title: Khalid ibn al-Walid

text: Starting in the Ayyubid period in Syria (1182–1260), Homs has obtained fame as the location of the purported tomb and mosque of Khalid. The 12th-century traveler Ibn Jubayr noted that the tomb contained the graves of Khalid and his son Abd al-Rahman. Muslim tradition since then has placed Khalid's tomb in the city. The building was altered by the first Ayyubid sultan Saladin () and again in the 13th century. The Mamluk sultan Baybars () attempted to link his own military achievements with those of Khalid by having an inscription honoring himself carved on Khalid's mausoleum in Homs in 1266. During his 17th-century visit to the mausoleum, the Muslim scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi agreed that Khalid was buried there but also noted an alternative Islamic tradition that the grave belonged to Mu'awiya's grandson Khalid ibn Yazid. The current mosque dates to 1908 when the Ottoman authorities rebuilt the structure.


title: CAPTCHA

text: A CAPTCHA ( , a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart") is a type of challenge–response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human.


title: CAPTCHA

text: The term was coined in 2003 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas J. Hopper, and John Langford. The most common type of CAPTCHA (displayed as Version 1.0) was first invented in 1997 by two groups working in parallel. This form of CAPTCHA requires entering a sequence of letters or numbers in a distorted image. Because the test is administered by a computer, in contrast to the standard Turing test that is administered by a human, a CAPTCHA is sometimes described as a reverse Turing test.This test has received many criticisms, from people with disabilities, but also many websites use it to prevent bot spamming and raiding, and it works effectively, and its usage is widespread. Most websites use hCaptcha or reCAPTCHA. It takes the average person approximately 10 seconds to solve a typical CAPTCHA.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Since the early days of the Internet, users have wanted to make text illegible to computers. The first such people were hackers, posting about sensitive topics to Internet forums they thought were being automatically monitored on keywords. To circumvent such filters, they replaced a word with look-alike characters. "HELLO" could become or , as well as numerous other variants, such that a filter could not detect "all" of them. This later became known as leetspeak.


title: CAPTCHA

text: One of the earliest commercial uses of CAPTCHAs was in the Gausebeck–Levchin test. In 2000, idrive.com began to protect its signup page with a CAPTCHA and prepared to file a patent. In 2001, PayPal used such tests as part of a fraud prevention strategy in which they asked humans to "retype distorted text that programs have difficulty recognizing." PayPal cofounder and CTO Max Levchin helped commercialize this use.


title: CAPTCHA

text: A popular deployment of CAPTCHA technology, reCAPTCHA, was acquired by Google in 2009. In addition to preventing bot fraud for its users, Google used reCAPTCHA and CAPTCHA technology to digitize the archives of "The New York Times" and books from Google Books in 2011.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Eran Reshef, Gili Raanan and Eilon Solan who worked at Sanctum on Application Security Firewall first patented CAPTCHA in 1997. Their patent application details that "The invention is based on applying human advantage in applying sensory and cognitive skills to solving simple problems that prove to be extremely hard for computer software. Such skills include, but are not limited to processing of sensory information such as identification of objects and letters within a noisy graphical environment".


title: CAPTCHA

text: CAPTCHAs' purpose is to prevent spam on websites, such as promotion spam, registration spam, and data scraping, and bots are less likely to abuse websites with spamming if those websites use CAPTCHA. Many websites use CAPTCHA to prevent bot raiding, and it works effectively. CAPTCHA's design is that humans can complete CAPTCHAs, while most robots can't. New CAPTCHAs look at the user's behaviour on the internet, to prove that they are a human. A normal CAPTCHA test only appears if the user acts like a bot, such as when they request webpages, or click links too fast.


title: CAPTCHA

text: CAPTCHAs are automated, requiring little human maintenance or intervention to administer, producing benefits in cost and reliability.


title: CAPTCHA

text: The algorithm used to create the CAPTCHA must be public, though it may be covered by a patent. This is done to demonstrate that breaking it requires the solution to a difficult problem in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) rather than just the discovery of the (secret) algorithm, which could be obtained through reverse engineering or other means.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Modern text-based CAPTCHAs are designed such that they require the simultaneous use of three separate abilities—invariant recognition, segmentation, and parsing to complete the task.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Each of these problems poses a significant challenge for a computer, even in isolation. These three techniques make CAPTCHAs hard.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Whilst primarily used for security reasons, CAPTCHAs can also serve as a benchmark task for artificial intelligence technologies. According to an article by Ahn, Blum and Langford, "any program that passes the tests generated by a CAPTCHA can be used to solve a hard unsolved AI problem." They argue that the advantages of using hard AI problems as a means for security are twofold. Either the problem goes unsolved and there remains a reliable method for distinguishing humans from computers, or the problem is solved and a difficult AI problem is resolved along with it.


title: CAPTCHA

text: CAPTCHAs based on reading text — or other visual-perception tasks — prevent blind or visually impaired users from accessing the protected resource. However, CAPTCHAs do not have to be visual. Any hard artificial intelligence problem, such as speech recognition, can be used as CAPTCHA. Some implementations of CAPTCHAs permit users to opt for an audio CAPTCHA, such as reCAPTCHA, though a 2011 paper demonstrated a technique for defeating the popular schemes at the time.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Blind or visually impaired people have problems with CAPTCHAs. Because CAPTCHAs are designed to be unreadable by machines, common assistive technology tools such as screen readers cannot interpret them. Since sites may use CAPTCHAs as part of the initial registration process, or even every login, this challenge can block access. In certain jurisdictions, site owners could become targets of litigation if they are using CAPTCHAs that discriminate against certain people with disabilities. For example, a CAPTCHA may make a site incompatible with Section 508 in the United States.


title: CAPTCHA

text: The use of CAPTCHA thus excludes a small percentage of users from using significant subsets of such common Web-based services as PayPal, Gmail, Orkut, Yahoo!, many forum and weblog systems, etc.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Even for individuals who aren't blind, new generations of graphical CAPTCHAs, designed to overcome sophisticated recognition software, can be very hard or impossible to read.


title: CAPTCHA

text: A method of improving CAPTCHA to ease the work with it was proposed by ProtectWebForm and named "Smart CAPTCHA". Developers are advised to combine CAPTCHA with JavaScript. Since it is hard for most bots to parse and execute JavaScript, a combinatory method which fills the CAPTCHA fields and hides both the image and the field from human eyes was proposed.


title: CAPTCHA

text: One alternative method involves displaying to the user a simple mathematical equation and requiring the user to enter the solution as verification. Although these are much easier to defeat using software, they are suitable for scenarios where graphical imagery is not appropriate, and they provide a much higher level of accessibility for blind users than the image-based CAPTCHAs. These are sometimes referred to as MAPTCHAs (M = "mathematical"). However, these may be difficult for users with a cognitive disorder, such as dyscalculia.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Other kinds of challenges, such as those that require understanding the meaning of some text (e.g., a logic puzzle, trivia question, or instructions on how to create a password) can also be used as a CAPTCHA. There is research into their resistance against countermeasures.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Two main ways to bypass CAPTCHA include using cheap human labor to recognize them, and using machine learning to build an automated solver. According to former Google "click fraud czar" Shuman Ghosemajumder, there are numerous services which solve CAPTCHAs automatically.


title: CAPTCHA

text: There was not a systematic methodology for designing or evaluating early CAPTCHAs. As a result, there were many instances in which CAPTCHAs were of a fixed length and therefore automated tasks could be constructed to successfully make educated guesses about where segmentation should take place. Other early CAPTCHAs contained limited sets of words, which made the test much easier to game. Still others made the mistake of relying too heavily on background confusion in the image. In each case, algorithms were created that were successfully able to complete the task by exploiting these design flaws. However, light changes to the CAPTCHA could thwart them. Modern CAPTCHAs like reCAPTCHA no longer rely just on fixed patterns but instead present variations of characters that are often collapsed together, making segmentation almost impossible. These newest iterations have been much more successful at warding off automated tasks.


title: CAPTCHA

text: In October 2013, artificial intelligence company Vicarious claimed that it had developed a generic CAPTCHA-solving algorithm that was able to solve modern CAPTCHAs with character recognition rates of up to 90%. However, Luis von Ahn, a pioneer of early CAPTCHA and founder of reCAPTCHA, said: "It's hard for me to be impressed since I see these every few months." 50 similar claims to that of Vicarious had been made since 2003.


title: CAPTCHA

text: In August 2014 at Usenix WoOT conference, Bursztein et al. presented the first generic CAPTCHA-solving algorithm based on reinforcement learning and demonstrated its efficiency against many popular CAPTCHA schemas.


title: CAPTCHA

text: In October 2018 at ACM CCS'18 conference, Ye et al. presented a deep learning-based attack that could solve all 11 text captcha schemes used by the top-50 popular websites in 2018 with a high success rate. An effective CAPTCHA solver can be trained using as few as 500 real CAPTCHAs.


title: CAPTCHA

text: It is possible to subvert CAPTCHAs by relaying them to a sweatshop of human operators who are employed to decode CAPTCHAs. A 2005 paper from a W3C working group stated that such an operator could verify hundreds per hour. In 2010, the University of California at San Diego conducted a large scale study of CAPTCHA farms and found out that the retail price for solving one million CAPTCHAs was as low as $1,000.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Another technique consists of using a script to re-post the target site's CAPTCHA as a CAPTCHA to the attacker's site, which unsuspecting humans visit and solve within a short while for the script to use.


title: CAPTCHA

text: There are multiple Internet companies like 2Captcha and DeathByCaptcha that offer human and machine backed CAPTCHA solving services for as low as US$0.50 per 1000 solved CAPTCHAs. These services offer APIs and libraries that enable users to integrate CAPTCHA circumvention into the tools that CAPTCHAs were designed to block in the first place.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Howard Yeend has identified two implementation issues with poorly designed CAPTCHA systems:reusing the session ID of a known CAPTCHA image, and CAPTCHAs residing on shared servers.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Sometimes, if part of the software generating the CAPTCHA is client-side (the validation is done on a server but the text that the user is required to identify is rendered on the client side), then users can modify the client to display the un-rendered text. Some CAPTCHA systems use MD5 hashes stored client-side, which may leave the CAPTCHA vulnerable to a brute-force attack.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Mori et al. published a paper in IEEE CVPR'03 detailing a method for defeating one of the most popular CAPTCHAs, EZ-Gimpy, which was tested as being 92% accurate in defeating it. The same method was also shown to defeat the more complex and less-widely deployed Gimpy program 33% of the time. PWNtcha has made progress in defeating commonly used CAPTCHAs, which caused them to be more sophisticated. Podec, a trojan discovered by the security company Kaspersky, forwards CAPTCHA requests to an online human translation service that converts the image to text, fooling the system. Podec targets Android mobile devices.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Some researchers have proposed alternatives including image recognition CAPTCHAs which require users to identify simple objects in the images presented. The argument in favor of these schemes is that tasks like object recognition are more complex to perform than text recognition and therefore should be more resilient to machine learning based attacks.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Chew et al. published their work in the 7th International Information Security Conference, ISC'04, proposing three different versions of image recognition CAPTCHAs, and validating the proposal with user studies. It is suggested that one of the versions, the anomaly CAPTCHA, is best with 100% of human users being able to pass an anomaly CAPTCHA with at least 90% probability in 42 seconds. Datta et al. published their paper in the ACM Multimedia '05 Conference, named IMAGINATION (IMAge Generation for INternet AuthenticaTION), proposing a systematic way to image recognition CAPTCHAs. Images are distorted in such a way that state-of-the-art image recognition approaches (which are potential attack technologies) fail to recognize them.


title: CAPTCHA

text: Microsoft (Jeremy Elson, John R. Douceur, Jon Howell, and Jared Saul) claim to have developed Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access (ASIRRA) which ask users to distinguish cats from dogs. Microsoft had a beta version of this for websites to use. They claim "Asirra is easy for users; it can be solved by humans 99.6% of the time in under 30 seconds. Anecdotally, users seemed to find the experience of using Asirra much more enjoyable than a text-based CAPTCHA." This solution was described in a 2007 paper to Proceedings of 14th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS). However, this project was closed in October 2014 and is no longer available.


title: African Union

text: The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The bloc was founded on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and launched on 9 July 2002 in Durban, South Africa. The intention of the AU was to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa by 32 signatory governments; the OAU was disbanded on 9 July 2002. The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states.


title: African Union

text: The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa. The largest city in the AU is Lagos, Nigeria, while the largest urban agglomeration is Cairo, Egypt. The African Union has more than 1.3 billion people and an area of around and includes popular world landmarks, such as the Sahara and the Nile. The primary working languages are Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swahili. Within the African Union, there are official bodies, such as the Peace and Security Council and the Pan-African Parliament.


title: African Union

text: The African Union is made up of both political and administrative bodies. The highest decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, made up of all the heads of state or government of member states of the AU. The Assembly is chaired by Félix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The AU also has a representative body, the Pan-African Parliament, which consists of 265 members elected by the national legislatures of the AU member states. Its president is Roger Nkodo Dang.


title: African Union

text: The AU Commission, the secretariat to the political structures, is chaired by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma of South Africa. On 15 July 2012, Dlamini-Zuma won a tightly contested vote to become the first female head of the African Union Commission, replacing Jean Ping of Gabon.


title: African Union

text: The AU's first military intervention in a member state was the May 2003 deployment of a peacekeeping force of soldiers from South Africa, Ethiopia, and Mozambique to Burundi to oversee the implementation of the various agreements. AU troops were also deployed in the Sudan for peacekeeping during the Darfur Conflict, before the mission was handed over to the United Nations on 1 January 2008 via UNAMID. The AU has also sent a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, consisting of troops from Uganda and Burundi.


title: African Union

text: The AU has adopted a number of important new documents establishing norms at continental level, to supplement those already in force when it was created. These include the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (2003), the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007), the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and its associated Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance.


title: African Union

text: The historical foundations of the African Union originated in the First Congress of Independence African States, held in Accra, Ghana, from 15 to 22 April 1958. The conference aimed at forming the Africa Day, to mark the liberation movement each year concerning the willingness of the African people to free themselves from foreign dictatorship, as well as subsequent attempts to unite Africa, including the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was established on 25 May 1963, and the African Economic Community in 1981. Critics argued that the OAU in particular did little to protect the rights and liberties of African citizens from their own political leaders, often dubbing it the "Dictators' Club".


title: African Union

text: The idea of creating the AU was revived in the mid-1990s under the leadership of Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi: the heads of state and government of the OAU issued the Sirte Declaration (named after Sirte, in Libya) on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of an African Union. The Declaration was followed by summits at Lomé in 2000, when the Constitutive Act of the African Union was adopted, and at Lusaka in 2001, when the plan for the implementation of the African Union was adopted. During the same period, the initiative for the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), was also established.


title: African Union

text: The African Union was launched in Durban on 9 July 2002, by its first chairperson, Former south African head of state Thabo Mbeki, at the first session of the Assembly of the African Union. The second session of the Assembly was in Maputo in 2003, and the third session in Addis Ababa on 6 July 2004.


title: African Union

text: Barack Obama was the first-ever sitting United States president to speak in front of the African Union in Addis Ababa, on 29 July 2015. With his speech, he encouraged the world to increase economic ties via investments and trade with the continent, and lauded the progresses made in education, infrastructure and economy. But he also criticised a lack of democracy and leaders who refuse to step down, discrimination against minorities (including LGBT people, religious groups and ethnicities) and corruption. He suggested an intensified democratisation and free trade, to significantly increase living quality for Africans.


title: African Union

text: Member states of the African Union cover almost the entirety of continental Africa, except for several territories held by Spain (Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera). In addition, European countries have dependencies among the offshore islands of Africa: Spain (the Canary Islands and the islands of the plazas de soberanía); France (Mayotte, Réunion, and the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean); Portugal (the Azores, Madeira, and the Savage Islands); and the United Kingdom (Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha). Consequently, the geography of the African Union is wildly diverse, including the world's largest hot desert (the Sahara), huge jungles and savannas, and the world's longest river (the Nile).


title: African Union

text: The AU has an area of , with of coastline. The vast majority of this area is on continental Africa, while the only significant territories off the mainland are the island of Madagascar (the world's largest microcontinent and fourth-largest island) and the Sinai Peninsula (geographically a part of Asia), accounting for slightly less than 2% of the total area.


title: African Union

text: The total population of the African Union, , is estimated at more than 1.25 billion, with a growth rate of more than 2.5% p.a.


title: African Union

text: The official languages of the African Union are Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, and "any other African language". The primary working languages of the African Union are English and French. To a lesser extent Portuguese and Arabic are used. The Constitutive Act, for example, is written in English, French and Arabic, while the protocol amending the Constitutive Act is written in English, French and Portuguese. As of 2020, the AU website is available in its entirety in English, partially in French and minimally in Arabic. Portuguese and Swahili versions were added as "coming soon" ("em breve") in April 2019.


title: African Union

text: A protocol amending the Constitutive Act was adopted in 2003 and as of April 2020 has been ratified by 30 of the 37 member states needed for a two-thirds majority. It would change the above wording to,


title: African Union

text: Founded in 2001 under the auspices of the AU, the African Academy of Languages promotes the usage and perpetuation of African languages among African people. In 2004 Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique addressed the assembly in Swahili, but had to translate his words himself. The AU declared 2006 the Year of African Languages. 2006 also marked Ghana's 55th anniversary since it founded the Bureau of Ghana Languages originally known as Gold Coast Vernacular Literature Bureau.


title: African Union

text: All UN member states based in Africa and on African islands are members of the AU, as is the partially recognized state of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Morocco, which claims sovereignty over the Western Sahara, withdrew from the Organisation of African Unity in 1984 due to the admission of the SADR as a member. On 30 January 2017, the AU readmitted Morocco as a member state. Somaliland's 2005 application to join the AU is still pending.


title: African Union

text: Mali was suspended from the African Union on 19 August 2020 following a military coup. On 9 October, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union lifted the suspension imposed on Mali, citing progress made to return to democracy. The country was again suspended on 1 June 2021, following its second military coup within nine months.


title: African Union

text: Guinea's membership was also suspended by the African Union on 10 September 2021, after a military coup deposed the country's President Alpha Condé.


title: African Union

text: Sudan's membership was suspended by the African Union on 27 October 2021, after a military coup deposed the civilian government led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.


title: African Union

text: Burkina Faso's membership was suspended by the African Union in the aftermath of a military coup on 31 January 2022.


title: African Union

text: These institutions have not yet been established; however, the Steering Committees working on their founding have been constituted. Eventually, the AU aims to have a single currency (the Afro).


title: African Union

text: The principal topic for debate at the July 2007 AU summit held in Accra, Ghana, was the creation of a Union Government, with the aim of moving towards a United States of Africa. A study on the Union Government was adopted in late 2006, and proposes various options for "completing" the African Union project. There are divisions among African states on the proposals, with some (notably Libya) following a maximalist view leading to a common government with an AU army; and others (especially the southern African states) supporting rather a strengthening of the existing structures, with some reforms to deal with administrative and political challenges in making the AU Commission and other bodies truly effective.


title: African Union

text: Following a heated debate in Accra, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government agreed in the form of a declaration to review the state of affairs of the AU with a view to determining its readiness towards a Union Government. In particular, the Assembly agreed to:


title: African Union

text: The declaration lastly noted the "importance of involving the African peoples, including Africans in the Diaspora, in the processes leading to the formation of the Union Government."


title: African Union

text: Following this decision, a panel of eminent persons was set up to conduct the "audit review". The review team began its work on 1 September 2007. The review was presented to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government at the January 2008 summit in Addis Ababa. No final decision was taken on the recommendations, however, and a committee of ten heads of state was appointed to consider the review and report back to the July 2008 summit to be held in Egypt. At the July 2008 summit, a decision was once again deferred, for a "final" debate at the January 2009 summit to be held in Addis Ababa.


title: African Union

text: One of the key debates in relation to the achievement of greater continental integration is the relative priority that should be given to integration of the continent as a unit in itself or to integration of the sub-regions. The 1980 Lagos Plan of Action for the Development of Africa and the 1991 treaty to establish the African Economic Community (also referred to as the Abuja Treaty), proposed the creation of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as the basis for African integration, with a timetable for regional and then continental integration to follow.


title: African Union

text: Currently, there are eight RECs recognised by the AU, each established under a separate regional treaty. They are:


title: African Union

text: The membership of many of the communities overlaps, and their rationalisation has been under discussion for several years—and formed the theme of the 2006 Banjul summit. At the July 2007 Accra summit the Assembly finally decided to adopt a Protocol on Relations between the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities. This protocol is intended to facilitate the harmonisation of policies and ensure compliance with the Abuja Treaty and Lagos Plan of Action time frames.


title: African Union

text: In 2006, the AU decided to create a Committee "to consider the implementation of a rotation system between the regions" in relation to the presidency. Controversy arose at the 2006 summit when Sudan announced its candidacy for the AU's chairmanship, as a representative of the East African region. Several member states refused to support Sudan because of tensions over Darfur (see also below). Sudan ultimately withdrew its candidacy and President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo was elected to a one-year term. At the January 2007 summit, Sassou-Nguesso was replaced by President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana, despite another attempt by Sudan to gain the chair. The year 2007 was the 50th anniversary of Ghana's independence, a symbolic moment for the country to hold the chair of the AU—and to host the mid-year summit at which the proposed Union Government was also discussed. In January 2008, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania took over as chair, representing the East African region and thus apparently ending Sudan's attempt to become chair—at least till the rotation returned to East Africa. The current chair is Macky Sall, President of Senegal, whose term began on February 5, 2022.


title: African Union

text: The main administrative capital of the African Union is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the African Union Commission is headquartered. A new headquarters complex, the AU Conference Center and Office Complex (AUCC), was inaugurated on 28 January 2012, during the 18th AU summit. The complex was built by China State Construction Engineering Corporation as a gift from the Chinese government, and accommodates, among other facilities, a 2,500-seat plenary hall and a 20-story office tower. The tower is 99.9 meters high to signify the date 9 September 1999, when the Organisation of African Unity voted to become the African Union. The building cost US$200 million to construct.


title: African Union

text: On 26 January 2018, five years after the completion of the building of the AU Headquarters, the French newspaper "Le Monde" published an article stating that the Chinese government had heavily bugged the building, installing listening devices in the walls and furniture and setting up the computer system to copy data to servers in Shanghai daily. The Chinese government denied that they bugged the building, stating that the accusations were "utterly groundless and ridiculous." Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn rejected the French media report. Moussa Faki Mahamat, head of the African Union Commission, said the allegations in the "Le Monde"s report were false. "These are totally false allegations and I believe that we are completely disregarding them." The African Union replaced its Chinese-supplied servers and started encrypting its communications following the event.


title: African Union

text: In 2018, the African Union adopted the Free Movement Protocol. This protocol allows for free movement of people between countries that are part of the African Union.


title: African Union

text: Article 14 of the Protocol to the treaty establishing the African economic community relating to the free movement of persons, right of residence, and the right of establishment discusses the free movement of workers.


title: African Union

text: Forced displacement of people and groups has also been an area of focus for the AU—over thirty states have ratified the Kampala Convention, the only continental treaty focusing on internally displaced persons in the world.


title: African Union

text: The individual member states of the African Union coordinate foreign policy through this agency, in addition to conducting their own international relations on a state-by-state basis. The AU represents the interests of African peoples at large in intergovernmental organisations (IGOs); for instance, it is a permanent observer at the United Nations General Assembly. Both the African Union and the United Nations work in tandem to address issues of common concerns in various areas. The African Union Mission to the United Nations aspires to serve as a bridge between the two organizations.


title: African Union

text: Membership of the AU overlaps with other IGOs, and occasionally, these third-party organisations and the AU will coordinate on matters of public policy. The African Union maintains special diplomatic representation with the United States and the European Union.


title: African Union

text: Many Caribbean nations have sought to deepen ties with the continent of Africa. The African Union-bloc has referred to the Caribbean as the potential "Sixth Region" of the African Union. Some Caribbean states have already moved to join Africa institutions including Barbados which became a member of the African Export Import Bank. And the Caribbean Development Bank signing a cooperation strategic partnership agreement with the African Development Bank (AfDB)


title: African Union

text: One of the leading economic partners of the continent has been the People's Republic of China (PRC). The Forum on China–Africa Cooperation is the main multi-lateral coordination mechanism between the African countries and China. Since joining FOCAC in 2012, the African Union has increasingly played a coordinating role, although each African country in FOCAC continues to represent itself individually.


title: African Union

text: For the European Commission, the European Union's relationship with Africa is a key priority. The future Africa-EU partnership vision of the European Commission and the European External Action Service is outlined in the Joint Communication "Towards a Comprehensive Strategy with Africa". It proposes partnering on:


title: African Union

text: On 2 December 2020, five Africa-Europe Foundation Strategy Groups were established in the areas of Health, Digital, Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems, Sustainable energy and Transport and Connectivity. It was done together with a consortium comprising Friends of Europe, Mo Ibrahim Foundation and IPEMED.


title: African Union

text: In regards to strengthening resilience, peace, security and governance, the African Union and the European Union recognize that resilience, peace, security and governance are all closely linked. Peace and security are important elements for sustainable development, prosperity and resilience of societies. For ensuring peace and security, it had worked out the African Peace Facility. This has been itself replaced in 2021 by the European Peace Facility. The AU and EU are also partnering on promoting sustainable resources management, environmental resilience, and climate change mitigation The Africa Adaptation Initiative is also being supported by the European Union.


title: African Union

text: Russia hosted the first Africa-Russia heads-of-state summit on October 23-24 2019, Representatives from all 54 African states, including 43 heads-of-state or government, attended the summit. The second summit is expected to be held this year, though the date and venue of the summit are not yet determined.


title: African Union

text: Turkey–Africa relations have gained substantial momentum since the declaration of Turkey as a strategic partner of the continent by the African Union in January 2008. Since 2008, various major summits and meetings have been taking place between Turkey and AU. The first summit was The Turkey–Africa Cooperation summit, Istanbul in August 2008.


title: African Union

text: As of 2020, Turkey has embassies in 42 countries and commercial counselors in 26 countries on the Africa continent. Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines also flies to 35 destinations on the continent.


title: African Union

text: In 2017, Donald Trump, President of the United States, issued an executive order to ban citizens from seven countries with suspected links to terrorism from entering the United States. Three of these are African countries, and members of the AU. During the 28th African Union Summit in Ethiopia, African leaders criticised the ban as they expressed their growing concerns for the future of the African economy under President Trump's leadership and subsequent policies.


title: African Union

text: The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was created among 54 of the 55 AU nations, with trade commencing as of 1 January 2021.


title: African Union

text: The AU's future goals include a customs union, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency (see African Monetary Union), thereby establishing economic and monetary union.


title: African Union

text: The following table shows various data for AU member states, including area, population, economic output and income inequality, as well as various indices, including human development, viability of the state, perception of corruption, economic freedom, state of peace, freedom of the press and democratic level.


title: African Union

text: The emblem of the African Union consists of a gold ribbon bearing small interlocking red rings, from which palm leaves shoot up around an outer gold circle and an inner green circle, within which is a gold representation of Africa. The red interlinked rings stand for African solidarity and the blood shed for the liberation of Africa; the palm leaves, for peace; the gold, for Africa's wealth and bright future; the green, for African hopes and aspirations. To symbolise African unity, the silhouette of Africa is drawn without internal borders.


title: African Union

text: The African Union adopted its new flag at its 14th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government taking place in Addis Ababa 2010. During the 8th African Union Summit which took place in Addis Ababa on 29 and 30 January 2007, the Heads of State and Government decided to launch a competition for the selection of a new flag for the Union. They prescribed a green background for the flag symbolising hope of Africa and stars to represent Member States.


title: African Union

text: Pursuant to this decision, the African Union Commission (AUC) organised a competition for the selection of a new flag for the African Union. The AUC received a total of 106 entries proposed by citizens of 19 African countries and 2 from the Diaspora. The proposals were then examined by a panel of experts put in place by the African Union Commission and selected from the five African regions for short listing according to the main directions given by the Heads of State and Government.


title: African Union

text: At the 13th Ordinary Session of the Assembly, the Heads of State and Government examined the report of the Panel and selected one among all the proposals. The flag is now part of the paraphernalia of the African Union and replaces the old one.


title: African Union

text: The old flag of the African Union bears a broad green horizontal stripe, a narrow band of gold, the emblem of the African Union at the centre of a broad white stripe, another narrow gold band and a final broad green stripe. Again, the green and gold symbolise Africa's hopes and aspirations as well as its wealth and bright future, and the white represents the purity of Africa's desire for friends throughout the world. The flag has led to the creation of the "national colours" of Africa of gold and green (sometimes together with white). These colours are visible in one way or another in the flags of many African nations. Together the colours green, gold, and red constitute the Pan-African colours.


title: African Union

text: Africa Day, formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day, is an annual commemoration regarding the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), on 25 May 1963, and occurring on the same date of the month each year. Other celebrations include the following:


title: African Union

text: The AU faces many challenges, including health issues such as combating malaria and the AIDS/HIV epidemic; political issues such as confronting undemocratic regimes and mediating in the many civil wars; economic issues such as improving the standard of living of millions of impoverished, uneducated Africans; ecological issues such as dealing with recurring famines, desertification, and lack of ecological sustainability; as well as the legal issues regarding Western Sahara.


title: African Union

text: The AU has been active in addressing the AIDS pandemic in Africa. In 2001, the AU established AIDS Watch Africa to coordinate and mobilise a continent-wide response. Sub-Saharan Africa, especially southern and eastern Africa, is the most affected area in the world. Though this region is home to only 6.2% of the world's population, it is also home to half of the world's population infected with HIV. While the measurement of HIV prevalence rates has proved methodologically challenging, more than 20% of the sexually active population of many countries of southern Africa may be infected, with South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, and Zimbabwe all expected to have a decrease in life expectancy by an average of 6.5 years. The pandemic has had massive implications for the economy of the continent, reducing economic growth rates by 2–4% across Africa.


title: African Union

text: In July 2007, the AU endorsed two new initiatives to combat the AIDS crisis, including a push to recruit, train and integrate two million community health workers into the continent's healthcare systems.


title: African Union

text: In January 2012, the African Union Assembly requested that the African Union Commission would work out "a roadmap of shared responsibility to draw on African efforts for a viable health funding with support of traditional and emerging partners to address AIDS dependency response." Once created, the roadmap (as it is officially known) provided a group of solutions that would enhance the shared responsibility and global solidarity for AIDS, TB, and Malaria responses in Africa by 2015. The roadmap was organised into three pillars: diversified financing, access to medicines, and enhanced health governance. The roadmap held stakeholders accountable for the realisation of these solutions between 2012 and 2015.


title: African Union

text: The first pillar, diversified financing, ensures that countries begin to develop a country specific financial sustainability plans with clear targets, and identify and maximise opportunities to diversify funding sources in order to increase the domestic resource allocation to AIDS and other diseases.


title: African Union

text: The second pillar, access to affordable and quality-assured medicines, tries to promote and facilitate investing in leading medicine hub manufacturers in Africa, accelerate and strengthen medicine regulatory harmonisation, and create legislation that would help to protect the knowledge of the researchers who develop these life-saving medicines.


title: African Union

text: The third pillar, enhanced leadership and governance, tries to invest in programs that support people and communities to prevent HIV and ensure that leadership at all levels is mobilised to implement the roadmap. There are several organisations that will ensure the smooth implementation of the roadmap, including NEPAD, UNAIDS, WHO, and several other UN partners.


title: African Union

text: By February 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa had resulted in 3.6 million confirmed cases and 89,000 related deaths, and only 25% of African countries have adequate plans for vaccination, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The pandemic has also devastated economies around the world, including in Africa.


title: African Union

text: Daniel Batidam, an anti-corruption advisory board member of the African Union, resigned after stating that the organisation had "multiple irregularities" and that "issues have come up over and over again" regarding corruption. The African Union quickly accepted his resignation, with Batidam saying that it was a sign that mismanagement towards corruption will "continue with business as usual".


title: African Union

text: In a story published on 12 March 2020, AU staff alleged that Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat was guilty of corruption and cronyism, as well as running of a "mafia-style cartel" that operates with impunity. The allegations were contained in a memo leaked to the South African "Mail & Guardian". This followed sexual harassment allegations raised in late 2018.


title: African Union

text: In 2011, when the conflict in Libya began, the African Union was initially criticised for doing little to prevent the conflict's escalation. Additionally, the AU hesitated to take a side. It was unclear whether the AU supported the Libyan regime or the rebels. This occurred as several human right violations were perpetrated against members of the Libyan regime. It was later realised that the AU's hesitation was due to its lack of capacity and its inability to engage in democratic reform.


title: African Union

text: The AU attempted to mediate in the early stages of the 2011 Libyan civil war, forming an "ad hoc" committee of five presidents (Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, South African President Jacob Zuma, and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni) to broker a truce. However, the beginning of the NATO-led military intervention in March 2011 prevented the committee from traveling to Libya to meet with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. As a body, the AU sharply dissented from the United Nations Security Council's decision to create a no-fly zone over Libya, though a few member states, such as Botswana, Gabon, Zambia, and others expressed support for the resolution.


title: African Union

text: As a result of Gaddafi's defeat at the Battle of Tripoli (the war's deciding battle), in August 2011, the Arab League voted to recognise the anti-Gaddafi National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of the country, pending elections. The council has been recognised by several AU member states, including two Arab League members. However, the AU Peace and Security Council voted on 26 August 2011 not to recognise it, insisting on a ceasefire and on the formation of a national unity government by both sides. A number of AU member states led by Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Rwanda requested that the AU recognise the NTC as Libya's interim governing authority, and several other AU member states have recognised the NTC regardless of the Peace and Security Council's decision. However, AU member states Algeria and Zimbabwe have indicated they will not recognise the NTC, and South Africa has expressed reservations as well.


title: African Union

text: On 20 September 2011, the African Union officially recognised the National Transitional Council as the legitimate representative of Libya.


title: African Union

text: In post-Gaddafi Libya, the African Union believes it still has an important responsibility to the country despite its failure to contribute to the conflict when it originated. Although the African Union is there to keep peace, it is not a long-term solution. The goal, as stated by the AU, is to establish a Libyan government that is sustainable to ensuring peace in Libya. To achieve some level of peace in Libya, the AU has to moderate peace talks which are aimed at achieving compromises and power sharing accommodations as well.


title: African Union

text: In response to the death of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, President of Togo, on 5 February 2005, AU leaders described the appointment of his son, Faure Gnassingbé, to the presidency to have been a military coup. Togo's constitution calls for the speaker of parliament to succeed the president in the event of his death. By law, the parliament speaker must call national elections to choose a new president within sixty days. The AU's protest forced Gnassingbé to hold elections. Under heavy allegations of election fraud, he was officially elected president on 4 May 2005.


title: African Union

text: On 3 August 2005, a coup in Mauritania led the African Union to suspend the country from all organisational activities. The Military Council that took control of Mauritania promised to hold elections within two years. These were held in early 2007, the first time that the country had held elections that were generally agreed to be of an acceptable standard. Following the elections, Mauritania's membership of the AU was restored. However, on 6 August 2008, a fresh coup overthrew the government elected in 2007. The AU once again suspended Mauritania from the continental body. The suspension was once again lifted in 2009 after the military junta agreed with the opposition to organise elections.


title: African Union

text: In March 2012, a military coup was staged in Mali, when an alliance of Touareg and Islamist forces conquered the north, resulting in a coming to power of the Islamists. This resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Malian soldiers and the loss of control over their camps and positions. After a military intervention with help from French troops, the region was in control of the Malian army. To reinstall local authorities, the AU helped to form a caretaker government, supporting it and holding presidential elections in Mali in July 2013.


title: African Union

text: In 2013, a summit for the African Union was held and it was decided that the African Union was going to enlarge their military presence in Mali. The AU decided to do this because of increasing tensions between al-Qaeda forces and the Mali army. There have been several rebel groups that are vying for control of parts of Mali. These rebel groups include the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the National Front for the Liberation of Azawad (FLNA), Ganda Koy, Ganda Izo, Ansar ad-Din, and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). AU forces have been tasked with counterinsurgency missions in Mali as well as governing presidential elections to ensure as smooth a transition of power as possible.


title: African Union

text: A disputed election in December 2020 has led to intensification of the Central African Republic Civil War, displacing 200,000 people. United Nations peacekeepers, including soldiers from Russia and Rwanda, have kept the rebels out of Bangui, but rebels control much of the rest of the country. The AU has not sent peacekeepers to the areas because of a lack of agreement on how to handle the situation: Chad and Congo-Brazzaville support the rebels and France, Congo-Kinshasa has links to Russia; Rwanda and Angola support the government.


title: African Union

text: The Tigray War in Ethiopia has left millions in need of humanitarian aid. Eritrean troops are said to be supporting the Ethiopian government, and there have been border conflicts with Sudan. The relationship between Sudan and Ethiopia is further complicated by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project, which also directly affects Egypt.


title: African Union

text: One of the objectives of the AU is to "promote peace, security, and stability on the continent". Among its principles is "Peaceful resolution of conflicts among Member States of the Union through such appropriate means as may be decided upon by the Assembly". The primary body charged with implementing these objectives and principles is the Peace and Security Council. The PSC has the power, among other things, to authorise peace support missions, to impose sanctions in case of unconstitutional change of government, and to "take initiatives and action it deems appropriate" in response to potential or actual conflicts. The PSC is a decision-making body in its own right, and its decisions are binding on member states.


title: African Union

text: Article 4(h) of the Constitutive Act, repeated in article 4 of the Protocol to the Constitutive Act on the PSC, also recognises the right of the Union to intervene in a member state in circumstances of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Any decision to intervene in a member state under article 4 of the Constitutive Act will be made by the Assembly on the recommendation of the PSC.


title: African Union

text: Since it first met in 2004, the PSC has been active in relation to the crises in Darfur, Comoros, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Ivory Coast and other countries. It has adopted resolutions creating the AU peacekeeping operations in Somalia and Darfur, and imposing sanctions against persons undermining peace and security (such as travel bans and asset freezes against the leaders of the rebellion in Comoros). The council is in the process of overseeing the establishment of a "standby force" to serve as a permanent African peacekeeping force. Institute for Security Studies, South Africa, March 2008.


title: African Union

text: The founding treaty of the AU also called for the establishment of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), including the African Standby Force (ASF), which is to be deployed in emergencies. That means, in cases of genocide or other serious human-rights violations, an ASF mission can be launched even against the wishes of the government of the country concerned, as long as it is approved by the AU General Assembly. In the past AU peacekeeping missions, the concept was not yet applied, forces had to be mobilised from member states. The AU is planning on putting the concept into practise by 2015 at the earliest.


title: African Union

text: In response to the ongoing Darfur conflict in Sudan, the AU has deployed 7,000 peacekeepers, many from Rwanda and Nigeria, to Darfur. While a donor's conference in Addis Ababa in 2005 helped raise funds to sustain the peacekeepers through that year and into 2006, in July 2006 the AU said it would pull out at the end of September when its mandate expires. Critics of the AU peacekeepers, including Dr. Eric Reeves, have said these forces are largely ineffective due to lack of funds, personnel, and expertise. Monitoring an area roughly the size of France has made it even more difficult to sustain an effective mission. In June 2006, the United States Congress appropriated US$173 million for the AU force. Some, such as the Genocide Intervention Network, have called for UN or NATO intervention to augment and/or replace the AU peacekeepers. The UN has considered deploying a force, though it would not likely enter the country until at least October 2007. The under-funded and badly equipped AU mission was set to expire on 31 December 2006 but was extended to 30 June 2007 and merged with the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur in October 2007. In July 2009 the African Union ceased cooperation with the International Criminal Court, refusing to recognise the international arrest warrant it had issued against Sudan's leader, Omar al-Bashir, who was indicted in 2008 for war crimes.


title: African Union

text: The AU struggled to have a strategic role in the independence talks and the reconciliation process of South Sudan, due to overwhelming interests of African and non-African powers, its influence is still limited and not consistent.


title: African Union

text: From the early 1990s up until 2000, Somalia was without a functioning central government. A peace agreement aimed at ending the civil war that broke out following the collapse of the Siad Barre regime was signed in 2006 after many years of peace talks. However, the new government was almost immediately threatened by further violence. In February 2007, the African Union (AU) and European Union (EU) worked together to establish the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The purpose of AMISOM was to create a foundation that would hopefully provide aid to some of Somalia's most vulnerable and keep the peace in the region. They are tasked with everything from protecting federal institutions to facilitating humanitarian relief operations. Much of the AU's opposition comes from an Islamic extremist group named al-Shabaab. To temporarily shore up the government's military base, starting in March 2007, AU soldiers began arriving in Mogadishu as part of a peacekeeping force that was intended by the AU to eventually be 8,000 strong. Eritrea recalled its ambassadors to the African Union on 20 November 2009 after the African Union called on the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on them due to their alleged support of Somali Islamists attempting to topple the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, the internationally recognised government of Somalia which holds Somalia's seat on the African Union. On 22 December 2009, the United Nations Security Council passed UNSCR 1907, which imposed an arms embargo on Eritrea, travel bans on Eritrean leaders, and asset freezes on Eritrean officials. Eritrea strongly criticised the resolution. In January 2011, Eritrea reestablished their mission to the AU in Addis Ababa.


title: African Union

text: In the fall of 2011, AMISOM forces, along with Kenyan and Ethiopian forces, launched a set of offensive attacks on the al-Shabaab. In these attacks, AMISOM forces were able to reclaim key cities including the Somali capital of Mogadishu. In September 2013, political scientist Ethan Bueno de Mesquita argued that with the help of AMISOM forces, they had made it "nearly impossible for al-Shabaab to hold territory even in its former strongholds in southern Somalia". Although much progress has been made towards peace in the region, it should still be noted that African Union forces' still get attacked regularly. Despite AMISOM being effective, it is vastly underfunded and many forces lack the resources required. Funding for humanitarian relief and the formation of armies tends to be vastly undercut.


title: African Union

text: A successful 2008 invasion of Anjouan by AU and Comoros forces to stop self-declared president Mohamed Bacar, whose 2007 re-election was declared illegal. Prior to the invasion, France helped transport Tanzanian troops but their position in the disagreement was questioned when a French police helicopter was suspected of attempting to sneak Bacar into French exile. The first wave of troops landed on Anjouan Bay on 25 March and soon took over the airfield in Ouani, ultimately aiming to locate and remove Bacar from office. On the same day, the airport, capital, and second city were overrun and the presidential palace was deserted. Bacar escaped and sought asylum in France. The Comoros government demanded his return, in order to determine his fate. Many of Bacar's main supporters were arrested by the end of March, including Caabi El-Yachroutu Mohamed and Ibrahim Halidi. Bacar's asylum request was rejected on 15 May, as France agreed to cooperate with the Comoran government's demand. At the 29 June elections, Moussa Toybou won the presidency.


title: African Union

text: The sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean is disputed between the United Kingdom and Mauritius. In February 2019, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion stating that the UK must transfer the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius. On 22 May 2019, the United Nations General Assembly debated and adopted a resolution that affirmed that the Chagos archipelago "forms an integral part of the territory of Mauritius." The African Union urged the United Kingdom to comply with a UN resolution calling for it to withdraw from the Chagos Islands. The UK does not recognise Mauritius' sovereignty claim over the Chagos Archipelago.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, but died there six days later from severe head injuries received during the attack.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Suspects Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were arrested shortly after the attack and charged with first-degree murder following Shepard's death. Significant media coverage was given to the murder and the role of Shepard's sexual orientation as a motive for the crime.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: The prosecutor argued that the murder of Shepard was premeditated and driven by greed. McKinney's defense counsel countered by arguing that he had intended only to rob Shepard but killed him in a rage when Shepard made a sexual advance toward him. McKinney's girlfriend told police that he had been motivated by anti-gay sentiment but later recanted her statement, saying that she had lied because she thought it would help him. Both McKinney and Henderson were convicted of the murder, and each of them received two consecutive life sentences.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Shepard's murder brought national and international attention to hate crime legislation at both the state and federal level. In October 2009, the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (commonly the "Matthew Shepard Act" or "Shepard/Byrd Act" for short), and on October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Following her son's murder, Judy Shepard became a gay rights activist and established the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Shepard's murder inspired films, novels, plays, songs, and other works.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Matthew Shepard was born in 1976 in Casper, Wyoming; he was the first of two sons born to Judy (née Peck) and Dennis Shepard. His younger brother, Logan, was born in 1981. The two brothers had a close relationship. Shepard attended Crest Hill Elementary School, Dean Morgan Junior High School, and Natrona County High School for his freshman through junior years. As a child, he was "friendly with all his classmates", but was targeted and teased due to his small stature and lack of athleticism. He developed an interest in politics at an early age.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Saudi Aramco hired his father in the summer of 1994, and Shepard's parents subsequently resided at the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran. During that time, Shepard attended the American School in Switzerland (TASIS), from which he graduated in May 1995. There, he participated in theater, and took German and Italian courses. He then attended Catawba College in North Carolina and Casper College in Wyoming, before settling in Denver, Colorado. Shepard became a first-year political science major at the University of Wyoming in Laramie with a minor in languages, and was chosen as the student representative for the Wyoming Environmental Council.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Shepard was an Episcopalian and once served as an altar boy in the church. He was described by his father as "an optimistic and accepting young man who had a special gift of relating to almost everyone. He was the type of person who was very approachable and always looked to new challenges. Shepard had a great passion for equality and always stood up for the acceptance of people's differences." Michele Josue, who had been Shepard's friend and later created a documentary about him, "Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine," described him as "a tenderhearted and kind person."


title: Matthew Shepard

text: In 1995, Shepard was beaten and raped during a high school trip to Morocco. This caused him to experience depression and panic attacks, according to his mother. One of Shepard's friends feared that his depression had driven him to become involved with drugs during his time at college. Multiple times, Shepard was hospitalized due to his clinical depression and suicidal ideation.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: On the night of October 6, 1998, Shepard was approached by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie; all three men were in their early 20s. McKinney and Henderson offered to give Shepard a ride home. They subsequently drove to a remote rural area and proceeded to rob, pistol-whip, and torture Shepard, tying him to a barbed-wire fence and leaving him to die. Many media reports contained the graphic account of the pistol-whipping and his fractured skull. Reports described how Shepard was beaten so brutally that his face was completely covered in blood, except where it had been partially cleansed by his tears.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: The assailants' girlfriends testified that neither McKinney nor Henderson was under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time of the attack. McKinney and Henderson testified that they learned of Shepard's address and intended to steal from his home as well. After attacking Shepard and leaving him tied to the fence in near-freezing temperatures, McKinney and Henderson returned to town. McKinney proceeded to pick a fight with two men, 19-year-old Emiliano Morales and 18-year-old Jeremy Herrara. The fight resulted in head wounds for both Morales and McKinney. Police officer Flint Waters arrived at the scene of the fight. He arrested Henderson, searched McKinney's truck, and found a blood-smeared gun along with Shepard's shoes and credit card. Henderson and McKinney later tried to persuade their girlfriends to provide alibis for them and help them dispose of evidence.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Still tied to the fence, Shepard was in a coma eighteen hours after the attack when he was discovered by Aaron Kreifels, a cyclist who initially mistook Shepard for a scarecrow. Reggie Fluty, the first police officer to arrive at the scene, found Shepard alive but covered in blood. Shepard was transported first to Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie before being moved to the more advanced trauma ward at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. He had suffered fractures to the back of his head and in front of his right ear. He experienced severe brainstem damage, which affected his body's ability to regulate his heart rate, body temperature, and other vital functions. There were also about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face, and neck. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. Shepard never regained consciousness and remained on full life support. While he lay in intensive care and in the days following the attack, candlelight vigils were held in countries around the world.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Shepard was pronounced dead six days after the attack at 12:53 a.m. on October 12, 1998. He was 21 years old.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: McKinney and Henderson were arrested and initially charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. After Shepard's death, the charges were upgraded from attempted murder to first-degree murder, which meant that the two defendants were eligible for the death penalty. Their girlfriends, Kristen Price and Chasity Pasley, were charged with being accessories after the fact. At McKinney's November 1998 pretrial hearing, Sergeant Rob Debree testified that McKinney had stated in an interview on October 9 that he and Henderson had identified Shepard as a robbery target and pretended to be gay to lure him out to their truck, and that McKinney had attacked Shepard after Shepard put his hand on McKinney's knee. Detective Ben Fritzen testified that Price stated McKinney told her the violence against Shepard was triggered by how McKinney "[felt] about gays".


title: Matthew Shepard

text: In December 1998, Pasley pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. On April 5, 1999, Henderson avoided going to trial when he pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping charges. In order to avoid the death penalty, he agreed to testify against McKinney and was sentenced by District Judge Jeffrey A. Donnell to two consecutive life terms. At Henderson's sentencing, his lawyer argued that Shepard had not been targeted because he was gay.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: McKinney's trial took place in October and November 1999. Prosecutor Cal Rerucha alleged that McKinney and Henderson pretended to be gay to gain Shepard's trust. Price, McKinney's girlfriend, testified that Henderson and McKinney had "pretended they were gay to get [Shepard] in the truck and rob him." McKinney's lawyer attempted to put forward a gay panic defense, arguing that McKinney was driven to temporary insanity by alleged sexual advances by Shepard. This defense was rejected by the judge. McKinney's lawyer stated that the two men wanted to rob Shepard but never intended to kill him. Rerucha argued that the killing had been premeditated, driven by "greed and violence", rather than by Shepard's sexual orientation. The jury found McKinney not guilty of premeditated murder but guilty of felony murder and began to deliberate on the death penalty. Shepard's parents brokered a deal that resulted in McKinney receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. Henderson and McKinney were incarcerated in the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins and were later transferred to other prisons because of overcrowding. Following her testimony at McKinney's trial, Price pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor interference with a police officer.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Shepard's murder continued to attract public attention and media coverage long after the trial was over. In 2004, the ABC News news program "20/20" aired a report that quoted statements by McKinney, Henderson, Price, Rerucha, and a lead investigator. The statements alleged that the murder had not been motivated by Shepard's sexuality but was primarily a drug-related robbery that had turned violent. Price said she had lied to police about McKinney having been provoked by an unwanted sexual advance from Shepard, telling TV journalist Elizabeth Vargas, "I don't think it was a hate crime at all." Rerucha said, "It was a murder that was once again driven by drugs."


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Stephen Jimenez, the producer of the 2004 "20/20" segment, went on to write a book, "The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard", which was published in September 2013. The book said that Shepard and McKinney—the killer who inflicted the injuries—had been occasional sex partners and that Shepard was a methamphetamine dealer. Jimenez wrote that Fritzen told an interviewer "Matthew Shepard's sexual preference or sexual orientation certainly wasn't the motive in the homicide...".


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Many commentators have criticized Jimenez's views on the attack as being sensational and misleading; those views were shared by gay advocacy organizations and cultural critics. Some commentators, however, have spoken up to defend it. Some police that were involved in the investigation have criticized Jimenez's conclusions, while other police said that there was evidence that drugs were an important factor that led to the murder.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps, received national attention for picketing Shepard's funeral with signs bearing homophobic slogans, such as "Matt in Hell" and "God Hates Fags".


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Church members also mounted anti-gay protests during the trials of Henderson and McKinney. In response, Romaine Patterson, one of Shepard's friends, organized a group that assembled in a circle around the Westboro Baptist Church protesters. The group wore white robes and gigantic wings (resembling angels) that blocked the protesters. Despite this action, Shepard's parents were still able to hear the protesters shouting anti-gay remarks and comments directed towards them. The police intervened and created a human barrier between the two groups. Angel Action was founded by Patterson in April 1999.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: In the years following her son's death, Judy Shepard has worked as an advocate for LGBT rights, particularly issues relating to gay youth. She was a main force behind the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which she and her husband Dennis founded in December 1998.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Gay rights activist John Stoltenberg has said that to portray Shepard as a gay-bashing victim is to present an incomplete account of his victimization: "Keeping Matthew as the poster boy of gay-hate crime and ignoring the full tragedy of his story has been the agenda of many gay-movement leaders. Ignoring the tragedies of Matthew's life prior to his murder will do nothing to help other young men in our community who are sold for sex, ravaged by drugs, and generally exploited."


title: Matthew Shepard

text: In June 2019, Shepard was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn. The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history, and the wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Requests for new legislation to address hate crimes gained momentum during coverage of the incident. Under existing United States federal law and Wyoming state law, crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation could not be prosecuted as hate crimes.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: A few hours after Shepard was discovered, his friends Walt Boulden and Alex Trout began to contact media organizations, claiming that Shepard had been assaulted because he was gay. According to prosecutor Cal Rerucha, "They were calling the County Attorney's office, they were calling the media and indicating Matthew Shepard is gay and we don't want the fact that he is gay to go unnoticed." Tina Labrie, a close friend of Shepard's, said "[Boulden and Trout] wanted to make [Matt] a poster child or something for their cause". Boulden linked the attack to the absence of a Wyoming criminal statute providing for a hate crimes charge.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: In the following session of the Wyoming Legislature, a bill was introduced that defined certain attacks motivated by a victim's sexual orientation as hate crimes. The measure failed on a 30–30 tie in the Wyoming House of Representatives.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: President Bill Clinton renewed attempts to extend federal hate crime legislation to include gay people, women, and people with disabilities. A Hate Crimes Prevention Act was introduced in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives in November 1997, and reintroduced in March 1999, but was passed by only the Senate in July 1999. In September 2000, both houses of Congress passed such legislation; however, it was stripped out in conference committee.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: On March 20, 2007, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act () was introduced as federal bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Congress, sponsored by Democrat John Conyers with 171 co-sponsors. Shepard's parents attended the introduction ceremony. The bill passed the House of Representatives on May 3, 2007. Similar legislation passed in the Senate on September 27, 2007 (), however then-President George W. Bush indicated he would veto the legislation if it reached his desk. The Democratic leadership dropped the amendment in response to opposition from conservative groups and Bush, and because the measure was attached to a defense bill there was a lack of support from antiwar Democrats. On December 10, 2007, congressional powers attached bipartisan hate crimes legislation to a Department of Defense Authorization bill, although it failed to pass. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, said she was "still committed to getting the Matthew Shepard Act passed". Pelosi planned to get the bill passed in early 2008 although she did not succeed. Following his election as president, Barack Obama stated that he was committed to passing the Act.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: The U.S. House of Representatives debated expansion of hate crimes legislation on April 29, 2009. During the debate, Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina called the "hate crime" labeling of Shepard's murder a "hoax". Foxx later called her comments "a poor choice of words". The House passed the act, designated , by a vote of 249 to 175. Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, and a bipartisan coalition introduced the bill in the Senate on April 28; it had 43 cosponsors as of June 17, 2009. The Matthew Shepard Act was adopted as an amendment to S.1390 by a vote of 63–28 on July 15, 2009. On October 22, 2009, the Senate passed the act by a vote of 68–29. President Obama signed the measure into law on October 28, 2009.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: On October 26, 2018, just over 20 years after his death, Shepard's ashes were interred at the crypt of Washington National Cathedral. The ceremony was presided over by the first openly gay Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, and the Bishop of Washington Reverend Marianne Edgar Budde. Music was performed by the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington DC, GenOUT, and Conspirare, which performed Craig Hella Johnson's "Considering Matthew Shepard". His was the first interment of the ashes of a national figure at the cathedral since Helen Keller's fifty years earlier.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: Matthew Shepard's life, death, trial, and its aftermath have inspired numerous works, including documentary and narrative films and television shows, stage plays (such as "The Laramie Project"), and musical and written works. Additionally, NBA player Jason Collins wore the jersey number "98" in honor of Shepard during his 2012–13 season with the Boston Celtics and the Washington Wizards, and would come out as gay following the season. After Collins joined the Brooklyn Nets in 2014, NBA marketing reported high interest in his "98" jersey and high sales once the item became available for purchase.


title: Matthew Shepard

text: "The Meaning of Matthew", its full title "The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed", is a 2009 biographical book by Judy Shepard about her son. Judy Shepard speaks about her loss, her family memories of Matthew, and the tragic event that changed the Shepards' lives and America. "The Meaning of Matthew" follows the Shepard family in the days immediately after the crime to see their incapacitated son, kept alive by life support machines; how the Shepards learned of the huge public response, the candlelit vigils and memorial services for their child; and their struggles to navigate the legal system.


title: Quadratic formula

text: In elementary algebra, the quadratic formula is a formula that provides the solution(s) to a quadratic equation. There are other ways of solving a quadratic equation instead of using the quadratic formula, such as factoring (direct factoring, grouping, AC method), completing the square, graphing and others.


title: Quadratic formula

text: with representing an unknown, with , and representing constants, and with , the quadratic formula is:


title: Quadratic formula

text: where the plus–minus symbol "±" indicates that the quadratic equation has two solutions. Written separately, they become:


title: Quadratic formula

text: Each of these two solutions is also called a root (or zero) of the quadratic equation. Geometrically, these roots represent the -values at which "any" parabola, explicitly given as , crosses the -axis.


title: Quadratic formula

text: As well as being a formula that yields the zeros of any parabola, the quadratic formula can also be used to identify the axis of symmetry of the parabola, and the number of real zeros the quadratic equation contains.


title: Quadratic formula

text: The expression "b" − 4"ac" is known as discriminant. If then the square root of the discriminant will be a real number; otherwise it will be a complex number. If , "b", and "c" are real numbers then


title: Quadratic formula

text: In the case when the discriminant formula_7 is negative, complex roots are involved. The quadratic formula can be written as:


title: Quadratic formula

text: A lesser known quadratic formula, which is used in Muller's method and which can be found from Vieta's formulas, provides (assuming ) the same roots via the equation:


title: Quadratic formula

text: Some sources, particularly older ones, use alternative parameterizations of the quadratic equation such as


title: Quadratic formula

text: These alternative parametrizations result in slightly different forms for the solution, but which are otherwise equivalent to the standard parametrization.


title: Quadratic formula

text: Many different methods to derive the quadratic formula are available in the literature. The standard one is a simple application of the completing the square technique. Alternative methods are sometimes simpler than completing the square, and may offer interesting insight into other areas of mathematics.


title: Quadratic formula

text: The quadratic equation is now in a form to which the method of completing the square is applicable. In fact, by adding a constant to both sides of the equation such that the left hand side becomes a complete square, the quadratic equation becomes:


title: Quadratic formula

text: Accordingly, after rearranging the terms on the right hand side to have a common denominator, we obtain:


title: Quadratic formula

text: The square has thus been completed. We can take the square root of both sides, yielding the following equation:


title: Quadratic formula

text: There are many alternatives of this derivation with minor differences, mostly concerning the manipulation of formula_15.


title: Quadratic formula

text: This derivation of the quadratic formula is ancient and was known in India at least as far back as 1025. Compared with the derivation in standard usage, this alternate derivation avoids fractions and squared fractions until the last step and hence does not require a rearrangement after step 3 to obtain a common denominator in the right side.


title: Quadratic formula

text: Another technique is solution by substitution. In this technique, we substitute formula_31 into the quadratic to get:


title: Quadratic formula

text: We have not yet imposed a second condition on formula_33 and formula_36, so we now choose formula_36 so that the middle term vanishes. That is, formula_38 or formula_39.


title: Quadratic formula

text: Subtracting the constant term from both sides of the equation (to move it to the right hand side) and then dividing by formula_15 gives:


title: Quadratic formula

text: By re-expressing formula_33 in terms of formula_23 using the formula formula_49 , the usual quadratic formula can then be obtained:


title: Quadratic formula

text: Let the roots of the standard quadratic equation be and . The derivation starts by recalling the identity:


title: Quadratic formula

text: Since the coefficient , we can divide the standard equation by to obtain a quadratic polynomial having the same roots. Namely,


title: Quadratic formula

text: From this we can see that the sum of the roots of the standard quadratic equation is given by , and the product of those roots is given by .


title: Quadratic formula

text: Combining these results by using the standard shorthand ±, we have that the solutions of the quadratic equation are given by:


title: Quadratic formula

text: An alternative way of deriving the quadratic formula is via the method of Lagrange resolvents, which is an early part of Galois theory.


title: Quadratic formula

text: This method can be generalized to give the roots of cubic polynomials and quartic polynomials, and leads to Galois theory, which allows one to understand the solution of algebraic equations of any degree in terms of the symmetry group of their roots, the Galois group.


title: Quadratic formula

text: This approach focuses on the "roots" more than on rearranging the original equation. Given a monic quadratic polynomial


title: Quadratic formula

text: Since the order of multiplication does not matter, one can switch and and the values of and will not change: one can say that and are symmetric polynomials in and . In fact, they are the elementary symmetric polynomials – any symmetric polynomial in and can be expressed in terms of and . The Galois theory approach to analyzing and solving polynomials is: given the coefficients of a polynomial, which are symmetric functions in the roots, can one "break the symmetry" and recover the roots? Thus solving a polynomial of degree is related to the ways of rearranging ("permuting") terms, which is called the symmetric group on letters, and denoted . For the quadratic polynomial, the only ways to rearrange two terms is to leave them be or to swap them ("transpose" them), and thus solving a quadratic polynomial is simple.


title: Quadratic formula

text: These are called the "Lagrange resolvents" of the polynomial; notice that one of these depends on the order of the roots, which is the key point. One can recover the roots from the resolvents by inverting the above equations:


title: Quadratic formula

text: Now is a symmetric function in and , so it can be expressed in terms of and , and in fact as noted above. But is not symmetric, since switching and yields (formally, this is termed a group action of the symmetric group of the roots). Since is not symmetric, it cannot be expressed in terms of the coefficients and , as these are symmetric in the roots and thus so is any polynomial expression involving them. Changing the order of the roots only changes by a factor of −1, and thus the square is symmetric in the roots, and thus expressible in terms of and . Using the equation


title: Quadratic formula

text: which is the quadratic formula. Substituting yields the usual form for when a quadratic is not monic. The resolvents can be recognized as being the vertex, and is the discriminant (of a monic polynomial).


title: Quadratic formula

text: A similar but more complicated method works for cubic equations, where one has three resolvents and a quadratic equation (the "resolving polynomial") relating and , which one can solve by the quadratic equation, and similarly for a quartic equation (degree 4), whose resolving polynomial is a cubic, which can in turn be solved. The same method for a quintic equation yields a polynomial of degree 24, which does not simplify the problem, and, in fact, solutions to quintic equations in general cannot be expressed using only roots.


title: Quadratic formula

text: The earliest methods for solving quadratic equations were geometric. Babylonian cuneiform tablets contain problems reducible to solving quadratic equations. The Egyptian Berlin Papyrus, dating back to the Middle Kingdom (2050 BC to 1650 BC), contains the solution to a two-term quadratic equation.


title: Quadratic formula

text: The Greek mathematician Euclid (circa 300 BC) used geometric methods to solve quadratic equations in Book 2 of his "Elements", an influential mathematical treatise. Rules for quadratic equations appear in the Chinese "The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art" circa 200 BC. In his work "Arithmetica", the Greek mathematician Diophantus (circa 250 AD) solved quadratic equations with a method more recognizably algebraic than the geometric algebra of Euclid. His solution gives only one root, even when both roots are positive.


title: Quadratic formula

text: The Indian mathematician Brahmagupta (597–668 AD) explicitly described the quadratic formula in his treatise "Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta" published in 628 AD, but written in words instead of symbols. His solution of the quadratic equation was as follows: "To the absolute number multiplied by four times the [coefficient of the] square, add the square of the [coefficient of the] middle term; the square root of the same, less the [coefficient of the] middle term, being divided by twice the [coefficient of the] square is the value."


title: Quadratic formula

text: Śrīdharācāryya (870–930 AD), an Indian mathematician also came up with a similar algorithm for solving quadratic equations, though there is no indication that he considered both the roots.


title: Quadratic formula

text: The 9th-century Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī solved quadratic equations algebraically. The quadratic formula covering all cases was first obtained by Simon Stevin in 1594. In 1637 René Descartes published "La Géométrie" containing special cases of the quadratic formula in the form we know today.


title: Quadratic formula

text: In terms of coordinate geometry, a parabola is a curve whose -coordinates are described by a second-degree polynomial, i.e. any equation of the form:


title: Quadratic formula

text: where represents the polynomial of degree 2 and and are constant coefficients whose subscripts correspond to their respective term's degree. The geometrical interpretation of the quadratic formula is that it defines the points on the -axis where the parabola will cross the axis. Additionally, if the quadratic formula was looked at as two terms,


title: Quadratic formula

text: the axis of symmetry appears as the line . The other term, , gives the distance the zeros are away from the axis of symmetry, where the plus sign represents the distance to the right, and the minus sign represents the distance to the left.


title: Quadratic formula

text: If this distance term were to decrease to zero, the value of the axis of symmetry would be the value of the only zero, that is, there is only one possible solution to the quadratic equation. Algebraically, this means that , or simply (where the left-hand side is referred to as the "discriminant"). This is one of three cases, where the discriminant indicates how many zeros the parabola will have. If the discriminant is positive, the distance would be non-zero, and there will be two solutions. However, there is also the case where the discriminant is less than zero, and this indicates the distance will be "imaginary" or some multiple of the complex unit , where and the parabola's zeros will be complex numbers. The complex roots will be complex conjugates, where the real part of the complex roots will be the value of the axis of symmetry. There will be no real values of where the parabola crosses the -axis.


title: Quadratic formula

text: If the constants , , and/or are not unitless, then the units of must be equal to the units of , due to the requirement that and agree on their units. Furthermore, by the same logic, the units of must be equal to the units of , which can be verified without solving for . This can be a powerful tool for verifying that a quadratic expression of physical quantities has been set up correctly, prior to solving this.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic religious drama film produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, shot in VistaVision (color by Technicolor), and released by Paramount Pictures. Based on the 1949 novel "Prince of Egypt" by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, the 1859 novel "Pillar of Fire" by J. H. Ingraham, the 1937 novel "On Eagle's Wings" by A. E. Southon, and the Book of Exodus, "The Ten Commandments" dramatizes the biblical story of the life of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince who becomes the deliverer of his real brethren, the enslaved Hebrews, and thereafter leads the Exodus to Mount Sinai, where he receives, from God, the Ten Commandments. The film stars Charlton Heston in the lead role, Yul Brynner as Rameses, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Debra Paget as Lilia, and John Derek as Joshua; and features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Seti I, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yochabel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka, among others.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Filmed on location in Egypt, Mount Sinai, and the Sinai Peninsula, "The Ten Commandments" was DeMille's most successful work, his first widescreen film, his fourth biblical production, and his final directorial effort before his death in 1959. It is a remake of the prologue of his 1923 silent film of the same title, and features one of the largest exterior sets ever created for a motion picture. Four screenwriters, three art directors, and five costume designers worked on the film. The interior sets were constructed on Paramount's Hollywood soundstages. The original roadshow version included an onscreen introduction by DeMille and was released to cinemas in the United States on November 8, 1956, and, at the time of its release, was the most expensive film ever made.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: In 1957, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (John P. Fulton, A.S.C.). DeMille won the Foreign Language Press Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director. Charlton Heston was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama). Yul Brynner won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for this film, as well as for "Anastasia" and "The King and I". Heston, Anne Baxter, and Yvonne De Carlo won Laurel Awards for Best Dramatic Actor, 5th Best Dramatic Actress, and 3rd Best Supporting Actress, respectively. It is also one of the most financially successful films ever made, grossing approximately $122.7 million at the box office during its initial release; it was the most successful film of 1956 and the second-highest-grossing film of the decade. According to "Guinness World Records", in terms of theatrical exhibition, it is the eighth most successful film of all-time when the box office gross is adjusted for inflation.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: In 1999, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten"—the best ten films in ten American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. The film was listed as the tenth best film in the epic genre. US Network television has aired the film in prime time during the Passover/Easter season every year since 1973.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: After hearing the prophecy of a Hebrew deliverer, Pharaoh Rameses I of Egypt orders the death of all newborn Hebrew males. Yochabel saves her infant son by setting him adrift in a basket on the Nile. Bithiah, the Pharaoh Rameses' recently widowed daughter (and sister of the future Pharaoh Seti I), finds the basket and decides to adopt the boy, even though her servant, Memnet, recognizes that the child is Hebrew. Bithiah names the baby Moses.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Prince Moses grows up to become a successful general, winning a war with Ethiopia and establishing an alliance. Moses and Nefretiri fall in love, but she must marry the next Pharaoh to preserve the royal line. While working on the building of a city for Pharaoh Seti I's jubilee, Moses meets the stonecutter Joshua, who tells him of the Hebrew God. Moses saves an elderly woman from being crushed, not knowing that she is his biological mother, Yochabel, and he reprimands the taskmaster and overseer Baka.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Moses reforms the treatment of slaves on the project, but Prince Rameses, Moses's adoptive brother and Seti's son, charges him with planning an insurrection. Moses says he is making his workers more productive, making Rameses wonder if Moses is the man the Hebrews are calling the Deliverer.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Nefretiri learns from Memnet that Moses is the son of Hebrew slaves. She kills Memnet, but reveals the story to Moses after he finds the piece of Levite cloth he was wrapped in as a baby, which Memnet had kept. Moses follows Bithiah to Yochabel's house, where he meets his biological mother, brother Aaron, and sister Miriam.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Moses learns more about the slaves by working with them. Nefretiri urges him to return to the palace, so that he may help his people when he becomes pharaoh, to which he agrees after he completes a final task. Moses saves Joshua from death by killing Baka, telling Joshua that he, too, is Hebrew. The confession is witnessed by the overseer Dathan, who then reports to Prince Rameses. After being arrested, Moses explains that he is not the Deliverer, but would free the slaves if he could. Seti I declares Prince Rameses his sole heir, and Rameses banishes Moses to the desert. At this time, Moses learns of the death of his mother.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Moses makes his way across the desert to a well in Midian. After defending seven sisters from Amalekites, Moses is housed with the girls' father Jethro, a Bedouin sheik, who worships the God of Abraham. Moses marries Jethro's eldest daughter Sephora. Later, he finds Joshua, who has escaped from the hard labor imposed on the Hebrews in Egypt. While herding, Moses sees the burning bush on the summit of Mount Sinai and hears the voice of God. Moses returns to Egypt to free the Hebrews.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Moses comes before Rameses, now Pharaoh Rameses II, to win the slaves' freedom, turning his staff into a cobra. Jannes performs the same trick with his staves, but Moses's snake swallows his. Rameses prohibits straw from being provided to the Hebrews to make their bricks. Nefretiri rescues Moses from being stoned to death by the Hebrews wherein he reveals that he is married.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Egypt is visited by plagues. Moses turns the river Nile to blood at a festival of Khnum, and brings burning hail down upon Pharaoh's palace. Moses warns him that the next plague to fall upon Egypt will be summoned by Pharaoh himself. Enraged at the plagues, Rameses orders that all first-born male Hebrews will die, but a cloud of death instead kills all the first-born of Egypt, including the child of Rameses and Nefretiri. Despairing at the loss of his heir, Pharaoh exiles the Hebrews, who begin the Exodus from Egypt.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: After being taunted by Nefretiri, Rameses takes his chariots and pursues the Hebrews to the Red Sea. Moses uses God's help to stop the Egyptians with a pillar of fire, and parts the Red Sea. After the Hebrews make it to safety, Moses releases the walls of water, drowning the Egyptian army. A devastated Rameses returns empty-handed to Nefretiri, stating that he now acknowledges Moses's god as God.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Moses again ascends the mountain with Joshua. He sees the Ten Commandments created by God in two stone tablets. Meanwhile, an impatient Dathan tells the people that Moses is dead and urges a reluctant Aaron to construct a golden calf idol. A wild saturnalia occurs and a decadent orgy is held by most of the Hebrews.