples of North Africa coalesced eventually into a distinct native population that came to be called Berbers. Distinguished by cultural and linguistic attributes, the Berbers were typically depicted as "barbaric" enemies, troublesome nomads, or ignorant peasants by Roman, Greek, Byzantine, and Arab Muslim invaders. They were, however, to play a major role in the area's history.

Classical period:

From their principal center of power at Carthage, the Carthaginians expanded and established small settlements along the North African coast; by 600-BC, a Phoenician presence existed at Tipasa, east of Cherchell, Hippo Regius (modern Annaba) and Rusicade (modern Skikda). These settlements served as market towns as well as anchorages.

As Carthaginian power grew, its impact on the indigenous population increased dramatically. Berber civilization was already at a stage in which agriculture, manufacturing, trade, and political organization supported several states. Trade links between Carthage and the Berbers in the interior grew, but territorial expansion also resulted in the enslavement or military recruitment of some Berbers and in the extraction of tribute from others.

Ancient Roman theatre in By the early fourth century BC, Berbers formed the single largest element Djémila of the Carthaginian army. In the Revolt of the Mercenaries, Berber soldiers rebelled from 241 to 238-BC after being unpaid following the defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War. They succeeded in obtaining control of much of Carthage's North African territory, and they minted coins bearing the name Libyan, used in Greek to describe natives of North Africa. The Carthaginian state declined because of successive defeats by the Romans in the Punic Wars.

In 146-BC the city of Carthage was destroyed. As Carthaginian power waned, the influence of Berber leaders in the hinterland grew. By the second century BC, several large but loosely administered Berber kingdoms had emerged.

Two of them were established in Numidia, behind the coastal areas controlled by Carthage. West of Numidia lay Mauretania, which extended across the Moulouya River in modern day Morocco to the Atlantic Ocean. The high point of Berber civilization, unequaled until the coming of the Almohads and Almoravids more than a millennium later, was reached during the reign of Massinissa in the second century BC. After Masinissa's death in 148 BC, the Berber kingdoms were divided and reunited several times. Massinissa's line survived until 24 AD, when the remaining Berber territory was annexed to the Roman Empire for 2 centuries.

Arrival of Islam:

When Muslim Arabs arrived in Algeria in the mid-7th century, a large number of locals converted to the new faith. After the fall of the Umayyad Arab Dynasty in 751, numerous local Berber dynasties emerged. Amongst those dynasties were the Aghlabids, Almohads, Abdalwadid, Zirids, Rustamids,Hammadids, Almoravids and the Fatimids. converted the Berber Kutama of the Lesser Kabylia to its cause, the Shia Fatimids overthrew the Rustamids, and conquered Egypt, leaving Algeria and Tunisia to their Zirid vassals. When the latter rebelled, the Shia Fatimids sent in the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym Arabian tribes who unexpectedly defeated the Zirids.

The Berber people controlled much of the Maghreb region throughout the Middle Ages. The Berbers were made up of several tribes. The two main Statues in branches were the Botr and Barnès tribes, who were themselves divided Numidian into tribes, and again into sub-tribes. Each region of the Maghreb contained Cherchell Museum several tribes (for example, Sanhadja, Houaras, Zenata, Masmouda, Kutama, Awarba, andBerghwata). All these tribes were independent and made territorial decisions.

Several Berber dynasties emerged during the Middle Ages in Maghreb, Sudan, Andalusia, Italy, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Egypt, and other nearby lands. Ibn Khaldun provides a table summarizing the Zirid,Banu Ifran, Maghrawa, Almoravid, Hammadid, Almohad, Merinid, Abdalwadid, Wattasid, Meknassaand Hafsid dynasties.

Barbary corsairs:

The Spanish expansionist policy in North Africa began with the rule of the Catholic monarchsIsabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and their regent Cisneros. Once theReconquista of the Iberian Peninsula was completed, several towns and outposts on the Algerian coast were conquered and occupied by the Spanish Empire: Mers El Kébir (1505),Oran (1509), Peñón of Algiers (1510) and Bugia (1510). The Muslim leaders of Algiers called for help from the Barbary corsairs Hayreddin Barbarossa and Oruç Reis, who previously helped Andalusian Muslims and Jews escape from Spanish oppression in 1492. In 1516, Oruç Reis conquered Algiers with the support of 1,300 Turkish soldiers on board 16 galliotsand became its ruler, with Algiers joining the Ottoman Empire.

The Spaniards left Algiers in 1529, Bugia in 1554, Mers El Kébir and Oran in 1708. The Spanish returned in 1732 when the armada of the Duke of Montemar was victorious in theBattle of Aïn-el-Turk; Spain recaptured Oran and Mers El Kébir. Both cities were held until 1792, when they were sold by King Charles IV of Spain to the Bey of Algiers.

Algeria was made part of the Ottoman Empire by Hayreddin Barbarossa and his brother Aruj in 1517. After the death of Oruç Reis in 1518, his brother succeeded him. The Sultan Selim I sent him 6,000 soldiers and 2,000 janissaries with which he conquered most of the Algerian territory taken by the Spanish, from Annaba to Mostaganem. Further Spanish attacks led by Hugo of Moncada in 1519 were also pushed back. In 1541, Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, attacked Algiers with a convoy of 65 warships, 451 large ships and 23,000 men, 2000 of whom were mounted. The attack resulted in failure however, and the Algerian leader Hassan Agha became a national hero as Algiers grew into a center of military power in the Mediterranean.

The Ottomans established Algeria's modern boundaries in the north and made its coast a base for theOttoman corsairs; their privateering peaked in Algiers in the 17th century. Piracy on American vessels in the Mediterranean resulted in the First (1801–1805) and Second Barbary Wars (1815) with the United States. The pirates forced the people on the ships they captured into slavery; when the pirates attacked coastal villages in southern and Western Europe the inhabitants were forced into theArab slave trade.

The Barbary pirates, also sometimes called Ottoman corsairs or the Marine Jihad (‫)يرحبلا داهجلا‬, were Muslim pirates and privateers that operated from North Africa, from the time of the Crusades until the early 19th century. Based in North African ports such as Tunis in Tunisia, Tripoli in Libya and Algiers in Algeria, they preyed on Christian and other non-Islamic shipping in the western Mediterranean Sea. Their stronghold was along the stretch of northern Africa known as the Barbary Coast (a medieval term for the Maghreb after its Berber inhabitants), but their predation was said to extend throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard, and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland and the United States. They often made raids, called Razzias, on European coastal towns to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in places such as Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Algeria and Morocco. According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain and Portugal, and from farther places like France, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Russia, Scandinavia and even Iceland, India, Southeast Asia and North America.

In 1544, Hayreddin captured the island of Ischia, taking 4,000 prisoners, and enslaved some 9,000 inhabitants ofLipari, almost the entire population. In 1551, Turgut Reis enslaved the entire population of the Maltese island ofGozo, between 5,000 and 6,000, sending them to Libya. In 1554, pirates sacked Vieste in southern Italy and took an estimated 7,000 slaves.

In 1558, Barbary corsairs captured the town of Ciutadella (Minorca), destroyed it, slaughtered the inhabitants and took 3,000 survivors to Istanbul as slaves. In 1563, Turgut Reis landed on the shores of the province of Granada, Spain, and captured coastal settlements in the area, such as Almuñécar, along with 4,000 prisoners. Barbary pirates often attacked theBalearic Islands, and in response many coastal watchtowers and fortified churches were erected.

The threat was so severe that the island of Formentera became uninhabited.

Between 1609 to 1616, England lost 466 merchant ships to Barbary pirates. In the 19th century, Barbary pirates would capture ships and enslave the crew. Later American ships were attacked. During this period, the pirates forged affiliations with Caribbean powers, paying a "license tax" in exchange for safe harbor of their vessels. One American slave reported that the Algerians had enslaved 130 American seamen in the Mediterranean and Atlantic from 1785 to 1793.

Plague had repeatedly struck the cities of North Africa. Algiers lost from 30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants to the plague in 1620–21, and again in 1654–57, 1665, 1691, and 1740–42.

French rule:

On the pretext of a slight to their consul, the French invaded and captured Algiers in 1830. The conquest of Algeria by the French was long and resulted in considerable bloodshed. A combination of violence and disease epidemics caused the indigenous Algerian population to decline by nearly one-third from 1830 to 1872.

Between 1825 and 1847, 50,000 French people emigrated to Algeria. These settlers benefited from the French government's confiscation of communal land and the application of modern agricultural techniques that increased the amount of arable land. Algeria's social fabric suffered during the occupation: literacy plummeted, while land development uprooted much of the population. Starting from the end of the 19th century, people of European descent in Algeria (or natives like Spanish people in Oran), as well as the native Algerian Jews (classified as Sephardi Jews), became full French citizens.

After Algeria's 1962 independence, the Europeans were called Pieds-Noirs ("black feet"). Some apocryphal sources suggest the title comes from the black boots settlers wore, but the term seems not to have been widely used until the time of the Algerian War of Independence and it is more likely it started as an insult towards settlers returning from Africa.

Post-independence:

In 1954, the National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale or FLN) launched the Algerian War of Independence which was a guerrilla campaign. By the end of the war, French PresidentCharles de Gaulle held a plebiscite, offering Algerians three options. In a famous speech (4 June 1958 in Algiers), de Gaulle proclaimed in front of a vast crowd of PiedsNoirs "Je vous ai compris" ("I have understood you"). Most Pieds-Noirs then believed that de Gaulle meant that Algeria would remain French. The poll resulted in a landslide vote for complete independence from France. Over one million people, ten percent of the population, then fled the country for France in just a few months in mid-1962. These included most of the 1,025,000 Pieds-Noirs, as well as 81,000 Harkis (pro-French Algerians serving in the French Army). In the days preceding the bloody conflict, a group of Algerian Rebels opened fire on a marketplace in Oran killing numerous innocent civilians, mostly women. It is estimated that somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 Harkis and their dependents were killed by the FLN or by lynch mobs in Algeria.

Algeria's first president was the FLN leader Ahmed Ben Bella. He was overthrown by his former ally and defense minister, Houari Boumédienne in 1965. Under Ben Bella, the government had already become increasingly socialist and authoritarian, and this trend continued throughout Boumédienne's government. However, Boumédienne relied much more heavily on the army, and reduced the sole legal party to a merely symbolic role. Agri- Great Mosque of Algiers culture was collectivised, and a massive industrialization drive launched.

Oil extraction facilities were nationalized. This was especially beneficial to the leadership after the 1973 oil crisis.

However, the Algerian economy became increasingly dependent on oil which led to hardship when the price collapsed during the 1980s oil glut.

In foreign policy, Algeria has strained relations with Morocco, its western neighbor. Reasons for this include Morocco's disputed claim to portions of western Algeria(which led to the Sand War in 1963), Algeria's support for the Polisario Front for its right to self-determination, and Algeria's hosting of Sahrawi refugees within its borders in the city of Tindouf.

Within Algeria, dissent was rarely tolerated, and the state's control over the media and the outlawing of political parties other than the FLN was cemented in the repressive constitution of 1976.

Boumédienne died in 1978, but the rule of his successor, Chadli Bendjedid, was little more open. The state took on a strongly bureaucratic character and corruption was widespread.

The modernization drive brought considerable demographic changes to Algeria. Village traditions underwent significant change as urbanization increased. New industries emerged and agricultural employment was substantially reduced. Education was extended nationwide, raising the literacy rate from less than ten percent to over sixty percent.

There was a dramatic increase in the fertility rate to seven to eight children per mother.

Therefore by 1980, there was a very youthful population and a housing crisis. The new generation struggled to relate to the cultural obsession with the war years and two conflicting protest movements developed: communists, including Berber identity movements; and Islamic intégristes. Both groups protested against one-party rule but also clashed with each other in universities and on the streets during the 1980s. Mass protests from both camps in autumn 1988 forced Bendjedid to concede the end of one-party rule.

Boumediene Era:

Boumediene putsch over Ben Bella on 19 March 1965 was described, by the Algerian authorities, as a "historical rectification" of the Algerian Revolution. Boumediene dissolved the National Assembly, suspended the 1963 Constitution, disbanded the militia, and abolished the political bureau, a Ben Bella legacy considered his instrument of rule.

After 1965 Algeria was governed by the 26 members of the Revolutionary Council, led by Boumediene. Boumediene was an ardent patriot, deeply influenced by Islamic values. The 'agricultural revolution', the main policy initiative of the Boumediene era, commenced in 1971, but did not have the desired impact. It consisted mainly in the seizure of proprieties and the re- The Spanish fort of Cruz, distribution of said properties to cooperative farms. During the Boumediene Oran era, a third Algerian Constitution was inaugurated in 1976.

Boumediene was criticised among FLN radical members for betraying "rigorous socialism". Some of the military attempted a coup d'état in 1967. Boumediene also survived an assassination attempt in 1968, after which opponents were exiled or imprisoned, and Boumediene's power consolidated.

Arabization policy:

Of all current Arab countries subject to European colonization, Algeria absorbed the heaviest colonial impact. The French controlled almost all the education and cultural life of the colonial system, for over 132 years. Consequently, it emerged as the bi-linguistic state of Algeria after 1962.

French policy was oriented towards "civilizing" the country, even with a literacy rate of 50% in 1830 (more than in France itself ), a lot of Algerian Arabic books of the early 19th century are currently present in the National Library of Algeria. The French language replaced the Arabic and Berber languages in almost everything and Arabic declined drastically. Dialectic Arabic, used for every day communications, (Algerian Arabic) survived, but was also influenced by the French language.

During this period a small but influential French-speaking indigenous elite was formed, made up of Berbers mostly from Kabyles. In their policy of "divide to reign," Kabyles were favored by this colonial system. In fact 80% of Indigenous Schools were destined for Kabyles. As a result, Kabyles moved into large levels of state administration across Algeria after 1962, who, among all Algerians, were the most attached to the French culture.

The Nationalists who ruled Algeria after independence committed themselves to the hard task of regenerating indigenous language and cultural background, in order to recover the precolonial past and to use it in order to restore (if not to create) a national identity based on Islam, Arabic Language, and Algerianism.

This movement was transformed into a state policy called "arabization." Many problems occurred in the application of this new policy. Arabic teachers were lacking, and Algerians were not used to the Literary Arabic. More problems came out during the 1980s Berber Spring, in which Kabyles asked for a solution to the Berber question. They believed Arabization was a menace to the Berber Culture and heritage, and that the French Language offered more opportunities.

The Arabization Movement:

Under Boumediene, arabization took the form of a national language requirement on street signs and shop signs. Algeria remains caught between strident demands to eliminate any legacy from its colonial past and the more pragmatic concerns of the costs of rapid arabization.

Calls have been made to eliminate coeducational schooling and affect the arabization of medical and technological schools.

The Arabization of Algerian society would expedite the inevitable break with France. Tahir Wattar, a prominent pro-arabization Berber, called French use and teaching the "Vestige of Colonialism". In December 1990, a law was passed that would implement complete arabization of secondary school and higher education by 1997. In early July 1993, the most recent legislation proposing a national timetable for imposing Decatur and the Dey of Algiers Arabic as the only legal language in government and politics was again (1881 engraving) delayed; this was a result of official concerns about the existence of the necessary preconditions for sensible arabization. The law was to require that Arabic be the language of official communication, and would impose substantial fines for law violations.

Because many of the Algerian elite had been taught French under colonialism, and because a significant sector of the population spoke Tamazight, arabization has not always been popular.

Political events (1991–2002):

The first round of elections were held in 1991. In December 1991, the Islamic Salvation Front won the first round of the country's first multi-party elections. The military then intervened, declared a state of emergency that limited freedom of speech and assembly, and canceled the second round of elections. It forced then-president Bendjedid to resign and ban all political parties based on religion (including the Islamic Salvation Front). The military junta, the High Council of State (HCE), invited Mohamed Boudiaf to return from exile to become its chairman, but he was assassinated on 29 June 1992. The political conflict continued, leading Algeria into the violent Algerian Civil War. More than 160,000 people were killed between 17 January 1992 and June 2002 in various terrorist attacks which were claimed by the Armed Islamic Group and Islamic Salvation Army. However, elections resumed in 1995, and after 1998, the war waned. On 27 April 1999, after a series of short-term leaders representing the military, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the current president, was chosen by the army.

Post war:

By 2002, the main guerrilla groups had either been destroyed or surrendered, taking advantage of an amnesty program, though fighting and terrorism continues in some areas (See Islamic insurgency in Algeria (2002–present)). The issue of Amazigh languages and identity increased in significance as of 1998, when the United Nations declared that the Berbers are the indigenous people of North Africa, and giving them rights to their language, culture and historical facts. In Algeria after the extensive protests of 2001 and the near-total boycott of local elections in Kabylie Protests in Arris and T'kout Aures in 2004, where over 200 were jailed. The government responded with concessions including naming of Tamazight (Berber) as a national language and teaching it in schools. As of May 1, 2009 Tamazight is taught in the The bombardment of Algiers, a schools throughout Algeria.{citation needed}} 1820 painting Much of Algeria is now recovering and developing into an emerging economy. The high prices of oil and natural gas are being used by the new government to improve the country's infrastructure and especially improve industry and agricultural land.

Popular protests since 2010:

Following a wave of protests in the wake of popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, Algeria officially lifted its 19-year-old state of emergency on 24 February 2011. The country's Council of Ministers approved the repeal two days prior.

Independence Day Comoros - Jul 06

The Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros is a sovereign, archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa, on the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, between northeastern Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar. Other countries near to the Comoros are Tanzania to the northwest and the Seychelles to the northeast. The capital is Moroni on Grande Comore.

At 1,862 km2 (719 sq mi) (excluding Mayotte), the Comoros is the third-smallest African nation by area. The population (excluding Mayotte) is estimated at 798,000.

Its name derives from the Arabic word ‫ رمق‬qamar ("moon"). The archipelago is notable for its diverse culture and history, as a nation formed at the crossroads of many civilizations. It is the southernmost member state of the Arab League. Though in the contested island of Mayotte the sole official language is French, the "Union of the Comoros" has three official languages: Comorian, Arabic, and French.

The country officially consists of the four major islands in the volcanic Comoros archipelago: northwesternmost Grande Comore or Ngazidja, Mohéli or Mwali, Anjouan or Nzwani, and southeasternmost Mayotte or Maore, as well as many smaller islands. However, the government of the Comoros (or its predecessors, since independence) has never administered the island of Mayotte, which France administers as an overseas department. Mayotte was the only island in the archipelago that voted against independence from France in 1974; the latter has vetoed United Nations Security Councilresolutions that would affirm Comorian sovereignty over the island. In addition, a 29 March 2009 referendum on Mayotte's becoming an overseas department of France in 2011 was passed overwhelmingly by the people of Mayotte.

The Comoros is the only state to be a member of all of the following: African Union,Francophonie, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Arab League, and Indian Ocean Commission. The country has had a history marked by numerous coups d'état sinceindependence in 1975. As of 2008 about half the population lives below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.

History

Precolonial inhabitation:

The first human inhabitants of the Comoros Islands are thought to have been African andAustronesian settlers who traveled to the islands by boat. These people arrived no later than the sixth century AD, the date of the earliest known archaeological site, found on Nzwani, although settlement beginning as early as the first century has been postulated.

The islands of Comoros became populated by a succession of diverse groups from the coast of Africa, the Persian Gulf, the Malay Archipelago, and Madagascar. Swahili settlers first reached the islands as a part of the greater Bantu expansion that took place in Africa throughout Moroni with Harbor Bay and Centhe first millennium. tral Mosque, Capital of the CoAccording to a famous pre-Islamic mythology: A jinni (possibly Spirit) dropped a jewel, which formed a great circular inferno. This became moros the Kartala volcano which, created the island of Comoros. The early inhabitants of the islands worshiped nature and most probably the moon which they believed controlled the tides, these beliefs unified the islands.

Development of the Comoros is divided into phases, beginning with Swahili influence and settlement in the Dembeni phase (ninth to tenth centuries), during which each island maintained a single, central village. From the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, trade with the island of Madagascar and merchants from the Middle East flourished, smaller villages emerged, and existing towns expanded. The citizens and historians of the Comoros state that early Arab settlements date to even before their known arrival to the archipelago, and Swahili historians frequently trace genealogies back to Arab ancestors who had traveled from Yemen mainly Hadhramawt and Oman.

In the year 933 Al-Masudi mentions Omani sailors, who call the Comoros islands "The Perfume Islands" and sing of waves that break rhythmically along broad, pearl-sand beaches, the light breezes scented with ylang-ylang, a component in many perfumes.

In 1154, Arab geographer al-Idrisi depicted the Comoros on a map and mentioned how its sailors sold metal tools for gold and ivory in East Africa; he considered the island more stable and individually prosperous than the busy coastal ports of Mombasa, Zanzibar, Kilwa and Kitao. In the 15th century, the Arab seafarer Ahmad ibn Majid drew the individual routes among these islands.

Medieval Comoros:

According to legend, in 632, upon hearing of Islam, islanders are said to have dispatched an emissary, the navigator Qumralu, toMecca—but by the time he arrived there, the Prophet Muhammad had died. Nonetheless, after a stay in Mecca, he returned to Qanbalu and led the gradual conversion of his islanders to Islam.

Some of the earliest accounts on the island of Comoros were derived from the works of Al-Masudi, that mentions the importance of the Comoro Islands, like other coastal areas in the region, along early Islamic trade routes and how the islands were frequently visited byMuslims including Persian and Arab merchants and sailors from Basra in search of coral, ylang-ylang, ivory, beads, spices, gold, they also brought Islam to the people of the Zanj including Comoros. As the importance of Comoros grew along the East African coast smallmosques and large mosques were constructed. Despite its distance from the coast, Comoros is situated along the Swahili Coast inEast Africa. It was a major hub of trade and an important location in the sea route between Kilwa (an outlet for Zimbabwean gold) inMozambique and Mombasa in Kenya.

After the arrival of the Portuguese and the collapse of East African sultanates, the powerful Omani Sultan Saif bin Sultan began to defeat the Dutch and the Portuguese. His successor Said bin Sultan increased Omani Arab influence in region especially when nearbyZanzibar came under Omani rule, and Comorian culture, especially architecture and religion also inhibited features that were unique to the plurality of the region. Sultans on the Comoros a large community of rival rulers controlled much of the islands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

By the time Europeans showed interest in the Comoros, the traditional Muslim, Swahili and Arab heritage islands began to adopt to the changes introduced by European colonization. More recent western scholarship by Thomas Spear and Randall Pouwells emphasizes black African historical predominance over the diffusionist perspective.

European contact and French colonization:

By the year 1506 the Portuguese landed on the islands and began to challenge the Bajas(Bantu Muslim chiefs) and Fanis (lesser chiefs). In the years that followed the islands were sacked by the forces of Afonso de Albuquerque in the year 1514 by the Portuguese. The ruler of the Comoran Muslims barely survived after hiding in an extinct volcanic crater and despite the inadequacy of their cover, the Portuguese miraculously never found them. In the year 1648 the islands were raided by the Malagasy pirates, they sacked Iconi, a coastal trading hub near Ngazidja after defeating the weak Sultan.

In 1793, Malagasy warriors from Madagascar first started raiding the islands for slaves, and later settled and seized control in many locations. On Comoros, it was estimated in 1865 that as much as 40% of the population consisted of slaves. France first establishedcolonial rule A large dhow with lateen sail in the Comoros in 1841. The first French colonists landed in Mayotte, rigs. and Andrian Tsouli, the Malagasy King of Mayotte, signed the Treaty of April 1841, which ceded the island to the French authorities.

In 1886, Mohéli was placed under French protection by its Queen Salima Machimba. That same year, after consolidating his authority over all of Grande Comore, Sultan Said Ali agreed to French protection of his island, though he retained sovereignty until 1909. Also in 1909, Sultan Said Muhamed of Anjouan abdicated in favor of French rule.

The Comoros (orLes Comores) was officially made a French colony in 1912, and the islands were placed under the administration of the French colonial governor general of Madagascar in 1914.

The Comoros served as a way station for merchants sailing to the Far East and India until the opening of the Suez Canal significantly reduced traffic passing through the Mozambique Channel. The native commodities exported by the Comoros were coconuts, cattle and tortoiseshell. French settlers, French-owned companies, and wealthy Arab merchants established a plantation-based economy that now uses about one-third of the land for export crops. After its annexation, France converted Mayotte into a sugar plantation colony. The other islands were soon transformed as well, and the major crops of ylang-ylang, vanilla,coffee, cocoa bean, and sisal were introduced.

Agreement was reached with France in 1973 for Comoros to become independent in 1978. The deputies of Mayotte abstained. Referendums were held on all four of the islands. Three voted for independence by large margins, while Mayotte voted against, and remains under French administration. On 6 July 1975, however, the Comorian parliament passed a unilateral resolution declaring independence. Ahmed Abdallah proclaimed the independence of the Comorian State (État comorien; ‫ )رمقلا ةلود‬and became its first president.

Independence:

The next 30 years were a period of political turmoil. On 3 August 1975, mercenary Bob Denard, with clandestine support from Jacques Foccart and the French government, removed president Ahmed Abdallah from office in an armed coup and replaced him with United National Front of the Comoros (UNF) member Prince Said Mohammed Jaffar. Months later, in January 1976, Jaffar was ousted in favor of his Minister of Defense Ali Soilih.

At this time, the population of Mayotte voted against independence from France in two referenda. The first, held in December 1974, won 63.8% support for maintaining ties with France, while the second, held in February 1976, confirmed that vote with an overwhelming 99.4%. The three remaining islands, ruled by President Soilih, instituted a number of socialist and isolationist policies that soon strained relations with France. On 13 May 1978, Bob Denard returned to overthrow President Soilih and reinstate Abdallah with the support of the French, Rhodesian and South African governments.

During Soilih's brief rule, he faced seven additional coup attempts until he was finally forced from office and killed.

In contrast to Soilih, Abdallah's presidency was marked by authoritarian rule and increased adherence to traditional Islam and the country was renamed the Federal Islamic Republic of Comoros (République Fédérale Islamique des Comores; ‫رمقلا ةيروهمج‬ ‫) ةيمالسإلا ةيداحتإلا‬. Abdallah continued as president until 1989 when, fearing a probable coup d'état, he signed a decree ordering the Presidential Guard, led by Bob Denard, to disarm the armed Sultan Said Ali bin Said Omar of forces. Shortly after the signing of the decree, Abdallah was al- Grande Comore (1897) legedly shot dead in his office by a disgruntled military officer, though later sources claim an antitank missile was launched into his bedroom and killed him.Although Denard was also injured, it is suspected that Abdallah's killer was a soldier under his command.

A few days later, Bob Denard was evacuated to South Africa by French paratroopers. Said Mohamed Djohar, Soilih's older half-brother, then became president, and served until September 1995, when Bob Denard returned and attempted another coup. This time France intervened with paratroopers and forced Denard to surrender. The French removed Djohar to Reunion, and the Paris-backedMohamed Taki Abdulkarim became president by election. He led the country from 1996, during a time of labor crises, government suppression, and secessionist conflicts, until his death November 1998. He was succeeded by Interim President Tadjidine Ben Said Massounde.

The islands of Anjouan and Mohéli declared their independence from the Comoros in 1997, in an attempt to restore French rule. But France rejected their request, leading to bloody confrontations between federal troops and rebels.

In April 1999, Colonel Azali Assoumani, Army Chief of Staff, seized power in a bloodless coup, overthrowing the Interim President Massounde, citing weak leadership in the face of the crisis. This was the Comoros' 18th coup d'état since independence in 1975. Azali, however, failed to consolidate power and reestablish control over the islands, which was the subject of international criticism. The African Union, under the auspices of President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, imposed sanctions on Anjouan to help broker negotiations and effect reconciliation. The official name of the country was changed to the Union of the Comoros and a new system of political autonomy was instituted for each island, plus a union government for the three islands was added.

Azali stepped down in 2002 to run in the democratic election of the President of the Comoros, which he won. Under ongoing international pressure, as a military ruler who had originally come to power by force, and was not always democratic while in office, Azali led the Comoros through constitutional changes that enabled new elections. A Loi des compétences law was passed in early 2005 that defines the responsibilities of each governmental body, and is in the process of implementation. The elections in 2006 were won by Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi, a Sunni Muslim cleric nicknamed the "Ayatollah" for his time spent studying Islam in Iran. Azali honored the election results, thus allowing the first peaceful and democratic exchange of power for the archipelago.

Colonel Mohammed Bacar, a French-trained former gendarme, seized power as President in Anjouan in 2001. He staged a vote in An 1808 map refers to the islands June 2007 to confirm his leadership that was rejected as illegal by as "Camora". the Comoros federal government and the African Union. On 25 March 2008 hundreds of soldiers from the African Union and Comoros seized rebel-held Anjouan, generally welcomed by the population: there have been reports of hundreds, if not thousands, of people tortured during Bacar’s tenure. Some rebels were killed and injured, but there are no official figures. At least 11 civilians were wounded.

Some officials were imprisoned. Bacar fled in a speedboat to the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte to seek asylum. Anti-French protests followed in Comoros (see 2008 invasion of Anjouan).

Since independence from France, the Comoros experienced more than 20 coups or attempted coups.

Following elections in late 2010, former Vice-President Ikililou Dhoinine was inaugurated as President on 26 May 2011. A member of the ruling party, Dhoinine was supported in the election by the incumbent President Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi. Dhoinine, a pharmacist by training, is the first President of Comoros from the island of Mohéli.

25 (Online On Jun) Thursday, June Defence 21 Minister Csaba Hende and Lt.Gen. Dr. Zoltán the Orosz, Deputy Chief of Defence the Staff visited the NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, Germany.

While at the base, Csaba and Hende Zoltán Orosz the watched display flight of the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, which is equipped with a long-range radar. This aircraft is able to fly surveillance missions to control the air traffic – primarily military air traffic – within a radius of several hundred kilometers in the airspace. Due to its several thousand meter flight altitude, the curvature and terrain features of the earth cause far fewer problems with the detection of airplanes, which is a great over ground-based advantage

radars. Moreover, the system is mobile so it can be deployed at any site around the globe.

In 1999, Hungary was granted an observer status in NATO’s Airborne Early Warning and Control Programme Management Organisation (NAPMO), then became a full member of it in December, 2005. Accordingly, initially four Hungarian Air Force personnel began work at the E-3A

Component in Geilenkirchen in the summer of 2006, and later they were joined by anseven other HuAF personnel. is AWACS playing a role in the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, as the nations host have requested the Boeing E3A fleet to proair vide surveillance and control capability in their airspace. The Hungarian Defence Forces are also performing tasks in this mission, having been requested by NATO to join the counter-terrorist work during the championship. The Veszprém “Rock” (Control and Reporting Center, CRC) receives recognized air pictures (RAPs) from the Ukraine and Poland and transmits them to the NATO operating authorities.

M ont e ne gr in C hie f of D e f e nc e Pa y s Of f ic ia l Vis it to H unga r y (Online 27 Jun) Vice-Admiral Dragan Samardzic is staying in Hungary on a three-day official visit. Brig.Gen. László Szabó, the Chief of the MoD Defence Staff Training Directorate received the Chief of the General Staff of the Montenegrin Armed Forces at the Budapest “Ferenc Liszt” International Airport on June 24.

The high-rank- (photo: Ministry ing guest and his entourage were received with military honors in the Lehel St compound of the Ministry of Defence on June 25. In what followed, the Montenegrin delegation laid a wreath at

of Defence) the heroes’ memorial in Heroes’ Square.

The program of the visit continued with closed-door discussions between Vice-Admiral Samardzic and Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő, the Chief of the

Defence Staff.

Afterwards, at a plenary session, the two partners explored the furt h e r possibilities of Montenegro’s participation, in the light of NATO’s changing role in the future of Afghanistan.

The Hungarian partner provided Vice-Adm i r a l Samardzic with detailed information about the experiences of a recent visit to the region.

Before the return home on June 26, Dr. István Simicskó, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence receives the Montenegrin Chief of Defence on an office call.

H unga r ia n- Ge r m a n e c onom ic a nd t our is m f or um ne a r La k e B a la t on 28 (Online Jun) A German-Hungarian conference on the economy, science, tourism and regional development was held in the vicinity of Hungary’s largest lake, Lake Balaton, a major tourist destination. three Some thousand German companies operate in Hungary, and most of these are small- and medium-sized businesses are which barely known beyond their immediate environment but provide jobs for 300 to 400 thousand Hungarian employees. German capital invested in Hungary amounts to EUR 17 billion, half of which found opportunities in the processing industry. German businesses are implementing several strategic projects in Hungary at present; the new Kecskemét plant of Mercedes will create 3,000 jobs by the end of the year, the Győr factory of Audi will, in

addition to the already existing jobs, offer work to some 2,500 people and Bosch, too, is adhering to its expansion plans also resulting in new jobs.

There have been long-standing economic and agricultural relations between Germany and Hungary, and there is exemplary cooperation also in the area of veterinary hygiene.

Germany is Hungary’s strategic partner in the field of food industry products; primarily highly processed

Hungarian foodstuffs sell best in Germany.

Bence Rétvári, of Minister State for Public Administration Justice and said in his that speech German cooperation is key for Hungary; the successful cooperation between the German economy and public administration may serve as an example for as Hungary well. The State must operate as a partner of investors, rather than as some bureaucratic braking mechanism, Rétvári said, who reminded his audience that Parliament had recently unanimously approved a decision on German-Hungarian strategic cooperation in the next 20 years. In his lecture, the Minister of State also rendered an account of the measures taken by the Government for the reduction of bureaucracy which are also designed to boost the economy.

IM F s a t is f ie d wit h a m e ndm e nt of c e nt r a l ba nk la w 28 (Online Jun) According to the information released by the International Monetary Fund, the amendments to the central bank legislation are fully satisfactory, and following their passage Parliaby ment, negotimay ations commence, Mihály Varga, minister without portfolio announced on Wednesday.

Mihály Varga informed the press that in her answer, Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), welthe communication comed co-written by the Minister with central bank governor András Simor, and after an evaluation of the amendments submitted in connection with the central bank law, she informed her Hungarian partners

that the contemplated amendments are fully acceptable for the IMF. Lagarde further welcomed the commitment of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Antal Rogán, Chair of the competent parliamentary committee not to make additional appointments for the post of deputy-governor of the central bank.

Mihály Varga said that if Parliament approves these amendments, negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and the competent bodies of the EU may commence.

The Minister out pointed that the passage of the amendments is being delayed through no fault of the Hungarian Government or Parliament; the European Central Bank in(ECB) formed the Government that they wish to evaluate the bill themselves. The ECB’s evaluation is expected to be completed at the beginning of July.

Parliament may pass the legislation on 12 July, at the last session of Parliament this season, at the latest, and negotiations may then begin, he added.

Pr im e M inis t e r a t t e nds ina ugur a t ion s e r v ic e of polic e of fic e r s (Online 25 Jun) A country may be strong and successful if an appropriate state administration and economic system is combined with the dedication and honesty of those in the service of the State, Prime Minister Viktor O r b á n stressed at the inauguration ceremony of the Law Enforcement Faculty of the National Pub- photo: Gergely Botár lic Service University held on Sunday.

“Allow me, please, to praise your courage first as you are entering into the service of your country during testing times”, Viktor Orbán said, and added, “the profession that you have chosen is one that involves a great deal of responsibility.

We, Hungarians undertook photo: Gergely Botár two years ago”, the Prime Minister continued, dations for a new and competitive “to build a strong and successful economy; and are successfully recountry. You as police officers must sisting the waves of the euro zone keeping Hungary under permanent serve this common goal.”

Hungarian people have done a siege, Viktor Orbán listed. great deal to make Hungary a coun- “In the past two years, you have try that is able to stand on its own done a great deal to restore public two feet; we have closed the order that was slowly disintegrating. process of constitutional legislation Even the best of laws are worth little that was in a state of transition for if there are no patriots to guard and twenty years; we have curbed our maintain law and order. In the state debt which threatened to bury course of your work, you may conthe country; we have laid the foun- tinue to rely on us as your ally”, Vik-

tor Orbán stressed.

The Prime Minister also said that we can only put an end to a world where crimes remain unpunished and trickery pays better than honesty if we combine our efforts.

Law enforcement training has been placed on new foundations, and higher education in law enforcement has been elevated to the rank of university training.

Three thousand more police personnel are serving at present, and the legislature has introduced the three strikes law which serves as a deterrent for repeat offenders, the Prime Minister reminded his audience.

The Prime Minister remarked that Parliament will pass this week the Penal Code which will provide a more transparent background in law application. We have combined our resources in our resolve to put an end to a world in which the law benefits the realm of criminals. At the same time, we still have a great deal to do, the Prime Minister said. „Hungary expects four things of you; dedication, devotion to your profession, honest and fair work and self-esteem”, Viktor Orbán told the new police officers.

Republic Day Malawi - Jul 06

Malawi officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Malawi is over 118,000 km2 (45,560 sq mi) with an estimated population of more than 13,900,000. Its capital is Lilongwe, which is also Malawi's largest city; the second largest is Blantyre and the third is Mzuzu. The name Malawi comes from the Maravi, an old name of the Nyanja people that inhabit the area. The country is also nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa".

The area of Africa now known as Malawi was colonized by migrating tribes of Bantu around the 10th century. In 1891 the area was colonized again, this time by the British. In 1953 Malawi, then known as Nyasaland, became part of the semi-independent Central African Federation (CAF). The Federation was dissolved in 1963 and in 1964, Nyasaland gained full independence and was renamed Malawi. Upon gaining independence it became a single-party state under the presidency of Hastings Banda, who remained president until 1994, when he was ousted from power. Joyce Banda (no relation) is the current president, raised to that position after president Bingu Mutharika died in 2012. She is the first female leader in Malawi. Malawi has a democratic, multi-party government. Malawi has a small military force that includes an army, a navy and an air wing. Malawi's foreign policy is pro-Western and includes positive diplomatic relations with most countries and participation in several international organizations.

Malawi is among the world's least-developed countries. The economy is heavily based in agriculture, with a largely rural population. The Malawian government depends heavily on outside aid to meet development needs, although this need (and the aid offered) has decreased since 2000. The Malawian government faces challenges in building and expanding the economy, improving education, health care, environmental protection, and becoming financially independent. Malawi has several programs developed since 2005 that focus on these issues, and the country's outlook appears to be improving, with improvements in economic growth, education and healthcare seen in 2007 and 2008.

Malawi has a low life expectancy and high infant mortality. There is a high prevalence ofHIV/AIDS, which is a drain on the labor force and government expenditures. There is a diverse population of native peoples, Asians and Europeans, with several languages spoken and an array of religious beliefs. Although there was tribal conflict in the past, by 2008 it had diminished considerably and the concept of a Malawian nationality had begun to form. Malawi has a culture combining native and colonial aspects, including sports, art, dance and music.

History

The area of Africa now known as Malawi had a very small population of hunter gatherers before waves of Bantuspeaking peoples began emigrating from the north around the 10th century. Although most of the Bantu peoples continued south, some remained permanently and founded tribes based on common ancestry. By 1500 AD, the tribes had established a kingdom that reached from north of what is now Nkhotakota to the Zambezi River and from Lake Malawi to the Luangwa River in what is now Zambia.

Soon after 1600, with the area mostly united under one native ruler, native tribesmen began encountering, trading with and making alliances with Portuguese traders and members of the military. By 1700, however, the empire had broken up into areas controlled by many individual tribes, which was noted by the Portuguese in their information gathering. The Swahili-Arab slave trade reached its height about 150 years ago, when approximately 20,000 slaves were considered to be carried yearly fromNkhotakota to Kilwa where they were sold.

David Livingstone reached Lake Malawi (then Lake Nyasa) in 1859, when Malawi was originally known as Nyasaland under the rule of the British. In a prime example of what is sometimes called the "Thin White Line" of colonial authority in Africa, the colonial government of Nyasaland was formed in 1891. The administrators were given a budget of £10,000 per year, which was enough to employ ten European civilians, two military officers, seventy Punjab Sikhs, and eighty-five Zanzibar porters. These few employees were then expected to administer and police a territory of around 94,000 square kilometers with between one and two million people.

In 1944, the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) was formed by the Africans of Nyasaland to promote local interests to the British government. In 1953, Britain linked Nyasaland with Northern and Southern Rhodesia in what was known as the Central African Federation(CAF), for mainly political reasons. Even though the Federation was semi-independent the linking provoked opposition from African nationalists, and the NAC gained popular support. An influential opponent of the CAF was Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, a European-trained doctor working in Ghana who was persuaded to return to Nyasaland in 1958 to assist the nationalist cause. Banda was elected president of the NAC and worked to mobilize nationalist sentiment before being jailed by colonial authorities in 1959. He was released in 1960 and asked to help draft a new constitution for Nyasaland, with a clause granting Africans the majority in the colony's Legislative Counsel.

In 1961, Banda's Malawi Congress Party (MCP) gained the majority in the Legislative Council elections and Banda became Prime Minister in 1963. The Federation was dissolved in 1963, and on 6 July 1964, Nyasaland became independent from British rule and renamed itself Malawi. Under a new constitution, Malawi became a single-party state under MCP rule in 1966, and in 1970 Banda declared himself president-for-life. For almost 30 years, Banda ruled firmly, suppressing opposition to his party and ensuring that he had no personal opposition.

Despite his political severity, however, Malawi's economy while Banda was president was often cited as an example of how a poor, landlocked, heavily populated, mineral-poor country could achieve progress in both agriculture and industrial development. While in office, and using his control of the country, Banda constructed a business empire that eventually produced one-third of the country'sGDP and employed 10% of the wage-earning workforce.

Under pressure for increased political freedom, Banda agreed to a referendum in 1993, where the populace voted for a multi-party democracy. In late 1993 a presidential council was formed, the life presidency was abolished and a new constitution was put into place, effectively ending the MCP's rule. In 1994 the first multi-party elections were held in Malawi, and Bakili Muluzi became president. Muluzi remained president until 2004, when Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika was elected. Although the political environment is described as "challenging", as of 2009, the multi-party system still exists in Malawi. Multiparty parliamentary and presidential elections were held for the fourth time in Malawi in May 2009, and President Mutharika was successfully re-elected, despite charges of election fraud from his rival.

President Mutharika was seen by some as increasingly autocratic and dismissive of human rights, and in July 2011 protests over high costs of living, devolving foreign relations, poor governance and a lack of foreign exchange reserves erupted. The protests left 18 people dead and at least 44 others suffering from gun shot wounds. In April 2012, Mutharika died of a heart attack; the presidential title was taken over by former Vice President Joyce Banda.

Independence Day Solomon Islands - Jul 07

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

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

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

History It is believed that Papuan-speaking settlers began to arrive around 30,000 BC. Austronesian speakers arrived c. 4000

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

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

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

Under the protectorate, missionaries settled in the Solomons, converting most of the population to Christianity. In the early 20th century, several British and Australian firms began large-scale coconut planting. Economic growth was slow, however, and the islanders benefited little.

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

Second World War:

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

The Battle of Guadalcanal became an important and bloody campaign fought in the Pacific War as the Allies began to repulse Japanese expansion. Of strategic im- Solomon Island warriors with spears in ornaportance during the war were the coastwatchers oper- mented war canoe in 1895 ating in remote locations, often on Japanese held islands, providing early warning and intelligence of Japanese naval, army and aircraft movements during the campaign.

Sergeant-Major Jacob Vouza was a notable coastwatcher who after capture refused to divulge Allied information in spite of interrogation and torture by Japanese Imperial forces. He was awarded a Silver Star Medal by the Americans, which is the United States' third-highest decoration for valor in combat. Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana would be noted by National Geographic for being the first to find the shipwrecked John F. Kennedy and his crew of the PT109. They suggested using a coconut to write a rescue message for delivery by dugout canoe, which was later kept on his desk when he became the president of the United States.

The Solomon Islands was one of the major staging areas of the South Pacific and was home to the famous VMF-214 "Black Sheep" Squadron commanded by Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington. The Slot was a name for New Georgia Sound, when it was used by the Tokyo Express to supply the Japanese garrison on Guadalcanal. Of more than 36,000 Japanese on Guadalcanal, about 26,000 were killed or missing, 9,000 died of disease, and 1,000 were captured.

Independence:

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

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

Civil War:

Commonly referred to as the tensions or the ethnic tension, the initial civil unrest was mainly characterised by fighting between theIsatabu Freedom Movement (also known as the Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army) and the Malaita Eagle Force (as well as the Marau Eagle Force).

(Although much of the conflict was between Guales and Malaitans, Kabutaulaka (2001) and Dinnen (2002) argue that the 'ethnic conflict' label is an oversimplification.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In April 2006, allegations that the newly elected Prime Minister Snyder Rini had used bribes from Chinese businessmen to buy the votes of members of Parliament led to mass rioting in the capital Honiara. A deep underlying resentment against the minority Chinese business community led to much of Chinatown in the city being destroyed. Tensions had also been increased by the belief that large sums of money were being exported to China. China sent chartered aircraft to evacuate hundreds of Chinese who fled to avoid the riots. Evacuation of Australian and British citizens was on a much smaller scale. Further Australian, New Zealand and Fijian police and troops were dispatched to try to quell the unrest. Rini eventually resigned before facing a motion of no-confidence in Parliament, and Parliament elected Manasseh Sogavare as Prime Minister.

2007 earthquake and tsunami:

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

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

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

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

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

HUNGARY Hungary is not dependent on I M F, P M O r b á n (Online 29 Jun) Prime Minister VikOrbán tor a gave in speech Brussels today after Eurothe pean Council meeting. his In speech he highlighted that the main topic under discussion how was growth can be fuelled by income from bank taxes, crisis taxes and transaction taxes; in light of this, Hungary’s c u r r e n t measures in economic policy can be seen as justified and in line with international thinking.

The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of cohesion policy, as this is at the heart of EU growth policies, and weakening it would lead to the stifling of growth. He said that

Hungary is one of those Member States which needs to cut debt and increase competitiveness at the same time, and so it cannot promote growth policies which entail increased debt. The fact that the Hungarian economy is stable means the Hungary is not dependent on the IMF, and the imminent negotiations

are aimed at reducing the country’s borrowing costs.

Prime MinisOrbán ter realso ported that the Council had agreed on a strategy for ensuring the economic stability of Spain and the Italy; markets will their give verdict on The this.

Prime Minisexter pressed the for need Hungary to decide on its relationship to any future European banking union, and to keep in mind that either opting in or out is possible. He also stated that the Multiannual Financial Framework document will be agreed on by the end of 2012, and that this will determine the amount of money available for cohesion purposes.

Govt’s Programme for the Future of the New Generation before session of EU Council (Online 27 Jun) Unemployment is one of the g r a v e s t problems for young generations in Europe; this was the conof clusion the Tuesday debate session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of E u r o p e the where Government of Hungary was repreby sented MiPéter halovics, Ministerial Commissioner for the coordination of the Government’s Programme for the Future of the New Generation. In his speech, the young politician confirmed the Hungarian Government’s commitment to the improvement of the quality of life for young people and raised the idea of extending the range of benefits offered in conjunction with student cards.

The Council of Europe held a joint debate on Tuesday on The young generation sacrificed: social, economic and political implications of the financial crisis.

Péter Mihalovics, as one of the youngest members of the Council of

Europe, delivered a speech on the situation and opportunities in Hungary, and introduced the Government’s Programme for the Future of the New Generation. “Hungary is ready to maintain and further develop the partnership developed in cooperation with young people and implemented under the auspices of the Programme for the Future of the New Generation, to extend it to the European scene and to launch an attack, in cooperation with other States, on unemployment afflicting young people”, he said.

The Ministerial Commissioner also rendered an account of the efforts

made by the Hungarian Government young for to people date, including the results that the reform of the system of vocational training and higher education is exto pected yield, the reinforcement of bilateral relations bet w e e n higher education and the labour market and the employment policy concepts concerning schoolleavers and young people.

He further mentioned that it would be necessary to extend the benefits offered by student cards to the field of employment and to tie these benefits to the completion of the age of 26 years, in addition to the student legal relationship. According to Mihalovics, it would be worth vesting the student card with a number of new functions, while it would likewise be worthwhile to explore whether cardholders may be eligible for tax benefits or tax exemption on their incomes as entrepreneurs or schoolleaver employees.

Countryside in the Heart of the Capital – Kossuth Square Market Opens 29 (Online "The Jun) fact that the flavours and of values rural Hungary been have given space in the heart of capital the under the arcades of the of Ministry Rural Develis opment symbolic. The Ministry indeed wants to take producers under its wings and support them with every instrument poss i b l e " , announced State Secretary for Rural Zsolt V. Németh (photo: Ernő Horváth) Development V. Zsolt at Németh official the of opening the market on K o s s u t h Square, opposite Parliament.

State The Secretary reminded those present that several legi s l a t i v e changes have helped boost local markets recently, includthe ing regulations regarding small-scale producers once that again allows (photo: Ernő Horváth) the traditional home slaughtering of pigs and vil- Cioloş and Commissioner for Health lage guest table services, the and Consumer Policy John Dalli, in amendment of the Public Procure- which they both encourage member ment Act thanks to which local pro- states to support the shortening of duce may now appear in local public the food chain", highlighted Zsolt V. catering kitchens, and the very re- Németh. cently adopted new legislation de- Managing Director of G-Mentor Ltd. signed to ease food safety Tamás Galisz, one of the chief orregulations in the case of local mar- ganisers of the market, said "The main goal of the market is for rural kets.

"Our goal is to shorten the food chain Hungary to forge a closer relationbetween producer and consumer, ship with the capital. Our agriculture and this is also the view taken by the is much better than that of other European Union. Minister for Rural countries; our products are fresh and Development Sándor Fazekas re- tasty." cently received a letter from EU Sr. László Csizmadia, President of Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian the National Association for Rural

and Agrotourism, added that "The Rural Fair was realised with real cooperation; public administrat i o n , enterprises and nongovernm e n t a l organisaall tions worked together to its make opening happen", pointing out "The more people buy Hungarian products, the more goods rural areas will produce."

The opening cerem o n y ' s moderator, Sándor B u z a stressed, "This marproket v i d e s quality for people who want quality."

According plans, to the Rural proFair ducer's market will open be from June 29 until late autumn, every Friday from 8am to 6pm on Kossuth Square, where small-scale producers from all over the country will arrive to sell their excellent quality produce.

42 producers will be offering their wares together under the arcades on the opening day; customers can even taste the chosen products before buying them.

In addition to the Ministry of Rural Development, the Market was also organised by the National Association for Rural and Agrotourism (FATOSZ), G-mentor Ltd. and the Media-Center.

Successful talks on National Public Service University in the US 29 (Online Jun) Dr András Levente Gál, governcomment missioner for the coordination of the implementation of the Good State development conhad cept, with talks leading US universities student on exchange programmes and joint research projThe ects. of purpose the consultacontions ducted with the represenof tatives Tufts University, Fletcher School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government is to enable the students of the National Public Service University to improve their skills at universities in the United States in the future.

The government commissioner had talks with respect to a strategic agreement between Tufts University, Fletcher School and the National Public Service University, as part of which student and professor ex-

change programmes and joint research projects may be implemented under the auspices of the National Public Service University in the course of the implementation of the Magyary Zoltán Public Administration Development Programme. Cooperation in the area of international relations and the development of strategies may be one of the most important elements of this. After a phase of preparations and following the approval of the relevant univer-

sity boards, framea work agreement may be signed

by András Patyi, Rector of the National P u b l i c Service University in October as 2012, expected.

Based on talks the held with the representatives of the Harv a r d Kennedy School of Government, experts from Harvard will review the government development programmes conducted by the National Public Service University and may,

by September 2012, identify the joint research projects in which the parties may cooperate. An exchange of students and professors between the National Public Service University and Harvard may form part of this research cooperation

Minority Legal Protection Institute and Foundation launched for all Hungarians (Online 29 Jun) Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén and Deputy State Secretary for Hungarian Communities Abroad Zsuzsanna Répás announced the launch of the Minority Legal Protection Institute and Foundation, which aims to contribute to the reinforcement of legal protection for Hungarians living abroad, primarily in neighbouring countries.

The idea of such an organisation was raised in November 2011 at the Hungarian Standing Conference, and the necessary legal background

was created in December. The Foundation has a starting budget of 50 million forints, but is also eligible to receive funds from other sources, such as the Gábor Bethlen Fund.

The organisation is supported by several high profile Hungarian legal experts who will assist the Institute’s work.

Deputy State Secretary Répás emphasised the importance of creating comprehensive legal protection for the whole Hungarian community, reassuring its members that the Hun-

garian government is ready to help them. She added that their goal is also to train young legal experts who can show that Hungarian legal protection has a place in the European field.

Dr. Laura Gyenei, Director of the Institute, explained that the organisation will provide training and a theoretical background, organise conferences, summer schools and field trips, support publications and journals, and grant scholarships.

New financial relief package introduced (Online 28 Jun) The Ministry for National Economy and the governing Fidesz-KDNP alliance have agreed on a HUF 300 billion financial relief package as part of the 2013 budget.

The plan, which will last for three

years, will be aimed at employees under the age of 25 and over the age of 55, and at manual workers. According to the Government’s calculations, this will help to retain approximately 1.5 million jobs.

The allocation of HUF 300 billion is for the first six months of the plan.

Antal Rogán, leader of the ruling party’s parliamentary group, emphasised that this programme will not affect the budget deficit.

Viviane Reding called a meeti n g o v e r To b i n c a s e (Online 28 Jun) Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics sincerely hopes that the parties may find a successful resolution to the case of the Irish driver responsible for the deaths of two children, the so-called Tobin case, at the planned meeting with the Irish Minister for Justice and the EU commissioner for justice.

The Minister believes it is a highly positive development in itself that Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission and commissioner for justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship responded to his letter within twenty-four hours, which indicates that the European Commission’s justice chief, too, finds this initiative highly important. The planned meeting is a good opportunity to clarify the case; however, the Minister added that the chance of reaching a satisfactory conclusion is poor, given that the Supreme Court of Ireland has already passed its final and absolute judgment on the case. Viviane Reding promised to convene a meeting between representatives of the Irish and Hungarian authorities in the next few weeks to discuss what may have caused the clearly inadequate operation of the European arrest warrant in the case of Francis Ciarán Tobin, who killed two children in a road accident in Hungary.

The Hungarian Minister declared, he was optimistic that a solution may be found in the case. Also at the contemplated meeting in person, he would “attempt to find out whether there is any scope left in the case”, that is, whether there is any scope for Francis Ciarán Tobin serving his sentence. Navracsics indicated that he is ready to attend the meeting at any time, and Hungary will provide all assistance in the case so that the Vice-President of the EU’s executive body may have access to all relevant information.

Tibor Navracsics contacted Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter and the commissioner of the European Commission for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship on Tuesday. In his letter to Alan Shatter, the Minister stated, inter alia, he acknowledged with regret that the Supreme Court of Ireland ruled that Tobin, currently in Ireland, who killed a two-year-old and a five-year-old child in a road accident, cannot be extradited to Hungary, and that there are no further legal means in the Irish legal system available that could be resorted to in the man’s case. In his letter sent to Viviane Reding, Tibor Navracsics requested the Commissioner to investigate all circumstances in the case and to consider all possible means so that effective measures may be

taken within the boundaries of EU law and in order to prevent cases of this nature in the future.

Irish citizen Francis Ciarán Tobin killed a five-year-old and a two-yearold child in a road accident in Hungary on 8 April 2000. The children died on the spot. The investigation established that the driver responsible for the accident started overtaking at high speed, lost control of the vehicle in the interim, drove onto the pavement and hit the two children, the smaller of whom was in a pram.

Tobin left Hungary in November 2000 at the end of his business mission in Hungary. He was sentenced to three years in prison two years later in his absence. The Supreme Court of Ireland stated in the reasoning of its above-mentioned decision that, pursuant to the Irish legal rules in force at the time of the accident, extradition would only have been possible if Francis Ciarán Tobin had escaped from the country that issued a European arrest warrant against him. However, Tobin served bail before leaving the country, and his departure therefore does not qualify as escape. The Hungarian parents have since awaited the closure of the case so that the authorities may finally administer justice in the case of their two children killed in the road accident.

Parliament has passed the New Penal Code (Online 28 Jun) The New Penal will Code enter into force on 1 July 2013; it was passed by the Hungarian Parliament on June 25 2012 after s e v e r a l months of wide-ranging social and professional consultations and pol i t i c a l debates.

The new Penal Code also offers an effective response to the changes in crime patterns that have occurred in the past thirty years, since the entry into force of the Criminal Code currently in effect.

The purpose of the new penal rules is to create effective, simple, modern and stringent rules equally for crime victims, perpetrators and the administration of justice. The fundamental principle of punishment is that it must be just, proportionate to the crime committed and consistent. With the passage of the new Penal Code, the Government has delivered on one of its most important undertakings.

The perpetrators of crimes which irritate Hungarian society most and pose the greatest risk to society in general may expect punishment that is in proportion to the crime committed. Accordingly, the new legislation contains a number of essential changes in the case of crimes against public order, sexual offences, crimes committed against children and the fairness of public life. More stringent sentences await repeat offenders, those committing crimes against public officials and persons performing public duties (e.g. teachers, paramedics, staff members of educational institutions), the perpetrators of violent crimes and those responsible for economic crimes.

As part of the discussion of the new Penal Code, the issue of the death penalty was also raised in the course of the debate in Parliament; however, the application of the death penalty will continue to remain excluded in Hungary in observance of Hungary’s Fundamental Law, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international commitments.

Wide-ranging social and professional consultations The drafting of the new Penal Code was preceded by wide-ranging social and professional consultations. The Ministry of Public Administration and Justice presented the draft for a one-month social consultation on 8 February.

The Ministry also conducted personal consultations regarding the draft of the new Penal Code with some prominent professional organisations (e.g. National Judicial Office, the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office, Hungarian Bar Association). Hundreds of comments and proposals were received in response to the draft. The bill presented to Parliament was prepared with a view to these remarks.

More stringent rules to sanction crimes of corruption Since its entry into office, the Government has implemented the most intensive series of measures of the past twenty years because organised corruption left unpunished in the last few years and those who turned a blind eye to corruption play a major role in the development of the country’s current economic and financial situation and the depreciation of morals and trust in general. The Government is committed to increasing the trust of citizens in the State and guarantees with all possible means at its disposal that the nation’s assets and public funds will be managed in a responsible fashion, cases of corruption will be uncovered and the guilty will be held accountable. To this end, the Government has adopted a number of measures in the past two years.

In harmony with these measures, the new Penal Code takes a further step towards creating rules that are capable of protecting fairness in public life. The new Penal Code simplifies the relevant factual scenarios in its structure; for instance, it regulates crimes against the fairness of public life and the fairness of international public life in a single chapter.

Further loopholes are being closed in the areas of corruption and crimes posing a threat to the fairness of public life by virtue of the fact that the legislation establishes new factual scenarios in its specific part in the wake of international conventions and recommendations also endorsed by Hungary. One of these is, for instance, the act of bribery in judicial or official proceedings which will in the future render the act of bribery in relation to the European Court or the International Criminal Court a crime as well. It is now a qualified case under the new Penal Code where an act of active economic bribery is committed in an organised or business-like fashion. In the interest of preventing the registration of companies led by straw men, it will be possible to impose penal sanctions on persons who participate in the registration, as the owner of a business, of a private individual or business association whose place of residence or head office is unknown or cannot be found or who or which is not the actual owner of the business.

Crimes committed to the detriment of the central budget have been elevated to a higher crime category by virtue of the fact that these

now constitute a separate chapter.

These include crimes such as budgetary fraud, a category created in the course of the 2011 amendment of the Criminal Code.

A new factual scenario is coming into being under the description of economic fraud. The managers of business associations, typically in state ownership, have in recent years repeatedly engaged in activities which caused their businesses losses in the magnitude of billions. Neither the factual scenario of fraud, nor that of fraudulent mismanagement was able to handle these cases appropriately.

It was therefore necessary to introduce sanctions under criminal law in respect of misleading practices which were manifested in the pursuance of fictitious economic activities for the purpose of gaining unlawful benefits.

The new Penal Code is able to offer adequate answers to the challenges of today, including, for instance, computer crime of an economic nature and the modernage slavery of exposed individuals (so-called forced labour). It also responds to cases where it was previously difficult to take action under criminal law; these include doping offences or medicine counterfeiting.

Child protection reinforced in a number of areas With regard to international conventions and the practice of the European Union, sexual offences as a single category will come into being as a new factual case combining the factual cases of rape and sexual assault under the Criminal Code currently in force. In response to international expectations, the wording of the provisions relating to crimes against sexual morality is changing significantly, sentences are becoming more stringent and, in the case of several offences (e.g. rape committed against a person not having completed the age of eighteen years), the need for a private motion will be done away with. These, together with several other rules designed to protect children, will enter into force this year.

The lower age limit for punishability will not change under the general rule, and will remain 14. In the event of the commission of exceptionally grave crimes, the law permits the reduction of the minimum age of punishability from 14 to 12 years in highly limited circumstances. These exceptionally grave cases include murder committed by minor children, when it is, under any circumstances, necessary to examine the perpetrator’s sanity and to ensure the availability of professional treatment. It is important to stress that, in these cases, perpetrators over the age of 12 years will not receive a punitive sentence but will be subjected to measures, and only in cases involving gravely violent offences (e.g. homicide, grievous bodily harm or bodily harm resulting in death), and it is a further condition that sanity and accountability must be provable. Also in the future, these measures will not represent imprisonment but the court may order the perpetrator’s education in a correctional facility.

Education in a correctional facility will continue to remain the most serious sanction that may be imposed on perpetrators younger than 14 years. There are similar rules applicable to young people under the age of 14 years in several European countries: children committing crimes may be held accountable from the age of 12 to 13 years (e.g. in the United Kingdom, France and Holland), while in extreme cases, from an ever earlier age, from 9 to 10 years (in Ireland and Malta).

Sexual offences With regard to international conventions and the practice of the European Union, sexual offences as a single category will come into being as a new factual case combining the factual cases of rape and sexual assault under the Criminal Code currently in force.

Not only the act of forcing an individual to engage in sexual intercourse will be punishable; acts committed in violation of human dignity (e.g. touching an intimate body part of the injured person) will also result in punishability. A sexual offence committed to the injury of a person not having completed the age of 18 years has become a qualified case, in contrast to the legislation currently in force where only an act of rape committed to the injury of a child not yet having completed the age of 12 years was deemed a qualified case. In response to international expectations, the wording of the provisions relating to crimes against sexual morality is changing significantly, sentences are becoming more stringent and, in the case of several offences (e.g. rape committed against a person not having completed the age of eighteen years), the need for a private motion will be done away with.

Rules protecting the environment and nature are becoming more emphatic The poaching of game and fish and abuses involving ozone depleting substances will constitute

separate factual cases. The illegal acquisition of arable land and the violation of obligations related to genetically modified p l a n t species, too, will constitute new factual scenarios.

Protection of social groups The new code will severely punish the perpetrators of crimes based on prejudice or hatred, whether these acts are committed against a national, racial, religious or ethnic group or any other specific group of the population. Therefore, crimes committed against the Roma or other communities as well as against members of the majority community will equally not go unpunished. The new legislation words the chapters concerning crimes against humanity and war crimes in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute (Statute of the International Criminal Court).

Wider scope for lawful self-defence In harmony with Hungary’s new Fundamental Law, the penal legislation widens the realm of scenarios of lawful self-defence in order to afford more effective action against serious, violent crimes. Lawful self-defence is permitted also at present, and based on the authorisation of the Fundamental Law, the new Penal Code, in agreement with the legislation in force at present, excludes the punishability of a person who acts in his/her own defence, in defence of others, in defence of his/her property or for the protection of public interests, even if his/her act exceeds the necessary extent, for instance, on account of fear. Based on the judicial practice of decades, the new Penal Code provides a wider scope for self-defence in cases where the assaulted person has reason to presume that the attack may even be directed against his/her life. These instances may be when someone is attacked at night, or by an armed individual or by an individual carrying a weapon that may be capable of extinguishing his/her life or is attacked by a group (minimum three individuals), or when an armed individual forces entry into someone’s home or into a fenced area forming part of someone’s home. It is important to note in this context that the rules regarding the use of weapons will not change, and these do not form part of the Penal Code.

Three strikes law, uniformed crime The new Penal Code adopts the 3 strikes law introduced in the summer of 2010 for the punishment of those committing violent crimes, thanks to which the number of apprehensions has increased by 30 per cent.

The statutory rule passed in 2010 which made the denial of the crimes of the communist regime punishable the same way as the denial of the Holocaust will remain in force. „Uniformed crime” continues to remain punishable unchanged. A person who manifests a highly anti-communal practice due to another person’s affiliation or presumed affiliation to a national, ethnic, racial or religious group or to specific groups of the population which is capable of inducing panic and fear commits a crime and is punishable by imprisonment for up to three years. „Uniformed crime” is identifiable not only on the basis of acts of violence committed against the members of the communities referred to above but also with regard to the crime of the illegal organisation of law enforcement activities.

This crime category is retained in the new Penal Code as well.

Increased consumer protection Consumers will also enjoy increased protection; crimes committed to the detriment of consumers will constitute a separate chapter. The misleading of consumers will fall into a more serious category if it is committed in connection with the effect of a product on health and the environment, the hazards and risks of products or features related to product safety.

History The need for drafting a new Penal Code also emerged earlier, during several previous cycles of government. During the period between 2001 and 2006, a ministerial commissioner was appointed to oversee the relevant legislative work; however, the passage of a new penal code failed every time. At the time of the drafting of the Criminal Code currently in force, in the nineteen-seventies, crime patterns were completely different from the structure of crime today. While on average 120,000 crimes were uncovered annually and violent crimes only accounted for 6% earlier, in 2010, almost 450,000 registered crimes occurred and the number of violent crimes and cases of organised crime is on the rise continuously. In previous years, there was no standard concept in place; the codification committees served as a forum for legal experts, mainly theoreticians representing different schools of penal law, to present their clashing views over and over again. The Penal Code now passed was codified on the basis of standard penal policy principles, and was developed more with a view to the opinions of those applying the law in practice as it will serve primarily as a „tool” for their work.