title: Optical character recognition

text: In the 2000s, OCR was made available online as a service (WebOCR), in a cloud computing environment, and in mobile applications like real-time translation of foreign-language signs on a smartphone. With the advent of smart-phones and smartglasses, OCR can be used in internet connected mobile device applications that extract text captured using the device's camera. These devices that do not have OCR functionality built into the operating system will typically use an OCR API to extract the text from the image file captured and provided by the device. The OCR API returns the extracted text, along with information about the location of the detected text in the original image back to the device app for further processing (such as text-to-speech) or display.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Various commercial and open source OCR systems are available for most common writing systems, including Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Indic, Bengali (Bangla), Devanagari, Tamil, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters.


title: Optical character recognition

text: OCR engines have been developed into many kinds of domain-specific OCR applications, such as receipt OCR, invoice OCR, check OCR, legal billing document OCR.


title: Optical character recognition

text: OCR is generally an "offline" process, which analyses a static document. There are cloud based services which provide an online OCR API service. Handwriting movement analysis can be used as input to handwriting recognition. Instead of merely using the shapes of glyphs and words, this technique is able to capture motions, such as the order in which segments are drawn, the direction, and the pattern of putting the pen down and lifting it. This additional information can make the end-to-end process more accurate. This technology is also known as "on-line character recognition", "dynamic character recognition", "real-time character recognition", and "intelligent character recognition".


title: Optical character recognition

text: OCR software often "pre-processes" images to improve the chances of successful recognition. Techniques include:


title: Optical character recognition

text: Segmentation of fixed-pitch fonts is accomplished relatively simply by aligning the image to a uniform grid based on where vertical grid lines will least often intersect black areas. For proportional fonts, more sophisticated techniques are needed because whitespace between letters can sometimes be greater than that between words, and vertical lines can intersect more than one character.


title: Optical character recognition

text: There are two basic types of core OCR algorithm, which may produce a ranked list of candidate characters.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Software such as Cuneiform and Tesseract use a two-pass approach to character recognition. The second pass is known as "adaptive recognition" and uses the letter shapes recognized with high confidence on the first pass to recognize better the remaining letters on the second pass. This is advantageous for unusual fonts or low-quality scans where the font is distorted (e.g. blurred or faded).


title: Optical character recognition

text: Modern OCR software include Google Docs OCR, ABBYY FineReader and Transym. Others like OCRopus and Tesseract uses neural networks which are trained to recognize whole lines of text instead of focusing on single characters.


title: Optical character recognition

text: A new technique known as iterative OCR automatically crops a document into sections based on page layout. OCR is performed on the sections individually using variable character confidence level thresholds to maximize page-level OCR accuracy. A patent from the United States Patent Office has been issued for this method


title: Optical character recognition

text: The OCR result can be stored in the standardized ALTO format, a dedicated XML schema maintained by the United States Library of Congress. Other common formats include hOCR and PAGE XML.


title: Optical character recognition

text: For a list of optical character recognition software see Comparison of optical character recognition software.


title: Optical character recognition

text: OCR accuracy can be increased if the output is constrained by a lexicona list of words that are allowed to occur in a document. This might be, for example, all the words in the English language, or a more technical lexicon for a specific field. This technique can be problematic if the document contains words not in the lexicon, like proper nouns. Tesseract uses its dictionary to influence the character segmentation step, for improved accuracy.


title: Optical character recognition

text: The output stream may be a plain text stream or file of characters, but more sophisticated OCR systems can preserve the original layout of the page and produce, for example, an annotated PDF that includes both the original image of the page and a searchable textual representation.


title: Optical character recognition

text: "Near-neighbor analysis" can make use of co-occurrence frequencies to correct errors, by noting that certain words are often seen together. For example, "Washington, D.C." is generally far more common in English than "Washington DOC".


title: Optical character recognition

text: Knowledge of the grammar of the language being scanned can also help determine if a word is likely to be a verb or a noun, for example, allowing greater accuracy.


title: Optical character recognition

text: The Levenshtein Distance algorithm has also been used in OCR post-processing to further optimize results from an OCR API.


title: Optical character recognition

text: In recent years, the major OCR technology providers began to tweak OCR systems to deal more efficiently with specific types of input. Beyond an application-specific lexicon, better performance may be had by taking into account business rules, standard expression, or rich information contained in color images. This strategy is called "Application-Oriented OCR" or "Customized OCR", and has been applied to OCR of license plates, invoices, screenshots, ID cards, driver licenses, and automobile manufacturing.


title: Optical character recognition

text: "The New York Times" has adapted the OCR technology into a proprietary tool they entitle, "Document Helper", that enables their interactive news team to accelerate the processing of documents that need to be reviewed. They note that it enables them to process what amounts to as many as 5,400 pages per hour in preparation for reporters to review the contents.


title: Optical character recognition

text: There are several techniques for solving the problem of character recognition by means other than improved OCR algorithms.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Special fonts like OCR-A, OCR-B, or MICR fonts, with precisely specified sizing, spacing, and distinctive character shapes, allow a higher accuracy rate during transcription in bank check processing. Ironically, however, several prominent OCR engines were designed to capture text in popular fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman, and are incapable of capturing text in these fonts that are specialized and much different from popularly used fonts. As Google Tesseract can be trained to recognize new fonts, it can recognize OCR-A, OCR-B and MICR fonts.


title: Optical character recognition

text: "Comb fields" are pre-printed boxes that encourage humans to write more legiblyone glyph per box. These are often printed in a "dropout color" which can be easily removed by the OCR system.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Palm OS used a special set of glyphs, known as "Graffiti" which are similar to printed English characters but simplified or modified for easier recognition on the platform's computationally limited hardware. Users would need to learn how to write these special glyphs.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Zone-based OCR restricts the image to a specific part of a document. This is often referred to as "Template OCR".


title: Optical character recognition

text: Crowdsourcing humans to perform the character recognition can quickly process images like computer-driven OCR, but with higher accuracy for recognizing images than that obtained via computers. Practical systems include the Amazon Mechanical Turk and reCAPTCHA. The National Library of Finland has developed an online interface for users to correct OCRed texts in the standardized ALTO format. Crowd sourcing has also been used not to perform character recognition directly but to invite software developers to develop image processing algorithms, for example, through the use of rank-order tournaments.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Information Science Research Institute (ISRI) had the mission to foster the improvement of automated technologies for understanding machine printed documents, and it conducted the most authoritative of the "Annual Test of OCR Accuracy" from 1992 to 1996.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Recognition of Latin-script, typewritten text is still not 100% accurate even where clear imaging is available. One study based on recognition of 19th- and early 20th-century newspaper pages concluded that character-by-character OCR accuracy for commercial OCR software varied from 81% to 99%; total accuracy can be achieved by human review or Data Dictionary Authentication. Other areas—including recognition of hand printing, cursive handwriting, and printed text in other scripts (especially those East Asian language characters which have many strokes for a single character)—are still the subject of active research. The MNIST database is commonly used for testing systems' ability to recognise handwritten digits.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Accuracy rates can be measured in several ways, and how they are measured can greatly affect the reported accuracy rate. For example, if word context (basically a lexicon of words) is not used to correct software finding non-existent words, a character error rate of 1% (99% accuracy) may result in an error rate of 5% (95% accuracy) or worse if the measurement is based on whether each whole word was recognized with no incorrect letters. Using a large enough dataset is so important in a neural network based handwriting recognition solutions. On the other hand, producing natural datasets is very complicated and time-consuming.


title: Optical character recognition

text: An example of the difficulties inherent in digitizing old text is the inability of OCR to differentiate between the "long s" and "f" characters.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Web-based OCR systems for recognizing hand-printed text on the fly have become well known as commercial products in recent years (see Tablet PC history). Accuracy rates of 80% to 90% on neat, clean hand-printed characters can be achieved by pen computing software, but that accuracy rate still translates to dozens of errors per page, making the technology useful only in very limited applications.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Recognition of cursive text is an active area of research, with recognition rates even lower than that of hand-printed text. Higher rates of recognition of general cursive script will likely not be possible without the use of contextual or grammatical information. For example, recognizing entire words from a dictionary is easier than trying to parse individual characters from script. Reading the "Amount" line of a cheque (which is always a written-out number) is an example where using a smaller dictionary can increase recognition rates greatly. The shapes of individual cursive characters themselves simply do not contain enough information to accurately (greater than 98%) recognize all handwritten cursive script.


title: Optical character recognition

text: Most programs allow users to set "confidence rates". This means that if the software does not achieve their desired level of accuracy, a user can be notified for manual review.


title: Optical character recognition

text: An error introduced by OCR scanning is sometimes termed a "scanno" (by analogy with the term "typo").


title: Optical character recognition

text: Characters to support OCR were added to the Unicode Standard in June 1993, with the release of version 1.1.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: Surya Kumar Ashok Yadav (born 14 September 1990) is an Indian international cricketer, who plays for the Indian cricket team. Regarded as one of the best batters in Twenty20 cricket, he plays as a right handed batsman for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League and for the Mumbai cricket team in Indian domestic cricket.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: Yadav has drawn comparisons to AB de Villiers, often considered as one of the greatest Twenty20 batsmen. As of 1 November 2022, Yadav was ranked as the number one T20 International batsman in the world.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: He captained Mumbai cricket team in T20 and First-class Cricket for brief period of time, since 2010.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: He is a right-handed middle order batter and an part-time right-arm spin bowler. He made his T20I debut for India on 14 March 2021 against England. He made his One Day International (ODI) debut for India on 18 July 2021 against Sri Lanka.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: Yadav's family is from Maharashtra. His father migrated to Mumbai from UP, for job in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. That time Yadav was 10 years old. Surya learnt the game while playing in the streets of Chembur. At the age of 10, his father saw his inclination towards the game and enrolled him in a cricket camp in BARC colony in Anushakti Nagar. He then went to "Elf Vengsarkar Academy" of former international cricketer, Dilip Vengsarkar and played the age group cricket in Mumbai. He is an alumnus of Pillai College of Arts, Commerce and Science.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: Yadav played club cricket for Parsi Gymkhana Cricket Club in Mumbai Apart from Parsi Gymkhana he had played for Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited team and clubs such as Shivaji Park Gymkhana club and Dadar Union club in Mumbai's club cricket.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: He made his first-class cricket debut for Mumbai cricket team in Ranji trophy 2010-11, he scored 73. In the next season of 2011-12, he was the leading run scorer for his team with the 754 runs in 9 matches, it includes double century against Odisha cricket team, in 3rd match of season's. In the same season in anathor top Indian List-A Duleep Trophy tournament scored hundred. In 2013-14 season he was one of top leading scorer for Mumbai.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: In Indian domestic cricket he has played for Mumbai A, West Zone, India Red, India blue, Mumbai cricket association's IX teams and for India under 23, India A, India C in international junior cricket.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: He is one of the senior and regular member of Mumbai Ranji team. He was a captain of Mumbai cricket team for brief period of time in Ranji trophy. Amid 2014–15 Ranji Trophy season Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) removed him from captaincy and dropped from the team in 2018-19 season. MCA's selection committee selected him and appointed as captain for 2019-20 of the tournament.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: In 2021, playing for his club, Parsi Gymkhana, he scored 249 runs in final match against Payyade Sports Club in 'Police Shield' tournament at the "Police Gymkhana ground," Mumbai"." Parsee Gymkhana has won this tournament last time way back in 1956, created the history by becoming the first club to win back-to-back trophies in 3 different format in single season. Yadav won the best batsman of the final award.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: In October 2018, he was named in India C's squad for the 2018–19 Deodhar Trophy. In October 2019, he was named in the India C squad for the 2019–20 Deodhar Trophy.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: He received an IPL contract from Mumbai Indians (MI) for the 2012 season. He played just one match in the season and was dismissed without scoring.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: He was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2014 IPL auctions. He made headlines in IPL 2015 when he hit a match-winning 20 ball 46 runs with five sixes against MI at Eden Gardens. He became the team's vice-captain and played regularly. He was bought at a price of by Mumbai Indians in 2018 IPL auctions.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: After impressive stint with the Mumbai Indians, he was retained by them ahead of 2022 season "mega auction" for INR 8 Cr. He was ruled out from IPL 2022 due injury in left forearm.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: In February 2021, he was named in India's Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for their series against England. It was his maiden international call-up to the India cricket team. He made his T20I debut for India on 14 March 2021, against England. He then played the fourth game of the series on 18 March and got his first opportunity to bat, and hit the first ball he faced in international cricket for a six, becoming the first Indian to do so in T20 International, and went on to score a half-century. The next day, he was named in India's One Day International (ODI) squad for their series against England. His game changing performances at No. 3 led him to being described as an "X Factor" player by his captain.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: In June 2021, he was named in India's One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) squads for their series against Sri Lanka. He made his ODI debut on 18 July 2021, for India against Sri Lanka. On 21 July 2021, Yadav scored his maiden ODI fifty against Sri Lanka.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: In July 2021, Suryakumar Yadav was called up as a replacement to India's Test squad for their series against England. In September 2021, Yadav was named in India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. In November, he was added to India's Test squad for their series against New Zealand.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: In July 2022, Suryakumar Yadav scored his maiden T20I century against England at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, England scoring 117 off 55 balls. He is only the 5th Indian player to record a century in T20I, and only the 2nd to reach the mark batting 4th or lower. In October 2022, he became the fastest batsman to score 1000 runs in T20I's, reaching the mark in 573 balls against South Africa.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: On 27 October 2022, Yadav scored the fourth fastest half-century by an Indian batsman at a T20 World Cup, and his first at a T20 World Cup, reaching the mark in 25 balls against Netherlands at Sydney Cricket Ground.


title: Suryakumar Yadav

text: In November 2022, Suryakumar Yadav scored his second T20I century against New Zealand at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, scoring 111* off 51 balls with the help of 11 fours and 7 sixes, he became second Indian to score two centuries in T20Is in a calander year and emulates Rohit Sharma's record.


title: Pauline epistles

text: The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest extant Christian documents. They provide an insight into the beliefs and controversies of early Christianity. As part of the canon of the New Testament, they are foundational texts for both Christian theology and ethics.


title: Pauline epistles

text: Most scholars believe that Paul actually wrote seven of the Pauline epistles (Galatians, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Philemon, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians), while three of the epistles in Paul's name are widely seen as pseudepigraphic (First Timothy, Second Timothy, and Titus). Whether Paul wrote the three other epistles in his name (2 Thessalonians, Ephesians and Colossians) is widely debated. According to some scholars, Paul wrote the questionable letters with the help of a secretary, or amanuensis, who would have influenced their style, if not their theological content. The Epistle to the Hebrews, although it does not bear his name, was traditionally considered Pauline (although Origen, Tertullian and Hippolytus amongst others, questioned its authorship), but from the 16th century onwards opinion steadily moved against Pauline authorship and few scholars now ascribe it to Paul, mostly because it does not read like any of his other epistles in style and content and because the epistle does not indicate that Paul is the author, unlike the others.


title: Pauline epistles

text: The Pauline epistles are usually placed between the Acts of the Apostles and the catholic epistles in modern editions. Most Greek manuscripts place the general epistles first, and a few minuscules (175, 325, 336, and 1424) place the Pauline epistles at the end of the New Testament.


title: Pauline epistles

text: In all of these epistles, except the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author and writer does claim to be Paul. The contested letters may have been written using Paul's name, as it was common to attribute at that point in history.


title: Pauline epistles

text: The three letters on which scholars are about evenly divided: If these letters are inauthentic, then the consensus dates are likely incorrect.


title: Pauline epistles

text: The letters thought to be pseudepigraphic by many scholars (traditional dating given): The content of these letters strongly suggest they were written a decade or more later than the traditional dates.


title: Pauline epistles

text: Finally, Epistle to the Hebrews, although anonymous and not really in the form of a letter, has long been included among Paul's collected letters. Although some churches ascribe Hebrews to Paul, neither most of Christianity nor modern scholarship does so.


title: Pauline epistles

text: This ordering is remarkably consistent in the manuscript tradition, with very few deviations. The evident principle of organization is descending length of the Greek text, but keeping the four pastoral epistles addressed to individuals in a separate final section. The only anomaly is that Galatians precedes the slightly longer Ephesians.


title: Pauline epistles

text: In modern editions, the formally anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews is placed at the end of Paul's letters and before the general epistles. This practice was popularized through the 4th century Vulgate by Jerome, who was aware of ancient doubts about its authorship, and is also followed in most medieval Byzantine manuscripts with hardly any exceptions.


title: Pauline epistles

text: Paul's own writings are sometimes thought to indicate several of his letters that have not been preserved:


title: Pauline epistles

text: Several other epistles were attributed to Paul during the course of history but are now considered pseudepigraphic:


title: Pauline epistles

text: David Trobisch finds it likely that Paul first collected his letters for publication himself. It was normal practice in Paul's time for letter writers to keep one copy for themselves and send a second copy to the recipient(s); surviving collections of ancient letters sometimes originated from the senders' copies, at other times from the recipients' copies. A collection of Paul's letters circulated separately from other early Christian writings and later became part of the New Testament. When the canon was established, the gospels and Paul's letters were the core of what would become the New Testament.


title: Devolver Digital

text: Devolver Digital, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Austin, Texas, specializing in the publishing of indie games. The company was founded in June 2009 by Nigel Lowrie, Harry Miller, Graeme Struthers, Rick Stults, and Mike Wilson, five executives who had been involved with Gathering of Developers and Gamecock Media Group, which published games on developer-friendly terms, but due to the high cost associated with releasing retail games saw themselves acquired and dissolved by larger companies. To avoid this, Devolver Digital instead turned to digital distribution channels.


title: Devolver Digital

text: Devolver Digital started by publishing high-definition remakes of games in the "Serious Sam" series. After success with these remakes and spin-off games based on the series, Devolver Digital began publishing games from other, smaller independent studios, one of the first being their breakout title, "Hotline Miami". The company also operated Devolver Digital Films for film distribution, and majority-owns publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment. Devolver Digital employs 20 people. The company went public on the Alternative Investment Market in November 2021.


title: Devolver Digital

text: Devolver Digital was founded in Austin, Texas, by Harry Miller, Rick Stults, and Mike Wilson. The three had previously co-founded publishing companies Gathering of Developers in 1998, and Gamecock Media Group in 2007. With both Gathering of Developers and Gamecock Media Group, the co-founders had envisioned a publishing model wherein the publisher would handle all logistical aspects of releasing a game, so that the developer could focus on developing the game itself. This included offering deals wherein the developers could keep all rights to their games. However, at the time of these companies' existences, the primary distribution channel for games was retail, which was very costly. As a result, both companies saw themselves acquired by larger companies at some point, and were dissolved shortly thereafter. Devolver Digital thus aimed at not producing games in physical forms, and instead focusing publishing efforts for digital distribution platforms, such as Steam.


title: Devolver Digital

text: Devolver Digital started with six people, including the three founders, as well as founding partners Nigel Lowrie and Graeme Struthers, business partners from Gamecock. The company's establishment was announced on June 25, 2009. As the company did not occupy any office, its mailing address was that of a bird feed shop owned by Stults until 2018. Their first game, announced alongside their formation, was "", a high-definition remake of the 2001 game "", both developed by Croteam. The original "Serious Sam" games were published by Gathering of Developers, and Croteam had continued working with Wilson and his partners while at Gamecock Media Group. Since Croteam's deal with Gathering of Developers allowed Croteam to retain the rights to the series, they were able to work with Devolver Digital on further titles beyond the ownership of Gathering of Developers' assets. The partnership proved fruitful, and Croteam and Devolver Digital continued to co-operate for a high-definition remake of the second "Serious Sam" game, "". To avoid having to bring in investors or otherwise raise funding, Devolver Digital at first avoided signing titles other than "Serious Sam". The company then opted to work with smaller independent studios, such as the two-man team Vlambeer, to produces indie games based on "Serious Sam". Between 2011 and 2012, these partnership produced four spin-off games based on "Serious Sam", known as the "Serious Sam Indie Series".


title: Devolver Digital

text: Following their success with the "Serious Sam Indie Series", Devolver Digital became more open to other independent studios. The company signed a few new games, but also had to reject many offers due to a lack of capacities. One of the games they signed was "Hotline Miami" by the two-man studio Dennaton Games. The game, released in 2012, became Devolver Digital's breakout hit; it received critical praise, appeared on multiple "Best of 2012" lists, and sold over 1,700,000 copies by February 2013.


title: Devolver Digital

text: In March 2013, at the SXSW Film Festival, Devolver Digital announced Devolver Digital Films, a film distribution subsidiary. The partnership would be led by Devolver Digital's Wilson, alongside Andie Grace, who became vice-president of acquisitions. In the films business, Wilson had previously produced the film "Austin High", while Grace had held oversight roles for film projects created at the Burning Man Festival. Devolver Digital cited the lack of support for independent filmmakers at the point of distribution and financial support in production as primary reason for the opening.


title: Devolver Digital

text: Devolver continued to expand its publishing catalog from 2013, publishing roughly ten games per year. They have typically focused on smaller indie developers, and while they are often associated with weird and bizarre games, such as "Genital Jousting", this is only by happenstance, according to Wilson. Wilson withdrew from active involvement in Devolver Digital in 2017. Throughout 2020, he sold much of his stock back to the publisher and to NetEase. Wilson went on to found another publisher, DeepWell Digital Therapeutics, alongside Nextern founder Ryan Douglas in March 2022.


title: Devolver Digital

text: In August 2020, Devolver Digital published Mediatonic's "Fall Guys". The game was commercially successful, generating by the end of 2020. In March 2021, Epic Games acquired Mediatonic, as part of which Devolver Digital sold all its publishing rights of certain Mediatonic games, including "Fall Guys". Devolver Digital used the proceeds from the game and the rights sale for expansion, including mergers and acquisitions. The first such acquisition was Croteam in October 2020. At the time, the company comprised several legal entities, which were consolidated into one entity in February 2021. Devolver Digital then acquired publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment, which had previously been majority-owned by Devolver Digital's executives, in January 2021. Subsequently, the company bought developer Nerial (the developer of the "Reigns" series) in April, Firefly Studios ("Stronghold" series) in June, and Dodge Roll ("Enter the Gungeon") in July 2021. Furthermore, the company hired Daniel Widdicombe as chief financial officer in May 2021 and in the same year promoted Douglas Morin, who had joined the company as chief of staff in 2020, to chief executive officer. After indicating around May 2021 that it was looking to have an initial public offering, Devolver became a public company on November 4, 2021, trading its stock under the ticker symbol DEVO on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), a submarket of the London Stock Exchange, initially valued at (). At the time, that made Devolver Digital the largest American company to trade on the London Stock Exchange, and the second-largest company overall in value.


title: Devolver Digital

text: Devolver Digital presents Fork Parker, a fictional character, as their chief financial officer. The character first appeared in a promotional video for "Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter" in August 2009. A Twitter account is operated under Fork Parker's name, which, has 10,000 followers. He is also credited on Devolver Digital's blog posts and press releases. Fork Parker is intentionally presented as satirical and inappropriate. A game based on Fork Parker, "Fork Parker's Crunch Out" was developed by Mega Cat Studios for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and released by Devolver Digital in February 2019, with all profits going to Take This, a non-profit organization for mental health in the gaming community.


title: Devolver Digital

text: Devolver Digital announced in May 2017 that they were to hold a press conference at the E3 2017 exhibition event. The conference deviated from common practice, as it was a pre-recorded satirical video, entitled the "Big Fancy Press Conference", of a supposed live show, hosted by Devolver Digital's supposed chief synergy officer Nina Struthers, played by actress Mahria Zook. It included several mock announcements, such as that of a new microtransaction method where the customer could throw money at the screen to purchase items, and that of "Earliest Access", a parody on early access in which players could pre-order games that had yet to enter production. The video was directed by Don Thacker, the head of film production company Imagos Softworks.


title: Devolver Digital

text: Another "Big Fancy Press Conference" was held at E3 2018, with Zook reprising her role. This show introduced on a new item called the "Lootboxcoin", a parody of both cryptocurrency and loot boxes, which was a plastic coin that had no actual value, but was made available for purchase from Devolver Digital's online store for a fluctuating price. The presentation explicitly stated that the coin was not a cryptocurrency, should not be considered currency and warned viewers that they could not buy anything with it.


title: Devolver Digital

text: Devolver Digital held another "Big Fancy Press Conference" at E3 2019, revealing a direct-to-consumer "Devolver Direct" video (its name and format being a parody of Nintendo Direct). The show contained several announcements for actual games, including "Devolver Bootleg", a collection of games parodying other games published by Devolver Digital. The game was released alongside the announcement, at a 1% discount. The music for the three conferences was composed by John Robert Matz; a compilation album, titled "Devolver Digital Cinematic Universe: Phase 1 (Original Soundtrack)", was released through label Materia Collective in June 2019.


title: Devolver Digital

text: A second "Devolver Direct" was held on July 12, 2020. Alongside several game announcements (Both real and fake), Mock interviews with game characters and prominent industry figures, the Direct had frequent cutaways to the ongoing storyline established in past Devolver Directs: As characters try to save Nina who has been enslaved and transformed into a "Trans-interlocal Broadcast Conduit" from which she hosts the Directs against her will. The show culiminates with the announcement of Devolverland Expo Simulator, a first person "Marketing Simulator" designed to replace the then cancelled E3 expo of that year.


title: Devolver Digital

text: During the E3 2021 Digital expo, Devolver held another Livestream. Stepping back from the ongoing storyline, this stream instead focused on the employees of Devolver themselves as they announced the satirical "Devolver MaxPass+" Subscription service. A free "Monetization as a Service" that gave consumers access to purchase their games. Designed to poke fun at the rise of subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass that year, the service did not provide any tangible benefit to users and couldn't actually be purchased.


title: Devolver Digital

text: For the 2022 Summer Game Fest, Devolver hosted the "Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing", hosted by "MechaSuda" (A Max Headroom style video of Goichi Suda played on a screen inside a mechanical robot suit). The stream begins with almost a full minute of Suda just slowly counting down in seconds, until he is interrupted by Nina. Five game trailers are then shown in total, while the characters panic about an impending "Video Game Singularity": Caused by the repeated mergers of various large-scale videogame companies over the course of the last year. The stream ends with MechaSuda making a wish on a Lootboxcoin, rewinding time back to the start of the conference, then self destructing.


title: Devolver Digital

text: the company employs 20 people, all of whom work remotely. These included event planning team and staff focused on bringing the company's games to China, though this was later shut down. One key hire was vice-president of mobile publishing Mark Hickey in December 2018, who had been the business manager for Apple Inc.'s App Store.


title: Devolver Digital

text: Devolver Digital operates a film distribution arm, Devolver Digital Films, which was established in 2013. The company also owns another publisher, Good Shepherd Entertainment. A close collaborator to Devolver Digital is Special Reserve Games, a limited-run distributor of physical versions of games. Special Reserve Games was founded in 2016 by CEO Jeff Smith, after he had pitched Wilson the idea of creating a physical release of the PC version of "Shadow Warrior 2". Since then, Special Reserve Games has released further physical game releases, limited to only Devolver Digital games, though it is considering to partner with different companies in the future. Devolver also acquired Croteam on October 21, 2020.


title: Haier

text: Haier Group Corporation () is a Chinese multinational home appliances and consumer electronics company headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong. It designs, develops, manufactures and sells products including refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, dryers, microwave ovens, mobile phones, computers, and televisions. The home appliances business, namely Haier Smart Home, has seven global brands – Haier, Casarte, Leader, GE Appliances, Fisher & Paykel, Aqua and Candy.


title: Haier

text: According to data released by Euromonitor, Haier was the number one brand globally in major appliances for 10 consecutive years from 2009 to 2018. The Haier brand was also recognized by BrandZ in 2019 as the most valuable IoT ecosystem brand in the world with a brand value of $16.3 billion. In 2019, Haier Smart Home ranked 448 on Fortune's Global 500 list with a revenue of $27.7 billion.


title: Haier

text: Haier Group also consisted of two listed subsidiaries in three exchanges: Haier Smart Home (; ex-Qingdao Haier Co., Ltd.), Haier Electronics Group Co., Ltd. (), and "D-share" listing of Haier Smart Home in China Europe International Exchange of Frankfurt.


title: Haier

text: The origins of Haier date back long before the actual founding of the company. In the 1920s, a refrigerator factory was built in Qingdao to supply the Chinese market. After the 1949 establishment of the People's Republic of China, the factory was then taken over and turned into a state-owned enterprise.


title: Haier

text: By the 1980s, the factory had a debt of over CN¥1.4 million and suffered from dilapidated infrastructure, poor management, and lack of quality controls, resulting from the planned economic system and relevant policies. Production had slowed, rarely surpassing 80 refrigerators a month, and the factory was close to bankruptcy. The Qingdao government hired a young assistant city-manager, Zhang Ruimin, responsible for a number of city-owned appliance companies. Zhang was appointed the managing director of the factory in 1984.


title: Haier

text: Haier had been founded as Qingdao Refrigerator Co. in 1984. With China opening up to world markets, foreign corporations began searching for partnerships in China. One of these, Germany's refrigerator company Liebherr, entered into a joint-venture contract with Qingdao Refrigerator Co., offering technology and equipment to its Chinese counterpart. Refrigerators were to be manufactured under the name of Qindao-Liebherr (). The current brand "Haier" came from the last two syllables of the Chinese transliteration of Liebherr ().


title: Haier

text: The installation of Liebherr's equipment and technology was accompanied by new quality control and management processes. By 1986, Qingdao Refrigerator had returned to profitability and grew in sales at an average of 83 percent annually. Between 1984 and 2000 sales grew from CNY ¥3.5 million to ¥40.5 billion.


title: Haier

text: In 1988, the municipal government asked Haier to take over some of the city's other ailing appliance manufacturers. The company assumed control of Qingdao Electroplating Company (manufacturing microwave ovens). In 1991, the company changed its name to "Qingdao Haier Group" and acquired Qingdao Air Conditioner Plant and Qingdao Freezer. The company's name was simplified to its current name "Haier" in 1992. In 1995, the company took over Qingdao Red Star Electronics Co., a washing machine manufacturer, along with five of its subsidiaries. Haier acquired seven companies between 1995 and 1997, and began exporting to foreign markets.


title: Haier

text: In Southeast Asia, Haier opened production facilities in Indonesia in 1996 and the Philippines in 1997 and failed in an attempt to enter the Thai market due to the presence of local competitors.


title: Haier

text: Haier entered the US market in 1999. In the US it focused upon two niche markets in compact refrigerators and electric wine cellars. Haier began to manufacture full-sized refrigerators for North American market. This would bring it into direct competition with established American companies GE, Whirlpool, Frigidaire, and Maytag. As part of its strategy, Haier built a production facility in the United States at Camden, South Carolina, opened in 2000. By 2002, US revenues reached USD $200 million, still small compared to its overall revenue of $7 billion. Also in 2002, Haier moved into the Greenwich Savings Bank Building in midtown Manhattan. Formerly the headquarters for the Greenwich Savings Bank, the building was built in 1924 in the neo-classical style.


title: Haier

text: Production facilities were constructed in Pakistan in 2002 (see Haier Pakistan) and Jordan in 2003. In Africa, Haier has plants in five countries: Tunisia, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria and South Africa. The company also purchased a Meneghetti's factory in Italy and began placing its products in European retail chains, either under its own brand or under OEM agreements with foreign partners. Currently Haier has entered into a joint venture agreement with the government of Venezuela.


title: Haier

text: Haier Appliances (India) P. Ltd initiated its commercial operations in January 2004. Its headquarters is in New Delhi, and in 2015 it had 33 operations, including those in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, and Kolkata. It was listed among the top 20 most trusted brands in India by The Brand Trust Report, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory.


title: Haier

text: In June 2005, Haier made a bid to acquire Maytag Corporation, backed by private equity funds Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. The bid was for US$1.28 billion, or $16 per share, topping a previous offer of $14.26 per share made by Ripplewood Holdings. In the end, however, Maytag was bought by Michigan based Whirlpool Corporation which offered $1.7 billion in cash and stock, or $21 per share, plus assumed debt.


title: Haier

text: In 2009, Haier surpassed Whirlpool to become the fourth largest refrigerator producer in terms of sales with a global market share of 6.3%.


title: Haier

text: In June 2016 Haier Group acquired General Electric's appliance division for $5.4 billion. GE Appliances is headquartered in Louisville, KY.


title: Haier

text: In 2015, Haier began investigating how the internet of things could be integrated into their devices. The company cited by the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which found three barriers to the adoption of smart home technology: lack of unified protocols/single point of access, passive services and the lack of complete solutions. At the time Haier's core competencies lay within the large appliance sector and not the small electronics sector. Subsequently, they partnered with the then leading IoT platform IngDan () owned by the Cogobuy Group to overcame their shortcomings. By utilising Cogobuy's ecosystem and supply chain, they were able to integrate IngDan's portfolio of components, modules, and edge voice analysis into smart appliance products. Haier introduced their smart appliances across seven product lines in the major appliance industry: air, water, clothes care, security, voice control, health and information.


title: Haier

text: Zhang Ruimin, soon after becoming managing director in 1985, ordered his employees to destroy 76 refrigerators with sledgehammers following a customer complaint in an effort to radically change the company's culture to one that embodies quality control practices. At the time, Chinese brands for domestically produced consumer goods were generally regarded by overseas consumer markets as being of poor quality, even when compared subjectively with foreign brands manufactured in China. The cultural transformation towards quality driven manufacturing resulted in Haier becoming the first company in China to get ISO 9001 certification. Haier also announces environmental sustainable development strategy to improve the environment by conserving energy and recycling. In 2018，Haier got “Greener China Business Award” due to its outstanding efforts to protect the environment. In 2015, Haier joined WIPO GREEN as an official partner in a effort to address climate change.


title: Haier

text: In 1993, it listed a subsidiary Qingdao Haier Refrigerator Co. on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, raising CN¥370 million. In 2005, Haier entered the Hong Kong Stock Exchange through a "backdoor listing" by acquiring a controlling stake in a publicly listed joint venture Haier-CCT Holdings Ltd. (). Haier is also an index stock of the Dow Jones China 88 Index.


title: Haier

text: In 2014, Haier was accused by German media of allegedly delivering smartphones and tablets with pre-installed malware.


title: Ian Rush

text: Ian James Rush (born 20 October 1961) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a forward. At club level Rush played for Liverpool from 1980–1987 and 1988–1996. He is the club's all-time leading goalscorer, having scored a total of 346 goals in all competitions at the club. At international level, Rush made 73 appearances for the Wales national football team and remained the record goalscorer for his country until 2018, with 28 goals between 1980 and 1996.


title: Ian Rush

text: Among the Liverpool players, Rush came 3rd in the 100 Players Who Shook The Kop – an official Liverpool fan poll. He also had short spells with Chester City, Juventus, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Sheffield United, Wrexham and Sydney Olympic. Since retiring as a player in 2000, Rush has had a stint as manager of Chester City (2004–05), and has worked as a television football pundit.


title: Ian Rush

text: Born in St Asaph, Flintshire, Rush's reputation was enhanced by scoring for Chester City in a shock 2–0 FA Cup third round win at Second Division side Newcastle United in January 1980, with Chester City equalling their best run by reaching the last 16 where they narrowly lost to Ipswich Town. His last game for Chester City was a 2–1 win over Southend United at Sealand Road on 26 April 1980 in which he did not score.


title: Ian Rush

text: Despite interest from Manchester United, and in spite of Rush being a boyhood Everton fan, Liverpool won the race to sign the 19-year-old in April 1980, though he had to remain at Chester until the end of the season as the transfer deadline (27 March 1980) had passed. Recommended by chief scout Geoff Twentyman, Liverpool paid a record fee for a teenager of £300,000. It remained Chester City's record sale until they went bankrupt in March 2010. Rush was managed throughout his time at Chester by Alan Oakes, although much of the credit for his development is given to youth manager Cliff Sear. Nearly 20 years later, Rush and Sear worked together on the coaching staff at Wrexham.


title: Ian Rush

text: Rush made his international début, in May 1980, just before he officially became a Liverpool player. His Liverpool début came on 13 December that year in a First Division fixture at Portman Road against Ipswich Town. He was standing in for his future strike-partner, Kenny Dalglish (out with an ankle injury but at the time one of the most highly rated strikers in the world), and wore his No 7 shirt. At this stage, Liverpool were defending the league title and also contending for the European Cup, while Ipswich were emerging as surprise title contenders. Liverpool finished fifth (with Aston Villa winning the title), but they did win the European Cup (for the third time) and the League Cup (for the first time).


title: Ian Rush

text: The young Rush during his first season at Liverpool mostly played reserve team football rather than being thrown into the first team. His first goal for the club took time to arrive, but it eventually came on 30 September 1981 during a European Cup first round second leg tie at Anfield against Oulun Palloseura. Liverpool had already won the first leg at the Raatti Stadium 1–0. The second leg they won 7–0 with Rush scoring in the 67th minute after coming on three minutes earlier for David Johnson.


title: Ian Rush

text: His first two league goals came on 10 October 1981 in a 3–0 home win over Leeds United, and a month later he scored in the Merseyside derby at Anfield in a 3–1 win. After Christmas however, Rush and Liverpool moved from tenth up to the top of the league. He scored a hat-trick in the 4–0 away league win over Notts County on 26 January 1982, and was on the scoresheet in both of the next two games. He managed a total of eight goals in the League Cup (one of them in the final win over Tottenham Hotspur) and three of them in the FA Cup campaign which ended in a fifth round defeat by Chelsea. He ended the season as the club's top scorer, netting 30 times in 49 appearances in all competitions, a ratio of 1 goal every 1.6 games. 17 of these goals came in the League as he helped Liverpool reclaim the League championship from Aston Villa. He also scored a goal to help Liverpool win the 1982 Football League Cup Final against Tottenham Hotspur.


title: Ian Rush

text: He was voted PFA Young Player of the Year in 1983 after helping Liverpool to a second successive First Division/League Cup double, though once again success eluded them in the European Cup. He scored 24 League goals as Liverpool finished 11 points clear of runners-up Watford. On 6 November 1982 Rush scored four goals against Everton in a 5–0 victory, a post-war record for goals by a single player in a Merseyside derby.


title: Ian Rush

text: Liverpool's third successive League Cup triumph in this was added through a 2–1 win over Manchester United after extra time at Wembley. He was voted PFA Player of the Year and BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year in 1984 as Liverpool retained both the League and the League Cup and won the European Cup to complete a unique treble that season. Rush also added the Football Writers Footballer of the Year to the PFA award he had already claimed – the same feat that his strike partner Kenny Dalglish had achieved a year earlier.


title: Ian Rush

text: He scored 47 goals in 65 games (making him the highest goalscorer in all competitions for any professional club that season), a goal every 1.4 matches, as Liverpool finished three points clear of closest rivals Southampton in the League. They beat derby rivals Everton 1–0 in the replayed final of the League Cup (after a 0–0 draw in the first ever all-Merseyside final). They also won their fourth European Cup by defeating AS Roma 4–2 on penalties (Rush made it 3–2 before Bruce Grobbelaar's famous 'jelly legs' antics) following a 1–1 draw after extra time.


title: Ian Rush

text: The 1984–85 season was Liverpool's first trophyless season in ten years, though they did reach their fifth European Cup final against Juventus in the game of the Heysel Stadium disaster. Before the match kicked off rioting football hooligans caused a retaining wall to collapse, killing 39 Juventus supporters. The game ended in a 1–0 win for Juventus. Liverpool were beaten to the title by neighbours Everton, who were crowned champions with four matches to spare. The sequel to the Heysel disaster was an indefinite ban on all English clubs in European competition, with Liverpool set to serve an extra season once the ban was lifted on other English clubs. This meant that Rush and Liverpool were unable to compete in the 1985–86 UEFA Cup.


title: Ian Rush

text: The 1985–86 season Rush scored twice as Liverpool beat Southampton 2–0 in the FA Cup semi-final at White Hart Lane, booking a place at Wembley to face Everton in the first all-Merseyside FA Cup final. Liverpool had pipped their city rivals to the League title (which had also been contested with the likes of West Ham United and Manchester United) by beating Chelsea 1–0 at Stamford Bridge. Everton opened the scoring when Gary Lineker outpaced Alan Hansen to shoot past Grobbelaar at the second attempt and held this lead until half-time. In the second half Liverpool drew level in the 57th minute when Rush latched onto a pass from Jan Mølby to round Everton goalkeeper Bobby Mimms and slot the ball into an empty net. Six minutes later, Mølby was again at the heart of another attack. Picking the ball up inside the Everton penalty area, he drilled a cross for Craig Johnston to score. Liverpool were now 2–1 up, but the game was in the balance until the 84th minute, when Ronnie Whelan led another attack. With the game stretched, he picked the ball up and drove towards the edge of the Everton area. Dalglish made a run across his path into space, but Whelan used it as a dummy and clipped a pass over three Everton defenders into the path of Rush who, from the angle of the six-yard area, scored past Mimms. Liverpool held on to win 3–1 and completed the first League and FA Cup double in the club's history. Rush added the Man of the Match award to his winner's medal. However, the ban on English clubs in European competition was continued, and Liverpool were unable to enter 1986–87 European Cup.


title: Ian Rush

text: Since Dalglish's appointment as player manager in the 1985 close season, Rush had often found himself partnered with Paul Walsh in the Liverpool first team as Dalglish selected himself as a player less frequently.


title: Ian Rush

text: After attracting much interest from top European sides, Rush accepted an offer to sign for Italian club Juventus on 2 July 1986 for a British record transfer fee of £3.2m. However, he continued to play at Liverpool for one season on loan before making his début for Juventus. He was the second highest goalscorer in the Football League for the 1986–87 season with 30 First Division goals, but failed to win any major trophies as Liverpool finished second to Everton in the league and were defeated by Arsenal in the League Cup final despite Rush's opening goal, a result that also ended a long sequence – Liverpool had not lost any of the previous 144 games in which he had scored.


title: Ian Rush

text: However, it was viewed as a new challenge for Rush who would have the task of unlocking the much tighter defences in Serie A. His time at Juventus was less than successful, as he scored only eight times in 29 games; though this was partly explained by the Italian tradition at this time of tighter defences meaning that strikers tended to score fewer goals in Italy than they did in England.


title: Ian Rush

text: It has been said that he had a hard time settling in Turin, and that once he remarked "It's like living in a foreign country." However, he has denied both the feeling and the quote, stating as "absolutely untrue" that he was homesick and did not enjoy his time in Turin. "I was homesick at times, but it is one of the best things I've done in my life". In his autobiography Rush says that the quote was a joke made up by Kenny Dalglish, then in an interview published in "The Irish Times" in 2008, claimed that the quote was fictional.


title: Ian Rush

text: After just one season at the Stadio Comunale, he returned to Anfield, rejoining Liverpool for £2.7m on 18 August 1988 – a record signing for an English club at the time, which remained unbroken for three years. It was the third time that summer that the national transfer record had been broken. The news of Rush's imminent return was given to Liverpool fans before they journeyed south to London for yet another Charity Shield match. Before the game started, they were in full voice. However, this time they had a new song: "Rushie is back, Rushie is back". Although the Liverpool team of 1987–88 had played some outstanding football, such was Rush's stature amongst the Anfield faithful, they were pleased to see him return to the club.


title: Ian Rush

text: Rush's departure from Liverpool had sparked the acquisition of new strikers John Aldridge (whose physical resemblance to Rush was often remarked upon) and Peter Beardsley, and on his return to the Liverpool side he was partnered alongside these players to form a 4–3–3 formation. Rush's former strike partner Kenny Dalglish (who had been appointed player-manager in 1985) was still registered as a player but by then he was in his 37th year and rarely played in the first team, retiring completely in 1990. Rush published a diary of his frustrating time in Italy titled "My Italian Diary, 1989". In it, he reflected on his struggles to integrate himself in the dressing room at Juventus and adapt to the Italian style of play.


title: Ian Rush

text: On his return to Anfield, Rush had serious competition for a place in the new-look Liverpool attack, with John Aldridge having arrived at the club just before Rush's move to Juventus and Peter Beardsley having arrived shortly afterwards. It was deemed that Rush and Aldridge were too similar in style to be able to play together. Aldridge started the season in front of Rush and consistently scored goals, thus keeping the Welshman on the bench. As the season progressed, Rush came into some form. Rush had again scored twice against Everton in a thrilling 3–2 win in the 1989 FA Cup Final. He came off the bench to replace Aldridge, who had opened the scoring for Liverpool in the fourth minute of the game. The sides were locked at 1–1 after 90 minutes, but Rush put Liverpool ahead in the fourth minute of extra time. Everton midfielder Stuart McCall then brought the scores level for a second time, but Rush came up with the goods once more with an incisive finish in the 103rd minute to win the Cup for Liverpool.


title: Ian Rush

text: The 1989 FA Cup Final carried even greater significance because of the events of 15 April that year. In the semi-final, Liverpool had been drawn against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough, home of Sheffield Wednesday. However, the game was brought to an abrupt end at 3.06 pm due to the unfolding disaster. 94 fans were crushed to death that day, with the final death toll eventually reaching 97. Rush, along with his teammates, attended many of the funerals.


title: Ian Rush

text: Rush featured in the 1989 League title decider against Arsenal at Anfield. The Gunners needed to win by a two-goal margin to become champions, with a last-minute Michael Thomas goal famously giving them the title. Rush was injured during the first half of the game and had to be replaced by Peter Beardsley.


title: Ian Rush

text: At the end of that season, UEFA voted for the ban on English teams in European competitions to continue for at least one more season, meaning that Rush and his teammates would be unable to challenge for the Cup Winners' Cup.


title: Ian Rush

text: The 1989–90 season saw Rush win another League title, his fifth and last, as Liverpool finished nine points clear of Aston Villa, with Rush scoring 18 times in 36 games. However, another bid for the League–FA Cup double failed as Liverpool suffered a shock FA Cup semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace, even though Rush had given the Liverpool the lead with a goal in the 14th minute. The game ended in a 4–3 defeat, even more incredible considering that Liverpool had crushed the newly promoted South Londoners 9–0 in a league game earlier in the season.


title: Ian Rush

text: Although the ban on English clubs in European competition was lifted for the 1990–91 season, Liverpool were unable to compete in the European Cup as UEFA ruled that they would have to serve an extra year's suspension.


title: Ian Rush

text: 1990–91 saw Rush continue to score regularly and Liverpool led the table from the start of the season until January, having won their opening eight league games, but they were then overhauled by Arsenal and on 22 February 1991 Dalglish announced his resignation as manager. He was replaced by Graeme Souness but the change of manager was not enough to prevent the league title from slipping away from Anfield. Shortly after Dalglish's resignation, Liverpool were eliminated from the FA Cup in the fifth round by neighbours Everton, seeing their double hopes eliminated for the fourth season running (though this time at a much earlier stage). However, Liverpool finished second and were finally readmitted to European competition, qualifying for the UEFA Cup and giving Rush and his teammates their first chance of European action since 1984–85.


title: Ian Rush

text: In 1992, he picked up a third FA Cup winners' medal, scoring Liverpool's second goal, in the 67th minute, in the 2–0 win against Second Division Sunderland at Wembley. This gave Rush and his colleagues another chance of European football, this time in the shape of the Cup Winners' Cup. It was a successful end to a season where Rush had struggled with injuries, and Liverpool had finished sixth in the league. However, his third goal came in a crucial 2–0 home win over Manchester United on 26 April 1992 which denied their arch-rivals the championship, the title going instead to Leeds United – the conclusion to a campaign where the title challenge had been mostly a two-horse race in which Liverpool had merely been on the fringes. Surprisingly, this was the first time he had scored against Manchester United. Liverpool managed only a sixth-place finish in the league that season, the first time since 1981 that they had not finished champions or runners-up.


title: Ian Rush

text: 1992–93 was perhaps Liverpool's hardest season since beginning their current top flight tenure in 1962. They failed to mount a challenge for the new Premier League title, and as late as March they stood 15th in the table. Dismal form in the league had seen Rush dropped from the starting line-up, having scoring only three league goals by the beginning of March, with Souness favouring the likes of Ronny Rosenthal and Paul Stewart, but Rush returned to his peak during the final weeks of the season with 11 goals during the final two months, and he finished the season as the club's top scorer with 14 league goals. He topped the goalscoring charts once again in 1993–94, beginning the season with Nigel Clough as his strike-partner until the brilliant young Robbie Fowler broke into the first team. It was another disappointing season for Liverpool, however, as they continued to perform unremarkably in the Premier League and manager Graeme Souness stepped down in late January following a shock FA Cup exit at the hands of Bristol City. Long-serving coach Roy Evans took over as manager. Liverpool finished eighth in the league, once again missing out on European competition.


title: Ian Rush

text: Rush picked up his fifth League Cup winner's medal in 1995, when two goals from Steve McManaman saw off a spirited challenge from outsiders Bolton Wanderers, as Liverpool triumphed 2–1. Earlier in the competition Rush scored a hat-trick as Liverpool beat Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, the team who would go on to win the Premier League that season. Liverpool themselves achieved their best league finish since 1991, as they finished fourth in the Premier League.


title: Ian Rush

text: The 1995 close season saw Liverpool pay a national record fee of £8.4million for Nottingham Forest striker Stan Collymore, putting Rush's future at Anfield - and most of all his place in the first team - under doubt. However, he began the season as Liverpool's first choice striker alongside Collymore, only to be replaced by Robbie Fowler as Collymore's regular partner after a few games.


title: Ian Rush

text: Inevitably, his loss of a regular place in the first team sparked rumours of a transfer during the season. Peter Reid made an offer to Liverpool to sign Rush on loan for Division One promotion challengers Sunderland in January 1996, but Liverpool manager Roy Evans rejected this offer, despite having not fielded Rush in his first eleven for two months, saying that he needed Rush as cover for Fowler and Collymore, as Liverpool began their quest for the FA Cup and were distant challengers in the league title race.


title: Ian Rush

text: In late February 1996, it was announced that Rush would be leaving Anfield on a free transfer when his contract expired on 1 June. Numerous clubs were quick to express an interest in signing him. These included Everton, Sunderland, Oldham Athletic, Swansea City, Leeds United and Tranmere Rovers.


title: Ian Rush

text: His long association with Liverpool ended with a substitute appearance in the 1996 FA Cup Final against Manchester United. A hugely disappointing game looked to be heading for extra time and even a replay until Eric Cantona popped up with a late winner to give the Old Trafford side a 1–0 victory.


title: Ian Rush

text: Rush bid farewell to Anfield on 20 May 1996 when he agreed to sign for Leeds United. Rush spent a season with Leeds and scored three times in 36 Premier League games and was given a free transfer at the end of the 1996–97 campaign.


title: Ian Rush

text: He had been brought to Elland Road by manager Howard Wilkinson, who was sacked only a month into the season to be replaced by George Graham.


title: Ian Rush

text: He then linked up with Kenny Dalglish at Newcastle United on a one-year contract but lost his place in the side after Christmas, when Alan Shearer returned from a long-term injury. However, Rush did score an important goal in a 1–0 win over Everton in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, his 44th in the competition (a 20th-century record). He scored one other goal for Newcastle in a League Cup tie with Hull City.


title: Ian Rush

text: He went on loan to Sheffield United later in the season, before leaving St James's Park in the summer of the year 1998 to sign, amid much fanfare, for Wrexham. The 37-year-old less athletic Rush failed to score in 17 Division Two starts for the North Wales club, and was moved into midfield near the end of the season. He made a brief playing comeback with Sydney Olympic in Australia, scoring one goal in three games, before finally retiring, aged 38, in 2000 ending an illustrious career.


title: Ian Rush

text: Rush made his Welsh debut before he had been handed his first start for Liverpool, playing his first match on 21 May 1980 against Scotland in Glasgow, a 0–1 loss. He played his last international match on 24 January 1996 – a friendly match against Italy in Terni which Wales lost 0–3. Rush played regularly for the Welsh national team for more than 15 years, scoring 28 goals in 73 games.


title: Ian Rush

text: He scored in a friendly against Italy in Brescia on 4 June 1988, the only goal in a shock win. During his career the team never qualified for a major tournament, although in 1991 he scored the winning goal in a memorable Euro 1992 qualifier against Germany on 5 June 1991. On 9 October 1992, he netted a hat-trick in a 6–0 win over the Faroe Islands at Cardiff Arms Park in 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification, the first Welsh hat-trick in over 13 years, and one of only 14 in the nation's history. Rush was Wales' record goalscorer until 2018 when his record of 28 goals was surpassed by Gareth Bale.


title: Ian Rush

text: After working as a part-time striker's coach for Liverpool under Gerard Houllier in 2003, he was appointed manager of his first professional club, Chester City (by this time in Football League Two), in August 2004. Chester had made a dreadful start to their first season back in the Football League and Rush had a hard time at the helm. After losing 3–1 at Boston United in their first game in charge, they strung together a two-month unbeaten run and he led the club to the FA Cup third round. Rush seemed to be answering his critics, including former Liverpool teammate Mark Lawrenson, who doubted whether his tactical and coaching abilities could match his striking history.


title: Ian Rush

text: But after Rush ruled himself out of the running for the vacant Welsh manager's job on 1 November 2004 things never seemed to go as well. Several heavy defeats were inflicted and Rush was criticised for long-ball tactics his managerial team opted to use. Despite pressure from chairman Stephen Vaughan, Rush refused to resign after a humiliating 5–0 loss to neighbours Shrewsbury Town in February 2005. But when Vaughan sacked Rush's assistant Mark Aizlewood in April, after a 1–0 defeat at Darlington, without his knowledge, Rush resigned on principle. By the point of his resignation, Chester were virtually safe from relegation. His spell in charge saw youngsters such as Robbie Booth, Michael Walsh and Shaun Whalley all given their Football League debuts, while players including Michael Brown, George Elokobi and Robbie Foy all spent time on loan at the club.


title: Ian Rush

text: Rush was interviewed for the Peterborough United manager's job shortly after this but lost out to Mark Wright, who had played in the same Liverpool team as Rush from 1991 to 1996, and had preceded Rush as Chester manager.


title: Ian Rush

text: In 2005, at the age of 43, Rush considered coming out of retirement to play for TNS, after the Welsh side were drawn against Liverpool for their opening round Champions League qualifying match, but later decided against this.


title: Ian Rush

text: Since November 2005, Rush has been involved in media work within the game, including a stint as an analyst with ESPN. He also appears as a pundit and reporter for Sky Sports and Sky Sports News. He has also done work on LFC TV.


title: Ian Rush

text: On 27 April 2006, Rush was involved in the Marina Dalglish charity match, which pitted the 1986 FA Cup final teams of Liverpool and Everton against each other in aid of Breast Cancer Research, as Kenny Dalglish's wife Marina had been suffering from breast cancer and the proceeds from the match were being donated to the charity.


title: Ian Rush

text: Rush was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2006 due to his achievements in the game.


title: Ian Rush

text: On 7 September 2007 it was announced that Rush had been appointed Elite Performance Director for the Welsh Football Trust, a part-time role in which he would help develop the next generation of players for Wales' national teams.


title: Ian Rush

text: On 26 April 2010, it was announced that Rush had returned to work with Liverpool FC, becoming the Club's new Soccer Schools Ambassador and it was announced he would also work with the Club's commercial team to help develop and support partnerships with other global sponsors and brands. Rush can still be seen wearing the red of Liverpool as he is one of Liverpool's ambassadors on public relations tours for the club.


title: Ian Rush

text: In summer 2010, as part of an outdoor installation in Chester that featured seventy life sized fibreglass rhinos each with unique artwork, one rhino was in honour of Ian Rush. The rhino was painted with a black moustache and wearing a Chester City football kit and boots.


title: Ian Rush

text: In August 2014, Rush was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to "The Guardian" opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.


title: Ian Rush

text: In August 2016, Rush was named as ambassador for the 2017 UEFA Champions League Final, which took place in Cardiff, Wales.


title: Ian Rush

text: Ian Rush was the ninth of ten children born to Francis and Doris Rush, who lived in Flint, North Wales. Francis Rush, who worked in the steel industry for many years, died in July 2003 at the age of 78. Doris Rush died almost seven years later at the age of 82.


title: Ian Rush

text: Rush married Tracy in 1987. The marriage ended in 2015. They had two sons together: Jonathan and Daniel.


title: Ian Rush

text: He is the great-uncle of footballer Owen Beck, who made his debut for Liverpool in 2021 and is currently on loan at Bolton Wanderers.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Qusay Saddam Hussein al-Nasiri al-Tikriti (or Qusai, ; 17 May 1966 – 22 July 2003) was an Iraqi politician, military leader, and the second son of Saddam Hussein. He was appointed as his father's heir apparent in 2000. He was also in charge of the Republican Guard. Qusay and his brother Uday were killed in a U.S. raid in Mosul.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Qusay was born in Baghdad in 1966 to Ba'athist revolutionary Saddam Hussein, who was in prison at the time, and his wife and cousin, Sajida Talfah. Some sources have said the birth year was 1965, while others have said it was either 1967 or 1968. He was widely described to be a family man and an attorney in training.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: He married Sahar Maher Abd al-Rashid; the daughter of Maher Abd al-Rashid, a top ranking military official, and had three sons: Mustafa (3 January 1989 – 22 July 2003), Yahya Adnan (born 1991) (heir apparent of his grand father Saddam) and Saddam Ali (born 1995).


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Qusay reportedly played a role in crushing the Shiite uprising in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War and is also thought to have masterminded the destruction of the southern marshes of Iraq. The wholesale destruction of these marshes ended a centuries-old way of life that prevailed among the Shiite Marsh Arabs who made the wetlands their home, and ruined the habitat for dozens of species of migratory birds. The Iraqi government stated that the action was intended to produce usable farmland, though a number of outsiders believe the destruction was aimed against the Marsh Arabs as retribution for their participation in the 1991 uprising.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Uday was viewed as their father's heir apparent until he sustained serious injuries in a 1996 assassination attempt. Unlike Uday, who was known for extravagance and erratic, violent behavior, Qusay kept a low profile.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Iraqi dissidents claimed that Qusay was responsible for the killing of many political activists. "The Sunday Times" reported that Qusay Hussein ordered the killing of Khalis Mohsen al-Tikriti, an engineer at the military industrialization organization, because he believed Mohsen was planning to leave Iraq. In 1998, Iraqi opposition groups accused Qusay Hussein of ordering the execution of thousands of political prisoners after hundreds of inmates were similarly executed to make room for new prisoners in crowded jails.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Hussein's service in the Iraqi Republican Guard began around 2000. He had final say in many military decisions unless Saddam intervened. It is believed that he became the supervisor of the Guard and the head of internal security forces (possibly the Special Security Organization (SSO)), and had authority over other Iraqi military units.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Despite his cunningness, Iraq’s defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai claimed that Qusay “knew nothing [about commanding military]. He understood only simple military things like a civilian. We prepared information and advice for him and he'd accept it or not.”


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Hours before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Qusay withdrew approximately $1 billion from the central bank in Baghdad, acting on personal orders from Saddam. He arrived at the bank in Baghdad at 4am on March 18, hours before the first US strikes, seized around $900 million in $100 bills and a further $100 million in euros, loaded them into three tractor-trailers, and left. this is recognised as the biggest bank heist in history.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: On August 1, 2002, Qusay was shot by members of the Iraqi National Congress during a motorcade. He received injuries to his arm. He was said to have survived a previous assassination attempt in 2001.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Saddam Hussein's closest aide and personal secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmud, had been captured, and told his interrogators that he and Saddam's two sons had sought refuge in Syria but were turned back. According to the smuggler who took them across the border, they came again after less than 48 hours. They said to the smuggler: "A Syrian citizen will be waiting for a call from them and my mission is limited to bring them to the borders, not inside Syria." The smuggler said, "They sought refuge with some of their acquaintances near the Rabia border center, and they already reached the outskirts of the city of Aleppo, and there, after replacing the broken tires of their car, the Syrian authorities, who ordered their return to Iraq, stopped them. Abd Hammoud was not staying with them, but he visited them for four days and on the fourth day they left the house. Accompanying Abid Hamid towards Mosul, there Uday and Qusay took refuge in the house of Nawaf Al-Zaidan, joined by Mustafa Qusay, who was staying with his grandfather, Maher Abdul-Rashid. On 16 July 2003, he met with Qusay again, asked if he had an intention to get out of Iraq, to which Qusay replied, 'This is no longer possible. I will stay in Iraq awaiting the instructions of the father.' During their time at the villa, the sheikh reportedly left Uday and Qusay playing video games for weeks. Seven days later, Uday, Qusay, Qusay's 14-year-old son Mustafa, and their companion Abdul-Samad were killed." Abdul Halim Khaddam, the former vice president of Syria, revealed that his country handed over the half brother of Saddam Hussein to the American forces. They also deported the sons of the ousted president to Iraq and refused to receive the former foreign minister, Tariq Aziz.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: On the afternoon of 22 July 2003, troops of the 101st Airborne 3/327th Infantry HQ and C-Company, aided by U.S. Special Forces, killed Qusay Hussein, his 14-year-old son Mustafa, his older brother Uday Hussein and a bodyguard during a raid on a house in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Acting on a tip provided the previous day from Nawaf al-Zaidan, an alleged cousin and friend of Saddam Hussein who had been sheltering the four in his home for numerous weeks, a special forces team attempted to apprehend everyone in the house at the time. After being fired upon, the special forces moved back and called for backup. After Task Force 121 members were wounded, the 3/327th Infantry surrounded and fired on the house with a TOW missile, Mk 19 grenade launcher, M2 machine guns and small arms. After about four hours of battle (the whole operation lasted 6 hours), the soldiers entered the house and found four dead, including the two brothers and their bodyguard. There were reports that Qusay Hussein's 14-year-old son Mustafa was the fourth body found. Brigadier general Frank Helmick, the assistant commander of 101st Airborne, commented that all occupants of the house died during the gun battle before U.S. troops were able to enter.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Soldiers, who tried to enter the house three times, encountered small arms fire and grenades in the first two attempts. Uday, Qusay, and their guard protected the street and the first floor from the bathroom at the front of the house; Qusay's son took cover from the bedroom in the back. The American forces then bombed the house many times and fired missiles. Three adults were thought to have died due to the TOW missile fired into the front of the house. In the third attempt, the soldiers killed Qusay's son after he fired at them.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Brigade commander Colonel Joe Anderson said an Arabic announcement was made at 10 A.M. on the day and called on people inside to come out peacefully. In response, the occupants opened fire. An experienced team of commandos tried to attack the building, but they had to retreat under fire. Four American soldiers were injured. Anderson then ordered his men to fire with 50-caliber heavy machine guns. Uday and Qusay Hussein refused to surrender even after a helicopter fired a rocket and the Strike Brigade fired 40mm grenades at them. The Colonel decided that more firepower was necessary to take down the brothers, leading to 12 TOW missiles being fired into the building.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: After his sons' death, Saddam Hussein recorded a tape and said, "Beloved Iraqis, your brothers Uday and Qusay, and Mustafa, the son of Qusay, took a stand of faith, which pleases God, makes a friend happy, and makes an enemy angry. They stood in the arena of jihad in Mosul, after a valiant battle with the enemy that lasted six hours. The armies of aggression mobilised all types of weapons of the ground forces against them and succeeded to harm them only when they used planes against the house where they were. Thus, they adopted a stand with which God has honoured this Hussein family so that the present would be a continuation of the brilliant, genuine, faithful, and honourable past. We thank God for what he has ordained for us when he honoured us with their martyrdom for his sake. We ask Almighty God to satisfy them and all the righteous martyrs after they satisfied him with their faithful Jihadist stand. Had Saddam Hussein had 100 children, other than Uday and Qusay, Saddam Hussein would have sacrificed them on the same path. God honoured us by their martyrdom. If you had killed Uday, Qusay, Mustafa, and another mujahideen man with them, all the youths of our nation and the youths of Iraq are Uday, Qusay, and Mustafa in the fields of jihad."


title: Qusay Hussein

text: On 23 July 2003, the American command stated that it had conclusively identified two of the dead men as Saddam Hussein's sons from dental records. Because many Iraqis were skeptical of news of the deaths, the U.S. Government released photos of the corpses and allowed Iraq's governing council to identify the bodies despite the U.S. objection to the publication of American corpses on Arab television. Both brothers had grown long beards to avoid detection. Afterwards, their bodies were reconstructed by morticians. For example, Qusay Hussein's beard was shaved and gashes from the battle were removed. Qusay Hussein was the ace of clubs in the coalition forces' most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. His father was the ace of spades and his brother was the ace of hearts.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: The U.S. government also announced that the informant (possibly the owner of the villa, Nawaf al-Zaidan, in Mosul in which the brothers were killed) would receive the combined $30 million reward previously offered for their apprehension.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: Qusay Hussein's other two sons, Yahya Qusay and Yaqub Qusay, are presumed alive, but their whereabouts are unknown.


title: Qusay Hussein

text: In 2017, his nephew Massoud claimed his body was stolen by the Iranian government although this was unproven.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: Zaporizhzhia Oblast (), also referred to as Zaporizhzhia (), is an oblast (province) of southeast Ukraine. Its capital is Zaporizhzhia. The oblast covers an area of , and its population is .


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: This oblast is an important part of Ukraine's industry and agriculture. Most of the area of the oblast has been under Russian military occupation since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, including all of the coast, although the capital and the majority of the population remains under Ukrainian administration.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: On 30 September 2022 Russia annexed the Donetsk (Donetsk People's Republic), Luhansk (Luhansk People's Republic), Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts. However, the referendums and subsequent annexations are internationally unrecognized.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: Zaporizhzhia Oblast is characterized by a flat landscape. Soils are mostly chernozem. Knowledge of the relief of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast today is especially important because of the problem of land reclamation and its more intensive use.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: The territory of Zaporizhzhia Oblast as a whole has a flat topography, but there are markedly elevated and depressed areas, which differ in shape, origin, and age.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: The highest central-eastern part of the oblast is the Azov Upland. It extends to the east and to the territory of Donetsk Oblast, where it meets the Donetsk ridge. In the south, between the Azov Upland and the Sea of Azov, is the western part of the Azov coastal plain, which flows into the Black Sea west of the Molochna River. The northeastern end of the coastal plain merges with the Zaporizhzhia inner plain, which borders the southeastern outskirts of the Dnieper Upland. Thus, the territory of Zaporizhia Oblast consists of two distinct geomorphological parts: the outskirts of the Azov and Dnipro uplands, which structurally correspond to the southeastern part of the Ukrainian crystalline massif and the outskirts of the coastal Priazov and Black Sea plains, which are located within the Black Sea basin.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: The area corresponding approximately to the modern Zaporizhzhia Oblast—according to Herodotus—was called in antiquity as the land of Gerrhos. This area was the burial place of the kings of the "Royal Scythians".


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: The modern Zaporizhzhia Oblast was created as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on 10 January 1939 out of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: During the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum, 90.66% of votes in the oblast were in favor of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian armed forces occupied the southern part of the oblast, defeating the Ukrainian armed forces at Melitopol and at Enerhodar. Ukrainian forces conducted an attack that destroyed a Russian ship and damaged two others in the port of Berdiansk. the northern parts of the oblast, including its capital city, Zaporizhzhia, are controlled by Ukraine.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: On 4–5 July 2022 during the international Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2022) hosted in Lugano, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden pledged to support the rebuilding of Zaporizhzhia region.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: On 23–27 September 2022, the Russian Federation held a referendum in the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts for "independence and subsequent entry into the Russian Federation". These referendums are recognized by most states to be staged and against international law. On 29 September 2022, the Russian Federation recognized Zaporizhzhia Oblast as an independent state. On 30 September, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast and three other Ukrainian territories, and signed "accession decrees" that are widely considered to be illegal. At that time, Russia was only in control of about 70% of the province as a whole. The United Nations General Assembly subsequently passed a resolution calling on countries not to recognise what it described as an "attempted illegal annexation" and demanded that Russia "immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw".


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: Until the major administrative reforms of 2020, the Zaporizhzhia Oblast was administratively subdivided into 20 raions (districts) as well as 5 cities (municipalities) that are directly subordinate to the oblast government: Berdiansk, Enerhodar, Melitopol, Tokmak, and the administrative center of the oblast, Zaporizhzhia.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: Note: Asterisks (*) Although the administrative center of the raion is in the city/town that it is named after, cities do not answer to the raion authorities (only towns do), but are directly subordinated to the oblast government and therefore are not counted as part of raion statistics.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: Following the reforms of 2020, the oblast is divided into just five new raions, which incorporate the 5 former city (municipalities) that were directly subordinate to the oblast government:


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: 679 daytime and 11 evening state schools plus 6 daytime schools that are non-budget supported secondary schools involved 271,400 pupils in 2001. 22 classical schools, 8 lyceums, a Sichovy collegium and 54 education-breeding complex bodies aren't out of reach to gifted children. New style 38 complex kindergarten-schools work too.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: Over 60,000 children develop their talents through out-of-school institutions. They attend 30 creative centres, 6 science-technical stations and four young naturalists' stations, five tourist clubs, three training flotillas, 11 children's sports clubs and 20 sports schools. The extra-scholastic education system has such a unique body as the Small Academy of Science. Boys and girls work there in six main disciplines: physics-mathematics, chemistry-biology, history-geography, philology, industrial and information technologies. The Small Academy young members maintain close friendly relations with scientists of big institutes and universities. 26 youngsters became winners of the All-Ukrainian Academy contest, so the Zaporizhzhia oblast team gained the 1st place.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: 325 secondary schools, five classical schools, a collegium, and three comprehensive schools use the Ukrainian language. Nevertheless, the minorities have a free choice—193 schools are Russian, a large Jewish school «Alef» works in Zaporizhzhia and smaller ones exist in other points, a Ukrainian-Bulgarian Lyceum is in Primorsky district. The Greek, Czech, Bulgarian languages are very popular in Yakimivsky, Berdyansky, Priazovsky and Melitopole rural districts. One may learn Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Polish, Tatar and other languages attending option courses anywhere.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: Specialists keep on looking for an adaptive school model. 26 institutions develop the humanization process using new teaching technologies. The Khortitsky multi-profile teaching-rehabilitation centre has worked out methods for complete support of sanatorium-boarding-schools' children. Berdiansk is the town where a regional boarding school for orphans works out active socialization programs.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: 42 institutions provide vocational education. This system distributes well-trained workers to regional industries and businesses. The list of specialties includes over 100 names. Vocational schools give courses for improving qualifications in cooperation with unemployment centres. More than 1,500 jobless persons get new professions every year due to it.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: The higher education system is the most flexible and advanced. Today 25 state-controlled technical colleges have I-II class rank and 8 higher institutions have III-IV class certificates. These are the University and the Zaporizhzhia Politechnic, the Medical University and the Institute of Law with Ministry of Internal Affairs in Zaporizhzhia City, the Pedagogical University, the Agricultural Academy in Melitopol and the Pedagogical Institute in Berdiansk. There are also five higher-education private bodies—the Institute of Economics and Information Technologies, the State and Municipal Government Institute and the others. Over 65,000 people are students in this oblast. There are 212 Doctors of Science and 1,420 Candidates of Science among their lecturers. The city of Zaporizhzhia is one of the biggest centres for foreigners' education in Ukraine.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: The International Astronomical Union named two minor planets 5936 Khadzhinov and 19082 Vikchernov in honor of Ukrainians from Zaporizhizhia Oblast who made a significant contribution in science and education.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: The volume of the gross regional product of the oblast in 2016 amounted to 104,323 million UAH (9th place among the regions). The total contribution of the oblast to the GRP of Ukraine was 4.4%.


title: Zaporizhzhia Oblast

text: The amount of gross value added (GVA) in 2016 amounted to 82,054 million UAH (9th place among the oblasts).


title: Khabarovsk

text: Khabarovsk () is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about north of Vladivostok. With a 2010 population of 577,441 it is Russia's easternmost city with more than half a million inhabitants. The city was the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia from 2002 until December 2018, when Vladivostok took over that role. It is the largest city in the Russian Far East, having overtaken Vladivostok in 2015. It was known as "Khabarovka" until 1893. As is typical of the interior of the Russian Far East, Khabarovsk has an extreme climate with very strong seasonal swings resulting in strong cold winters and relatively hot and humid summers.


title: Khabarovsk

text: Historical records indicate that a city was founded on the site in the eighth century. The Tungusic peoples are indigenous to the city's vicinity. The city was named () in Chinese when it was part of the Chinese empire. During the Tang dynasty, Boli was the capital of Heishui Protectorate, called Heishui Duhufu.


title: Khabarovsk

text: In the mid-17th century, the Amur Valley became the scene of hostilities between the Russian Cossacks, who tried to expand into the region and collect tribute from the natives, and the rising Manchu Qing dynasty, who were intent on securing the region for themselves.


title: Khabarovsk

text: The Russian explorers and raiders of the 1650s set up a number of more or less fortified camps ("ostrogs") on the Amur. Most of them were in use for only a few months and later destroyed. It is usually thought that the first such camp in the general area of today's Khabarovsk was the fortified winter camp named Achansk () or Achansky gorodok (), built by the Cossacks of Yerofey Khabarov in September 1651 after they had sailed to the area from the upper Amur. The fort was named after the local tribe whom Khabarov's people called "Achans". On October 8 the fort was unsuccessfully attacked by joint forces of Achans and Duchers (who had good reasons to hate the Cossacks, due to their rather heavy-handed tribute-extraction tactics), while many Russians were away fishing. In late November, Khabarov's people undertook a three-day campaign against the local chief Zhakshur (Жакшур) (whose name is also known in a more Russian version, Zaksor (Заксор)), collecting a large amount of tribute and announcing that the locals were now subjects of the Russian Czar. A similar campaign was waged later in winter against the Ducher chief Nechiga (Нечига), farther away from Achansk.


title: Khabarovsk

text: On March 24 (or 26), 1652, Fort Achansk was attacked by Manchu cavalry, led by Ninguta's commander Haise, reinforced by Ducher auxiliaries, but the Cossacks stood their ground in a day-long battle and even managed to seize the attackers' supply train. Once the ice on the Amur broke in the spring of 1652, Khabarov's people destroyed their fort and sailed away.


title: Khabarovsk

text: The exact location of Khabarov's Achansk has long been a subject for debate among Russian historians and geographers. A number of locations, both upstream and downstream of today's Khabarovsk, have been proposed since Richard Maack, one of the first Russian scholars to visit the region, identified Achansk in 1859 with the ruins on Cape Kyrma, which is located on the southern (Chinese) shore of the Amur, upstream of Khabarovsk. The most widely accepted point of view is probably that of Boris Polevoy, who believed that Khabarov's Achansk was located in the Nanai village later known as Odzhal-Bolon (), located on the left bank of the Amur, closer to Amursk than to Khabarovsk. One of his arguments was that both Khabarov's Achan (sometimes also spelt by the explorer as Otshchan, Отщан), and Wuzhala (乌扎拉) of the Chinese records of the 1652 engagement are based on the name of the Nanai clan "Odzhal" (Оджал), corresponding to the 20th-century name of the village as well. (The name of the clan was also written as "Uzala", as in the name of its best-known member, Dersu Uzala).


title: Khabarovsk

text: Polevoy's view appeared to gain wide support among the Russian geographer community; petitioned by the Amur Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, the Russian Government renamed the village of Odzhal to Achan in 1977, to celebrate its connection with Khabarov's raid.


title: Khabarovsk

text: As to the Cape Kyrma ruins, thought by Maack to be the remains of Achansk, B.P. Polevoy identified them as the remains of another "ostrog" – namely, Kosogorsky Ostrog, where Onufriy Stepanov stayed a few years later.


title: Khabarovsk

text: After the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) between the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing Empire, the area became an uncontested part of China for the next century and a half. Modern historical maps of the Qing period published in China mark the site of future Khabarovsk as Bólì (). All of the middle and lower Amur region was nominally part of the Jilin Province, run first out of Ninguta and later out of Jilin City.


title: Khabarovsk

text: French Jesuits who sailed along the Ussuri and the Amur Rivers in 1709 prepared the first more or less precise map of the region. According to them, the indigenous Nanai people were living on the Ussuri and on the Amur down to the mouth of the Dondon River (i.e., in the region including the site of the future Khabarovsk). These people were known to the Chinese as "Yupi Dazi" ("Fish skin Tartars").


title: Khabarovsk

text: In 1858, the area was ceded to Russia under the Treaty of Aigun. The Russians founded the military outpost of Khabarovka (), named after Yerofey Khabarov. The post later became an important industrial center for the region. Town status was granted in 1880. In 1893, it was given its present name: Khabarovsk.


title: Khabarovsk

text: In 1894, a department of the Russian Geographical Society was formed in Khabarovsk and to found libraries, theatres and museums in the city. Since then, Khabarovsk's cultural life has flourished. Much of the local indigenous history has been well preserved in the Regional Lore Museum and Natural History Museum and in places like near the Nanai settlement of Sikachi-Alyan, where cliff drawings from more than 13,000 years ago can be found. The Khabarovsk Art Museum exhibits a rare collection of old Russian icons.


title: Khabarovsk

text: In 1916, the Khabarovsk Bridge across the Amur was completed, allowing Trans-Siberian trains to cross the river without using ferries (or temporary rail tracks over the frozen river in winter). During the Russian Civil War, Khabarovsk was occupied by Japan in September 1918.


title: Khabarovsk

text: After the defeat of Japan in World War II, Khabarovsk was the site of the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials, in which twelve former members of the Japanese Kwantung Army and Unit 731 were put on trial for the manufacture and use of biological weapons during World War II.