public static function getCodesByNames($names=array())
	{
		if (!($gdb = self::getGeoDBO()))
		{
			return array();
		}

		$names = array_map('strtolower', $names);
		foreach ($names as $k => $name)
		{
			$names[$k] = $gdb->quote($name);
		}

		$gdb->setQuery("SELECT DISTINCT name, code FROM countries WHERE LOWER(name) IN (" . implode(",", $names) . ")");
		$values = $gdb->loadAssocList('name');
		if (!is_array($values))
		{
			$values = array();
		}
		return $values;
	}