title: United States and state-sponsored terrorism

text:
The United States has at various times in recent history provided support to terrorist and paramilitary organizations around the world. It has also provided assistance to numerous authoritarian regimes that have used state terrorism as a tool of repression.

American support for non-state terrorists has been prominent in Latin America and the Middle East. From 1981 to 1991, the United States provided weapons, training, and extensive financial and logistical support to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, who used terror tactics in their fight against the Nicaraguan government. At various points the United States also provided training, arms, and funds to terrorists among Cuban exiles, such as Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles.

Various reasons have been given to justify this support. These include destabilizing political movements that might have aligned with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, including popular democratic and socialist movements. Such support has also formed a part of the war on drugs. Support was often geared toward ensuring a conducive environment for American corporate interests abroad, especially when these interests came under threat from democratic governments.

Cuban exiles

Starting in 1961 the U.S. government, through the military and the Central Intelligence Agency, engaged in an extensive campaign of state-sponsored terrorism against civilian and military targets in Cuba. The terrorist attacks killed a significant number of civilians. The U.S. armed, trained, funded and directed the terrorists, largely Cuban expatriates. Andrew Bacevich, Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University, wrote of the campaign:

Among the most prominent of these terrorists were Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, who were implicated in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban plane. Bosch was also held to be responsible for 30 other terrorist acts, while Carriles was a former CIA agent convicted of numerous terrorist acts committed while he was linked to the agency. Other Cuban exiles involved in terrorist acts, Jose Dionisio Suarez and Virgilio Paz Romero, two other Cuban exiles who assassinated the Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington in 1976, were also released by the administration of George W. Bush.

Orlando Bosch

Bosch was a contemporary of Fidel Castro at the University of Havana, where he was involved with the student cells that eventually became a part of the Cuban revolution. However, Bosch became disillusioned with Castro's regime, and participated in a failed rebellion in 1960. He became the leader of the Insurrectional Movement of Revolutionary Recovery (MIRR), and also joined efforts to assassinate Castro along with Luis Posada Carriles. The CIA later confirmed that they had received support from Bosch in 1962, but ceased contact with him after he requested financial support to mount airstrikes against Cuba in 1963. He was the head of Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, which the FBI has described as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization". Former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called Bosch an "unrepentant terrorist".

In 1968, he was convicted of firing a bazooka at a Polish cargo ship bound for Havana that had been docked in Miami. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and released on parole in 1974. He immediately broke parole and traveled around Latin America. He was eventually arrested in Venezuela for planning to bomb the Cuban embassy there. The Venezuelan government offered to extradite him to the United States, but the offer was declined. He was released quickly and moved to Chile, and according to the US government, spent two years attempting postal bombings of Cuban embassies in four countries.

Bosch eventually ended up in the Dominican Republic, where he joined the effort to consolidate Cuban exile militants into the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU). The CORU's operations included the failed assassination of the Cuban ambassador to Argentina, and the bombing of the Mexican Embassy in Guatemala City. Along with Posada, he worked with the DINA agent Michael Townley to plan the assassination of Letelier, which was carried out in September 1976. Two other Cuban exiles involved in the assassination, Jose Dionisio Suarez and Virgilio Paz Romero, were later released by the administration of George H.W. Bush. Bosch was also implicated in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban plane flying to Havana from Venezuela in which all 73 civilians on board were killed, although Posada and he were acquitted after a lengthy trial. Documents released subsequently showed that the CIA had a source with advance knowledge of the bombing. The U.S. Justice Department recorded that Bosch was also responsible for 30 other attacks. He returned to Miami, where he was arrested for violating parole. The Justice department recommended that he be deported. However, Bush overturned this recommendation, and had him released from custody with the stipulation that he "renounce" violence.

Luis Posada Carriles

Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA agent who has been designated by scholars and journalists as a terrorist, also came into contact with Castro during his student days, but fled Cuba after the 1959 revolution, and helped organize the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Following the invasion, Carriles was trained for a time at the Fort Benning station of the U.S. Army. He then relocated to Venezuela, where he came into contact with Orlando Bosch. Along with Orlando Bosch and others, he founded the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, which has been described as an umbrella of anti-Castro terrorist groups.

In 1976, Cubana Flight 455 was blown up in mid-air, killing all 73 people on board. Carriles was arrested for masterminding the operation, and later acquitted. He and several CIA-linked anti-Castro Cuban exiles and members of the Venezuelan intelligence agency DISIP were implicated by the evidence. Political complications quickly arose when Cuba accused the US government of being an accomplice to the attack. CIA documents released in 2005 indicate that the agency "had concrete advance intelligence, as early as June 1976, on plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups to bomb a Cubana airliner." Carriles denies involvement but provides many details of the incident in his book Los caminos del guerrero (The Warrior's Paths).

After a series of arrests and escapes, Carriles returned to the CIA fold in 1985 by joining their support operations to the Contra terrorists in Nicaragua, which were being run by Oliver North. His job included air dropping military supplies, for which he was paid a significant salary. He later admitted to playing a part in the Iran-Contra affair. In 1997, a series of terrorist bombings occurred in Cuba, and Carriles was implicated. The bombings were said to be targeted at the growing tourism there. Carriles admitted that the lone conviction in the case had been of a mercenary under his command, and also made a confession (later retracted) that he had planned the incident. Human Rights Watch stated that although Carriles might no longer receive active assistance, he benefited from the tolerant attitude of the U.S. government. In 2000, Carriles was arrested and convicted in Panama of attempting to assassinate Fidel Castro.

In 2005, Carriles was held by U.S. authorities in Texas on a charge of illegal presence on national territory, but the charges were dismissed on May 8, 2007. On September 28, 2005, a U.S. immigration judge ruled that Carriles could not be deported, finding that he faced the threat of torture in Venezuela. Likewise, the US government has refused to send Carriles to Cuba, saying he might face torture. His release on bail on April 19, 2007, elicited angry reactions from the Cuban and Venezuelan governments. The U.S. Justice Department had urged the court to keep him in jail because he was "an admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks", a flight risk and a danger to the community. On September 9, 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the District Court's order dismissing the indictment and remanded the case to the District Court. On April 8, 2009, the United States Attorney filed a superseding indictment in the case. Carriles' trial ended on April 8, 2011, with a jury acquitting him on all charges. Peter Kornbluh described him as "one of the most dangerous terrorists in recent history" and the "godfather of Cuban exile violence."

Colombian paramilitary groups

The first Colombian paramilitary groups were organized by the Colombian government following recommendations made by U.S. military counterinsurgency advisers who were sent to Colombia in the early 1960s during the Cold War to combat leftist politicians, activists and guerrillas.

Paramilitary groups were responsible for most of the human rights violations in the latter half of the ongoing Colombian conflict. According to several international human rights and governmental organizations, right-wing paramilitary groups were responsible for at least 70 to 80% of political murders in Colombia in a given year during the 80s and 90s. Paramilitary violence and terrorism there was principally targeted to peasants, unionists, indigenous people, human rights workers, teachers and left-wing political activists or their supporters.

Plan Lazo
In October 1959, the United States sent a "Special Survey Team", composed of counterinsurgency experts, to investigate Colombia's internal security situation, due to the increased prevalence of armed communist groups in rural Colombia which formed during and after La Violencia. Three years later, in February 1962, a Fort Bragg top-level U.S. Special Warfare team headed by Special Warfare Center commander General William P. Yarborough, visited Colombia for a second survey.

In a secret supplement to his report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Yarborough encouraged the creation and deployment of a paramilitary force to commit sabotage and terrorist acts against communists, stating:

The new counter-insurgency policy was instituted as Plan Lazo in 1962 and called for both military operations and civic action programs in violent areas. Following Yarborough's recommendations, the Colombian military recruited civilians into paramilitary "civil defense" groups which worked alongside the military in its counter-insurgency campaign, as well as in civilian intelligence networks to gather information on guerrilla activity. Among other policy recommendations, the US team advised that "in order to shield the interests of both Colombian and US authorities against 'interventionist' charges, any special aid given for internal security was to be sterile and covert in nature." It was not until the early part of the 1980s that the Colombian government attempted to move away from the counterinsurgency strategy represented by Plan Lazo and Yarborough's 1962 recommendations.

Armed Forces Directive No. 200-05/91
In 1990, the United States formed a team that included representatives of the U.S. Embassy's Military Group, U.S. Southern Command, the DIA, and the CIA in order to give advice on the reshaping of several of the Colombian military's local intelligence networks, ostensibly to aid the Colombian military in "counter-narcotics" efforts. Advice was also solicited from the British and Israeli military intelligence, but the U.S. proposals were ultimately selected by the Colombian military. The result of these meetings was Armed Forces Directive 200-05/91, issued by the Colombian Defense Ministry in May 1991. However, the order itself made no mention of drugs or counter-narcotics operations at all, and instead focused exclusively on creating covert intelligence networks to combat the insurgency.

Human Rights Watch concluded that these intelligence networks subsequently laid the groundwork for an illegal, covert partnership between the military and paramilitaries. Human Rights Watch argued that the restructuring process solidified links between members of the Colombian military and civilian members of paramilitary groups, by incorporating them into several of the local intelligence networks and by cooperating with their activities. In effect, HRW believed that this further consolidated a "secret network that relied on paramilitaries not only for intelligence, but to carry out murder". Human Rights Watch argued that this situation allowed the Colombian government and military to plausibly deny links to or responsibility for paramilitary human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch stated that the military intelligence networks created by the U.S. reorganization appeared to have dramatically increased violence, stating that the "recommendations were given despite the fact that some of the U.S. officials who collaborated with the team knew of the Colombian military's record of human rights abuses and its ongoing relations with paramilitaries".

Human Rights Watch stated that while "not all paramilitaries are intimate partners with the military", the existing partnership between paramilitaries and the Colombian military was "a sophisticated mechanism, in part supported by years of advice, training, weaponry, and official silence by the United States, that allows the Colombian military to fight a dirty war and Colombian officialdom to deny it." As an example of increased violence and "dirty war" tactics, Human Rights Watch cited a partnership between the Colombian Navy and the MAS, in Barrancabermeja where: "In partnership with MAS, the navy intelligence network set up in Barrancabermeja adopted as its goal not only the elimination of anyone perceived as supporting the guerrillas, but also members of the political opposition, journalists, trade unionists, and human rights workers, particularly if they investigated or criticized their terror tactics."

Los Pepes

In 1992, Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxury prison, La Catedral. Shortly thereafter, the Calí drug cartel, dissidents within the Medellín cartel and the MAS worked together to create a new paramilitary organization known as Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar ("People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar", Los Pepes) with the purpose of tracking down and killing Pablo Escobar and his associates. The leader of the organization was Fidel Castaño. The Calí cartel provided $50 million for weapons, informants, and assassins, with in hope of wiping out their primary rivals in the cocaine business. Both Colombian and U.S. government agencies (including the DEA, CIA and State Department) provided intelligence to Los Pepes.

The Institute for Policy Studies is searching for details of connections the CIA and DEA had to Los Pepes. They have launched a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act against the CIA. That suit has resulted in the declassification of thousands of documents from the CIA as well as other U.S. agencies, including the Department of State, Drug Enforcement Administration, Defense Intelligence Agency and the U.S Coast Guard. These documents have been made public at the website "Pepes Project"

Years of Lead

The Years of Lead was a period of socio-political turmoil in Italy that lasted from the late 1960s into the early 1980s. This period was marked by a wave of terrorism carried out by both right-wing and left-wing paramilitary groups. It was concluded that the former were supported by the United States as a strategy of tension.

General , commander of the counter-intelligence section of the Italian military intelligence service from 1971 to 1975, stated that his men in the region of Venice discovered a right-wing terrorist cell that had been supplied with military explosives from Germany, and alleged that US intelligence services instigated and abetted right-wing terrorism in Italy during the 1970s.

According to the investigation of Italian judge Guido Salvini, the neo-fascist organizations involved in the strategy of tension, "La Fenice, Avanguardia nazionale, Ordine nuovo" were the "troops" of "clandestine armed forces", directed by components of the "state apparatus related to the CIA."

Any relationship of the CIA to the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Italy during the Years of Lead is the subject of debate. Switzerland and Belgium have had parliamentary inquiries into the matter.

Piazza Fontana bombing

The Piazza Fontana Bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on December 12, 1969, at 16:37, when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura (National Agrarian Bank) in Piazza Fontana in Milan, killing 17 people and wounding 88. The same afternoon, three more bombs were detonated in Rome and Milan, and another was found undetonated.

In 1998, Milan judge Guido Salvini indicted U.S. Navy officer David Carrett on charges of political and military espionage for his alleged participation in the Piazza Fontana bombing et al. Salvini also opened up a case against Sergio Minetto, an Italian official of the U.S.-NATO intelligence network, and "collaboratore di giustizia" Carlo Digilio (Uncle Otto), who served as the CIA coordinator in Northeastern Italy in the sixties and seventies. The newspaper la Repubblica reported that Carlo Rocchi, CIA's man in Milan, was discovered in 1995 searching for information concerning Operation Gladio.

A 2000 parliamentary report published by the center-left Olive Tree coalition claimed that "U.S. intelligence agents were informed in advance about several right-wing terrorist bombings, including the December 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan and the Piazza della Loggia bombing in Brescia five years later, but did nothing to alert the Italian authorities or to prevent the attacks from taking place." It also alleged that Pino Rauti (current leader of the MSI Fiamma-Tricolore party), a journalist and founder of the far-right Ordine Nuovo (New Order) subversive organization, received regular funding from a press officer at the U.S. embassy in Rome. "So even before the 'stabilising' plans that Atlantic circles had prepared for Italy became operational through the bombings, one of the leading members of the subversive right was literally in the pay of the American embassy in Rome", the report says.

Paolo Emilio Taviani, the Christian Democrat co-founder of Gladio (NATO's stay-behind anti-Communist organization in Italy),  told investigators that the SID military intelligence service was about to send a senior officer from Rome to Milan to prevent the bombing, but decided to send a different officer from Padua in order to put the blame on left-wing anarchists. Taviani also alleged in an August 2000 interview to Il Secolo XIX newspaper: "It seems to me certain, however, that agents of the CIA were among those who supplied the materials and who muddied the waters of the investigation."

Guido Salvini said "The role of the Americans was ambiguous, halfway between knowing and not preventing and actually inducing people to commit atrocities."

According to Vincenzo Vinciguerra, the terrorist attack was supposed to push then Interior Minister Mariano Rumor to declare a state of emergency.

Nicaraguan Contras

From 1979 to 1990, the United States provided financial, logistical and military support to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, who used terrorist tactics in their war against the Nicaraguan government and carried out more than 1300 terrorist attacks. This support persisted despite widespread knowledge of the human rights violations committed by the Contras.

Background

In 1979, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew the dictatorial regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, and established a revolutionary government in Nicaragua. The Somoza dynasty had been receiving military and financial assistance from the United States since 1936. Following their seizure of power, the Sandinistas ruled the country first as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction, and later as a democratic government following free and fair elections in 1984.

The Sandinistas did not attempt to create a communist society or communist economic system; instead, their policy advocated a social democracy and a mixed economy. The government sought the aid of Western Europe, who were opposed to the U.S. embargo against Nicaragua, to escape dependency on the Soviet Union. However, the U.S. administration viewed the leftist Sandinista government as undemocratic and totalitarian under the ties of the Soviet-Cuban model and tried to paint the Contras as freedom fighters.

The Sandinista government headed by Daniel Ortega won decisively in the 1984 Nicaraguan elections. The U.S. government explicitly planned to back the Contras, various rebel groups collectively that were formed in response to the rise of the Sandinistas, as a means to damage the Nicaraguan economy and force the Sandinista government to divert its scarce resources toward the army and away from social and economic programs.

Covert operations

The United States began to support Contra activities against the Sandinista government by December 1981, with the CIA at the forefront of operations. The CIA provided the Contras with planning and operational direction and assistance, weapons, food, and training, in what was described as the "most ambitious" covert operation in more than a decade.

One of the purposes the CIA hoped to achieve by these operations was an aggressive and violent response from the Sandinista government which in turn could be used as a pretext for further military actions.

The Contra campaign against the government included frequent and widespread acts of terror. The economic and social reforms enacted by the government enjoyed some popularity; as a result, the Contras attempted to disrupt these programs. This campaign included the destruction of health centers and hospitals that the Sandinista government had established, in order to diminish their influence upon the populace. Schools were also destroyed, as the literacy campaign conducted by the government was an important part of its policy. The Contras also committed widespread kidnappings, murder, and rape. The kidnappings and murder were a product of the "low-intensity warfare" that the Reagan Doctrine prescribed as a way to disrupt social structures and gain control over the population. Also known as "unconventional warfare", advocated for and defined by the World Anti-Communist League's (WACL) retired U.S. Army Major General John Singlaub as, "low intensity actions, such as sabotage, terrorism, assassination and guerrilla warfare". In some cases, more indiscriminate killing and destruction also took place. The Contras also carried out a campaign of economic sabotage, and disrupted shipping by planting underwater mines in Nicaragua's Port of Corinto. The Reagan administration supported this by imposing a full trade embargo.

In fiscal year 1984, the U.S. Congress approved $24 million in aid to the contras. However, the Reagan administration lost a lot of support for its Contra policy after CIA involvement in the mining of Nicaraguan ports became public knowledge, and a report of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research commissioned by the State Department found that Reagan had exaggerated claims about Soviet interference in Nicaragua. Congress cut off all funds for the contras in 1985 with the third Boland Amendment.

As a result, the Reagan administration sought to provide funds from other sources. Between 1984 and 1986, $34 million was routed through third countries and $2.7 million through private sources. These funds were run through the National Security Council, by Lt. Col. Oliver North, who created an organization called "The Enterprise" which served as the secret arm of the NSC staff and had its own airplanes, pilots, airfield, ship, and operatives. It also received assistance from other government agencies, especially from CIA personnel in Central America. These efforts culminated in the Iran-Contra Affair of 1986–1987, which facilitated funding for the Contras using the proceeds of arms sales to Iran. Money was also raised for the Contras through drug trafficking, which the United States was aware of. U.S. Senator John Kerry's 1988 Committee on Foreign Relations report on Contra drug links concluded that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems".

Propaganda
Throughout the Nicaraguan Civil War, the Reagan government conducted a campaign to shift public opinion to favor support for the Contras, and to change the vote in Congress to favor of that support. For this purpose, the National Security Council authorized the production and distribution of publications that looked favorably at the Contras, also known as "white propaganda," written by paid consultants who did not disclose their connection to the administration. It also arranged for speeches and press conferences conveying the same message. The U.S. government continually discussed the Contras in highly favorable terms; Reagan called them the "moral equivalent of the founding fathers." Another common theme the administration played on was the idea of returning Nicaragua to democracy, which analysts characterized as "curious," because Nicaragua had been a U.S.-supported dictatorship prior to the Sandinista revolution, and had never had a democratic government before the Sandinistas. There were also continued efforts to label the Sandinistas as undemocratic, although the 1984 Nicaraguan elections were generally declared fair by historians.

Commentators stated that this was all a part of an attempt to return Nicaragua to the state of its Central American neighbors; that is, where traditional social structures remained and American imperialist ideas were not threatened. The investigation into the Iran-Contra affair led to the operation being called a massive exercise in psychological warfare.

The CIA wrote a manual for the Contras, entitled Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare (), which focused mainly on how "Armed Propaganda Teams" could build political support in Nicaragua for the Contra cause through deceit, intimidation, and violence. The manual discussed assassinations. The CIA claimed that the purpose of the manual was to "moderate" the extreme violence already being used by the Contras.

Leslie Cockburn writes that the CIA, and therefore indirectly the U.S. government and President Reagan, encouraged Contra terrorism by issuing the manual to the contras, violating Reagan's own Presidential Directive. Cockburn wrote that "[t]he manual, Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare, clearly advocated a strategy of terror as the means to victory over the hearts and minds of Nicaraguans. Chapter headings such as 'Selective Use of Violence for propagandistic Effects' and 'Implicit and Explicit Terror' made that fact clear enough. ... The little booklet thus violated President Reagan's own Presidential Directive 12333, signed in December 1981, which prohibited any U.S. government employee—including the CIA—from having anything to do with assassinations."

International Court of Justice ruling

In 1984, the Nicaraguan government filed a suit in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the United States. Nicaragua stated that the Contras were completely created and managed by the U.S. Although this claim was rejected, the court found overwhelming and undeniable evidence of a very close relationship between the Contras and the United States. The U.S. was found to have had a very large role in providing financial support, training, weapons, and other logistical support to the Contras over a lengthy period of time, and that this support was essential to the Contras.

In the same year, the ICJ ordered the United States to stop mining Nicaraguan harbors, and respect Nicaraguan sovereignty. A few months later, the court ruled that it did have jurisdiction in the case, contrary to what the U.S. had argued. The ICJ found that the U.S. had encouraged violations of international humanitarian law by assisting paramilitary actions in Nicaragua. The court also criticized the production of a manual on psychological warfare by the U.S. and its dissemination of the Contras. The manual, amongst other things, provided advice on rationalizing the killing of civilians, and on targeted murder. The manual also included an explicit description of the use of "implicit terror."

Having initially argued that the ICJ lacked jurisdiction in the case, the United States withdrew from the proceedings in 1985. The court eventually ruled in favor of Nicaragua, and judged that the United States was required to pay reparations for its violation of International law. The U.S. used its veto on the United Nations Security Council to block the enforcement of the ICJ judgement, and thereby prevented Nicaragua from obtaining any compensation.

Kosovo Liberation Army

The FR Yugoslav authorities regarded the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) as a terrorist group, although many European governments did not. In February 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, condemned both the actions of the Yugoslav government and of the KLA, and described the KLA as "without any questions, a terrorist group". UN resolution 1160 took a similar stance. At first, NATO had stressed that KLA was "the main initiator of the violence" and that it had "launched what appears to be a deliberate campaign of provocation".

The United States (and NATO) directly supported the KLA. The CIA funded, trained and supplied the KLA (as they had earlier trained and supplied the Bosnian Army). As disclosed to The Sunday Times by CIA sources, "American intelligence agents have admitted they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army before NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia". In 1999, a retired colonel said that KLA forces had been trained in Albania by former US military working for MPRI.

Former Canadian ambassador James Byron Bissett wrote in 2001 that media reports indicated that "as early as 1998, the Central Intelligence Agency assisted by the British Special Armed Services were arming and training Kosovo Liberation Army members in Albania to foment armed rebellion in Kosovo. ... The hope was that with Kosovo in flames NATO could intervene". According to Tim Judah, KLA representatives had already met with American, British, and Swiss intelligence agencies in 1996, and possibly "several years earlier".

After the war, the KLA was transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps, which worked alongside NATO forces patrolling the province. In the following years, however, an ethnic Albanian insurgency emerged in southern Serbia (1999–2001) and in Macedonia (2001). The EU condemned what it described as the "extremism" and use of "illegal terrorist actions" by the group active in southern Serbia. Since the war, many of the KLA leaders have been active in the political leadership of the Republic of Kosovo.

Syrian Civil War

The United States has provided extensive lethal and non-lethal aid to many Syrian militant groups fighting against the Syrian government, an ally of Russia, during the Syrian Civil War. The Syrian government has directly accused the United States of sponsoring terrorism in Syria. The United States government was also criticized by Iran for its silence following the beheading of a child by the Islamist group Nour al-Din al-Zenki, a group that is a recipient of US military aid and is accused of many war crimes by Amnesty International.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also accused the United States of supporting ISIS in Syria, claiming Turkey has evidence of U.S. support for ISIS through pictures, photos, and videos, without further elaborating on said evidence or providing any.

An investigation by journalists Phil Sands and Suha Maayeh revealed that rebels supplied with weapons from the Military Operations Command in Amman sold a portion of them to local arms dealers, often to raise cash to pay additional fighters. Some MOC-supplied weapons were sold to Bedouin traders referred to locally as "The Birds" in Lajat, a volcanic plateau northeast of Daraa, Syria. According to rebel forces, the Bedouins would then trade the weapons to ISIL, who would place orders using the encrypted WhatsApp messaging service. Two rebel commanders and a United Kingdom weapons monitoring organization maintain that MOC–supplied weapons have made their way to ISIL forces.

Another study conducted by private company Conflict Armament Research at the behest of the European Union and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit found that external support for anti-Assad Syrian rebels "significantly augmented the quantity and quality of weapons available to [ISIL] forces", including, in the most rapid case diversion they documented, "anti-tank weapons purchased by the United States that ended up in possession of the Islamic State within two months of leaving the factory."

See also

 1985 Beirut car bombing
 Allegations of United States support for the Khmer Rouge
 Iran and state-sponsored terrorism
 Israel and state-sponsored terrorism
 Jundallah (Iran) § United States and Iran
 Operation Condor
 Operation Cyclone
 Operation Northwoods
 Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism
 Qatar and state-sponsored terrorism
 Saudi Arabia–United States relations § Allegations of funding terrorism
 State Sponsors of Terrorism (U.S. list)
 Terrorism and the Soviet Union
 United States and state terrorism
 United States involvement in regime change
 United States war crimes

References

Sources

Central Intelligence Agency operations
CIA activities in the Americas
Cuba–United States relations
Foreign relations of the United States
Iran–United States relations
Nicaraguan Revolution
Opposition to Fidel Castro
Presidency of Ronald Reagan
State-sponsored terrorism
Terrorism committed by the United States
Terrorism in Cuba


title: Haruspex bivittis

text:
Haruspex bivittis is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Scottish zoologist Adam White in 1855. The beetle's maximum size is 9mm. The beetle can be located in Amazonia, Argentina, Bolivia, and French Guiana.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1855


title: Haruspex brevipes

text:
Haruspex brevipes is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Scottish zoologist Adam White in 1855.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1855


title: Haruspex celatus

text:
Haruspex celatus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Lane in 1970.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1970


title: Haruspex daithmus

text:
Haruspex daithmus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976


title: Haruspex inscriptus

text:
Haruspex inscriptus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Gahan in 1895.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1895


title: Haruspex insulsus

text:
Haruspex insulsus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins and Galileo in 2005.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 2005


title: Filopaludina sumatrensis

text:
Filopaludina sumatrensis is a species of large freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Viviparidae.

Subspecies
 Filopaludina sumatrensis peninsularis Brandt, 1974
 Filopaludina sumatrensis polygramma (Martens, 1860)
 Filopaludina sumatrensis speciosa (Deshayes, 1876)
 Filopaludina sumatrensis sumatrensis (Dunker, 1852) represented as Filopaludina sumatrensis (Dunker, 1852) (alternate representation)

Distribution
This species is found in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Description
The width of the shell is 21 mm. The height of the shell is 32 mm.

References

 Brandt R. A. M. (1974). The non-marine aquatic Mollusca of Thailand. Archiv für Molluskenkunde. 105: i–iv, 1–423

External links

Viviparidae


title: Haruspex lineolatus

text:
Haruspex lineolatus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Bates in 1870.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1870


title: Haruspex mentitus

text:
Haruspex mentitus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976


title: Haruspex modestus

text:
Haruspex modestus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by White in 1855.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1855


title: Haruspex ornatus

text:
Haruspex ornatus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Bates in 1870.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1870


title: Haruspex pictilis

text:
Haruspex pictilis is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976


title: Haruspex quadripustulatus

text:
Haruspex quadripustulatus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Gounelle in 1909.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1909


title: Dakota Kai

text:
Cheree Georgina Crowley (born 6 May 1988) is a New Zealand professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Dakota Kai. She is a member of Damage CTRL and a former two-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion with Iyo Sky. She is also known for her time in NXT, where she won the inaugural Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, and is a former two-time NXT Women's Tag Team Champion. Crowley is currently inactive from in-ring competition due to an injury, though she is still making appearances.

Prior to her signing with WWE, Crowley wrestled under the ring name Evie, and appeared for Impact Pro Wrestling (IPW) in her native New Zealand, Pro Wrestling Women's Alliance (PWA) in Australia, American promotions Shimmer Women Athletes and Shine Wrestling, as well as Japanese promotions Pro Wrestling Zero1 and World Wonder Ring Stardom.

Professional wrestling career

New Zealand and Australian independent promotions (2007–2016)
Crowley made her professional wrestling debut on 15 December 2007 for Auckland based company Impact Pro Wrestling under the ring name Evie, a reference to her favourite Pokémon, Eevee.

In September 2011, she debuted in Sydney, Australia-based Pro Wrestling Alliance Australia (PWA Australia) for their annual PWWA show, where she defeated Kellie Skater. In August 2012, Evie became the first Impact Pro Wrestling NZ Women's Champion, defeating Britenay and Megan Fox in a triple threat match. A week later, she won the Interim PWWA Championship by defeating Jessie McKay in the finals.

After Impact Pro Wrestling returned after a few months from folding in mid-2013, all the previous title holders were stripped of their championships. Evie won the IPW Women's Championship back in December 2013 and aligned herself with a new heel faction called 'The Investment'.

Evie began 2014 in Japan, working on a three-month contract awarded to her through Pro Wrestling Zero1, and becoming the first female to receive such a contract.

American independent promotions (2013–2016)

Evie made her debut for the all-female American promotion Shimmer Women Athletes at Volume 53 on 6 April 2013, participating in a five-way match which she lost to Christina Von Eerie and also included Yuu Yamagata, Kalamity, and Rhia O'Reilly. At Volume 54, Evie defeated Kimber Lee to pick up her first win for the promotion, but she was defeated by Mia Yim the next day at Volume 56. She competed in a losing effort against Hikaru Shida at Shimmer Volume 62 in April 2014. At Volumes 63 and 64, Evie defeated Rhia O'Reilly and Nicole Matthews, respectively.

On 19 April 2013, Evie made her debut for Shine Wrestling at Shine 9, in a losing effort against Mercedes Martinez. At the Shine 18 iPPV on 20 April 2014, Evie and Skater lost to defending champions the Lucha Sisters (Leva Bates and Mia Yim) for the Shine Tag Team Championship.

World Wonder Ring Stardom (2015–2016)
On 6 December 2015, Evie made her debut for the Japanese World Wonder Ring Stardom promotion. In her first match she won the vacant Artist of Stardom Championship alongside Hiroyo Matsumoto and Kellie Skater. They lost the title to Io Shirai, Kairi Hojo, and Mayu Iwatani in their third defense on 28 February 2016.

WWE

Early appearances (2015–2017)
Crowley appeared on the 14 October 2015 episode of NXT as Evie, losing to the debuting Nia Jax. On 15 December 2016, Crowley signed a contract with WWE, and a few months later she was announced as a participant in the upcoming Mae Young Classic under the new ring name Dakota Kai. According to Crowley, she wanted her new ring name to be something that sounded tomboyish but still reflected her Samoan heritage. The word Kai means sea in the Polynesian language, indicating her journey to get to WWE, and contrary to popular belief, is not a reference to Leilani Kai. Kai entered the tournament on 13 July, defeating Kavita Devi in the first round and Rhea Ripley in the second round, before being eliminated in the quarterfinals by Kairi Sane.

Beginnings in NXT (2017–2020)

On 25 October 2017 episode of NXT, Kai returned to television, competing in a women's battle royal won by Nikki Cross. On 10 January 2018 episode of NXT, Kai lost to the debuting Shayna Baszler by referee stoppage after Baszler stomped and injured her arm. After the match, Baszler attacked and locked her in the Kirifuda Clutch until NXT Women's Champion Ember Moon saved her. On 14 March episode of NXT, Kai scored her first televised victory, defeating Lacey Evans. Kai made her WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania 34 on 8 April, competing in the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal and becoming the first female New Zealander to compete at WrestleMania. Kai also participated in a WrestleMania Axxess tournament which she won, earning herself a match for the NXT Women's Championship, but was defeated by newly crowned champion Shayna Baszler. In May, Kai earned another shot at the title but was unsuccessful in winning it. Throughout the rest of the year, Kai racked up victories and losses against competitors like Santana Garrett, Bianca Belair, Lacey Evans and Aliyah.

In parallel to her activities in NXT, Kai also appeared in the newly created NXT UK brand. At Evolution on 28 October, the first all women's pay-per-view, Kai unsuccessfully challenged Rhea Ripley (in a dark match) for the NXT UK Women's Championship. Before the match, Kai took part in a tournament (that was taped back in the summer but aired in November) for the vacant championship, defeating Nina Samuels in the first round but was eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual winner Ripley. After spending a few months away, Kai returned at NXT TakeOver: WarGames on 17 November, where she and Io Shirai helped Kairi Sane during her match with Shayna Baszler by attacking Baszler's allies Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir. On 17 January 2019, Kai announced on her Twitter page that she sustained a torn ACL, during an NXT live event in December, which would sideline her from in-ring competition for the next few months. Kai defeated Taynara Conti in her return match on 25 September episode of NXT. Shortly after, Kai's long-time tag team partner Tegan Nox returned to NXT and the two reunited their tag team dubbed "Team Kick". On 30 October episode of NXT, Team Kick unsuccessfully challenged The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.
In November, Kai made her main roster debut as part of the NXT talent that were placed in an invasion angle with Raw and SmackDown as part of the Survivor Series pay-per-view. Mia Yim was chosen over Kai as part of Rhea Ripley's team for the first-ever women's WarGames match against Shayna Baszler's team. On 23 November at NXT TakeOver: WarGames, just before the match took place, Kai replaced Yim, who was attacked backstage. However, before she entered the ring, Kai attacked her tag team partner, Tegan Nox, turning heel for the first time in her career. Upon her return in December, Mia Yim revealed that Kai attacked Yim backstage and this led to a grudge match between the two, which Kai won. On 26 January 2020, at Royal Rumble, Kai entered her first Royal Rumble match at #15, but was eliminated by Chelsea Green. On 29 January episode of NXT, Kai lost to Nox after she used a knee brace following a distraction from Candice LeRae.

Storyline with Raquel González (2020–2022)
Kai defeated Nox twice: first at NXT TakeOver: Portland in a street fight, and second in a steel cage match, both after interferences from González. On 7 June at TakeOver: In Your House, Kai, González and Candice LeRae lost to Nox, Mia Yim and Shotzi Blackheart. At NXT TakeOver XXX, she failed to win the Women's title against Io Shirai. Kai and González soon aligned with LeRae and Toni Storm, resulting in a WarGames match against Blackheart, Ember Moon, Shirai, and Ripley at WarGames on 6 December, which her team won. Kai and González won the first ever Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, when she defeated Blackheart and Moon in the finals at Vengeance Day. With this win, they earned a shot at WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, a match that would end in controversy on 3 March episode of NXT, after Kai was submitted by Baszler despite not being the legal competitor in the match. The following week, they were awarded the newly created NXT Women's Tag Team Championship by General Manager William Regal, marking Kai's first championship in the WWE. However, the two lost the titles to Blackheart and Moon that night.

After González won the NXT Women's Championship at NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver on 7 April, tension began to show between the two as González began displaying more face tactics. On 27 July episode of NXT, Kai turned on González, ending their alliance. At NXT TakeOver 36 on 22 August, Kai unsuccessfully challenged González for the title.  On 26 October at Halloween Havoc, she returned as the mysterious person to cost González the title to Mandy Rose in a Trick or Street Fight. On 5 December at WarGames, Kai and Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin, Jacy Jayne, and Rose) lost to González, Shirai, Cora Jade, and Kay Lee Ray in a WarGames match. Kai then competed in the Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic with Wendy Choo, defeating Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta in the first round, González and Jade in the semifinals on 8 March 2022 at Roadblock, but lost to Shirai and Kay Lee Ray in the finals.

On 29 March episode of NXT, after Toxic Attraction took out Wendy Choo, Kai attacked the group and was assisted by a returning Raquel González, whom Kai embraced afterwards, turning face for the first time since 2019. It was then announced that Kai and González would face Toxic Attraction members Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne for the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship during the pre-show of NXT Stand & Deliver on 2 April, in which they were successful in winning the titles. Their first title defense was scheduled for the following episode of NXT, losing the titles back to Toxic Attraction due to Mandy Rose’s interference. The following week, Kai unsuccessfully challenged Rose for the NXT Women's Championship in what would be her final appearance in NXT.

On 29 April 2022, Kai was released from her WWE contract. She had reportedly expressed to the company that she was not planning on renewing her contract prior to her release.

Damage CTRL (2022–present)

On 30 July 2022, Kai re-signed with WWE and returned at SummerSlam alongside Bayley and Iyo Sky (formerly known as Io Shirai). She officially joined the Raw brand as a heel and made her debut for the brand the following night. Throughout the summer, the trio became known as Damage CTRL and they started a feud with Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka that led to various singles and tag team matches, with the most notable being a six-woman tag team match at Clash at the Castle, where Damage CTRL were victorious. At the same time, Kai and Sky entered a tournament for the vacant WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. The two made it to the finals, where they lost to Aliyah and Raquel Rodriguez after Aliyah pinned Dakota even though she was not the legal competitor. This set up a rematch between the two teams, in which Kai and Sky defeated Aliyah and Rodriguez on the 12 September episode of Raw to win the Women's Tag Team Championship for the first time. With the win, Kai and Sky became two of three (the other being Rodriguez) to have won the WWE and NXT Women's Tag Team Championships. Kai and Sky lost the titles on the 31 October episode of Raw to Bliss and Asuka and went on to regain them five days later at Crown Jewel, which also marked the first time a women's championship changed hands in the Middle East. The rivalry between the two trios ended at Survivor Series WarGames on 26 November, where Damage CTRL, Rhea Ripley, and Nikki Cross lost to Belair, Asuka, Bliss, Mia Yim, and Becky Lynch in a WarGames match. Kai then entered the women's Royal Rumble match at the titular event on 28 January 2023. She eliminated five wrestlers before being eliminated by Becky Lynch.
On the February 27 episode of Raw, following interference from Trish Stratus, Kai and Sky lost the titles to Lynch and Lita, ending their second reign at 114 days. As part of the 2023 WWE Draft, Damage CTRL was drafted to the SmackDown brand. On the May 12 episode of SmackDown, Kai and Sky lost their match for the Women's Tag Team Championship against Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. During the match, both Kai and Morgan suffered injuries, with Kai tearing her ACL and Morgan injuring her shoulder. Kai made a physical appearance for the first time since her injury at SummerSlam to celebrate Sky's WWE Women's Championship victory. Kai would then begin to appear regularly in a manager role for Damage CTRL until she is medically cleared for in-ring competition.

Other media
In September 2009, Crowley starred in the music video for "Sweet December" by Auckland band These Four Walls. In the summer of 2013, as Evie, she was profiled on the Māori Television sports show Code.

As Dakota Kai, she is a playable character in the video games WWE 2K19, WWE 2K20, WWE 2K22, and WWE 2K23.

Crowley currently streams on Twitch under the username "Charliegirl". In August 2023, Crowley teaming up with Thea Trinidad launched new podcast titled "ZELVXandCharlieGirl".

Personal life
Crowley is of Irish and Samoan descent. Her mother is originally from the Samoan village of Lepea on the island of Upolu. She has two younger siblings: her sister Nyrene is a mixed martial artist, and her brother Earl is a DJ. Her grandfather Pat Crowley represented New Zealand as a member of the All Blacks in 1949 and 1950.

Crowley is close friends with Shayna Baszler, Mia Yim, and Jessamyn Duke, and currently shares a house with Baszler in Florida.

Championships and accomplishments
 Pro Wrestling Women's Alliance
 PWWA Championship (1 time)
 PWWA Interim Championship (1 time)
 PWWA Interim Championship Tournament (2012)
 Impact Pro Wrestling
 IPW Women's Championship (3 times)
 Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 Ranked No. 21 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2016
 Shimmer Women Athletes
 Shimmer Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Heidi Lovelace
 World Wonder Ring Stardom
 Artist of Stardom Championship (1 time) – with Hiroyo Matsumoto and Kellie Skater
 WWE
WWE Women's Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Iyo Sky
 NXT Women's Tag Team Championship (2 times, inaugural) – with Raquel González
 NXT Women's Championship Invitational (2018)
 Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic (2021) – with Raquel González
 NXT Year-End Award (1 time)
 Future Star of NXT (2019)

References

External links

1988 births
Expatriate professional wrestlers
Living people
New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in the United States
New Zealand female professional wrestlers
New Zealand people of Irish descent
New Zealand sportspeople of Samoan descent
NXT Women's Tag Team Champions
Sportspeople from Auckland
Twitch (service) streamers
21st-century female professional wrestlers
Artist of Stardom Champions
WWE Women's Tag Team Champions
Shimmer Tag Team Champions


title: Haruspex submaculatus

text:
Haruspex submaculatus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by White in 1855.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1855


title: Una Flor

text:
"Una Flor" ("A Flower") is a song by Colombian singer-songwriter Juanes for his sixth studio album Loco de Amor (2014). The song was released by Universal Music Latino as the third single from the record. It was written by Juanes and his guitarist Fernando Tobón, while production was by Steve Lillywhite and Juanes. "Una Flor" is the official soundtrack for the television serial drama Jane the Virgin.

Track listing
Album version
 "Una Flor" –

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

Songs about flowers
2014 songs
2014 singles
Juanes songs
Songs written by Juanes
Song recordings produced by Steve Lillywhite
Spanish-language songs
Universal Music Latino singles


title: Brickfête

text:
Brickfête is a Lego fan convention held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It became the first Canadian Lego convention for adult fans of Lego at its inaugural event in 2011. It was created by volunteers and organized by the Ontario Brick Builders (OBB). The main focus of the convention is for Lego fans and hobbyists bring their creations to display and share with fellow enthusiasts. Brickfête's mandate is to offer any fan, regardless of skill level or size of collection, a place to display their creations and to promote their revered hobby to new potential fans. Like other fan conventions, it offers workshops, presentations, special events, contests and challenges.

Brickfête is a four-day event typically held on a Thursday through Sunday. Brickfête is held typically in July in Toronto. In its third year, Brickfête also created a travelling road show (Brickfête - On the Road), which takes a similar, yet smaller show throughout Canada. Its first destination was Montreal, Quebec.

Brickfête is a two part event with a private convention for (primarily adult) exhibitors and then a public exhibition (general public) on the weekend. The event is not sponsored by the Lego Company however it is recognized as a fan event by them.

Private convention
The main focus of the event is the private convention, which provides a venue for adult fans of Lego to bring and display their own Lego creations. Activities at the convention include presentations, seminars, guest speakers, raffles, games, contests and awards. The Lego company will sometimes provides designers or representatives as guest speakers or to show sneak peek previews of upcoming sets. The full attendee receives an event package including a schedule of events, give-aways from vendors, souvenirs of the event including an event brick, and other exclusive material.

Public exhibition

The public exhibition is for Lego fans of all ages. For a nominal fee, the general public can view of hobbyist-built creations, meet and ask questions of their creators, or expand their interest in building or collecting Lego. Guest can expect to see custom creations that include but are not limited to Lego Robots & Mindstorms creations, city layouts with powered trains, space, Star Wars & science fiction creations, art, architecture and design, planes, trains and automobiles, historical buildings and castles, pirates, steampunk and Vikings, and mosaics and sculptures. There is a build area for hands-on experimenting.

Locations and dates

Press Coverage

680 News
Etobicoke Guardian

References

External links
 Brickfête homepage

Lego conventions
Toy collecting


title: Ernie and Erica Wisner

text:
Ernie and Erica Wisner are a couple from Tonasket, Washington, United States, best known for their innovative rocket mass heater designs. They are often referred to as the worldwide leaders and trainers in rocket stove technology. They have made over 700 rocket stoves all over the world.

Background

The Wisners were introduced to this type of work when Ernie apprenticed with Ianto Evans for two years. Evans, of Cob Cottage Co., was the designer who originally developed this type of technology 30 years ago. Erica and Ernie initially planned to share information about all different types of natural building, but their fans demanded otherwise. People wanted to be taught how to build rocket mass heaters and custom cob rocket stoves.

Current work

Ernie and Erica now spend their time touring the world teaching workshops on how to build these energy-efficient, natural heaters. They are also working to design and build a stove that will get an Underwriters Laboratory (UL (safety organization)) listing, which would eliminate insurance issues.

The Wisners helped write the building code for Portland.

In 2013, they were featured in a four-DVD film series produced by Paul Wheaton. The films cover a workshop, and are titled Fire Science, Sneaky Heat, Boom Squish, and Hot Rocket. Village Video produced a film with Ernie and Erica called How To Build Rocket Mass Heaters in which they again teach how to build and maintain these heaters.

In 2015, they were featured in another 4-DVD series about rocket mass heaters, this time covering how to build 10 different styles of rocket mass heaters.

The Wisners have written two books, The Art of Fire and The Rocket Mass Heater Builder's Guide.

In 2017, both were instructors for an Appropriate Technology Course hosted by Paul Wheaton. The course was recorded and is available as a streaming video.

See also
Permaculture
Mike Oehler
Paul Wheaton
Appropriate Technology
Rocket mass heater

References

Permaculture


title: Venantius of Salona

text:
Venatius of Salona (also Wigand; died 259), was a Christian saint, martyr and Bishop of Salona in Dalmatia, active in the later half of the third century AD. He was martyred in Delminium.

He either was the first bishop or succeeded Saint Domnius as bishop. Originally buried in Dalmatia, his body was brought to Rome by Pope John IV in 640 and his relics were in the baptistery of the Lateran Basilica, which also contains a mosaic of him.

Unlike other saints he was not found in early martyrologies, appearing for the first time in a twelfth-century Hungarian liturgical calendar.

His feast day was on 1 April. As well as Rome and Dalmatia he was a popular saint in Toledo.

References

3rd-century Christian martyrs
3rd-century bishops in Roman Dalmatia
259 deaths


title: Hemilissa catapotia

text:
Hemilissa catapotia is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976


title: Hemilissa cornuta

text:
Hemilissa cornuta is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Henry Walter Bates in 1870.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1870


title: Hemilissa emblema

text:
Hemilissa emblema is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976


title: Hemilissa fabulosa

text:
Hemilissa fabulosa is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1985.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1985


title: David Nana Larbie

text:
David Nana Larbie (born 29 October 1950) is a Ghanaian lawyer and politician. He was the Member of parliament for the Awutu-Senya constituency for the 5th parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana.

Early life and education
Larbie was born on 29 October 1950. He hails from Awutu in the Central Region of Ghana.  He was educated at King's College London where he studied European Community Law and obtained a Post Graduate Diploma.

Career
Larbie was a London-based legal consultant before his involvement in Ghanaian politics. He worked as a Legal Advisor for the Sanana Legal Advisory Services in Stratford, London.

Politics
He was elected as a National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for the Awutu-Senya constituency in the 2008 Ghanaian general elections for representation in the 5th parliament of the 4th republic of Ghana. He won the elections for the constituency with 25,666 votes, making 49.61%, of all total valid votes cast. He contested with Oppey Abbey of the New Patriotic Party, Kofi Akotua-Obeng of the Democratic Freedom Party, Richard Paa-Tawia of the Convention People's Party and Haroon Tetteh Mensah an independent candidate. These obtained 45.10%, 1.33%, 1.90% and 2.05% respectively of the total valid votes cast.

Personal life
David Nana Larbie is married with 6 children. He is a Christian.

References

1950 births
Living people
Alumni of King's College London
Ghanaian MPs 2009–2013
National Democratic Congress (Ghana) politicians


title: Hemilissa gummosa

text:
Hemilissa gummosa is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Perty in 1832.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1832


title: Hemilissa opaca

text:
Hemilissa opaca is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976


title: Hemilissa picturata

text:
Hemilissa picturata is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Galileo and Martins in 2000.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 2000


title: Hemilissa quadrispinosa

text:
Hemilissa quadrispinosa is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Gounelle in 1913.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1913


title: MAMA Award for Best Female Artist

text:
The MAMA Award for Best Female Artist (여자 가수상) is an award presented annually by CJ E&M Pictures (Mnet).

It was first awarded at the 1st Mnet Asian Music Awards ceremony held in 1999; Uhm Jung-hwa won the award for her song "I Don't Know", and it is given in honor of a female artist with the best performance in the music industry.

Winners and nominees

Multiple awards for Best Female Artist
As of 2020, six female artists received two or more awards.

5 wins
 IU

3 wins
 Baek Ji-young

2 wins
 Lee Hyori
 BoA
 Lee Soo-young
 Taeyeon

 Each year is linked to the article about the Mnet Asian Music Awards held that year.

Gallery

See also

 List of music awards honoring women

Notes

References

External links
 Mnet Asian Music Awards official website

MAMA Awards
Music awards honoring women


title: Hemilissa rufa

text:
Hemilissa rufa is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Melzer in 1934.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1934


title: Luis Casanova (baseball)

text:
Luis Giraldo Casanova Castillo (born December 5, 1956) is a former baseball player in the Cuban National Series who had a successful career in international tournaments. Casanova's teams won many titles in Cuban league play, and he led the league in all three Triple Crown statistics (batting average, home runs, and runs batted in) at least once. He led major international tournaments in home runs seven times.

Personal life
Casanova was born in Bahía Honda, Cuba. He was nicknamed El Señor Pelotero. He is the brother of Leovigildo Casanova and uncle of Reinier Casanova.

1970s
Casanova made his debut on the international stage in the 1978 Central American and Caribbean Games. The 21-year-old outfielder helped the Cuban national team win a Gold Medal, going 20 for 33 and tying for the most doubles (5).

In the 1978 Amateur World Series, Casanova hit .444 with 12 runs and eight RBI in ten games. He was second in the tournament in batting average behind Roberto Espino. His 3 homers tied for 4th, behind Antonio Muñoz, Tim Wallach and Ernesto Lopez. Cuba won Gold.

In the 1979 Pan American Games, Casanova had 13 hits in 35 at-bats to hit .371 and help Cuba win Gold. He tied Terry Francona for the most triples (3) and tied Francona and Agustin Marquetti for the most hits. In the 1979 Intercontinental Cup, Casanova hit .375 as Cuba cruised to victory.

Casanova had his first great season in domestic play in Cuba in the 1979-1980 Serie Nacional, leading in runs (64) and walks (57). He tied for the most sacrifice flies (5) and his 18 home runs tied Pedro José Rodríguez, Sr. for the most.

1980s
Casanova tied Antonio Muñoz for the 1980 Amateur World Series lead in home runs with seven as Cuba won Gold. In the 1981 Serie Nacional season, Casanova led the league with 9 times hit by pitch. In the Selective Series of 1981, he hit .363, leading the league in batting average. He also tied for the league lead in triples, with four. During the 1981 Intercontinental Cup, Casanova's Cuban team failed to win Gold for the first and only time of his career. He was 19 for 37 at the plate and led in average (.514), home runs (6), runs (12), hits (15) and RBI (19). Casanova won MVP honors though the USA took home the Gold Medal.

In the 1982 Selective Series, he led the league in runs scored with 49. He also tied for the league lead in triples, with four. It was the only year from 1978-1986 that Casanova did not play on the international stage, as Cuba sat out the 1982 Amateur World Series. During the 1982-1983 Serie Nacional, Casanova tied Alejo O'Reilly for the most walks, with 34.

Casanova batted .389 in a backup role in the 1983 Intercontinental Cup, as Cuba won Gold. In the 1983-1984 Serie Nacional, the 27-year-old veteran tied Lázaro Junco for the league lead in home runs, with 20. He tied for the most doubles (19) and led with 67 RBI. That won him the MVP award, the only time he took home that honor for a Serie Nacional. In the 1984 Selective Series, he hit .391, leading the league.

In the 1984 Amateur World Series, Casanova hit .364 with 6 home runs, 12 runs and 15 RBI in 13 games. He tied Pedro José Rodríguez and Roberto Bianchi for the home run lead, tied Bianchi for third in hits (20) and tied Muñoz for third in RBI. Casanova helped Cuba to Gold; among those he outslugged was American Barry Bonds. He was to appear in the 1984 Olympics, but did not because Cuba boycotted them. Casanova batted .429 in the 1985 Intercontinental Cup, which he led in home runs (6) and RBI (19).

During the 1986 Amateur World Series, Casanova hit .409 with a tournament-leading 19 RBI and six home runs to help Cuba win Gold. He tied Italy's Giuseppe Carelli for most RBI. In the 1986 Central American and Caribbean Games, the outfield superstar hit .500 and led the tournament with 16 runs scored. Cuba claimed another Gold.

Casanova made the All-Star outfield in the 1987 Intercontinental Cup as Cuba won it all. In the 1987 Pan American Games, Casanova hit .433 with four home runs and 12 runs scored to help Cuba take Gold.

In the 1988 Baseball World Cup, he led the tournament in home runs with seven while hitting .392 with 15 runs and 21 RBI in 13 games. He tied Tino Martinez for second in the tournament in RBI, behind Robin Ventura's 32. He was 4th with 20 hits. Casanova had two assists and no errors in right field. He made the tournament All-Star team, joining Lourdes Gourriel and Daisuke Tsutsui in the outfield. Though Cuba won Gold, the US's Martinez beat out Casanova for MVP honors.

1990s
In the 1990 Baseball World Cup, Casanova hit .462 with eight RBI and three home runs in five games, splitting right field action with Ermidelio Urrutia. He hit all of his home runs in a single game, becoming only the second person to hit three home runs in a Baseball World Cup game (the other was Antonio Muñoz, who did it in 1980).

In the 1991 Intercontinental Cup, Casanova tied Prospero Baca and Wei-Cheng Chen for second in the tournament in RBI, with 12, as Cuba won yet another Gold. Furthermore, he hit .364 with nine walks, ten runs and four home runs in 11 games. He was second in home runs, one behind Jose Ramon Padilla.

Casanova was a coach for Nicaragua in the 1998 Baseball World Cup.

Cuban Series career statistics
Overall, Casanova hit .322 in 17 seasons in Cuba. He belted 312 homers in 5,288 AB, scored 1,144 runs, drove in 1,069 runs and drew 1,049 walks.

21st century
In the 2008-2009 Cuban National League, Casanova managed Pinar del Rio to a second-place finish, three games behind La Habana. They finished with a 54-36 record. It was Luis's managerial debut, having previously been a coach in Cuba following his playing career.

External links
Olvidado, “El Señor Pelotero”, Luis Giraldo Casanova, Jorge Luis Artiles Montiel (Spanish)
LUIS GIRALDO CASANOVA: EL SEÑOR PELOTERO (Spanish)

References

Living people
1956 births
Cuban baseball players
Pan American Games medalists in baseball
Pan American Games gold medalists for Cuba
Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Cuba
Central American and Caribbean Games silver medalists for Cuba
Competitors at the 1978 Central American and Caribbean Games
Competitors at the 1986 Central American and Caribbean Games
Baseball players at the 1979 Pan American Games
Baseball players at the 1987 Pan American Games
Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in baseball
Medalists at the 1979 Pan American Games
People from Bahía Honda, Cuba
Sportspeople from Artemisa Province


title: Hemilissa sulcicollis

text:
Hemilissa sulcicollis is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Bates in 1870.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1870


title: Hemilissa undulaticollis

text:
Hemilissa undulaticollis is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Zajciw in 1960.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1960


title: Hemilissa violascens

text:
Hemilissa violascens is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Perty in 1832.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1832


title: Venantius of Berri

text:
Venantius of Berri was a fifth century Saint and abbot.

He was born in Berri and joined the order of Martin of Tours and was elected abbot.  His life was written by Gregory of Tours.  His feast day was 13 October.

References

French abbots


title: Pharcidodes divisus

text:
Pharcidodes divisus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976


title: Pharcidodes nigripennis

text:
Pharcidodes nigripennis is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1985.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1985


title: Tom Calma

text:
Thomas Edwin Calma,  (born 1953), is an Aboriginal Australian human rights and social justice campaigner, and 2023 senior Australian of the Year. He is the sixth chancellor of the University of Canberra, a post held since January 2014, after two years as deputy chancellor. Calma is the second Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person to hold the position of chancellor of any Australian university.

Calma has been involved in Indigenous affairs at a local, community, state, national and international level and worked in the public sector focusing on rural and remote Australia, health, mental health and suicide prevention, education, justice reinvestment, research, reconciliation and economic development. Calma's 2005 Social Justice Report  – focusing on Indigenous health equality – was the catalyst for the Close the Gap campaign.

Calma served as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner from 2004 to 2010 and as Race Discrimination Commissioner from 2004 until 2009 at the Australian Human Rights Commission.

In 2012 he was awarded an Order of Australia, Officer of the General Division, in recognition of his work as an inspirational advocate for human rights and social justice and distinguished service to the Indigenous community, and in 2013 was named Australian of the Year for the ACT.

On 30 October 2019, Calma was announced as a co-chair on the Senior Advisory Group of the "Indigenous voice to government", convened by Ken Wyatt.

Life
Calma was born in 1953 in Darwin, Northern Territory.

He is an elder of the Kungarakan people and member of the Iwaidja people, whose traditional lands are south-west of Darwin and on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory.

Career
Between 1995 and 2002 Calma represented Australia's education and training interests as a senior diplomat in India and Vietnam; in 2003, he served as Senior Adviser for Indigenous Affairs to Philip Ruddock, then Minister of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.

He has been Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia since before 2005.

Calma served as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2004 to 2010 and as the Race Discrimination Commissioner from 2004 until 2009. During this time the Social Justice Report 2005 called on Australian governments to commit to achieving equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the areas of health and life expectancy within a generation (25 years) and advocated embedding a social determinants philosophy into public policy around health, education, employment, housing and behaviours in order to address Indigenous inequality gaps. This report laid the foundation for the Close the Gap campaign, a collaboration of some 40 Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian health and human rights peak bodies and groups. Calma founded the Close the Gap Steering Committee for Indigenous Health Equality in 2006 and was its inaugural Chairperson. He retired as Co-Chair of the Steering Committee in 2010.

In 2008, Calma delivered the formal response to the Government's National Apology to the Stolen Generations and since 2009 has been involved with the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) and he currently holds the post of Co-Chair.

Since March 2010 Calma has been the Federal Government-appointed National Coordinator, Tackling Indigenous Smoking.

Calma was instrumental in the establishment of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, the development of the inaugural National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Strategy, and the promotion of Justice Reinvestment. Calma was one of the first proponents of "justice reinvestment" in Australia, introducing the concept in the Social Justice Report 2009.

He also Chairs the not-for-profit organisation Ninti One Ltd, is the former chair the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation and Patron and Chair of the Poche Centres for Indigenous Health Network.

Calma joined the University of Canberra Council on 21 October 2008 and on 1 January 2012 he was appointed Deputy Chancellor of the University of Canberra. Calma took up his appointment as Chancellor of the University of Canberra on 1 January 2014, and was installed at a ceremony held at the National Press Club on 20 February 2014.  Calma is the first Indigenous male to hold the position of Chancellor of an Australian university. Pat O'Shane was the first female.

Calma was appointed Professor with the University of Sydney's Medical School to Chair the Poche Indigenous Health Network on 1 January 2015.

Among his other roles, he has been a White Ribbon Ambassador since 2005, Patron of Wakakirri since 2009 and Patron of the Media Centre for Education Research Australia (MCERA) since 2018.

On 30 October 2019, Calma was announced as a co-chair on the Senior Advisory Group of the "Indigenous voice to government", convened by Ken Wyatt, along with by Professor Marcia Langton . The Group comprises a total of 20 leaders and experts from across the country. Calma took a year's leave of absence from the role of Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia in order to undertake his new role.

Honours and awards
In 2012 Calma was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to the Indigenous community as an advocate for human rights and social justice, through contributions to government policy and reform, and to cross cultural understanding. In 2013 he was named the ACT Australian of the Year 2013 for his service and commitment to the Indigenous community as an advocate for human rights and social justice having dedicated his life to improving the lives of Indigenous Australians.

On 20 May 2010, Calma was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Charles Darwin University in recognition of decades of public service, particularly in relation to his work in education, training and employment in Indigenous communities. On 15 February 2011, Calma was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from Curtin University in recognition of his work, advocacy and leadership in Indigenous health reform and Indigenous affairs. On 16 April 2014, Calma was awarded an honorary doctorate from Flinders University in recognition of his work, advocacy and leadership in Indigenous health reform.

In November 2014, Calma was awarded the Indigenous Allied Health Australia Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his lifelong dedication to improving the lives of Indigenous Australians and in 2017 was appointed their inaugural Patron.
In 2007 Calma was named by The Bulletin magazine as the Most Influential Indigenous Person in Australia; in 2008 he was named GQ magazine's 2008 Man of Inspiration for his work in Indigenous Affairs. Calma was named by Australian Doctor Magazine in 2010 as one of the 50 Most Influential People in medicine in Australia. In May 2012 Dr Calma was appointed an Adjunct Associate Professor at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at ANU.

In October 2015, Calma was awarded one of four inaugural University of South Australia Alumni Awards for his service to society and in November 2015 was awarded the Public Health Association Australia's Sidney Sax Public Health Medal for notable contribution to the protection and promotion of public health, advancing community awareness of public health measures and advancing the ideals and practice of equity in the provision of health care.

On 1 July 2016, Calma received the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Flag Award on the 240th anniversary of the United States of America's independence.

In October 2016, Calma was appointed the inaugural Chair of the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity program led by the University of Melbourne and in January 2017 he was appointed an Adjunct Professor with the University of Queensland.

In May 2017 Calma was one of three Indigenous Australians, along with Lowitja O'Donoghue and Galarrwuy Yunupingu, honoured by Australia Post in the 2017 Legends Commemorative Stamp "Indigenous leaders" series to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum.

In May 2018 Calma was inducted into the ACT Honour Walk 2018, while in May 2022 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in November 2022. In January 2023 he was named Senior Australian of the Year.

Selected publications

 Articles published 2007–2011.

References

Living people
Chancellors of the University of Canberra
Australian Aboriginal elders
1953 births
People from Canberra
Officers of the Order of Australia
Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science
Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia


title: Pharcidodes rubiginosus

text:
Pharcidodes rubiginosus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Thomson in 1878.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1878


title: Pharcidodes suturalis

text:
Pharcidodes suturalis is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Gounelle in 1909.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1909


title: Bassøefjellet

text:
Bassøefjellet is a mountain in Nathorst Land at Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It has peaks with heights of 1,081 and 953 m.a.s.l. respectively. The mountain is named after Norwegian civil servant and Governor of Svalbard, Johannes Gerckens Bassøe. It is located between Van Mijenfjorden and Van Keulenfjorden, west of Langlifjellet and south of Løyndbreen, with the glaciers of Lundbreen and Kvitskarvbreen to the south. East of the mountain is the valley of Bromelldalen.

References

Mountains of Spitsbergen


title: Piezasteria helenae

text:
Piezasteria helenae is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1985.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1985


title: Five Little Monkeys

text:
"Five Little Monkeys"  is a folk song and fingerplay of American origin.  It is usually accompanied by a sequence of gestures that mimic the words of the song.  Each successive verse sequentially counts down from the starting number.

The song has similar tune to the Austrian folk song “ Wie Böhmen noch bei Öst'rreich war” and first verse of the 1890s folk song "Shortnin' Bread."

Lyrics
One version of the lyrics, published in the 2015 collection No More Monkeys, runs:

Variations
Alternate versions of the song change the last monkey's reference to "she" or "one". An additional verse on the last verse following the last monkey going down include lines such as:

Gestures
The song can be performed with to accompany to each verse are, such as:

Hold up a number of fingers equal to the number of monkeys and bounce them onto the palm of the other hand;
Hold head;
Put your pinky finger to your cheek and thumb to your ear (as if using a telephone);
Wag your index finger

Influence
Eileen Christelow has written a series of books titled "Five Little Monkeys  ..". She acknowledges that she did not write the original lyrics, she heard it from her daughter.

See also
 Ten Little Indians

References

Children's games
English children's songs
American folk songs
Children's poetry
Early childhood education
Finger plays
Fictional monkeys
Fictional quintets
English nursery rhymes
Year of song unknown
Songwriter unknown


title: Piezasteria sternalis

text:
Piezasteria sternalis is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976


title: Piezocera advena

text:
Piezocera advena is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976


title: List of fountains in Greece

text:
This is a list of notable fountains in Greece.

See also
 Plateia
 List of gates in Greece

Fountains in Europe
Tourist attractions in Greece
Fountains
Greece


title: Piezocera aenea

text:
Piezocera aenea is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Bates in 1867.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1867


title: Ratchet & Clank (2016 video game)

text:
Ratchet & Clank is a 2016 platform video game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. The game is a tie-in of the 2016 film of the same name, as well as a remake of the first game in the series. The game was originally planned to be released in 2015, but was delayed, along with the film, to April 2016 in order to give the film a better marketing campaign and the game additional polish time.

In contrast to the film, Ratchet & Clank received positive reviews upon release, with critics particularly praising the overall gameplay, controls, visuals, weapons, and world design. The game was followed by Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, a direct sequel to Into the Nexus, which was released for the PlayStation 5 in June 2021.

Gameplay

Ratchet & Clank shares many gameplay similarities with the other entries in the series.<ref name="80 minutes">Kollar, Philip (March 10, 2016). "Watch 80 minutes of Ratchet & Clank on PS4, including hoverboard races and ship combat". Polygon. Retrieved May 13, 2016.</ref> The main playable character is Ratchet, although Clank is playable in several portions of the game. As Ratchet, the player navigates diverse environments, defeating enemies with an array of different weapons and gadgets, and traversing obstacles. Clank is attached to Ratchet like a backpack, performing several functions, such as allowing diving in water, gliding through the use of propellers, and on occasion, acting as a jetpack to allow flight. Clank's gameplay sections are drastically different, even though the premise of navigating environments and the controls remain the same. Clank is not equipped with weapons; instead, he utilizes punches to defeat enemies. Clank's gameplay sections mostly revolve around solving environmental puzzles, rather than defeating enemies.

Though Ratchet & Clank is a re-imagining of the 2002 video game, it has a variety of gameplay elements from different entries in the series, such as strafing, automatic weapon and health upgrades, manual Raritanium weapon upgrading, and the inclusion of weapons seen in later games.Stevenson, James (June 10, 2015). "Ratchet & Clank on PS4: Where Past and Future Meet". PlayStation.Blog. Retrieved May 13, 2016. It features new weapons, such as the Pixelizer, which gives enemies an 8-bit appearance. Environments are presented in a somewhat linear manner, although multiple paths are available for the player. The player progresses through the story by travelling from planet to planet. New planets are unlocked once story objectives on previous planets have been completed. Aside from battling enemies, the player utilizes a Swingshot to cross gaps, rides grind rails to travel through levels, walks on magnetic surfaces, activates switches to open new paths, and occasionally must solve a hacking mini-game.

The player unlocks weapons and gadgets as the story progresses, but some are bought through vendors. Bolts, which are found in crates, dropped by defeated enemies and given as rewards, act as currency. Crates also contain health and ammunition. Items are used in several different ways. Gadgets are automatically equipped at certain points in levels, weapons must be equipped manually, and lastly, the OmniWrench, which acts as a melee weapon, is always equipped as it has a dedicated button. Several collectibles are present, such as holocards, which provide information about the world, and gold bolts, which unlock aesthetical extras.Orry, Tom (April 14, 2016). "Ratchet and Clank PS4 Gold Bolt Location Guide". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved May 13, 2016. Skill points, which were prominent features in the previous games in the series, do not return, instead substituted by the PlayStation trophies system.

Racing, in the form of hoverboard races, and aerial combat missions, in which the player controls a spaceship, also appear in the game.IGN staff (March 10, 2016). "The Ratchet And Clank Hover Board Races Can Get Intense". IGN. Retrieved May 13, 2016. Bosses, which are a mainstay in the series, are featured in some levels.Jayne, Jeremy (June 10, 2015). "Ratchet & Clank - Boss Fight". GameSpot. Retrieved May 13, 2016. After completing the game, the player may choose to enter "challenge mode", in which the game's difficulty level rises considerably, but most items, including all weapons, are carried through.

Plot
Prisoner Shiv Helix is being moved to a joint cell with the newly imprisoned Captain Qwark, former commander of the legendary Galactic Rangers. As Shiv happens to be a huge fan of Qwark, he reveals that a "hologame" is being made based on his last adventure. Eager for attention, Qwark agrees to tell Shiv his side of the story.

On planet Veldin, Ratchet, a young Lombax who works as a mechanic, dreams of joining the Rangers. Despite passing all of their tests with flying colors, the Rangers refuse to accept him after learning of his criminal past. Meanwhile, in a factory on planet Quartu, Chairman Alonzo Drek of the Blarg oversees the construction of a mechanical army with his ally Dr. Nefarious, an evil scientist who was presumed dead after his defeat at the hands of the Rangers. However, a defective warbot manages to escape using a stolen ship. After the ship crashes on Veldin, Ratchet rescues the defective bot, who explains that he needs to warn the Galactic Rangers of Drek's plans. Ratchet names him "Clank" and offers to take him to the Ranger Headquarters on planet Kerwan. Traveling to Kerwan, they discover that Drek and his Blarg soldiers have already invaded the planet. The duo successfully foil an attempt by the invaders to destroy the Hall of Heroes by ramming it with a train loaded with explosives. As a reward for their assistance, Qwark reluctantly allows them to join the Rangers. As new Rangers, the duo lead many successful operations against the Blarg, but the insecure Qwark soon becomes jealous of Ratchet, whose popularity starts to overshadow his own fame.

Qwark calls a meeting of the Rangers to organize a direct assault on Quartu. The assault is successful, and the Rangers learn from Drek's files that the Blarg's true plan is to use the Deplanetizer, a weaponized space station created by Nefarious, to destroy several planets so that he can harvest their remains and build a new home world for his people. Learning that the next target is Novalis, Qwark leaves to personally negotiate with Drek while the other Rangers battle his forces outside the station. During the fighting, Ratchet enters the Deplanetizer and tries to shut it down, but Drek captures him. While being dragged away, Ratchet discovers that Qwark has been secretly feeding information to Drek and that he and Nefarious anticipated the attack. Drek then seals Ratchet in an escape pod and ejects him into space as the Rangers witness the destruction of Novalis.

For several weeks, the Rangers, demoralized by Qwark's betrayal, refuse to move against Drek. Ridden with guilt, Ratchet returns to Veldin and decides to quit. Clank urges him to reconsider, having identified Drek's final target: planet Umbris. Clank reveals that Umbris' destruction will destroy countless other worlds due to a rare orbital convergence; Ratchet deduces that Nefarious planned this from the beginning. Angered by his defeat at the hands of the Rangers, Nefarious has been manipulating Drek, intending to wipe out the entire galaxy. With his confidence restored, Ratchet rejoins the Rangers and heads to planet Kalebo III, where he obtains a Holo-Guise after winning a race championship. Using the Holo-Guise, Ratchet impersonates Qwark and infiltrates the Deplanetizer. He and Clank plan to remove the gravity stabilizer used to hold the Deplanetizer over its target, so that the Rangers can use high-powered magnets to drag it away from Umbris and prevent the planet's destruction.

An increasingly disillusioned Qwark confronts Drek for breaking his promise to spare the Rangers. Nefarious arrives and mocks Qwark for his treason before sending him away, and betrays Drek by turning him into a sheep and ejecting him into space. Meanwhile, Ratchet successfully removes the gravity stabilizer and defeats Qwark in a one-on-one battle. Realizing the error of his ways, Qwark names Ratchet as the new commander of the Rangers. Before they can arrest Nefarious, the doctor shoots at them and attempts to fire the Deplanetizer. The Rangers deploy the magnets and drag the Deplanetizer sideways, causing him to miss. Enraged, Nefarious, now piloting his personal battle mech, flies to a nearby dwarf star with the intention of triggering a supernova that will end all life in the galaxy. Ratchet destroys the mech and knocks it into the star, resulting in Nefarious' death. With the Deplanetizer disintegrating from the heat of Umbris' atmosphere, Ratchet, Clank, and Qwark use a teleporter to escape just in time.

In the present, Qwark and Helix are picking trash near the Hall of Heroes. Quark, looking at a statue of himself, is greeted by Ratchet and Clank. Seizing the opportunity, Helix steals a gun, destroys several patrol bots, hijacks Ratchet's ship, and escapes. As the duo prepare to go after him, Ratchet asks Qwark if he would like to come along, which he gladly accepts.

DevelopmentRatchet & Clank was announced during Sony's press conference at E3 2014. Insomniac Games' California and North Carolina studios cooperated on its development. Several developers from the first game, such as long time design director Brian Allgeier, returned for the remake. The game was originally slated for release in 2015, but was delayed into 2016 to tie-in with the film's release. Players who pre-ordered the game received access to an additional weapon, the Bouncer, which was featured in Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal.

On 11 January 2016, it was confirmed that the game would release in France on 15 April 2016, the rest of Europe on 20 April 2016, and the United Kingdom on 22 April 2016. Unlike the original Ratchet & Clank, the remake runs at a frame rate of 30-frames-per-second.

The game was in parallel development with the film and shared the same character models, environments, animation and some writing. For example, Insomniac would send Rainmaker a 3D character model or environment, and Rainmaker would send Insomniac its slightly altered version for use in the game, so there would be parity between the pieces. Most of the assets in the film and video game had been touched between the two parties, and in some cases, Insomniac would try to match a movie scene as closely as possible in-game. The film and game used the same color-correction tools.

Reception

According to the review aggregation website Metacritic, Ratchet & Clank received "generally favorable reviews".

Chris Carter of Destructoid praised the characters, pacing, and varied gameplay, saying that he would welcome future Ratchet & Clank games after previously thinking that the series had run out of steam. Spencer Campbell of Electronic Gaming Monthly summarized his thoughts with: "Ratchet & Clank is a return to form for the series, but anyone looking for something more than that may be disappointed. The game tugs on many of the original's addictive strings, but is also bogged down by a few slower, more passive segments."Game Informers Andrew Reiner particularly commended the game's visuals, specifically praising the amount of action on the screen at once and the designs of the environments. Even though Reiner thought the soundtrack was "quite good", he did find some of the dialogue "cringe inducing". Reiner made positive comments about the gameplay, with his only criticism of it being that the sections not focusing on fast-paced action break up the flow of the game. Ultimately, Reiner said that he "couldn't put the game down".

Game Revolution's Jeb Haught gave the game a positive review, praising the "outstanding" visuals, "funny" storyline, "addictive" gameplay, and "intuitive" controls. Cassidee Moser of GameSpot cited the humor, gameplay variety, weapons and gadgets, controls, and graphics as positives but criticized the story for feeling "under-developed".

Lucas Sullivan from GamesRadar summarized his review with: "Despite some wonky tie-ins with the film, this is a gorgeous, thoroughly great platformer and a worthy reboot for Ratchet & Clank." IGN's Marty Sliva wrote: "Ratchet and Clank is a culmination of everything Insomniac has done with the series over the past 14 years." Sliva complimented the "absolutely gorgeous" visuals, "rewarding" upgrading systems, "charming" story, and "creative" weapons.

Philip Kollar for Polygon wrote: "I'd stop short of saying that the new Ratchet & Clank is exactly what every fan of the series wants. It's a bit less sprawling in terms of hard numbers — fewer planets, fewer weapons and so on — but the sheer variety and polish prevents this excellent reboot from being dragged down too far. There's enough here to make longtime fans happy, but perhaps more importantly for Insomniac and the franchise's future, it should win over plenty of new fans as well."

VideoGamer.com's Tom Orry summarized his review with: "Ratchet & Clank is an easy recommendation. It's great fun, looks lovely, plays well and almost serves as a palate cleanser to the usual video game releases. Newcomers to the series will likely find a fresher experience (even though it's a proper remake, familiarity does creep in), but fans will love what Insomniac has done here. A remake done right in a series that rarely puts a foot wrong."

SalesRatchet & Clank became the best-selling retail game in the UK in its week of release. The sales of the remake in its release week tripled the release week sales of A Crack in Time, the previous record holder. The remake became the first game in the series to debut at No. 1 in the retail software sales chart, whilst being the best selling title on the PlayStation Store in Europe. On April 29, 2016, it was announced that Ratchet & Clank was the fastest selling title in the series. It was number 1 on the Australian charts during the week of release and became the second best selling game in the month of April in the U.S. at retail and on the PlayStation Store, making it the best launch of any game in the Ratchet & Clank'' series. NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan exclaimed that these sales recaptured success not seen for the franchise since the height of the PlayStation 2 era.

References

External links

Ratchet & Clank
2016 video games
3D platform games
Action-adventure games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation 4-only games
PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games
Single-player video games
Video game reboots
Video game remakes
Video games based on animated films
Video games developed in the United States
Sony Interactive Entertainment games
Insomniac Games games
Video games scored by Michael Bross
PlayStation 5 enhanced games


title: Piezocera araujosilvai

text:
Piezocera araujosilvai is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Melzer in 1935.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1935


title: Piezocera ataxia

text:
Piezocera ataxia is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976


title: Piezocera bivittata

text:
Piezocera bivittata is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Audinet-Serville in 1834.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1834


title: Kipanga F.C.

text:
Kipanga Football Club, or simply Kipanga is a football club from Africa based in Zanzibar.

The team won the Zanzibar Premier League in 2000.

Achievements
Zanzibar Premier League : 1
 2000

Performance in CAF competitions
CAF Confederation Cup: 1 appearance
2005 – Preliminary Round

Current Players

Stadium
Currently the team plays at the Kipanga Stadium.

References

External links
 –

Football clubs in Tanzania
Zanzibari football clubs


title: Piezocera costula

text:
Piezocera costula is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Martins in 1976.

References

Piezocerini
Beetles described in 1976