title: Ghana

text: Association football is the top spectator sport in Ghana, and the national men's football team is known as the Black Stars, with the under-20 team known as the Black Satellites. Ghana has won the Africa Cup of Nations four times, the FIFA U-20 World Cup once, and has participated in three consecutive FIFA World Cups in 2006, 2010, and 2014. In the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Ghana became the third African country to reach the quarter-final stage after Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002. Ghana is the first and only country on the Africa continent to be crowned FIFA U-20 World Cup Champions, and two-time runners up in 1993 and 2001. The Ghana national U-17 football team known as the Black Starlets are two-time FIFA U-17 World Cup champions in 1991 and 1995, two-time runners up in 1993 and 1997.


title: Ghana

text: Ghanaian football teams Asante Kotoko SC and Accra Hearts of Oak SC are the 5th and 9th best football teams on the Africa continent and have won a total of five Africa continental association football and Confederation of African Football trophies; Asante Kotoko SC has been crowned two-time CAF Champions League winners in 1970, 1983 and five-time CAF Champions League runners up. Accra Hearts of Oak SC has been crowned 2000 CAF Champions League winner and two-time CAF Champions League runners up, 2001 CAF Super Cup champions and 2004 CAF Confederation Cup champions. The International Federation of Football History and Statistics crowned Asante Kotoko SC as the African club of the 20th century. There are several club football teams that play in the Ghana Premier League and Division One League, both administered by the Ghana Football Association.


title: Ghana

text: Ghana competed in the Winter Olympics in 2010 for the first time. Ghana qualified for the 2010 Winter Olympics, scoring 137.5 International Ski Federation points, within the qualifying range of 120–140 points. Skier Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong became the first Ghanaian to take part in the Winter Olympics, taking part in the slalom skiing. Ghana finished 47th out of 102 participating nations, of whom 54 finished in the Alpine skiing slalom. Ghana's last medal at the Summer Olympics dates back to 1992. Ghanaian athletes have won a total of four medals in thirteen appearances at the Summer Olympics, three in boxing, and a bronze medal in association football, and thus became the first country on the Africa continent to win a medal at association football.


title: Ghana

text: Ghana competes in the Commonwealth Games, sending athletes in every edition since 1954 (except for the 1986 games). Ghana has won 57 medals at the Commonwealth Games, including 15 gold, with all but one of their medals coming in athletics and boxing. The country has also produced a number of world class boxers, including Azumah Nelson a three-time world champion and considered as Africa's greatest boxer, Nana Yaw Konadu also a three-time world champion, Ike Quartey, and Joshua Clottey.


title: Ghana

text: Ghana's women's football team won bronze at the Africa Women Cup of Nations 2016 edition in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The team beat South Africa 1–0. Ghana featured a men's national team in beach volleyball that competed at the 2018–2020 CAVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cup. Ghana is to host the 2023 African Games in Accra.


title: Ghana

text: There are two types of Ghanaian traditional construction: the series of adjacent buildings in an enclosure around a common, and the traditional round huts with grass roof. The round huts with grass roof architecture are situated in the northern regions, while the series of adjacent buildings are in the southern regions. Ghanaian postmodern architecture and high-tech architecture buildings are predominant in the southern regions, while heritage sites are most evident by the more than thirty forts and castles in the country, such as Fort William and Fort Amsterdam. Ghana has museums that are situated inside castles, and two are situated inside a fort. The Military Museum and the National Museum organise temporary exhibitions.


title: Ghana

text: Ghana has museums that show a in-depth look at specific regions, there are a number of museums that provide insight into the traditions and history of the geographical areas. The Cape Coast Castle Museum and St. Georges Castle (Elmina Castle) Museum offer guided tours. The Museum of Science and Technology provides its visitors with a look into the domain of Ghanaian scientific development, through exhibits of objects of scientific and technological interest.


title: Ghana

text: The coat of arms depicts two animals: the tawny eagle and the lion; a ceremonial sword; a heraldic castle on a heraldic sea; a cocoa tree and a mine shaft representing the industrial mineral wealth of Ghana; and a five-pointed black star rimmed with gold, representing the mineral gold wealth of Ghana and the lodestar of the Ghanaian people. It also has the legend "Freedom and Justice".


title: Ghana

text: The flag of Ghana consists of three horizontal bands (strips) of red (top), gold (middle) and green (bottom); the three bands are the same height and width; the middle band bears a five-pointed black star in the centre of the gold band, the colour red band stands for the blood spilled to achieve the nation's independence: gold stands for Ghana's industrial mineral wealth, and the colour green symbolises the rich tropical rainforests and natural resources of Ghana.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (; born April 26, 1958) is an American actor and director. He is best known for portraying Gus Fring in the AMC crime drama series "Breaking Bad", from 2009 to 2011, and in its prequel series "Better Call Saul", from 2017 to 2022. For this role, he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and earned three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: Esposito's other television roles include Federal Agent Mike Giardello in the NBC police drama series "" (1998–1999), Sidney Glass / Magic Mirror in the ABC supernatural drama series "Once Upon a Time" (2011–2017), Tom Neville in the NBC science-fiction series "Revolution" (2012–2014), Dr. Edward Ruskins in the Netflix comedy-drama series "Dear White People" (2017–2021), Stan Edgar in the Amazon Prime Video superhero drama series "The Boys" (2019–present) and "" (2022–present), and Moff Gideon in the Disney+ space western drama series "The Mandalorian" (2019–present), the lattermost of which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He also portrayed American Baptist pastor and politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in the TV series "Godfather of Harlem" (2019–present) and appeared in "Westworld" (2016). Esposito voices antagonist Faraday in the Netflix anime series "" (2022). Esposito also voices Antón Castillo, the main antagonist of the video game "Far Cry 6", who was modeled after Esposito's appearance. He was also included in the videogame "Payday 2", as "The Dentist".


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: He is also known for his appearances in several Spike Lee films, such as "School Daze" (1988), "Do the Right Thing" (1989), "Mo' Better Blues" (1990), and "Malcolm X" (1992). Esposito's other major films include "Taps" (1981), "King of New York" (1990), "Bob Roberts" (1990), "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" (1991), "Fresh" (1994), "The Usual Suspects" (1995), "Ali" (2001), "Last Holiday" (2006), "Gospel Hill" (2008), "Rabbit Hole" (2010), "" (2015), "The Jungle Book" (2016), "Money Monster" (2016), "Okja" (2017), "" (2018), and "Stargirl" (2020).


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of Giovanni "John" C. Esposito (1931–2002), an Italian stagehand and carpenter from Naples, and Elizabeth "Leesa" Foster (1926–2017), an African-American opera and nightclub singer from Alabama.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: When Esposito was six, his family moved to Manhattan. He attended Elizabeth Seton College in New York and earned a two-year degree in radio and television communications.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: Esposito made his Broadway debut in 1968, playing an enslaved child opposite Shirley Jones in the short-lived musical "Maggie Flynn" (1968), set during the New York Draft Riots of 1863. He was also a member of the youthful cast of the Stephen Sondheim-Harold Prince collaboration "Merrily We Roll Along", which closed with 16 performances and 56 previews in 1981.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: During the 1980s, Esposito appeared in films such as "Maximum Overdrive," "King of New York," and "Trading Places." He also performed in TV shows such as "Miami Vice" and "". He played J. C. Pierce, a cadet in the 1981 movie "Taps".


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: In 1988, he landed his breakout role as the leader ("Dean Big Brother Almighty") of the black fraternity "Gamma Phi Gamma" in director Spike Lee's film "School Daze," exploring color relations at black colleges. Over the next four years, Esposito and Lee collaborated on three other movies: "Do the Right Thing," "Mo' Better Blues," and "Malcolm X". During the 1990s, Esposito appeared in the acclaimed indie films "Night on Earth", "Fresh" and "Smoke," as well as its sequel "Blue in the Face". He also appeared in the mainstream films "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" with Mickey Rourke, "Reckless" with Mia Farrow, and "Waiting to Exhale" starring Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett. In 1996, Esposito was featured in a music video "California" by French superstar Mylène Farmer, directed by Abel Ferrara.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: Esposito played FBI agent Mike Giardello on the TV crime drama "". That role drew from both his African American and Italian ancestry. He played this character during the show's seventh and final season, and reprised the role for its 2000 made-for-TV movie. He had another multiracial role as Sergeant Paul Gigante in the television comedy, "Bakersfield P.D."


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: In 1997, Esposito played the film roles of Darryl in "Trouble on the Corner" and Charlie Dunt in "Nothing to Lose". Other TV credits include "NYPD Blue", "Law & Order", "The Practice", "New York Undercover", and "Fallen Angels: Fearless".


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: Esposito has portrayed drug dealers ("Fresh," "Breaking Bad," "King of New York," "Better Call Saul"), policemen ("The Usual Suspects," "Derailed"), political radicals ("Bob Roberts, Do the Right Thing"), and a demonic version of the Greek God of Sleep Hypnos from another dimension ("Monkeybone"). In 2001, he played Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. in "Ali", and Miguel Algarín, friend and collaborator of Nuyorican poet Miguel Piñero, in "Piñero".


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: In 2002, Esposito was cast as a legal eagle in the David E. Kelley television drama "Girls Club." Although the series only lasted one season, and did not garner generally positive reviews, it represented a personal turning point for Esposito, who relayed to "The Washington Post": "I started to play bosses. And I realized, 'Oh, okay, this is an opportunity.' It was really a great opening for me to show who I really was. And it's kept going like that."


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: In 2005, Esposito played an unsympathetic detective named Esposito in the film "Hate Crime," which centers upon homophobia as a theme.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: In 2006, Esposito starred in "Last Holiday" as Senator Dillings, alongside Queen Latifah and Timothy Hutton. Esposito played Robert Fuentes, a Miami businessman with shady connections, on the UPN television series "South Beach." He appeared in "New Amsterdam" and "". In "Feel the Noise" (2007), he played ex-musician Roberto, the Puerto Rican father of Omarion Grandberry's character, aspiring rap star "Rob". In 2008, he made his directorial debut with "Gospel Hill", serving also as producer and star of the film.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: New York theater credits for Esposito include "The Me Nobody Knows," "Lost in the Stars," "Seesaw," and "Merrily We Roll Along." In 2008, he appeared on Broadway as Gooper in an African American production of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", directed by Debbie Allen and starring James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, and Terrence Howard.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: From 2009 to 2011, Esposito appeared in seasons 2 through 4 of the AMC drama "Breaking Bad", as Gus Fring, the head of a New Mexico-based methamphetamine drug ring. In the fourth season, he was the show's primary antagonist, and won critical acclaim for this role. He won the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama award at the 2012 Critics' Choice Television Awards and was nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award at the 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards, but lost to co-star Aaron Paul.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: Esposito appeared in the film "Rabbit Hole" (2010). He also appeared in the first season of the ABC program "Once Upon a Time," which debuted in October 2011. He portrayed the split role of Sidney Glass, a reporter for "The Daily Mirror" in the town of Storybrooke, Maine, who is really a genie trapped in the Magic Mirror, possessed by The Evil Queen in a parallel fairy tale world. Esposito would periodically reprise the role in later seasons as a guest star. Esposito appeared in "Revolution" as Major Tom Neville, a central character who kills Ben Matheson in the pilot. He escorts a captured Danny to the capital Philadelphia of the Monroe Republic.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: Esposito also appeared in "Community" as a guest star for the episode titled "Digital Estate Planning". He performed again in the fourth season, in the episode titled "Paranormal Parentage". Esposito has additionally appeared in a video of the action role-playing sci-fi first-person shooter game "Destiny", as well as plays The Dentist, a non-playable story character, in the game "Payday 2."


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: He has joined the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series. He played Ra's al Ghul in "Son of Batman" and Eric Needham / Black Spider in "". He also had a recurring role in the first season of "The Get Down" on Netflix. In 2017, Esposito reprised his role as Gus Fring in the "Breaking Bad" prequel series, "Better Call Saul". In 2019, he appeared in the first-season finale of "The Boys" as Stan Edgar, and reprised the role in the second and third season.


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: In 2016, Esposito voiced Akela in the film "The Jungle Book", which was directed by Jon Favreau. Esposito and Favreau would work together once again in the Disney+ series "The Mandalorian" in which Esposito appears in a starring role, while Favreau acts as an executive producer for the series and as its writer. He plays the role of New York congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in the 2019 Epix series "Godfather of Harlem".


title: Giancarlo Esposito

text: In July 2020, Esposito began teasing his role in "a huge video game". His role was later revealed as the main antagonist of Ubisoft's "Far Cry 6", in which he would portray and voice Antón Castillo, the dictatorial ruler of Yara.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra; November 19, 1961) is an American actress. She began her acting career in 1981 when she made her acting debut in the drama film "Rich and Famous". She later joined the cast of the CBS soap opera "As the World Turns" in 1982. Subsequently, she began to appear in supporting roles in films during the mid-1980s like box office hit "Top Gun", achieving recognition in independent films such as "Promised Land" (1987) before her performance in the Rob Reiner-directed romantic comedy "When Harry Met Sally..." (1989) brought her widespread attention and her first Golden Globe nomination.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan subsequently established herself, both nationally and internationally, as one of the most successful actresses in the 1990s and early 2000s, particularly in romantic comedy films such as "When Harry Met Sally" (1989), "Joe Versus the Volcano" (1990), "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993), "French Kiss" (1995), "You've Got Mail" (1998), and "Kate & Leopold" (2001). Her other films include "The Doors" (1991), "Anastasia" (1997), "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1994), "Courage Under Fire" (1996), "Addicted to Love" (1997), "City of Angels" (1998), "Proof of Life" (2000), and "The Women" (2008). In 2015, she made her directorial debut with "Ithaca," in which she also starred.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Multiple film critics and media outlets have cited Ryan as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan was born and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, to Susan Jordan ("née" Duggan), a former actress and English teacher, and Harry Hyra, a math teacher. Her father is of Polish descent. She was raised Catholic and attended St. Pius X Elementary School in Fairfield. She has two sisters, Dana and Annie, and a brother, musician Andrew Hyra, a member of the band Billy Pilgrim. Her parents divorced in 1976 when she was 15.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan graduated from Bethel High School in 1979. She studied journalism as an undergraduate, first at the University of Connecticut and then at New York University. During college, she acted in television commercials and the soap opera "As the World Turns" to earn extra money. Her success as an actress led her to leave college a semester before she planned to graduate. When she joined the Screen Actors Guild, she used the surname "Ryan", her grandmother's maiden name.


title: Meg Ryan

text: After her film debut in George Cukor's "Rich and Famous", Ryan played Betsy Stewart in the daytime drama "As the World Turns", from 1982 to 1984, and her character was featured in a popular romantic story arc.


title: Meg Ryan

text: She also appeared in some television commercials during the early 1980s for Burger King and Aim toothpaste, among others. Several television films and smaller film roles followed, including appearances in "Charles in Charge", "Armed and Dangerous", "Amityville 3-D" and "Promised Land"; for her role in the lattermost she received her first Independent Spirit Award nomination.


title: Meg Ryan

text: In 1986, she played Carole Bradshaw, the wife of Naval Flight Officer Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (played by Anthony Edwards) and mother of Bradley Bradshaw (played by Aaron and Adam Weis) in "Top Gun". Scenes with them were reprised in the 2022 sequel as flashbacks of lead character Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, to illustrate the emotional conflicts concerning grown-up Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (now played by Miles Teller).


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan appeared in the film "Innerspace" (1987) with her future husband Dennis Quaid, and later in the remake of "D.O.A." (1988) and "Flesh and Bone" (1993). Also in 1988, she played at the side of Sean Connery and Mark Harmon in "The Presidio".


title: Meg Ryan

text: Her first leading role was the romantic comedy film "When Harry Met Sally..." (1989), which paired her with comedic leading man Billy Crystal and earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Her portrayal of Sally Albright includes an oft-recounted scene in which her character, lunching with Crystal in Katz's Delicatessen in Manhattan, theatrically demonstrates for him how easy it is for a woman to fake an orgasm.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan next starred in "The Doors", which was moderately successful, and "Prelude to a Kiss", which flopped. The year 1993 saw the release of the hugely successful romantic comedy "Sleepless in Seattle", which paired Ryan for a second time with Tom Hanks. They had previously been paired as romantic leads in the film "Joe Versus the Volcano"—a commercial disappointment which later developed a cult following. Hanks and Ryan were to be paired for a third time in the film "You've Got Mail". She was offered the role of the protagonist Clarice Starling in "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), but rejected it due to its gruesome and violent themes.


title: Meg Ryan

text: In 1994, Ryan took a role that differed from the romantic-comedy ingenue character for which she had become famous. In Luis Mandoki's "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1994), a romantic social drama film also starring Andy Garcia, she played an alcoholic high-school guidance counselor. The film and her performance were both well received by critics. One critic called the film "a first-class production, accentuated by fine performances and an unflinching script", and another praised Ryan for her "roller-coaster role". The film was a notable success in its domestic run, grossing $50 million in the United States alone, and garnered the actress her first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. The same year, Ryan returned to type, starring alongside Tim Robbins in Fred Schepisi's romantic comedy "I.Q." The film centers on a mechanic and a Princeton doctoral candidate who fall in love, with the aid of the graduate student's uncle, Albert Einstein (played by Walter Matthau). Ryan later won Harvard's Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year award, and "People Magazine" dubbed her one of "the 50 most beautiful people in the world".


title: Meg Ryan

text: In 1995, critic Richard Corliss called her "the current soul of romantic comedy". That same year, she appeared opposite Kevin Kline in Lawrence Kasdan's "French Kiss", a romantic comedy that catered to her "America's Sweetheart" image, and Ryan was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award. (This award is given to "outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry".)


title: Meg Ryan

text: In 1996, Ryan starred in the film "Courage Under Fire" alongside Denzel Washington and Matt Damon. The following year, she voiced the lead role in the animated film "Anastasia", which garnered good reviews and enjoyed box office success. She also appeared opposite Matthew Broderick in "Addicted to Love" playing a female lead at least superficially different from her usual direction, as one of a pair of jilted lovers bent on revenge.


title: Meg Ryan

text: In 1998, she starred in two films. "City of Angels" drew positive reviews and became a financial success, topping nearly $200 million worldwide. "You've Got Mail" once again paired Ryan with Hanks, earning her a third Golden Globe nomination and making over $250 million worldwide. She also appeared in 1998's "Hurlyburly" with Sean Penn.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan's first film of the 2000s was "Hanging Up", a Diane Keaton-directed family comedy-drama about a trio of sisters who bond over the approaching death of their curmudgeonly father. Also starring Keaton, Lisa Kudrow and Walter Matthau, the film adaptation of Delia Ephron's 1995 novel received poor reviews from critics.


title: Meg Ryan

text: The same year, Ryan was cast in the action thriller "Proof of Life" with Russell Crowe, directed by Taylor Hackford. In the film, she portrayed the distraught wife of a kidnapped engineer, played by David Morse, while relying on a resourceful troubleshooter who makes a profession of dealing with international bandits. While the film became a lukewarm critical and commercial success, grossing $63 million worldwide, it garnered much reportage in the tabloid press in association with Ryan and Crowe's affair. Stephen Holden, film critic for "The New York Times," did not think the film worked well and opined that the actors did not connect.


title: Meg Ryan

text: A year later, she once again returned to her romantic comedy roots with "Kate & Leopold" (2001), alongside Hugh Jackman. A film about a British Duke who travels through time from New York in 1876 to the present and falls in love with a successful market researcher in the modern New York, the James Mangold-directed film received a mixed-to-positive response, with Lael Loewenstein of "Variety" summing it as "a mostly charming and diverting tale". At a total gross of $70 million, it would be Ryan's highest-grossing film of the decade.


title: Meg Ryan

text: In 2003, Ryan broke away from her usual roles, starring alongside Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Jane Campion's erotic thriller film "In the Cut". Co-producer Nicole Kidman had originally been cast in the lead, but the actress eventually dropped out after five years of development, leaving the role to Ryan, who appeared nude in a lengthy and rather graphic love scene for the first time in her career. Although her image-conflicting depiction earned Ryan and the film much media attention, the film failed with critics and grossed only $23 million in theaters.


title: Meg Ryan

text: She continued the strategy of acting against type with a leading role in Charles S. Dutton's directorial debut "Against the Ropes" (2004), a fictionalized sport drama about American boxing manager Jackie Kallen, the first woman to become a success in the sport. The film grossed less than $6 million in the U.S. and was panned by critics, in part because of its resemblance to other boxing films, such as the "Rocky" series.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Following a three-year hiatus, Ryan returned to film with Jon Kasdan's 2007 independent film "In the Land of Women". Starring alongside Kristen Stewart and Olympia Dukakis, she played Sarah Hardwicke, a mother and wife facing breast cancer, who connects with her neighbor's much younger grandson, played by Adam Brody. Released to mixed reviews by critics, the film grossed $17.5 million worldwide, exceeding its budget of $10 million. Ryan received a positive response for her performance, with Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" noting it "the best work [she] has done in forever".


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan's first film release of 2008 was "The Deal", a satirical comedy film based on Peter Lefcourt's 1991 novel of the same title about Hollywood. Directed by Steven Schachter and co-starring William H. Macy, the film was shot in Cape Town and other South African locations and celebrated its world premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Garnering generally mixed to negative reviews, it failed to draw interest among film studios, resulting in a straight-to-DVD release in January 2009. In his review for "Variety", Peter Debruge said, "The characters seem to be doing all the laughing, while the general public has nothing to cling to but the horndog flirtation between mismatched leads William H. Macy and Meg Ryan—hardly ideal ingredients for mainstream success." Ryan also starred in George Gallo's "My Mom's New Boyfriend", shot in 2006 but released direct-to-DVD in 2008. Co-starring Colin Hanks, Selma Blair and Antonio Banderas, the action comedy received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with David Nusair of "Reel Film" noting it "an unmitigated disaster virtually from its opening frames".


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan's last film of 2008 was "The Women", a remake of the 1939 production. The all-female cast comprises Annette Bening, Debra Messing, and Jada Pinkett Smith. Written, produced and directed by Diane English, the film centers on a group of four female Manhattan socialites whose primary interest is idle gossip, with Ryan portraying a wealthy woman whose husband is cheating on her with a shop girl, played by Eva Mendes. Ryan was the first actress to join the long-delayed production, which had struggled to find financing since the early 1990s, resulting in an independent production budgeted at $18 million. Upon its release, "The Women" received a disastrous response from critics, with Richard Schickel of "Time" calling it "one of the worst movies I've ever seen". The film was a financial success, however, becoming Ryan's most successful film since 2001's "Kate & Leopold" with a worldwide gross of $50 million.


title: Meg Ryan

text: In 2009, Ryan starred alongside Kristen Bell and Justin Long in the independent comedy film "Serious Moonlight". In this film, directed by actress Cheryl Hines and based on a screenplay by late writer Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered a year prior to filming, Ryan portrayed a high-powered female attorney who learns that her husband, played by Timothy Hutton, is about to leave their troubled marriage, and decides to hold him captive by duct-taping him to a toilet. Picked up by Magnolia Pictures, the production received a limited release throughout North America only and grossed less than $150,000 worldwide. Critical reaction to the film was generally mixed-to-negative, although Ryan was praised for her "terrific" performance. Also in 2009, Ryan guest-starred on the seventh season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm".


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan was attached to several productions in the early 2010s—including the ensemble drama "Lives of The Saints" opposite Kat Dennings, Kevin Zegers, and John Lithgow, and "Long Time Gone", a film adaptation of the April Stevens novel "Angel Angel",—all of which failed to materialize. In April 2011, it was announced that Ryan would make her feature film directing debut in "Into the Beautiful", described as "a contemporary "Big Chill" with longtime friends reconnecting", but it was never made.


title: Meg Ryan

text: In October 2012, Ryan was featured in the PBS documentary "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide". The series introduces women and girls living under difficult circumstances and fighting to challenge them. The same month, Ryan's audiobook recording of William Saroyan's "The Human Comedy" was released. In October 2013, it was reported that Ryan would be returning to television to produce and star in a new comedy for NBC revolving around a former hotshot New York editor, for which it again failed to get production approval.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Following another four-year hiatus, Ryan re-teamed with Lisa Kudrow on her improvisational comedy series "Web Therapy", for which she filmed five episodes in 2013. The following year, she provided the future voice of Greta Gerwig's character in the pilot of "How I Met Your Dad", a woman-centric variation of the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" that was not picked up. CBS later passed on the project.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan's next feature film was the ABC Family film "Fan Girl", an independent comedy about a 15-year-old girl, played by Kiernan Shipka, with a passion for filmmaking who sets out to make a movie about her favorite band, All Time Low. It premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2015.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Also in 2015, Ryan made her directing debut with "Ithaca", a drama film based on the 1943 novel "The Human Comedy" by William Saroyan. Filmed in Petersburg, Virginia, it starred Ryan and had its world premiere at the Middleburg Film Festival in October.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan married actor Dennis Quaid on February 14, 1991. They have one child together, Jack Quaid, born April 24, 1992. She and Quaid announced their separation in June 2000, and their divorce became final in July 2001.


title: Meg Ryan

text: In 2000, Ryan became romantically involved with actor Russell Crowe while working on their film "Proof of Life".


title: Meg Ryan

text: In January 2006, Ryan adopted a 14-month-old girl from China whom she named Daisy True. From 2010 to 2014, Ryan was in a relationship with American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. They reunited in 2017, and Ryan announced their engagement on November 8, 2018. In October 2019, it was reported that Ryan had ended their engagement.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan supported the Democratic Party, especially its environmental protection programs and initiatives. In 2003, she supported Wesley Clark's campaign for U.S. president. She supported John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election.


title: Meg Ryan

text: Ryan has received multiple awards and nominations throughout her career including three Golden Globe award nominations for Best Lead Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for her performance in such romantic comedies as "When Harry Met Sally..." (1989), "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993) and "You've Got Mail" (1998).


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain ( ; ; , ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 percent of the country's landmass. Bahrain is situated between Qatar and the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by the King Fahd Causeway. According to the 2020 census, the country's population numbers 1,501,635, of which 712,362 are Bahraini nationals. Bahrain spans some , and is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. The capital and largest city is Manama.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilization. It has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century. Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to be influenced by Islam, during the lifetime of Muhammad in 628 AD. Following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was ruled by the Portuguese Empire from 1521 until 1602, when they were expelled by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty. In 1783, the Bani Utbah clan captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, with Ahmed al Fateh as Bahrain's first "hakim".


title: Bahrain

text: In the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom. In 1971, it declared independence. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared an Islamic constitutional monarchy in 2002. In 2011, the country experienced protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring. Bahrain's ruling Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa royal family has been criticised for violating the human rights of groups including dissidents, political opposition figures, and its majority Shia Muslim population.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain developed the first post-oil economy in the Persian Gulf, the result of decades of investing in the banking and tourism sectors; many of the world's largest financial institutions have a presence in the country's capital. It consequently ranks 35th in the Human Development Index and is recognised by the World Bank as a high-income economy. Bahrain is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council.


title: Bahrain

text: "Bahrayn" is the dual form of Arabic "Bahr" ("sea"), so "al-Bahrayn" originally means "the two seas". However, the name has been lexicalised as a feminine proper noun and does not follow the grammatical rules for duals; thus its form is always "Bahrayn" and never "Bahrān", the expected nominative form. Endings are added to the word with no changes, as in the name of the national anthem "Bahraynunā" ("our Bahrain") or the demonym "Bahraynī". The medieval grammarian al-Jawahari commented on this saying that the more formally correct term "Bahrī" (lit. "belonging to the sea") would have been misunderstood and so was unused.


title: Bahrain

text: It remains disputed which "two seas" the name "Bahrayn" originally refers to. The term appears five times in the Quran, but does not refer to the modern island—originally known to the Arabs as "Awal".


title: Bahrain

text: Today, Bahrain's "two seas" are generally taken to be the bay east and west of the island, the seas north and south of the island, or the salt and fresh water present above and below the ground. In addition to wells, there are areas of the sea north of Bahrain where fresh water bubbles up in the middle of the saltwater as noted by visitors since antiquity. An alternative theory concerning Bahrain's toponymy is offered by the al-Ahsa region, which suggests that the two seas were the Great Green Ocean (the Persian Gulf) and a peaceful lake on the Arabian mainland.


title: Bahrain

text: Until the late Middle Ages, "Bahrain" referred to the region of Eastern Arabia that included Southern Iraq, Kuwait, Al-Hasa, Qatif, and Bahrain. The region stretched from Basra in Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz in Oman. This was Iqlīm al-Bahrayn's "Bahrayn Province." The exact date at which the term "Bahrain" began to refer solely to the Awal archipelago is unknown. The entire coastal strip of Eastern Arabia was known as "Bahrain" for a millennium. The island and kingdom were also commonly spelled Bahrein into the 1950s.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain was home to Dilmun, an important Bronze Age trade centre linking Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. Bahrain was later ruled by the Assyrians and Babylonians.


title: Bahrain

text: From the sixth to third century BC, Bahrain was part of the Achaemenid Empire. By about 250 BC, Parthia brought the Persian Gulf under its control and extended its influence as far as Oman. The Parthians established garrisons along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf to control trade routes.


title: Bahrain

text: During the classical era, Bahrain was referred to by the ancient Greeks as "Tylos", the centre of pearl trading, when the Greek admiral Nearchus serving under Alexander the Great landed on Bahrain. Nearchus is believed to have been the first of Alexander's commanders to visit the island, and he found a verdant land that was part of a wide trading network; he recorded: "That on the island of Tylos, situated in the Persian Gulf, are large plantations of cotton trees, from which are manufactured clothes called "sindones", of strongly differing degrees of value, some being costly, others less expensive. The use of these is not confined to India, but extends to Arabia." The Greek historian Theophrastus states that much of Bahrain was covered by these cotton trees and that Bahrain was famous for exporting walking canes engraved with emblems that were customarily carried in Babylon.


title: Bahrain

text: Alexander had planned to settle Greek colonists in Bahrain, and although it is not clear that this happened on the scale he envisaged, Bahrain became very much part of the Hellenised world: the language of the upper classes was Greek (although Aramaic was in everyday use). Local coinage shows a seated Zeus, who may have been worshipped there as a syncretised form of the Arabian sun-god Shams. Tylos was also the site of Greek athletic contests.


title: Bahrain

text: The Greek historian Strabo believed the Phoenicians originated from Bahrain. Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Bahrain. This theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist Arnold Heeren who said that: "In the Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or Tylos, and Aradus, which boasted that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, and exhibited relics of Phoenician temples." The people of Tyre, in particular, have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, and the similarity in the words "Tylos" and "Tyre" has been commented upon. However, there is little evidence of any human settlement at all on Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place.


title: Bahrain

text: The name Tylos is thought to be a Hellenisation of the Semitic "Tilmun" (from Dilmun). The term Tylos was commonly used for the islands until Ptolemy's "Geographia" when the inhabitants are referred to as Thilouanoi. Some place names in Bahrain go back to the Tylos era; for instance the name of Arad, a residential suburb of Muharraq, is believed to originate from "Arados", the ancient Greek name for Muharraq.


title: Bahrain

text: In the 3rd century, Ardashir I, the first ruler of the Sassanid dynasty, marched on Oman and Bahrain, where he defeated Sanatruq the ruler of Bahrain. At this time, Bahrain was known as Mishmahig (which in Middle-Persian/Pahlavi means "ewe-fish").


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain was also the site of worship of an ox deity called Awal () Worshipers built a large statue to Awal in Muharraq, although it has now been lost. For many centuries after "Tylos", Bahrain was known as "Awal". By the 5th century, Bahrain became a centre for Nestorian Christianity, with the village Samahij as the seat of bishops. In 410, according to the Oriental Syriac Church synodal records, a bishop named Batai was excommunicated from the church in Bahrain. As a sect, the Nestorians were often persecuted as heretics by the Byzantine Empire, but Bahrain was outside the Empire's control, offering some safety. The names of several Muharraq villages today reflect Bahrain's Christian legacy, with Al Dair meaning "the monastery".


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain's pre-Islamic population consisted of Christian Arabs (mostly Abd al-Qays), Persians (Zoroastrians), Jews, and Aramaic-speaking agriculturalists. According to Robert Bertram Serjeant, the Baharna may be the Arabised "descendants of converts from the original population of Christians (Aramaeans), Jews and Persians inhabiting the island and cultivated coastal provinces of Eastern Arabia at the time of the Muslim conquest". The sedentary people of pre-Islamic Bahrain were Aramaic speakers and to some degree Persian speakers, while Syriac functioned as a liturgical language.


title: Bahrain

text: Muhammad's first interaction with the people of Bahrain was the Al Kudr Invasion. Muhammad ordered a surprise attack on the Banu Salim tribe for plotting to attack Medina. He had received news that some tribes were assembling an army in Bahrain and preparing to attack the mainland, but the tribesmen retreated when they learned Muhammad was leading an army to do battle with them.


title: Bahrain

text: Traditional Islamic accounts state that Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami was sent as an envoy during the Expedition of Zayd ibn Harithah (Hisma) to the Bahrain region by the prophet Muhammad in AD 628 and that Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi, the local ruler, responded to his mission and converted the entire area.


title: Bahrain

text: In 899, the Qarmatians, a millenarian Ismaili Muslim sect, seized Bahrain, seeking to create a utopian society based on reason and redistribution of property among initiates. Thereafter, the Qarmatians demanded tribute from the caliph in Baghdad, and in 930 sacked Mecca and Medina, bringing the sacred Black Stone back to their base in Ahsa, in medieval Bahrain, for ransom. According to historian Al-Juwayni, the stone was returned 22 years later in 951 under mysterious circumstances. Wrapped in a sack, it was thrown into the Great Mosque of Kufa in Iraq, accompanied by a note saying "By command we took it, and by command, we have brought it back." The theft and removal of the Black Stone caused it to break into seven pieces.


title: Bahrain

text: Following their 976 defeat by the Abbasids, the Qarmatians were overthrown by the Arab Uyunid dynasty of al-Hasa, who took over the entire Bahrain region in 1076. The Uyunids controlled Bahrain until 1235, when the archipelago was briefly occupied by the Persian ruler of Fars. In 1253, the Bedouin Usfurids brought down the Uyunid dynasty, thereby gaining control over eastern Arabia, including the islands of Bahrain. In 1330, the archipelago became a tributary state of the rulers of Hormuz, though locally the islands were controlled by the Shi'ite Jarwanid dynasty of Qatif.


title: Bahrain

text: In the mid-15th century, the archipelago came under the rule of the Jabrids, a Bedouin dynasty also based in Al-Ahsa that ruled most of eastern Arabia.


title: Bahrain

text: In 1521, the Portuguese Empire allied with Hormuz and seized Bahrain from the Jabrid ruler Muqrin ibn Zamil, who was killed during the takeover. Portuguese rule lasted for around 80 years, during which time they depended mainly on Sunni Persian governors. The Portuguese were expelled from the islands in 1602 by Abbas I of the Safavid Iran, which gave impetus to Shia Islam. For the next two centuries, Persian rulers retained control of the archipelago, interrupted by the 1717 and 1738 invasions of the Ibadis of Oman. During most of this period, they resorted to governing Bahrain indirectly, either through the city of Bushehr or through immigrant Sunni Arab clans. The latter were tribes returning to the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf from Persian territories in the north who were known as "Huwala". In 1753, the Huwala clan of Nasr Al-Madhkur invaded Bahrain on behalf of the Iranian Zand leader Karim Khan Zand and restored direct Iranian rule.


title: Bahrain

text: In 1783, Al-Madhkur lost the islands of Bahrain following his defeat by the Bani Utbah tribe at the 1782 Battle of Zubarah. Bahrain was not new territory to the Bani Utbah; they had been a presence there since the 17th century. During that time, they started purchasing date palm gardens in Bahrain; a document shows that 81 years before the arrival of the Al Khalifa, one of the sheikhs of the Al Bin Ali tribe (an offshoot of the Bani Utbah) had bought a palm garden from Mariam bint Ahmed Al Sanadi in Sitra island.


title: Bahrain

text: The Al Bin Ali were the dominant group controlling the town of Zubarah on the Qatar peninsula, originally the centre of power of the Bani Utbah. After the Bani Utbah gained control of Bahrain, the Al Bin Ali had a practically independent status there as a self-governing tribe. They used a flag with four red and three white stripes, called the Al-Sulami flag in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the Eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Later, different Arab family clans and tribes from Qatar moved to Bahrain to settle after the fall of Nasr Al-Madhkur of Bushehr. These families included the House of Khalifa, Al-Ma'awdah, Al-Fadhil, Al-Mannai, Al-Noaimi, Al-Sulaiti, Al-Sadah, Al-Thawadi and other families and tribes.


title: Bahrain

text: The House of Khalifa moved from Qatar to Bahrain in 1799. Originally, their ancestors were expelled from Umm Qasr in central Arabia by the Ottomans due to their predatory habits of preying on caravans in Basra and trading ships in Shatt al-Arab waterway until Turks expelled them to Kuwait in 1716, where they remained until 1766.


title: Bahrain

text: Around the 1760s, the Al Jalahma and House of Khalifa, both belonging to the Utub Federation, migrated to Zubarah in modern-day Qatar, leaving Al Sabah as the sole proprietors of Kuwait.


title: Bahrain

text: In the early 19th century, Bahrain was invaded by both the Omanis and the Al Sauds. In 1802 it was governed by a 12-year-old child, when the Omani ruler Sayyid Sultan installed his son, Salim, as governor in the Arad Fort. In 1816, the British political resident in the Persian Gulf, William Bruce, received a letter from the Sheikh of Bahrain who was concerned about a rumour that Britain would support an attack on the island by the Imam of Muscat. He sailed to Bahrain to reassure the Sheikh that this was not the case and drew up an informal agreement assuring the Sheikh that Britain would remain a neutral party.


title: Bahrain

text: In 1820, the Al Khalifa tribe were recognised by the United Kingdom as the rulers ("Al-Hakim" in Arabic) of Bahrain after signing a treaty relationship. However, ten years later they were forced to pay yearly tributes to Egypt despite seeking Persian and British protection.


title: Bahrain

text: In 1860, the Al Khalifas used the same tactic when the British tried to overpower Bahrain. Writing letters to the Persians and Ottomans, Al Khalifas agreed to place Bahrain under the latter's protection in March due to offering better conditions. Eventually, the Government of British India overpowered Bahrain when the Persians refused to protect it. Colonel Pelly signed a new treaty with Al Khalifas placing Bahrain under British rule and protection.


title: Bahrain

text: Following the Qatari–Bahraini War in 1868, British representatives signed another agreement with the Al Khalifas. It specified that the ruler could not dispose of any of his territories except to the United Kingdom and could not enter into relationships with any foreign government without British consent. In return the British promised to protect Bahrain from all aggression by sea and to lend support in case of land attack. More importantly the British promised to support the rule of the Al Khalifa in Bahrain, securing its unstable position as rulers of the country. Other agreements in 1880 and 1892 sealed the protectorate status of Bahrain to the British.


title: Bahrain

text: Unrest amongst the people of Bahrain began when Britain officially established complete dominance over the territory in 1892. The first revolt and widespread uprising took place in March 1895 against Sheikh Issa bin Ali, then ruler of Bahrain. Sheikh Issa was the first of the Al Khalifa to rule without Persian relations. Sir Arnold Wilson, Britain's representative in the Persian Gulf and author of "The Persian Gulf", arrived in Bahrain from Muscat at this time. The uprising developed further with some protesters killed by British forces.


title: Bahrain

text: Before the development of the petroleum industry, the island was largely devoted to pearl fisheries and, as late as the 19th century, was considered to be the finest in the world. In 1903, German explorer Hermann Burchardt visited Bahrain and took many photographs of historical sites, including the old "Qaṣr es-Sheikh", photos now stored at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. Before the First World War, there were about 400 vessels hunting pearls and an annual export of more than £30,000.


title: Bahrain

text: In 1911, a group of Bahraini merchants demanded restrictions on the British influence in the country. The group's leaders were subsequently arrested and exiled to India. In 1923, the British introduced administrative reforms and replaced Sheikh Issa bin Ali with his son. Some clerical opponents and families such as al Dossari left or were exiled to Saudi Arabia and Iran. Three years later the British placed the country under the "de facto" rule of Charles Belgrave who operated as an adviser to the ruler until 1957. Belgrave brought a number of reforms such as establishment of the country's first modern school in 1919, the Persian Gulf's first girls' school in 1928 and the abolition of slavery in 1937. At the same time, the pearl diving industry developed at a rapid pace.


title: Bahrain

text: In 1927, Rezā Shāh, then Shah of Iran, demanded sovereignty over Bahrain in a letter to the League of Nations, a move that prompted Belgrave to undertake harsh measures including encouraging conflicts between Shia and Sunni Muslims to bring down the uprisings and limit the Iranian influence. Belgrave even went further by suggesting to rename the Persian Gulf to the "Arabian Gulf"; however, the proposal was refused by the British government. Britain's interest in Bahrain's development was motivated by concerns over Saudi and Iranian ambitions in the region.


title: Bahrain

text: The Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company of California (Socal), discovered oil in 1932.


title: Bahrain

text: In the early 1930s, Bahrain Airport was developed. Imperial Airways flew there, including the Handley Page HP42 aircraft. Later in the same decade, the Bahrain Maritime Airport was established, for flying boats and seaplanes.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain participated in the Second World War on the Allied side, joining on 10 September 1939. On 19 October 1940, four Italian SM.82s bombers bombed Bahrain alongside Dhahran oilfields in Saudi Arabia, targeting Allied-operated oil refineries. Although minimal damage was caused in both locations, the attack forced the Allies to upgrade Bahrain's defences, an action which further stretched Allied military resources.


title: Bahrain

text: After World War II, increasing anti-British sentiment spread throughout the Arab World and led to riots in Bahrain. The riots focused on the Jewish community. In 1948, following rising hostilities and looting, most members of Bahrain's Jewish community abandoned their properties and evacuated to Bombay, later settling in Israel (Pardes Hanna-Karkur) and the United Kingdom. , 37 Jews remained in the country. In the 1950s, the National Union Committee, formed by reformists following sectarian clashes, demanded an elected popular assembly, removal of Belgrave and carried out a number of protests and general strikes. In 1965 a month-long uprising broke out after hundreds of workers at the Bahrain Petroleum Company were laid off.


title: Bahrain

text: On 15 August 1971, though the Shah of Iran was claiming historical sovereignty over Bahrain, he accepted a referendum held by the United Nations and eventually Bahrain declared independence and signed a new treaty of friendship with the United Kingdom. Bahrain joined the United Nations and the Arab League later in the year. The oil boom of the 1970s benefited Bahrain greatly, although the subsequent downturn hurt the economy. The country had already begun diversification of its economy and benefited further from the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s, when Bahrain replaced Beirut as the Middle East's financial hub after Lebanon's large banking sector was driven out of the country by the war.


title: Bahrain

text: Following the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran in 1981, the Bahraini Shia population orchestrated a failed coup attempt under the auspices of a front organisation, the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain. The coup would have installed a Shia cleric exiled in Iran, Hujjatu l-Islām Hādī al-Mudarrisī, as supreme leader heading a theocratic government. In December 1994, a group of youths threw stones at female runners for running bare-legged during an international marathon. The resulting clash with police soon grew into civil unrest.


title: Bahrain

text: A popular uprising occurred between 1994 and 2000 in which leftists, liberals and Islamists joined forces. The event resulted in approximately forty deaths and ended after Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa became the Emir of Bahrain in 1999. He instituted elections for parliament, gave women the right to vote, and released all political prisoners. A referendum on 14–15 February 2001 massively supported the National Action Charter. As part of the adoption of the National Action Charter on 14 February 2002, Bahrain changed its formal name from the State ("dawla") of Bahrain to the Kingdom of Bahrain. At the same time, the title of the Head of State, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, was changed from Emir to King.


title: Bahrain

text: After the September 11 attacks, the country participated in military action against the Taliban in October 2001 by deploying a frigate in the Arabian Sea for rescue and humanitarian operations. As a result, in November of that year, US president George W. Bush's administration designated Bahrain as a "major non-NATO ally". Bahrain opposed the invasion of Iraq and had offered Saddam Hussein asylum in the days before the invasion. Relations improved with neighbouring Qatar after the border dispute over the Hawar Islands was resolved by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2001. Following the political liberalisation of the country, Bahrain negotiated a free trade agreement with the United States in 2004.


title: Bahrain

text: In 2005, Qal'at al-Bahrain, a fort and archaeological complex was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: Bahrain

text: Inspired by the regional Arab Spring, Bahrain's Shia majority started large protests against its Sunni rulers in early 2011. The government initially allowed protests following a pre-dawn raid on protesters camped in Pearl Roundabout. A month later it requested security assistance from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries and declared a three-month state of emergency. The government then launched a crackdown on the opposition that included conducting thousands of arrests and systematic torture. Almost daily clashes between protesters and security forces led to dozens of deaths. Protests, sometimes staged by opposition parties, were ongoing. More than 80 civilians and 13 policemen have been killed .


title: Bahrain

text: According to Physicians for Human Rights, 34 of these deaths were related to government usage of tear gas originally manufactured by U.S.-based Federal Laboratories. The lack of coverage by Arab media in the Persian Gulf, as compared to other Arab Spring uprisings, has sparked several controversies. Iran is alleged by United States and others to have a hand in the arming of Bahraini militants.


title: Bahrain

text: The Saudi-led Intervention of Bahrain issued swift suppression of widespread government protests through military assistance from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.


title: Bahrain

text: The 2011 Bahraini uprising, inspired by the Arab Spring, ended in a bloody crackdown against the mainly Shiite demonstrators who had demanded an elected government, threatening the Sunni monarchy's grip on power.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain assailed the movement as an Iranian plot, and banned opposition parties, put civilians in front of military courts and jailed dozens of peaceful political opponents, eliciting harsh international criticism.


title: Bahrain

text: "Ten years after Bahrain's popular uprising, systemic injustice has intensified and political repression targeting dissidents, human rights defenders, clerics and independent civil society have effectively shut any space for the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression or peaceful activism", Amnesty International said in a statement.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain remains militarily and financially dependent on Saudi Arabia and the UAE and there is little on the frontier of regime change.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain is a generally flat and arid archipelago in the Persian Gulf. It consists of a low desert plain rising gently to a low central escarpment with the highest point the Mountain of Smoke "(Jabal ad Dukhan)". Bahrain had a total area of but due to land reclamation, the area increased to , which is slightly larger than Anglesey.


title: Bahrain

text: Often described as an archipelago of 33 islands, extensive land reclamation projects have changed this; by August 2008 the number of islands and island groups had increased to 84. Bahrain does not share a land boundary with another country but does have a coastline. The country also claims a further of territorial sea and a contiguous zone. Bahrain's largest islands are Bahrain Island, the Hawar Islands, Muharraq Island, Umm an Nasan, and Sitra. Bahrain has mild winters and very hot, humid summers. The country's natural resources include large quantities of oil and natural gas as well as fish in the offshore waters. Arable land constitutes only 2.82% of the total area.


title: Bahrain

text: About 92% of Bahrain is desert with periodic droughts and dust storms, the main natural hazards for Bahrainis. Environmental issues facing Bahrain include desertification resulting from the degradation of limited arable land, coastal degradation (damage to coastlines, coral reefs, and sea vegetation) resulting from oil spills and other discharges from large tankers, oil refineries, distribution stations, and illegal land reclamation at places such as Tubli Bay. The agricultural and domestic sectors' over-utilisation of the Dammam Aquifer, the principal aquifer in Bahrain, has led to its salinisation by adjacent brackish and saline water bodies. A hydrochemical study identified the locations of the sources of aquifer salinisation and delineated their areas of influence. The investigation indicates that the aquifer water quality is significantly modified as groundwater flows from the northwestern parts of Bahrain, where the aquifer receives its water by lateral underflow from eastern Saudi Arabia, to the southern and southeastern parts. Four types of salinisation of the aquifer are identified: brackish-water up-flow from the underlying brackish-water zones in north-central, western, and eastern regions; seawater intrusion in the eastern region; intrusion of sabkha water in the southwestern region; and irrigation return flow in a local area in the western region. Four alternatives for the management of groundwater quality that are available to the water authorities in Bahrain are discussed and their priority areas are proposed, based on the type and extent of each salinisation source, in addition to groundwater use in that area.


title: Bahrain

text: The Zagros Mountains across the Persian Gulf in Iran cause low-level winds to be directed toward Bahrain. Dust storms from Iraq and Saudi Arabia transported by northwesterly winds, locally called shamal wind, causing reduced visibility in the months of June and July.


title: Bahrain

text: Summers are very hot. The seas around Bahrain are very shallow, heating up quickly in the summer to produce very high humidity, especially at night. Summer temperatures may reach up to under the right conditions. Rainfall in Bahrain is minimal and irregular. Precipitation mostly occurs in winter, with an average of 70.8mm of rainfall recorded annually.


title: Bahrain

text: More than 330 species of birds were recorded in the Bahrain archipelago, 26 species of which breed in the country. Millions of migratory birds pass through the Persian Gulf region in the winter and autumn months. One globally endangered species, "Chlamydotis undulata", is a regular migrant in the autumn. The many islands and shallow seas of Bahrain are globally important for the breeding of the Socotra cormorant; up to 100,000 pairs of these birds were recorded over the Hawar Islands. Bahrain's national bird is the bulbul while its national animal is the Arabian oryx. And the national flower of Bahrain is the beloved Deena.


title: Bahrain

text: Only 18 species of mammals are found in Bahrain, animals such as gazelles, desert rabbits and hedgehogs are common in the wild but the Arabian oryx was hunted to extinction on the island. Twenty-five species of amphibians and reptiles were recorded as well as 21 species of butterflies and 307 species of flora. The marine biotopes are diverse and include extensive sea grass beds and mudflats, patchy coral reefs as well as offshore islands. Sea grass beds are important foraging grounds for some threatened species such as dugongs and the green turtle. In 2003, Bahrain banned the capture of sea cows, marine turtles and dolphins within its territorial waters.


title: Bahrain

text: The Hawar Islands Protected Area provides valuable feeding and breeding grounds for a variety of migratory seabirds, it is an internationally recognised site for bird migration. The breeding colony of Socotra cormorant on Hawar Islands is the largest in the world, and the dugongs foraging around the archipelago form the second-largest dugong aggregation after Australia.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain emits a lot of carbon dioxide per person compared to other countries, which is part of the reason for climate change in the Middle East and North Africa.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain under the Al Khalifa is a semi-constitutional monarchy headed by the King, Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. King Hamad enjoys wide executive powers which include appointing the Prime Minister and his ministers, commanding the army, chairing the Higher Judicial Council, appointing the parliament's upper house and dissolving its elected lower house. The head of government is the prime minister. In 2010, about half of the government was composed of the Al Khalifa family.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain has a bicameral National Assembly ("al-Jam'iyyah al-Watani") consisting of the Shura Council ("Majlis Al-Shura") with 40 seats and the Council of Representatives ("Majlis Al-Nuwab") with 40 seats. The forty members of the Shura are appointed by the king. In the Council of Representatives, 40 members are elected by absolute majority vote in single-member constituencies to serve four-year terms. The appointed council "exercises a "de facto" veto" over the elected, because draft acts must be approved so they may pass into law. After approval, the king may ratify and issue the act or return it within six months to the National Assembly where it may only pass into law if approved by two-thirds of both councils.


title: Bahrain

text: In 1973, the country held its first parliamentary elections; however, two years later, the late emir dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution after parliament rejected the State Security Law. The period between 2002 and 2010 saw three parliamentary elections. The first, held in 2002 was boycotted by the opposition, Al Wefaq, which won a majority in the second in 2006 and third in 2010. The 2011 by-election was held to replace 18 members of Al Wefaq who resigned in protest against government crackdown.


title: Bahrain

text: The opening up of politics saw big gains for both Shīa and Sunnī Islamists in elections, which gave them a parliamentary platform to pursue their policies. It gave a new prominence to clerics within the political system, with the most senior Shia religious leader, Sheikh Isa Qassim, playing a vital role. This was especially evident when in 2005 the government called off the Shia branch of the "Family law" after over 100,000 Shia took to the streets. Islamists opposed the law because "neither elected MPs nor the government has the authority to change the law because these institutions could misinterpret the word of God". The law was supported by women activists who said they were "suffering in silence". They managed to organise a rally attended by 500 participants. Ghada Jamsheer, a leading woman activist said the government was using the law as a "bargaining tool with opposition Islamic groups".


title: Bahrain

text: Analysts of democratisation in the Middle East cite the Islamists' references to respect human rights in their justification for these programmes as evidence that these groups can serve as a progressive force in the region. Some Islamist parties have been particularly critical of the government's readiness to sign international treaties such as the United Nations' International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. At a parliamentary session in June 2006 to discuss ratification of the convention, Sheikh Adel Mouwda, the former leader of a salafist party, Asalah, explained the party's objections: "The convention has been tailored by our enemies, God kill them all, to serve their needs and protect their interests rather than ours. This why we have eyes from the American Embassy watching us during our sessions, to ensure things are swinging their way".


title: Bahrain

text: The kingdom has a small but well equipped military called the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF), numbering around 13,000 personnel. The supreme commander of the Bahraini military is King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the deputy supreme commander is the Crown Prince, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.


title: Bahrain

text: The BDF is primarily equipped with United States equipment, such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-5 Freedom Fighter, UH-60 Blackhawk, M60A3 tanks, and the ex-, an Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate renamed the . On 7 August 2020, it was announced in a ceremony held at the HMNB Portsmouth Naval Base in the UK, that "HMS Clyde" had been transferred to the Royal Bahrain Naval Force, with the ship renamed as RBNS "Al-Zubara".


title: Bahrain

text: The Government of Bahrain has close relations with the United States, having signed a cooperative agreement with the United States Military and has provided the United States a base in Juffair since the early 1990s, although a US naval presence existed since 1948. This is the home of the headquarters for Commander, "United States Naval Forces Central Command" (COMUSNAVCENT) / "United States Fifth Fleet" (COMFIFTHFLT), and around 6,000 United States military personnel.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain participates in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against the Shia Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was deposed in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.


title: Bahrain

text: The permanent British Royal Navy base at Mina Salman, "HMS Jufair", was officially opened in April 2018.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain has established bilateral relations with 190 countries worldwide. , Bahrain maintains a network of 25 embassies, three consulates and four permanent missions to the Arab League, United Nations and European Union respectively. Bahrain also hosts 36 embassies. The United States designated Bahrain a major non-NATO ally in 2001. Bahrain plays a modest, moderating role in regional politics and adheres to the views of the Arab League on Middle East peace and Palestinian rights by supporting the two state solution. Bahrain is also one of the founding members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Relations with Iran tend to be tense as a result of a failed coup in 1981 which Bahrain blames Iran for and occasional claims of Iranian sovereignty over Bahrain by ultra-conservative elements in the Iranian public. Bahrain and Israel established bilateral relations in 2020 under the Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement.


title: Bahrain

text: The period between 1975 and 1999 known as the "State Security Law Era", saw wide range of human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, detention without trial, torture and forced exile. After the Emir Hamad Al Khalifa (now king) succeeded his father Isa Al Khalifa in 1999, he introduced wide reforms and human rights improved significantly. These moves were described by Amnesty International as representing a "historic period of human rights".


title: Bahrain

text: Human rights conditions started to decline by 2007 when torture began to be employed again. In 2011, Human Rights Watch described the country's human rights situation as "dismal". Due to this, Bahrain lost some of the high International rankings it had gained before.


title: Bahrain

text: In 2011, Bahrain was criticised for its crackdown on the Arab spring uprising. In September, a government-appointed commission confirmed reports of grave human rights violations, including systematic torture. The government promised to introduce reforms and avoid repeating the "painful events". However, reports by human rights organisations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued in April 2012 said the same violations were still happening.


title: Bahrain

text: The documentary TV film "", which was produced by the Qatari channel Al Jazeera, talks about the Bahraini protests during 2011. This TV film showed all the violations that have been taken against the rights of Bahraini citizens during the uprising. It also caused some problems between the Bahraini and the Qatari governments. Relations between Bahrain and Qatar improved following a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in November 2014 in which it was announced Bahrain diplomats would return to Qatar.


title: Bahrain

text: Amnesty International's 2015 report on the country points to the continued suppression of dissent, restricted freedom of expression, unjust imprisonment, and frequent torture and other ill-treatment of its citizens. , Bahrain is ruled by an "authoritarian regime" and is rated as "Not Free" by the U.S.-based non-governmental Freedom House. Freedom House continues to label Bahrain as "not free" in its 2021 report. On 7 July 2016, the European Parliament adopted, with a large majority, a resolution condemning human rights abuses performed by Bahraini authorities, and strongly called for an end to the ongoing repression against the country's human rights defenders, political opposition and civil society.


title: Bahrain

text: In August 2017, United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke against the discrimination of Shias in Bahrain, saying, "Members of the Shia community there continue to report ongoing discrimination in government employment, education, and the justice system," and that "Bahrain must stop discriminating against the Shia communities." He also stated that "In Bahrain, the government continue to question, detain and arrest Shia clerics, community members and opposition politicians." However, in September 2017, the U.S. State Department has approved arms sales packages worth more than $3.8 billion to Bahrain including F-16 jets, upgrades, missiles and patrol boats. In its latest report the Amnesty International accused both, US and the UK governments, of turning a blind eye to horrific abuses of human rights by the ruling Bahraini regime. On 31 January 2018, Amnesty International reported that the Bahraini government expelled four of its citizens after having revoked their nationality in 2012; turning them into stateless people. On 21 February 2018, human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to a further five years in jail for tweets and documentation of human rights violations. On behalf of the ruling family, Bahraini police have received training on how to deal with public protests from the British government.


title: Bahrain

text: On 11 July 2020, a government watchdog in Bahrain claimed that the confessions of two pro-democracy campaigners were extracted by torture. Mohammed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa from Bahrain were leading figures in the pro-democracy protests of 2011. They were arrested in 2014 and accused of killing a police officer. On 13 July 2020, the highest Court in Bahrain overruled the previous judgment and upheld the death sentences for both men. The judgment was criticized by Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, who stated: "Today's verdict is yet another dark stain in the struggle for human rights in Bahrain."


title: Bahrain

text: The 761-page "World Report 2021" published by the "Human Rights Watch" in January 2021 revealed that the situation of human rights did not improve in Bahrain in 2020. It highlighted that the repression against social media activities escalated, death sentences were upheld by the courts against opposition activists after unfair trials, and the critics were continued to be prosecuted for peaceful expression. The country also increased the use of the death penalty, while it denied medical treatment to some of the prominent opposition figures being kept in detention. The "Human Rights Watch" said that Bahrain uses several repressive tools to silence and punish every person who dares to criticize the government.


title: Bahrain

text: In March 2021, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) claimed that 13 children aged between 11 and 17 were beaten and threatened with rape and electric shocks after detaining them in protest-related cases.


title: Bahrain

text: In a report published at the end of October 2022, the Human Rights Watch claimed that the Bahraini government had been using its 2018 political isolation laws in order to keep political opponents from running for gaining parliamentary seats or even from serving on the board headed by governors of civic organizations. Besides the political isolation laws, the human rights advocacy group claims that the government is also using a score of other tactics to keep journalists, activists, human rights defenders and former opposition party members out of the public office and other public life aspects. A number of countries that joined the condemnation of Bahraini government included the United States, the United Kingdom, and several European Union states and called for the authorities to end the repression of the civil society and peaceful opposition to the monarchy.


title: Bahrain

text: Women in Bahrain acquired voting rights and the right to stand in national elections in the 2002 election. However, no women were elected to office in that year's polls. In response to the failure of women candidates, six were appointed to the Shura Council, which also includes representatives of the Kingdom's indigenous Jewish and Christian communities. Dr. Nada Haffadh became the country's first female cabinet minister on her appointment as Minister of Health in 2004. The quasi-governmental women's group, the Supreme Council for Women, trained female candidates to take part in the 2006 general election. When Bahrain was elected to head the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 it appointed lawyer and women's rights activist Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa President of the United Nations General Assembly, only the third woman in history to head the world body. Female activist Ghada Jamsheer said "The government used women's rights as a decorative tool on the international level." She referred to the reforms as "artificial and marginal" and accused the government of "hinder[ing] non-governmental women societies".


title: Bahrain

text: In 2006, Lateefa Al Gaood became the first female MP after winning by default. The number rose to four after the 2011 by-elections. In 2008, Houda Nonoo was appointed ambassador to the United States making her the first Jewish ambassador of any Arab country. In 2011, Alice Samaan, a Christian woman, was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom.


title: Bahrain

text: Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) released a report in January 2022, highlighting a sharp contradiction between Bahrain's celebration of the progress of women's rights and the reality of discriminatory practices. While the government institutions have been taking whitewashing measures, inequality and violence against women persists. Women's rights are also restricted in terms of their political participation, gender wage inequality exists, the government fails to address urgent reforms, and laws that do not address gender inequality. The US State Department's 2021 report on human rights violations in Bahrain also mentioned violence against women in Bahrain, which is very common.


title: Bahrain

text: The predominant forms of media in Bahrain consists of weekly and daily newspapers, television, and radio.


title: Bahrain

text: Newspapers are widely available in multiple languages such as Arabic, English, Malayalam, etc. to support the varied population. "Akhbar Al Khaleej" () and "Al Ayam" () are examples of major Arabic newspapers published daily. "Gulf Daily News" and "Daily Tribune" publish daily newspapers in English. "Gulf Madhyamam" is a newspaper published in Malayalam.


title: Bahrain

text: The country's television network operates five networks, all of which are by the Information Affairs Authority. Radio, much like the television network, is mostly state-run and usually in Arabic. "Radio Bahrain" is a long-running English language radio station and "Your FM" is a radio station serving the large expatriate population from the Indian subcontinent living in the country.


title: Bahrain

text: By June 2012, Bahrain had 961,000 internet users. The platform "provides a welcome free space for journalists, although one that is increasingly monitored", according to Reporters Without Borders. Rigorous filtering targets political, human rights, religious material and content deemed obscene. Bloggers and other netizens were among those detained during protests in 2011.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahraini journalists risk prosecution for offences that include "undermining" the government and religion. Self-censorship is widespread. Journalists were targeted by officials during anti-government protests in 2011. Three editors from the opposition daily "Al-Wasat" were sacked and later fined for publishing "false" news. Several foreign correspondents were expelled. An independent commission, set up to look into the unrest, found that state media coverage was at times inflammatory. It said opposition groups suffered from lack of access to mainstream media, and recommended that the government "consider relaxing censorship". Bahrain will host the Saudi-financed Alarab News Channel, expected to launch in December 2012. It will be based at a planned "Media City". An opposition satellite station, LuaLua TV, operates from London but has found its signals blocked.


title: Bahrain

text: The first municipality in Bahrain was the eight-member Manama municipality which was established in July 1919. Members of the municipality were elected annually; the municipality was said to have been the first municipality to be established in the Arab world. The municipality was in charge of cleaning roads and renting buildings to tenants and shops. By 1929, it undertook road expansions as well as opening markets and slaughterhouses. In 1958, the municipality started water purification projects. In 1960, Bahrain comprised four municipalities: "Manama", "Hidd", "Al Muharraq", and "Riffa". Over the next 30 years, the 4 municipalities were divided into 12 municipalities as settlements such as Hamad Town and Isa Town grew. These municipalities were administered from Manama under a central municipal council whose members are appointed by the king.


title: Bahrain

text: The first municipal elections to be held in Bahrain after independence in 1971, was in 2002. The most recent was in 2010. The municipalities are listed below:


title: Bahrain

text: After 3 July 2002, Bahrain was split into five administrative governorates, each of which has its own governor. These governorates are:


title: Bahrain

text: The Central Governorate was abolished in September 2014, its territory divided between the Northern Governorate, Southern Governorate, and Capital Governorate.


title: Bahrain

text: According to a January 2006 report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Bahrain has the fastest-growing economy in the Arab world. Bahrain also has the freest economy in the Middle East and is twelfth-freest overall in the world based on the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom published by the Heritage Foundation/"The Wall Street Journal".


title: Bahrain

text: In 2008, Bahrain was named the world's fastest-growing financial centre by the City of London's Global Financial Centres Index. Bahrain's banking and financial services sector, particularly Islamic banking, have benefited from the regional boom driven by demand for oil. Petroleum production and processing is Bahrain's most exported product, accounting for 60% of export receipts, 70% of government revenues, and 11% of GDP. Aluminium production is the second-most exported product, followed by finance and construction materials.


title: Bahrain

text: Economic conditions have fluctuated with the changing price of oil since 1985, for example during and following the Persian Gulf crisis of 1990–91. With its highly developed communication and transport facilities, Bahrain is home to a number of multinational firms and construction proceeds on several major industrial projects. A large share of exports consist of petroleum products made from imported crude oil, which accounted for 51% of the country's imports in 2007. Bahrain depends heavily on food imports to feed its growing population; it relies heavily on meat imports from Australia and also imports 75% of its total fruit consumption needs. Since only 2.9% of the country's land is arable, agriculture contributes to 0.5% of Bahrain's GDP. In 2004, Bahrain signed the Bahrain–US Free Trade Agreement, which will reduce certain trade barriers between the two nations. In 2011, due to the combination of the global financial crisis and the recent unrest, its GDP growth rate decreased to 1.3%, which was the lowest growth rate since 1994.


title: Bahrain

text: Access to biocapacity in Bahrain is much lower than the world average. In 2016, Bahrain had 0.52 global hectares of biocapacity per person within its territory, much less than the world average of 1.6 global hectares per person. In 2016 Bahrain used 8.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person – their ecological footprint of consumption. This means they use 16.5 times as much biocapacity as Bahrain contains. As a result, Bahrain is running a biocapacity deficit.


title: Bahrain

text: Unemployment, especially among the young, and the depletion of both oil and underground water resources are major long-term economic problems. In 2008, the jobless figure was at 4%, with women over represented at 85% of the total. In 2007 Bahrain became the first Arab country to institute unemployment benefits as part of a series of labour reforms instigated under Minister of Labour, Dr. Majeed Al Alawi.


title: Bahrain

text: As a tourist destination, Bahrain received over eight million visitors in 2008. Most of these are from the surrounding Arab states, although an increasing number hail from outside the region due to growing awareness of the kingdom's heritage and partly due to its higher profile as a result of the Bahrain Grand Prix.


title: Bahrain

text: The kingdom combines modern Arab culture and the archaeological legacy of five thousand years of civilisation. The island is home to forts including Qalat Al Bahrain which has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The Bahrain National Museum has artefacts from the country's history dating back to the island's first human inhabitants some 9000 years ago and the Beit Al Quran (Arabic: بيت القرآن, meaning: the House of Qur'an) is a museum that holds Islamic artefacts of the Qur'an. Some of the popular historical tourist attractions in the kingdom are the Al Khamis Mosque, which is one of the oldest mosques in the region, the Arad fort in Muharraq, Barbar temple, which is an ancient temple from the Dilmunite period of Bahrain, as well as the A'ali Burial Mounds and the Saar temple. The Tree of Life, a 400-year-old tree that grows in the Sakhir desert with no nearby water, is also a popular tourist attraction.


title: Bahrain

text: Bird watching (primarily in the Hawar Islands), scuba diving, and horse riding are popular tourist activities in Bahrain. Many tourists from nearby Saudi Arabia and across the region visit Manama primarily for the shopping malls in the capital Manama, such as the Bahrain City Centre and Seef Mall in the Seef district of Manama. The Manama Souq and "Gold Souq" in the old district of Manama are also popular with tourists.


title: Bahrain

text: In January 2019 the state-run Bahrain News Agency announced the summer 2019 opening of an underwater theme park covering about 100,000 square meters with a sunken Boeing 747 as the site's centrepiece. The project is a partnership between the Supreme Council for Environment, Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), and private investors. Bahrain hopes scuba divers from around the world will visit the underwater park, which will also include artificial coral reefs, a copy of a Bahraini pearl merchant's house, and sculptures. The park is intended to become the world's largest eco-friendly underwater theme park.


title: Bahrain

text: Since 2005, Bahrain hosts an annual festival in March, titled "Spring of Culture", which features internationally renowned musicians and artists performing in concerts. Manama was named the Arab Capital of Culture for 2012 and "Capital of Arab Tourism" for 2013 by the Arab League and Asian Tourism for 2014 with the Gulf Capital of Tourism for 2016 by The Gulf Cooperation Council. The 2012 festival featured concerts starring Andrea Bocelli, Julio Iglesias and other musicians.


title: Bahrain

text: As per the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bahrain's economy contracted by 5.4% in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic severely affected the tourism and energy sector. According to a report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Bahrain's tourism sector is amongst the hardest hit by COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Bahrain

text: The country's public debt in 2020 is $44.5 billion, or 130% of GDP. It is expected to rise to 155 per cent of GDP in 2026, according to IMF estimates. The military expenditure is the main reason for this increase in debt.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain has one main international airport, the Bahrain International Airport (BAH) which is located on the island of Muharraq, in the north-east. The airport handled almost 100,000 flights and more than 9.5 million passengers in 2019. Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air operates and bases itself in the BIA.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain has a well-developed road network, particularly in Manama. The discovery of oil in the early 1930s accelerated the creation of multiple roads and highways in Bahrain, connecting several isolated villages, such as Budaiya, to Manama.


title: Bahrain

text: To the east, a bridge connected Manama to Muharraq since 1929, a new causeway was built in 1941 which replaced the old wooden bridge. Currently there are three modern bridges connecting the two locations. Transits between the two islands peaked after the construction of the Bahrain International Airport in 1932. Ring roads and highways were later built to connect Manama to the villages of the Northern Governorate and towards towns in central and southern Bahrain.


title: Bahrain

text: The four main islands and all the towns and villages are linked by well-constructed roads. There were of roadways in 2002, of which were paved. A causeway stretching over , connect Manama with Muharraq Island, and another bridge joins Sitra to the main island. The King Fahd Causeway, measuring , links Bahrain with the Saudi Arabian mainland via the island of Umm an-Nasan. It was completed in December 1986, and financed by Saudi Arabia. In 2008, there were 17,743,495 passengers transiting through the causeway.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain's port of Mina Salman is the main seaport of the country and consists of 15 berths. In 2001, Bahrain had a merchant fleet of eight ships of 1,000 GT or over, totaling 270,784 GT. Private vehicles and taxis are the primary means of transportation in the city. A nationwide metro system is currently under construction and is due to be operational by 2023.


title: Bahrain

text: The telecommunications sector in Bahrain officially started in 1981 with the establishment of Bahrain's first telecommunications company, Batelco and until 2004, it monopolised the sector. In 1981, there were more than 45,000 telephones in use in the country. By 1999, Batelco had more than 100,000 mobile contracts. In 2002, under pressure from international bodies, Bahrain implemented its telecommunications law which included the establishment of an independent "Telecommunications Regulatory Authority" (TRA). In 2004, Zain (a rebranded version of MTC Vodafone) started operations in Bahrain and in 2010 VIVA (owned by STC Group) became the third company to provide mobile services.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain has been connected to the internet since 1995 with the country's domain suffix is '.bh'. The country's connectivity score (a statistic which measures both Internet access and fixed and mobile telephone lines) is 210.4 percent per person, while the regional average in Arab States of the Persian Gulf is 135.37 percent. The number of Bahraini internet users has risen from 40,000 in 2000 to 250,000 in 2008, or from 5.95 to 33 percent of the population. , the TRA has licensed 22 Internet Service Providers.


title: Bahrain

text: The "Bahraini Economic Vision 2030" published in 2008 does not indicate how the stated goal of shifting from an economy built on oil wealth to a productive, globally competitive economy will be attained. Bahrain has already diversified its exports to some extent, out of necessity. It has the smallest hydrocarbon reserves of any Persian Gulf state, producing 48,000 barrels per day from its one onshore field. The bulk of the country's revenue comes from its share in the offshore field administered by Saudi Arabia. The gas reserve in Bahrain is expected to last for less than 27 years, leaving the country with few sources of capital to pursue the development of new industries. Investment in research and development remained very low in 2013.


title: Bahrain

text: Apart from the Ministry of Education and the Higher Education Council, the two main hives of activity in science, technology, and innovation are the University of Bahrain (established in 1986) and the Bahrain Centre for Strategic, International, and Energy Studies. The latter was founded in 2009 to undertake research with a focus on strategic security and energy issues to encourage new thinking and influence policy-making.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain hopes to build a science culture within the kingdom and to encourage technological innovation, among other goals. In 2013, the Bahrain Science Centre was launched as an interactive educational facility targeting 6- to 18-year-olds. The topics covered by current exhibitions include junior engineering, human health, the five senses, Earth sciences and biodiversity.


title: Bahrain

text: In April 2014, Bahrain launched its National Space Science Agency. The agency has been working to ratify international space-related agreements such as the Outer Space Treaty, the Rescue Agreement, the Space Liability Convention, the Registration Convention and the Moon Agreement. The agency plans to establish infrastructure for the observation of both outer space and the Earth.


title: Bahrain

text: In November 2008, an agreement was signed to establish a Regional Centre for Information and Communication Technology in Manama under the auspices of UNESCO. The aim is to establish a knowledge hub for the six-member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. In March 2012, the centre hosted two high-level workshops on ICTs and education. In 2013, Bahrain topped the Arab world for internet penetration (90% of the population), trailed by the United Arab Emirates (86%) and Qatar (85%). Just half of Bahrainis and Qataris (53%) and two-thirds of those in the United Arab Emirates (64%) had access in 2009.


title: Bahrain

text: In 2012, the government devoted 2.6% of GDP to education, one of the lowest ratios in the Arab world. This ratio was on a par with investment in education in Lebanon and higher only than that in Qatar (2.4% in 2008) and Sudan (2.2% in 2009). Bahrain was ranked 78th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain invests little in research and development. In 2009 and 2013, this investment reportedly amounted to 0.04% of GDP, although the data were incomplete, covering only the higher education sector. The lack of comprehensive data on research and development poses a challenge for policy-makers, as data inform evidence-based policy-making.


title: Bahrain

text: The available data for researchers in 2013 cover only the higher education sector. Here, the number of researchers is equivalent to 50 per million inhabitants, compared to a global average for all employment sectors of 1,083 per million.


title: Bahrain

text: The University of Bahrain had over 20,000 students in 2014, 65% of whom are women, and around 900 faculty members, 40% of whom are women. From 1986 to 2014, university staff published 5,500 papers and books. The university spent about US$11 million per year on research in 2014, which was conducted by a contingent of 172 men and 128 women. Women thus made up 43% of researchers at the University of Bahrain in 2014.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahrain was one of 11 Arab states which counted a majority of female university graduates in science and engineering in 2014. Women accounted for 66% of graduates in natural sciences, 28% of those in engineering and 77% of those in health and welfare. It is harder to judge the contribution of women to research, as the data for 2013 only cover the higher education sector.


title: Bahrain

text: In 2014, Bahraini scientists published 155 articles in internationally catalogued journals, according to Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded). This corresponds to 15 articles per million inhabitants, compared to a global average of 176 per million inhabitants in 2013. Scientific output has risen slowly from 93 articles in 2005 and remains modest. By 2014, only Mauritania and Palestine had a smaller output in this database among Arab states.


title: Bahrain

text: Between 2008 and 2014, Bahraini scientists collaborated most with their peers from Saudi Arabia (137 articles), followed by Egypt (101), the United Kingdom (93), the United States (89) and Tunisia (75).


title: Bahrain

text: In 2010, Bahrain's population grew to 1.2 million, of which 568,399 were Bahraini and 666,172 were non-nationals. It had risen from 1.05 million (517,368 non-nationals) in 2007, the year when Bahrain's population crossed the one million mark. Though a majority of the population is Middle Eastern, a sizeable number of people from South Asia live in the country. In 2008, approximately 290,000 Indian nationals lived in Bahrain, making them the single largest expatriate community in the country, the majority of which hail from the south Indian state of Kerala. Bahrain is the fourth most densely populated sovereign state in the world with a population density of 1,646 people per km in 2010. The only sovereign states with larger population densities are city states. Much of this population is concentrated in the north of the country with the Southern Governorate being the least densely populated part. The north of the country is so urbanised that it is considered by some to be one large metropolitan area.


title: Bahrain

text: Bahraini people are ethnically diverse. Shia Bahrainis are divided into two main ethnic groups: Baharna and Ajam. The Shia Bahrainis are Baharna (Arab), and the Ajam are Persian Shias. Shia Persians form large communities in Manama and Muharraq. A small minority of Shia Bahrainis are ethnic Hasawis from Al-Hasa.


title: Bahrain

text: Sunni Bahrainis are mainly divided into two main ethnic groups: Arabs (al Arab) and Huwala. Sunni Arabs, while a minority, are the most influential ethnic group in Bahrain. They hold most government positions and the Bahraini monarchy are Sunni Arabs. Sunni Arabs have traditionally lived in areas such as Zallaq, Muharraq, Riffa and Hawar islands. The Huwala are descendants of Sunni Iranians; some of them are Sunni Persians, while others Sunni Arabs. There are also Sunnis of Baloch origin. Most African Bahrainis come from East Africa and have traditionally lived in Muharraq Island and Riffa.


title: Bahrain

text: The state religion of Bahrain is Islam and most Bahraini citizens are Muslim. The majority of Bahraini Muslims are Shiites. It is one of three countries in the Middle East in which Shiites are the majority, the other two being Iraq and Iran. Public surveys are rare in Bahrain, but the US department of state's report on religious freedom in Bahrain estimates that Shia constitute 55–60% of Bahrain's citizen population. Although the majority of the country's citizens are Shia, the royal family and most Bahrani elites are Sunni. The country's two Muslim communities are united on some issues, but disagree sharply on others. Shia have often complained of being politically repressed and economically marginalized in Bahrain; as a result, most of the protestors in the Bahraini uprising of 2011 were Shia.