title: Raga

text: The North Indian "rāga" system is also called "Hindustani", while the South Indian system is commonly referred to as "Carnatic". The North Indian system suggests a particular time of a day or a season, in the belief that the human state of psyche and mind are affected by the seasons and by daily biological cycles and nature's rhythms. The South Indian system is closer to the text, and places less emphasis on time or season.


title: Raga

text: The symbolic role of classical music through "rāga" has been both aesthetic indulgence and the spiritual purifying of one's mind (yoga). The former is encouraged in Kama literature (such as "Kamasutra"), while the latter appears in Yoga literature with concepts such as "Nada-Brahman" (metaphysical Brahman of sound). "Hindola rāga", for example, is considered a manifestation of Kama (god of love), typically through Krishna. "Hindola" is also linked to the festival of "dola", which is more commonly known as "spring festival of colors" or Holi. This idea of aesthetic symbolism has also been expressed in Hindu temple reliefs and carvings, as well as painting collections such as the ragamala.


title: Raga

text: In ancient and medieval Indian literature, the "rāga" are described as manifestation and symbolism for gods and goddesses. Music is discussed as equivalent to the ritual "yajna" sacrifice, with pentatonic and hexatonic notes such as ""ni-dha-pa-ma-ga-ri"" as Agnistoma, ""ri-ni-dha-pa-ma-ga" as Asvamedha, and so on.


title: Raga

text: In the Middle Ages, music scholars of India began associating each "rāga" with seasons. The 11th century Nanyadeva, for example, recommends that "Hindola rāga" is best in spring, "Pancama" in summer, "Sadjagrama" and "Takka" during the monsoons, "Bhinnasadja" is best in early winter, and "Kaisika" in late winter. In the 13th century, Sarngadeva went further and associated "rāga" with rhythms of each day and night. He associated pure and simple "rāgas" to early morning, mixed and more complex "rāgas" to late morning, skillful "rāgas" to noon, love-themed and passionate "rāgas" to evening, and universal "rāgas" to night.


title: Raga

text: According to Cris Forster, mathematical studies on systematizing and analyzing South Indian "rāga" began in the 16th century. Computational studies of "rāgas" is an active area of musicology.


title: Raga

text: Although notes are an important part of rāga practice, they alone do not make the rāga. A rāga is more than a scale, and many rāgas share the same scale. The underlying scale may have four, five, six or seven tones, called "swaras" (sometimes spelled as "svara"). The "svara" concept is found in the ancient "Natya Shastra" in Chapter 28. It calls the unit of tonal measurement or audible unit as "Śruti", with verse 28.21 introducing the musical scale as follows,


title: Raga

text: These seven degrees are shared by both major "rāga" system, that is the North Indian (Hindustani) and South Indian (Carnatic). The solfege ("sargam") is learnt in abbreviated form: "sa, ri (Carnatic) or re (Hindustani), ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, sa". Of these, the first that is ""sa"", and the fifth that is ""pa"", are considered anchors that are unalterable, while the remaining have flavors that differs between the two major systems.


title: Raga

text: The music theory in the "Natyashastra", states Maurice Winternitz, centers around three themes – sound, rhythm and prosody applied to musical texts. The text asserts that the octave has 22 "srutis" or micro-intervals of musical tones or 1200 cents. Ancient Greek system is also very close to it, states Emmie te Nijenhuis, with the difference that each "sruti" computes to 54.5 cents, while the Greek enharmonic quarter-tone system computes to 55 cents. The text discusses "gramas" (scales) and "murchanas" (modes), mentioning three scales of seven modes (21 total), some Greek modes are also like them . However, the Gandhara-grama is just mentioned in "Natyashastra", while its discussion largely focuses on two scales, fourteen modes and eight four "tanas" (notes). The text also discusses which scales are best for different forms of performance arts.


title: Raga

text: These musical elements are organized into scales ("mela"), and the South Indian system of "rāga" works with 72 scales, as first discussed by "Caturdandi prakashika". They are divided into two groups, "purvanga" and "uttaranga", depending on the nature of the lower tetrachord. The "anga" itself has six cycles ("cakra"), where the "purvanga" or lower tetrachord is anchored, while there are six permutations of "uttaranga" suggested to the artist. After this system was developed, the Indian classical music scholars have developed additional "rāgas" for all the scales. The North Indian style is closer to the Western diatonic modes, and built upon the foundation developed by Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande using ten "Thaat": "kalyan, bilaval, khamaj, kafi, asavari, bhairavi, bhairav, purvi, marva and todi". Some "rāgas" are common to both systems and have same names, such as "kalyan" performed by either is recognizably the same. Some "rāgas" are common to both systems but have different names, such as "malkos" of Hindustani system is recognizably the same as "hindolam" of Carnatic system. However, some "rāgas" are named the same in the two systems, but they are different, such as "todi".


title: Raga

text: Recently, a 32 thaat system was presented in a book Nai Vaigyanik Paddhati to correct the classification of ragas in North Indian style.


title: Raga

text: Rāgas that have four swaras are called "" (सुरतर) rāgas; those with five swaras are called "audava" (औडव) rāgas; those with six, "shaadava" (षाडव); and with seven, "sampurna" (संपूर्ण, Sanskrit for 'complete'). The number of swaras may differ in the ascending and descending like rāga Bhimpalasi which has five notes in the ascending and seven notes in descending or Khamaj with six notes in the ascending and seven in the descending. Rāgas differ in their ascending or descending movements. Those that do not follow the strict ascending or descending order of swaras are called "vakra" (वक्र) ('crooked') rāgas.


title: Raga

text: In Carnatic music, the principal rāgas are called "Melakarthas", which literally means "lord of the scale". It is also called "Asraya rāga" meaning "shelter giving rāga", or "Janaka rāga" meaning "father rāga".


title: Raga

text: A "Thaata" in the South Indian tradition are groups of derivative "rāgas", which are called "Janya rāgas" meaning "begotten rāgas" or "Asrita rāgas" meaning "sheltered rāgas". However, these terms are approximate and interim phrases during learning, as the relationships between the two layers are neither fixed nor has unique parent–child relationship.


title: Raga

text: Janaka rāgas are grouped together using a scheme called "Katapayadi sutra" and are organised as "Melakarta" rāgas. A Melakarta rāga is one which has all seven notes in both the ārōhanam (ascending scale) and avarōhanam (descending scale). Some "Melakarta" rāgas are "Harikambhoji", "Kalyani", "Kharaharapriya", "Mayamalavagowla", "Sankarabharanam" and "Hanumatodi". Janya rāgas are derived from the Janaka rāgas using a combination of the swarams (usually a subset of swarams) from the parent rāga. Some janya rāgas are "Abheri", "Abhogi", "Bhairavi", "Hindolam", "Mohanam" and "Kambhoji".


title: Raga

text: In this 21st century few composers have discovered new ragas. Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna who has created raga in three notes Ragas such as Mahathi, Lavangi, Sidhdhi, Sumukham that he created have only four notes,


title: Raga

text: A list of Janaka Ragas would include "Kanakangi", "Ratnangi", Ganamurthi, "Vanaspathi", "Manavathi", Thanarupi, Senavathi, "Hanumatodi", "Dhenuka", "Natakapriya", "Kokilapriya", "Rupavati", "Gayakapriya", "Vakulabharanam", "Mayamalavagowla", "Chakravakam", "Suryakantam", "Hatakambari", "Jhankaradhvani", "Natabhairavi", "Keeravani", "Kharaharapriya", "Gourimanohari", "Varunapriya", "Mararanjani", "Charukesi", "Sarasangi", "Harikambhoji", "Sankarabharanam", "Naganandini", "Yagapriya", "Ragavardhini", "Gangeyabhushani", "Vagadheeswari", "Shulini", "Chalanata", "Salagam", "Jalarnavam", "Jhalavarali", Navaneetam, "Pavani".


title: Raga

text: Classical music has been transmitted through music schools or through Guru–Shishya "parampara" (teacher–student tradition) through an oral tradition and practice. Some are known as "gharana" (houses), and their performances are staged through "sabhas" (music organizations). Each "gharana" has freely improvised over time, and differences in the rendering of each "rāga" is discernible. In the Indian musical schooling tradition, the small group of students lived near or with the teacher, the teacher treated them as family members providing food and boarding, and a student learnt various aspects of music thereby continuing the musical knowledge of their guru. The tradition survives in parts of India, and many musicians can trace their guru lineage.


title: Raga

text: The music concept of "rāk" or "rang" (meaning “colour”) in Persian is probably a pronunciation of "rāga". According to Hormoz Farhat, it is unclear how this term came to Persia, it has no meaning in modern Persian language, and the concept of "rāga" is unknown in Persia.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: The Internet Adult Film Database (IAFD) is an online database of information pertaining to, in United States, the pornography industry: actors, actresses, directors, studios, distributors and pornographic films.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: The predecessor to IAFD was email- and FTP-accessible database of adult film actresses called Abserver that had been created by Dan Abend in 1993.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: IAFD was started by Peter van Aarle, who had collected data on adult movies since 1981, when he began keeping notes on index cards on adult movies he had seen or were reviewed in "Adam Film World". In 1993, he began contributing to the Usenet newsgroup alt.sex.movies, where he met Dan Abend. The two exchanged databases and began work on a WWW-based database.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: Van Aarle later collaborated on this Web database with Ron Wilhelm, who went by the pseudonym of "Heretic". The first version of the IAFD was brought on-line in 1995 by the programming efforts of Wilhelm, who used the project as a training ground for SGML programming which he was learning in college. After Wilhelm left the Internet to join the military, the site eventually fell victim to link rot.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: In the fall of 1998, Van Aarle was at a trade show with Jeff Vanzetti, who asked if Van Aarle would be interested in resurrecting the IAFD — this time under its own domain. Vanzetti was looking for a project on which to teach himself on-line database programming using SQL Server, and this seemed like a natural fit, since they were both co-moderators of the newsgroup rec.arts.movies.erotica (RAME), and members of the newsgroup would often lament about the passing of the original Internet Adult Film Database.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: The beginning of 1999 brought the first steps towards the relaunch of the IAFD. Initially, search boxes only searched females, and data was restricted to movies released post-1989.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: In those early days of the IAFD I had made one stipulation: I did not want the movie info on movies before 1989 to be available. The idea behind this was basically that if I would ever decide I wanted to do something commercially with my database it would be a good idea to keep the most valuable parts of it off limits. The data on older titles was clearly the most difficult to compile (and very few people I ever talked to had much info on the older stuff, with a few notable exceptions like Jim Holliday), and therefore the more valuable part of the data. The cut-off date of 1989 was a compromise to include at least the titles of Buttman, who was one of the most popular directors of the time.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: Van Aarle died on September 18, 2005 at the age of 42 from a heart attack. In 2011, he was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: On March 1, 2007, the IAFD rolled out information on over 18,000 gay titles and some 39,000 gay performers.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: According to Vanzetti, IAFD adds about 500 new titles a month and processes thousands of corrections—corrections that anyone can submit for review. IAFD takes user corrections though forms on the site. The forms are not automated and corrections the site receives are manually updated after having been reviewed by the site's staff. IAFD has a "team of editors" that exercises editorial control over what's posted on the site: "If it's submitted by a fan of the performer and the working editor trusts the submitter, it gets listed. If it's published by someone else, it might get added—we are skeptical of user generated sites since anyone can submit anything to them regardless of accuracy and then it becomes 'fact'. Otherwise, no data." IAFD's policy on releasing real names of adult film performers is: "The exception to this rule is when it comes to real names. We're not interested in linking your real name to your porn name, so if your real name appears on the site, we will remove it (assuming we know what your real name is). However, if your real name appeared on a boxcover due to a mix up in the Art Department, there's little we can do about that."


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: IAFD gets "paid by sponsors for ad banners", and they "get an affiliate commission from products purchased" via the site.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: The site has been used as a reference by a variety of outlets that include newspaper articles, books, and research studies. The academic and non-academic writing community has also used the site's information to varying degrees. In 2011, the site released a report of compiled data for the year. Included in the statistics released were the number of new titles added that year (9,384) and a ranking of who the busiest performers were. The report also included site data, such as that it was visited by 20.7 million unique viewers and that visitors to the site viewed nearly a quarter of a billion pages. An editor at "AVN" magazine stated: "[it] underscores the fact that a lot of people not only like porn but want to research information about movies and performers."


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: On October 1, 2007, an article about the Internet Adult Film Database appeared in the online equivalent of the Brazilian newspaper "Folha de S. Paulo". Considered the "Internet Movie Database" of the adult entertainment world", the site is also routinely quoted or referenced by the majority of the industry trade publications, such as "Adult Video News" ("AVN") and XBIZ.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: On February 14, 2013, a study was released by freelance journalist Jon Millward that sampled the data from 10,000 actors (7,000 women and 3,000 men) from the site to, among other things, compile a profile of the "average porn star" as well as generate some statistics about adult industry actors based on IAFD data. The study was written about several days later on Playboy.com. It showed that the typical female porn star was a five-foot-five-inch brunette with B-cup breasts.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: The survey was started in 2011, with the researcher's first visit to IAFD.com, with the bulk of Millward's research taking place in the six months prior to the release of the study. For comparative results, the study also cites Center for Disease Control and U.S. Census statistics as well as information from a Stanford University linguistics professor.


title: Internet Adult Film Database

text: The survey covers roughly a 40-year span of the adult industry and presents statistics on categories such as age, race, state of origin, chosen screen name, biological data (height, weight, hair color, etc.), and the type of sexual acts performed over an actor's career.


title: Borders of Russia

text: Russia, the largest country in the world, has international land borders with 14 sovereign states as well as 2 narrow maritime boundaries with the United States and Japan. There are also two breakaway states bordering Russia, namely Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The country has an internationally recognized land border running in total, and has the second-longest land border of any country in the world, after China. The borders of the Russian Federation (formerly the Russian SFSR) were mostly drawn since 1956 (save for minor border changes, e.g., with China), and have remained the same after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in a move that remains internationally unrecognized.


title: Borders of Russia

text: As a transcontinental country in Eurasia, Russia shares borders in both Europe and Asia. Out of the 18 total land borders and maritime boundaries, 12 are in Europe and 5 are in Asia, while 1 border lies in the Bering Strait; between North America and Asia.


title: Borders of Russia

text: Russia shares borders with more countries than any other state in the world, owing to its large expanse. Both tables include two country pairs with exclusively aquatic boundaries (see below; in italics).


title: Borders of Russia

text: Below is a list of subjects with both neighbouring regions of Russia with them, and in the neighbouring regions of foreign countries.


title: Borders of Russia

text: The status of the Crimea and of the city of Sevastopol is currently under dispute between Russia and Ukraine; Ukraine and the majority of the international community consider the Crimea to be an autonomous republic of Ukraine and Sevastopol to be one of Ukraine's cities with special status, while Russia, on the other hand, considers the Crimea to be a federal subject of Russia and Sevastopol to be one of Russia's three federal cities since the March 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia.


title: Borders of Russia

text: In 2022, Russia declared the annexation of Ukraine's Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions, which remains internationally unrecognized.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Burma campaign was a series of battles fought in the British colony of Burma. It was part of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II and primarily involved forces of the Allies (mainly from the British Empire and the Republic of China, with support from the United States) against the invading forces of the Empire of Japan. Imperial Japan was supported by the Thai Phayap Army, as well as two collaborationist independence movements and armies. The first of these was the Burma Independence Army, which spearheaded the initial attacks against the country. The Indian National Army, led by Subhas C. Bose of the Free India movement, also collaborated with Imperial Japan, especially during Operation U-Go in 1944. Nominally independent puppet states were established in the conquered areas and some territories were annexed by Thailand. In 1942 and 1943, the international Allied force in British India launched several failed offensives to retake lost territories. Fighting intensified in 1944, and British Empire forces peaked at around 1,000,000 land and air forces. These forces were drawn primarily from British India, with British Army forces (equivalent to eight regular infantry divisions and six tank regiments), 100,000 East and West African colonial troops, and smaller numbers of land and air forces from several other Dominions and Colonies. These additional forces allowed the Allied recapture of Burma in 1945.


title: Burma campaign

text: The campaign had a number of notable features. The geographical characteristics of the region meant that weather, disease and terrain had a major effect on operations. The lack of transport infrastructure placed an emphasis on military engineering and air transport to move and supply troops, and evacuate wounded. The campaign was also politically complex, with the British, the United States and the Chinese all having different strategic priorities. It was also the only land campaign by the Western Allies in the Pacific Theatre which proceeded continuously from the start of hostilities to the end of the war. This was due to its geographical location. By extending from South East Asia to India, its area included some lands which the British lost at the outset of the war, but also included areas of India wherein the Japanese advance was eventually stopped. The climate of the region is dominated by the seasonal monsoon rains, which allowed effective campaigning for only just over half of each year. This, together with other factors such as famine and disorder in British India and the priority given by the Allies to the defeat of Nazi Germany, prolonged the campaign and divided it into four phases: the Japanese invasion, which led to the expulsion of British, Indian and Chinese forces in 1942; failed attempts by the Allies to mount offensives into Burma, from late 1942 to early 1944; the 1944 Japanese invasion of India, which ultimately failed following the battles of Imphal and Kohima; and finally the successful Allied offensive which liberated Burma from late-1944 to mid-1945.


title: Burma campaign

text: The campaign was also strongly affected from the political atmosphere which erupted in the South-East Asian regions occupied by Japan, who pursued the Pan-Asianist policy of a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". These led to a Japanese-sponsored revolution during the initial invasion and the establishment of the State of Burma, in which the Provisional Government of Free India, with its Indian National Army, was headquartered. The dominating attitude of the Japanese militarist who commanded the army stationed in the country, which ultimately doomed the co-prosperity sphere as a whole, led to local hopes for real Independence fade and the war-time established Burma National Army revolted in 1945. On the Allied side, political relations were mixed for much of the war. The China Burma India Theater American-trained Chinese X Force led to cooperation between the two countries, but the clashing strategies proposed by "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell and Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek would lead to Stilwell's eventual removal from his position as American Commander of the theater. On the other hand, China–India relations were positive from the cooperative Burma Road, built to reach the Chinese Y Force and the Chinese war effort inside of China, as well as from the heroic missions over the extremely dangerous air route over the Himalayas, nicknamed "The Hump". The campaign would have a great impact on the independence struggle of Burma and India in the post-war years.


title: Burma campaign

text: Japanese objectives in Burma were initially limited to the capture of Rangoon (now known as Yangon), the capital and principal seaport. This would close the overland supply line to China and provide a strategic bulwark to defend Japanese gains in British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese Fifteenth Army under Lieutenant General Shōjirō Iida, initially consisting of only two infantry divisions, moved into northern Thailand (which had signed a treaty of friendship with Japan), and launched an attack over jungle-clad mountain ranges into the southern Burmese province of Tenasserim (now Tanintharyi Region) in January 1942.


title: Burma campaign

text: In the face of the Japanese advances, huge numbers of Indians, Anglo-Indians, and Anglo-Burmese fled Burma, around 600,000 by the autumn of 1942, which was until then the largest mass migration in history. Perhaps 80,000 of those in flight would die from starvation, exhaustion and disease. Some of the worst massacres in Burma during World War II would be perpetrated not by the Japanese but by Burmese gangs linked to the Burma Independence Army.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Japanese successfully attacked over the Kawkareik Pass and captured the port of Moulmein at the mouth of the Salween River after overcoming stiff resistance. They then advanced northwards, outflanking successive British defensive positions. Troops of the 17th Indian Infantry Division tried to retreat over the Sittaung River, but Japanese parties reached the vital bridge before they did. On 22 February, the bridge was demolished to prevent its capture, a decision that has since been extremely contentious.


title: Burma campaign

text: The loss of two brigades of 17th Indian Division meant that Rangoon could not be defended. General Archibald Wavell, the commander-in-chief of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, nevertheless ordered Rangoon to be held as he was expecting substantial reinforcements from the Middle East. Although some units arrived, counterattacks failed and the new commander of Burma Army (General Harold Alexander), ordered the city to be evacuated on 7 March after its port and oil refinery had been destroyed. The remnants of Burma Army broke out to the north, narrowly escaping encirclement.


title: Burma campaign

text: On the eastern part of the front, in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road, the Chinese 200th Division held up the Japanese for a time around Toungoo, but after its fall the road was open for motorised troops of the Japanese 56th Division to shatter the Chinese Sixth Army to the east in the Karenni States and advance northward through the Shan States to capture Lashio, outflanking the Allied defensive lines and cutting off the Chinese armies from Yunnan. With the effective collapse of the entire defensive line, there was little choice left other than an overland retreat to India or to Yunnan.


title: Burma campaign

text: After the fall of Rangoon in March 1942, the Allies attempted to make a stand in the north of the country (Upper Burma), having been reinforced by a Chinese Expeditionary Force. The Japanese had also been reinforced by two divisions made available by the capture of Singapore and defeated both the newly organised Burma Corps and the Chinese force. The Allies were also faced with growing numbers of Burmese insurgents and the civil administration broke down in the areas they still held. With their forces cut off from almost all sources of supply, the Allied commanders finally decided to evacuate their forces from Burma. On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division.


title: Burma campaign

text: The retreat was conducted in very difficult circumstances. Starving refugees, disorganised stragglers, and the sick and wounded clogged the primitive roads and tracks leading to India. Burma Corps managed to make it most of the way to Imphal, in Manipur in India, just before the monsoon broke in May 1942, having lost most of their equipment and transport. There, they found themselves living out in the open under torrential rains in extremely unhealthy circumstances. The army and civil authorities in India were very slow to respond to the needs of the troops and civilian refugees.


title: Burma campaign

text: Due to lack of communication, when the British retreated from Burma, almost none of the Chinese knew about the retreat. Realising that they could not win without British support, some of the X Force committed by Chiang Kai-shek made a hasty and disorganised retreat to India, where they were put under the command of the American General Joseph Stilwell. After recuperating they were re-equipped and retrained by American instructors. The rest of the Chinese troops tried to return to Yunnan through remote mountainous forests and of these, at least half died.


title: Burma campaign

text: In accordance with the Thai military alliance with Japan that was signed on 21 December 1941, on 21 March, the Thais and Japanese also agreed that Karenni State and Shan States were to be under Thai control. The rest of Burma was to be under Japanese control.


title: Burma campaign

text: The leading elements of the Thai Phayap Army under General J. R. Seriroengrit crossed the border into the Shan States on 10 May 1942. Three Thai infantry division and one cavalry division, spearheaded by armoured reconnaissance groups and supported by the Royal Thai Air Force, engaged the retreating Chinese 93rd Division. Kengtung, the main objective, was captured on 27 May. On 12 July, General Phin Choonhavan, who would become the Thai military governor of the occupied Shan State later in the war, ordered the 3rd Division of the Phayap Army from the southern part of the Shan State to occupy Karenni State and expel the Chinese 55th Division from Loikaw. The Chinese troops could not retreat because the routes to Yunnan were controlled by Axis forces and many Chinese soldiers were captured. The Thais remained in control of the Shan States for the remainder of the war. Their troops suffered from supply shortages and disease, but were not subjected to Allied attacks.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Japanese did not renew their offensive after the monsoon ended. They installed a nominally independent Burmese government under Ba Maw, and reformed the Burma Independence Army on a more regular basis as the Burma National Army under General Aung San. In practice, both government and army were strictly controlled by the Japanese authorities.


title: Burma campaign

text: On the Allied side, operations in Burma over the remainder of 1942 and in 1943 were a study of military frustration. Britain could only maintain three active campaigns, and immediate offensives in both the Middle East and Far East proved impossible through lack of resources. The Middle East was accorded priority, being closer to home and in accordance with the "Germany First" policy in London and Washington.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Allied build up was also hampered by the disordered state of Eastern India at the time. There were violent "Quit India" protests in Bengal and Bihar, which required large numbers of British troops to suppress. There was also a disastrous famine in Bengal, which may have led to 3 million deaths through starvation, disease and exposure. In such conditions of chaos, it was difficult to improve the inadequate lines of communication to the front line in Assam or make use of local industries for the war effort. Efforts to improve the training of Allied troops took time and in forward areas poor morale and endemic disease combined to reduce the strength and effectiveness of the fighting units.


title: Burma campaign

text: Nevertheless, the Allies mounted two operations during the 1942–1943 dry season. The first was a small offensive into the coastal Arakan Province of Burma. The Indian Eastern Army intended to reoccupy the Mayu peninsula and Akyab Island, which had an important airfield. A division advanced to Donbaik, only a few miles from the end of the peninsula but was halted by a small but well entrenched Japanese force. At this stage of the war, the Allies lacked the means and tactical ability to overcome strongly constructed Japanese bunkers. Repeated British and Indian attacks failed with heavy casualties. Japanese reinforcements arrived from Central Burma and crossed rivers and mountain ranges which the Allies had declared to be impassable, to hit the Allies' exposed left flank and overrun several units. The exhausted British were unable to hold any defensive lines and were forced to abandon much equipment and fall back almost to the Indian frontier.


title: Burma campaign

text: The second action was controversial. Under the command of Brigadier Orde Wingate, a long-range penetration unit known as the Chindits infiltrated through the Japanese front lines and marched deep into Burma, with the initial aim of cutting the main north-south railway in Burma in an operation codenamed Operation "Longcloth". Some 3,000 men entered Burma in many columns. They damaged communications of the Japanese in northern Burma, cutting the railway for possibly two weeks but they suffered heavy casualties. Though the results were questioned the operation was used to propaganda effect, particularly to insist that British and Indian soldiers could live, move and fight as effectively as the Japanese in the jungle, doing much to restore morale among Allied troops.


title: Burma campaign

text: From December 1943 to November 1944 the strategic balance of the Burma campaign shifted decisively. Improvements in Allied leadership, training and logistics, together with greater firepower and growing Allied air superiority, gave Allied forces a confidence they had previously lacked. In the Arakan, XV Indian Corps withstood, and then broke, a Japanese counterstrike, while the Japanese invasion of India resulted in unbearably heavy losses and the ejection of the Japanese back beyond the Chindwin River.


title: Burma campaign

text: In August 1943, the Allies created South East Asia Command (SEAC), a new combined command responsible for the South-East Asian Theatre, under Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten. The training, equipment, health and morale of Allied troops under British Fourteenth Army under Lieutenant General William Slim was improving, as was the capacity of the lines of communication in North-eastern India. An innovation was the extensive use of aircraft to transport and supply troops.


title: Burma campaign

text: SEAC had to accommodate several rival plans, many of which had to be dropped for lack of resources. Amphibious landings on the Andaman Islands (Operation "Pigstick") and in Arakan were abandoned when the landing craft assigned were recalled to Europe in preparation for the Normandy Landings.


title: Burma campaign

text: The major effort was intended to be by American-trained Chinese troops of Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC) under General Joseph Stilwell, to cover the construction of the Ledo Road. Orde Wingate had controversially gained approval for a greatly expanded Chindit force, which was given the task of assisting Stilwell by disrupting the Japanese lines of supply to the northern front. Chiang Kai-shek had also agreed reluctantly to mount an offensive from the Yunnan.


title: Burma campaign

text: Under British Fourteenth Army, the Indian XV Corps prepared to renew the advance in Arakan province, while IV Corps launched a tentative advance from Imphal in the centre of the long front to distract Japanese attention from the other offensives.


title: Burma campaign

text: About the same time that SEAC was established, the Japanese created Burma Area Army under Lieutenant General Masakazu Kawabe, which took under command the Fifteenth Army and the newly formed Twenty-Eighth Army.


title: Burma campaign

text: The new commander of Fifteenth Army, Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi was keen to mount an offensive against India. Burma Area Army originally quashed this idea, but found that their superiors at Southern Expeditionary Army Group HQ in Singapore were keen on it. When the staff at Southern Expeditionary Army were persuaded that the plan was inherently risky, they in turn found that Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo was in favour of Mutaguchi's plan.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Japanese were influenced to an unknown degree by Subhas Chandra Bose, commander of the Indian National Army. This was composed largely of Indian soldiers who had been captured in Malaya or Singapore, and Indians (Tamils) living in Malaya. At Bose's instigation, a substantial contingent of the INA joined in this Chalo Delhi ("March on Delhi"). Both Bose and Mutaguchi emphasised the advantages which would be gained by a successful attack into India. With misgivings on the part of several of Mutaguchi's superiors and subordinates, Operation U-Go was launched.


title: Burma campaign

text: Stilwell's forces (designated X Force) initially consisted of two American-equipped Chinese divisions with a Chinese-manned M3 Light Tank battalion and an American long-range penetration brigade known as "Merrill's Marauders".


title: Burma campaign

text: In 1943 the Thai Phayap Army invasion headed to Xishuangbanna at China, but were driven back by the Chinese nationalist force.


title: Burma campaign

text: In October 1943 the Chinese 38th Division led by Sun Li-jen began to advance from Ledo, Assam towards Myitkyina and Mogaung while American engineers and Indian labourers extended the Ledo Road behind them. The Japanese 18th Division was repeatedly outflanked by the Marauders and threatened with encirclement.


title: Burma campaign

text: In Operation Thursday, the Chindits were to support Stilwell by interdicting Japanese communications in the region of Indaw. A brigade began marching across the Patkai mountains on 5 February 1944. In early March three other brigades were flown into landing zones behind Japanese lines by the Royal Air Force and the USAAF and established defensive strongholds around Indaw.


title: Burma campaign

text: Meanwhile, the Chinese forces on the Yunnan front (Y Force) mounted an attack starting in the second half of April, with nearly 75,000 troops crossing the Salween river on a front. Soon some twelve Chinese divisions of 175,000 men, under General Wei Lihuang, were attacking the Japanese 56th Division. The Japanese forces in the North were now fighting on two fronts in northern Burma.


title: Burma campaign

text: On 17 May, control of the Chindits passed from Slim to Stilwell. The Chindits now moved from the Japanese rear areas to new bases closer to Stilwell's front, and were given additional tasks by Stilwell for which they were not equipped. They achieved several objectives, but at the cost of heavy casualties. By the end of June, they had linked up with Stilwell's forces but were exhausted, and were withdrawn to India.


title: Burma campaign

text: Also on 17 May, a force of two Chinese regiments, Unit Galahad (Merrill's Marauders) and Kachin guerrillas captured the airfield at Myitkyina. The Allies did not immediately follow up this success and the Japanese were able to reinforce the town, which fell only after a siege that lasted until 3 August. The capture of Myitkyina airfield nevertheless immediately helped secure the air link from India to Chongqing over the Hump.


title: Burma campaign

text: By the end of May, the Yunnan offensive, though hampered by the monsoon rains and lack of air support, succeeded in annihilating the garrison of Tengchong and eventually reached as far as Longling. Strong Japanese reinforcements then counterattacked and halted the Chinese advance.


title: Burma campaign

text: In Arakan, Indian XV Corps under Lieutenant General Philip Christison renewed the advance on the Mayu peninsula. Ranges of steep hills channelled the advance into three attacks each by an Indian or West African division. The 5th Indian Infantry Division captured the small port of Maungdaw on 9 January 1944. The Corps then prepared to capture two railway tunnels linking Maungdaw with the Kalapanzin valley but the Japanese struck first. A strong force from the Japanese 55th Division infiltrated Allied lines to attack the 7th Indian Infantry Division from the rear, overrunning the divisional HQ.


title: Burma campaign

text: Unlike previous occasions on which this had happened, the Allied forces stood firm against the attack and supplies were dropped to them by parachute. In the Battle of the Admin Box from 5 to 23 February, the Japanese concentrated on XV Corps' Administrative Area, defended mainly by line of communication troops but they were unable to deal with tanks supporting the defenders, while troops from 5th Indian Division broke through the Ngakyedauk Pass to relieve the defenders of the box. Although battle casualties were approximately equal, the result was a heavy Japanese defeat. Their infiltration and encirclement tactics had failed to panic Allied troops and as the Japanese were unable to capture enemy supplies, they starved.


title: Burma campaign

text: Over the next few weeks, XV Corps' offensive ended as the Allies concentrated on the Central Front. After capturing the railway tunnels, XV Corps halted during the monsoon.


title: Burma campaign

text: IV Corps, under Lieutenant-General Geoffry Scoones, had pushed forward two divisions to the Chindwin River. One division was in reserve at Imphal. There were indications that a major Japanese offensive was building. Slim and Scoones planned to withdraw and force the Japanese to fight with their logistics stretched beyond the limit. However, they misjudged the date on which the Japanese were to attack, and the strength they would use against some objectives.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Japanese Fifteenth Army consisted of three infantry divisions and a brigade-sized detachment ("Yamamoto Force"), and initially a regiment from the Indian National Army. Mutaguchi, the Army commander, planned to cut off and destroy the forward divisions of IV Corps before capturing Imphal, while the Japanese 31st Division isolated Imphal by capturing Kohima. Mutaguchi intended to exploit the capture of Imphal by capturing the strategic city of Dimapur, in the Brahmaputra River valley. If this could be achieved, the lines of communication to General Stilwell's forces and the airbases used to supply the Chinese over the Hump would be cut.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Japanese troops crossed the Chindwin River on 8 March. Scoones (and Slim) were slow to order their forward troops to withdraw and the 17th Indian Infantry Division was cut off at Tiddim. It fought its way back to Imphal with aid from Scoones's reserve division, supplied by parachute drops. North of Imphal, 50th Indian Parachute Brigade was defeated at Sangshak by a regiment from the Japanese 31st Division on its way to Kohima. Imphal was thus left vulnerable to an attack by the Japanese 15th Division from the north but because the diversionary attack launched by Japanese in Arakan had already been defeated, Slim was able to move the 5th Indian Division by air to the Central Front. Two brigades went to Imphal, the other went to Dimapur from where it sent a detachment to Kohima.


title: Burma campaign

text: By the end of the first week in April, IV Corps had concentrated in the Imphal plain. The Japanese launched several offensives during the month, which were repulsed. At the start of May, Slim and Scoones began a counter-offensive against the Japanese 15th Division north of Imphal. Progress was slow, as movement was made difficult by monsoon rains and IV Corps was short of supplies.


title: Burma campaign

text: Also at the beginning of April, the Japanese 31st Division under Lieutenant-General Kotoku Sato reached Kohima. Instead of isolating the small British garrison there and pressing on with his main force to Dimapur, Sato chose to capture the hill station. The siege lasted from 5 to 18 April, when the exhausted defenders were relieved. A new formation HQ, the Indian XXXIII Corps under Lieutenant-General Montagu Stopford, now took over operations on this front. The 2nd British Infantry Division began a counter-offensive and by 15 May, they had prised the Japanese off Kohima Ridge itself. After a pause during which more Allied reinforcements arrived, XXXIII Corps renewed its offensive.


title: Burma campaign

text: By now, the Japanese were at the end of their endurance. Their troops (particularly 15th and 31st Divisions) were starving, and during the monsoon, disease rapidly spread among them. Lieutenant-General Sato had notified Mutaguchi that his division would withdraw from Kohima at the end of May if it were not supplied. In spite of orders to hold on, Sato did indeed retreat. The leading troops of IV Corps and XXXIII Corps met at Milestone 109 on the Dimapur-Imphal road on 22 June, and the siege of Imphal was raised.


title: Burma campaign

text: Mutaguchi (and Kawabe) continued to order renewed attacks. 33rd Division and Yamamoto Force made repeated efforts, but by the end of June they had suffered so many casualties both from battle and disease that they were unable to make any progress. The Imphal operation was finally broken off early in July, and the Japanese retreated painfully to the Chindwin River.


title: Burma campaign

text: It was the greatest defeat to that date in Japanese history. They had suffered 50–60,000 dead, and 100,000 or more casualties. Most of these losses were the result of disease, malnutrition and exhaustion. The Allies suffered 12,500 casualties, including 2,269 killed. Mutaguchi had already relieved all his divisions' commanders, and was himself subsequently relieved of command.


title: Burma campaign

text: During the monsoon from August to November, Fourteenth Army pursued the Japanese to the Chindwin River. While the 11th East Africa Division advanced down the Kabaw Valley from Tamu, the 5th Indian Division advanced along the mountainous Tiddim road. By the end of November, Kalewa had been recaptured, and several bridgeheads were established on the east bank of the Chindwin.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Allies launched a series of offensive operations into Burma during late 1944 and the first half of 1945. The command on the front was rearranged in November 1944. Eleventh Army Group HQ was replaced by Allied Land Forces South East Asia and NCAC and XV Corps were placed directly under this new headquarters. Although the Allies were still attempting to complete the Ledo Road, it was apparent that it would not materially affect the course of the war in China.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Japanese also made major changes in their command. The most important was the replacement of General Kawabe at Burma Area Army by Hyotaro Kimura. Kimura threw Allied plans into confusion by refusing to fight at the Chindwin River. Recognising that most of his formations were weak and short of equipment, he withdrew his forces behind the Irrawaddy River, forcing the Allies to greatly extend their lines of communication.


title: Burma campaign

text: In Arakan, XV Corps resumed its advance on Akyab Island for the third year in succession. This time the Japanese were far weaker, and retreated before the steady Allied advance. They evacuated Akyab Island on 31 December 1944. It was occupied by XV Corps without resistance on 3 January 1945 as part of Operation Talon, the amphibious landing at Akyab.


title: Burma campaign

text: Landing craft had now reached the theatre, and XV Corps launched amphibious attacks on the Myebon peninsula on 12 January 1945 and at Kangaw ten days later during the Battle of Hill 170 to cut off the retreating Japanese. There was severe fighting until the end of the month, in which the Japanese suffered heavy casualties.


title: Burma campaign

text: An important objective for XV Corps was the capture of Ramree Island and Cheduba Island to construct airfields which would support the Allies' operations in Central Burma. Most of the Japanese garrison died during the Battle of Ramree Island. XV Corps operations on the mainland were curtailed to release transport aircraft to support Fourteenth Army.


title: Burma campaign

text: NCAC resumed its advance late in 1944, although it was progressively weakened by the flyout of Chinese troops to the main front in China. On 10 December 1944, the 36th British Infantry Division on NCAC's right flank made contact with units of Fourteenth Army near Indaw in Northern Burma. Five days later, Chinese troops on the command's left flank captured the city of Bhamo.


title: Burma campaign

text: NCAC made contact with Chiang's Yunnan armies on 21 January 1945, and the Ledo road could finally be completed, although by this point in the war its value was uncertain. Chiang ordered the American General Daniel Isom Sultan, commanding NCAC, to halt his advance at Lashio, which was captured on 7 March. This was a blow to British plans as it endangered the prospects of reaching Yangon before the onset of the monsoon, expected at the beginning of May. Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, appealed directly to American chief of staff George Marshall for the transport aircraft which had been assigned to NCAC to remain in Burma. From 1 April, NCAC's operations stopped, and its units returned to China and India. A US-led guerrilla force, OSS Detachment 101, took over the remaining military responsibilities of NCAC.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Fourteenth Army, now consisting of IV Corps and XXXIII Corps, made the main offensive effort into Burma. Although the Japanese retreat over the Irrawaddy forced the Allies to completely change their plans, such was the Allies' material superiority that this was done. IV Corps was switched in secret from the right to the left flank of the army and aimed to cross the Irrawaddy near Pakokku and seize the Japanese line-of-communication centre of Meiktila, while XXXIII Corps continued to advance on Mandalay.


title: Burma campaign

text: During January and February 1945, XXXIII Corps seized crossings over the Irrawaddy River near Mandalay. There was heavy fighting, which attracted Japanese reserves and fixed their attention. Late in February, the 7th Indian Division leading IV Corps, seized crossings at Nyaungu near Pakokku. 17th Indian Division and 255th Indian Tank Brigade followed them across and struck for Meiktila. In the open terrain of Central Burma, this force outmanoeuvred the Japanese and fell on Meiktila on 1 March. The town was captured in four days, despite resistance to the last man.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Japanese tried first to relieve the garrison at Meiktila and then to recapture the town and destroy its defenders. Their attacks were not properly coordinated and were repulsed. By the end of March the Japanese had suffered heavy casualties and lost most of their artillery, their chief anti-tank weapon. They broke off the attack and retreated to Pyawbwe.


title: Burma campaign

text: XXXIII Corps had renewed its attack on Mandalay. It fell to 19th Indian Division on 20 March, though the Japanese held the former citadel which the British called Fort Dufferin for another week. Much of the historically and culturally significant portions of Mandalay were burned to the ground.


title: Burma campaign

text: Though the Allied force had advanced successfully into central Burma, it was vital to capture the port of Rangoon before the monsoon to avoid a logistics crisis. In the spring of 1945, the other factor in the race for Rangoon was the years of preparation by the liaison organisation, Force 136, which resulted in a national uprising within Burma and the defection of the entire Burma National Army to the allied side. In addition to the allied advance, the Japanese now faced open rebellion behind their lines.


title: Burma campaign

text: XXXIII Corps mounted Fourteenth Army's secondary drive down the Irrawaddy River valley against stiff resistance from the Japanese Twenty-Eighth Army. IV Corps made the main attack down the "Railway Valley", which was also followed by the Sittaung River. They began by striking at a Japanese delaying position (held by the remnants of the Japanese Thirty-Third Army) at Pyawbwe. The attackers were initially halted by a strong defensive position behind a dry waterway, but a flanking move by tanks and mechanised infantry struck the Japanese from the rear and shattered them.


title: Burma campaign

text: From this point, the advance down the main road to Rangoon faced little organised opposition. An uprising by Karen guerillas prevented troops from the reorganised Japanese Fifteenth Army from reaching the major road centre of Taungoo before IV Corps captured it. The leading Allied troops met Japanese rearguards north of Bago, north of Rangoon, on 25 April. Heitarō Kimura had formed the various service troops, naval personnel and even Japanese civilians in Yangon into the 105 Independent Mixed Brigade. This scratch formation held up the British advance until 30 April and covered the evacuation of the Rangoon area.


title: Burma campaign

text: The original conception of the plan to re-take Burma had envisaged XV Corps making an amphibious assault on Rangoon well before Fourteenth Army reached the capital, in order to ease supply problems. This operation, codenamed Operation Dracula, was postponed several times as the necessary landing craft were retained in Europe and finally dropped in favour of an attack on Phuket Island, off the west coast of Thailand.


title: Burma campaign

text: Slim feared that the Japanese would defend Rangoon to the last man through the monsoon, which would put Fourteenth Army in a disastrous supply situation. He therefore asked for Operation Dracula to be re-mounted at short notice. The naval forces for the attack on Phuket were diverted to Operation Dracula, and units of XV Corps were embarked from Akyab and Ramree.


title: Burma campaign

text: On 1 May, a Gurkha parachute battalion was dropped on Elephant Point, and cleared Japanese rearguards from the mouth of the Yangon River. The 26th Indian Infantry Division landed by ship the next day. When they arrived they discovered that Kimura had ordered Rangoon to be evacuated, starting on 22 April. After the Japanese withdrawal, Yangon had experienced an orgy of looting and lawlessness similar to the last days of the British in the city in 1942. On the afternoon of 2 May 1945, the monsoon rains began in full force. The Allied drive to liberate Rangoon before the rains had succeeded with only a few hours to spare.


title: Burma campaign

text: After the Allies captured Rangoon, a new Twelfth Army headquarters was created from XXXIII Corps HQ to take control of the formations which were to remain in Burma.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Japanese Twenty-Eighth Army, after withdrawing from Arakan and resisting XXXIII Corps in the Irrawaddy valley, retreated into the Pegu Yomas, a range of low jungle-covered hills between the Irrawaddy and Sittang rivers. They planned to break out and rejoin Burma Area Army. To cover this break-out, Kimura ordered Thirty-Third Army to mount a diversionary offensive across the Sittang, although the entire army could muster the strength of barely a regiment. On 3 July, they attacked British positions in the "Sittang Bend". On 10 July, after a battle for country which was almost entirely flooded, both the Japanese and the Allies withdrew.


title: Burma campaign

text: The Japanese had attacked too early. Sakurai's Twenty-Eighth Army was not ready to start the break-out until 17 July. The break-out was a disaster. The British had placed ambushes or artillery concentrations on the routes the Japanese were to use. Hundreds of men drowned trying to cross the swollen Sittang on improvised bamboo floats and rafts. Burmese guerrillas and bandits killed stragglers east of the river. The break-out cost the Japanese nearly 10,000 men, half the strength of Twenty-Eighth Army. British and Indian casualties were minimal.


title: Burma campaign

text: Fourteenth Army (now under Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey) and XV Corps had returned to India to plan the next stage of the campaign to re-take Southeast Asia. A new corps, the Indian XXXIV Corps, under Lieutenant-General Ouvry Lindfield Roberts was raised and assigned to Fourteenth Army for further operations.


title: Burma campaign

text: This was to be an amphibious assault on the western side of Malaya codenamed Operation Zipper. The dropping of the atomic bombs forestalled this operation, but it was undertaken post-war as the quickest way of getting occupation troops into Malaya.


title: Burma campaign

text: Generally, the recovery of Burma is reckoned as a triumph for the British Indian Army and resulted in the greatest defeat the Japanese armies had suffered to that date.


title: Burma campaign

text: The attempted Japanese invasion of India in 1944 was launched on unrealistic premises as after the Singapore debacle and the loss of Burma in 1942, the British were bound to defend India at all costs. A successful invasion by Japanese Imperial forces would have been disastrous. The defence operations at Kohima and Imphal in 1944 have since taken on huge symbolic value as the turning of the tide in British fortunes in the war in the East.


title: Burma campaign

text: The American historian Raymond Callahan concluded "Slim's great victory ... helped the British, unlike the French, Dutch or, later, the Americans, to leave Asia with some dignity."


title: Burma campaign

text: After the war ended a combination of the pre-war agitation among the Bamar population for independence and the economic ruin of Burma during the four years' campaign made it impossible for the former regime to be resumed. Within three years both Burma and India were independent.


title: Burma campaign

text: American goals in Burma had been to aid the Nationalist Chinese regime. Apart from the "Hump" airlift, these bore no fruit until so near the end of the war that they made little contribution to the defeat of Japan. These efforts have also been criticised as fruitless because of the self-interest and corruption of Chiang Kai-Shek's regime.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: Club Athletico Paranaense (commonly known as Athletico and formerly known as Atlético Paranaense) is a Brazilian football team from the city of Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná, founded on March 26, 1924. The team won the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Brazil's top football division, in 2001, the Copa Sudamericana in 2018 and 2021, and the Copa do Brasil in 2019.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: They are considered the strongest team in Brazil outside of the Big 12, at times even surpassing them.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: The club was founded in 1924 through the merger of International Football Club and América Futebol Clube, two traditional clubs in Curitiba.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: The club's first match, a friendly one, was played on April 6, when Athletico Paranaense beat Universal FC 4–2.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: Athletico Paranaense has participated in the Copa Libertadores, in 2000, 2002, 2005, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2022. In 2005 and 2022, Athletico Paranaense was the runner-up of the competition being defeated in the finals by São Paulo and Flamengo respectively.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: A survey taken in 2005 by "Paraná Pesquisas" Institute showed that Athletico Paranaense has the largest number of supporters in Curitiba.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: In 2006 and 2018, Club Athletico Paranaense had a good performance in the Copa Sudamericana, reaching the semifinals after defeating high-profile teams like Argentina's River Plate and Uruguay's Nacional. They finally won the competition in 2018 defeating Colombia's Junior in the final.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: In 2007, the team partnered with the American MLS club FC Dallas. In 2010 they also announced a partnership with Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: On 15 February 2015, the club signed Indian winger Romeo Fernandes on loan from Dempo and through this contract he became the first and only Indian footballer to play in a South American top-tier league. Zico, then FC Goa coach played a key role behind this contract.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: Originally in 1924 Athletico used to play using a horizontally striped in red and black shirt, along with white shorts and red and black socks.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: In 1989 Athletico's administrators wanted to differentiate the team's uniform from the other red and black teams in Brazil (mainly speaking of Flamengo, Sport Recife and Vitória), so they changed the home shirt to be vertically striped in red and black (the team kept playing with white socks and white shorts). In 1996 Athletico changed the color of the socks and the shorts from white to black.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: In December 2018, Athletico's administrators changed the club's crest to be four alternating red and black diagonal stripes which decreased in size from top to bottom, resembling a hurricane, echoing the club's nickname. The club also changed their name from 'Clube Atlético Paranaense' to its original name in the Portuguese orthography when it was founded, 'Club Athletico Paranaense', which some believe to be a move in order to further differentiate themselves from Atlético Mineiro, another prominent Brazilian club. The club also changed the kits: the home kit, which had been a red and black vertically striped shirt, black shorts and black socks for twenty-two years became a predominantly red shirt, with a black collar, and the four diagonal stripes from the crest enlarged and going across both the front and back of the lower third of the shirt in black. The shorts and socks remain black. The away strip released with this kit was a white shirt with a black collar. In place of the four diagonal stripes were eight thin diagonal lines in the place of the outline of the larger ones seen on the home shirt; these too were black. The shorts and socks were white.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: The home stadium is the Estádio Joaquim Américo Guimarães, built in 1914 and renovated several times is traditionally known as Arena da Baixada. Besides hosting important club games, Arena da Baixada also hosted 4 World Cup games in 2014 and other events like the 2017 FIVB Volleyball World League, the UFC 198: Werdum vs. Miocic and many music concerts.


title: Club Athletico Paranaense

text: Arena da Baixada is also the only stadium in South America with a retractable roof and was the first to use artificial turf (with FIFA approval).


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: The Oscar class, Soviet designations Project 949 "Granit and Project 949A "Antey, (NATO reporting names Oscar I and Oscar II respectively), are a series of nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines designed in the Soviet Union for the Soviet Navy. They are currently in service with the Russian Navy with some of the vessels planned to be modernized as Project 949AM, to extend their service life and increase combat capabilities.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: The Project 949 submarines were the largest cruise missile submarines in service until some ballistic missile submarines were converted to carry cruise missiles in 2007. They are the fourth largest class of submarines in displacement and length. Only the Soviet , Russian and American "Ohio"-class ballistic missile submarines are larger.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: The first submarine of Project 949 was laid down in the mid-1970s and was commissioned in 1980. In 1982 an updated and larger version (Project 949A) replaced the earlier version. In total fourteen submarines were constructed. The Oscar class was designed to attack NATO carrier battle groups using long-range P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 "Shipwreck") anti-ship missiles and targeting data provided by the satellite system (via the submarine's "Punch Bowl" antenna). In the financial problems that followed the fall of the Soviet Union the Oscar class was prioritized by the Russian Navy and when many older submarine classes were retired the Oscar class remained active in both the Northern and Pacific Fleets.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: The Rubin Design Bureau started working on Project 949A modernization in 2011, with Zvezdochka and Zvezda shipyards to carry out modernization of the vessels. In September 2015, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu announced during his visit to Zvezda shipyard, that at least three Oscar-class submarines will undergo repair and modernization to extend their service life by 20 years. The upgraded submarines will be known as "Project 949AM", according to the Russian officials. Modernization cost was estimated at RUB12 billion (US$182 million) per submarine.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: In September 2016, it was reported submarines K-132 "Irkutsk" and K-442 "Chelyabinsk" are currently being modernized to 949AM. According to the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Yury Borisov, Russia's Pacific Fleet may get four modernized Oscar II-class submarines armed with Kalibr cruise missiles by 2021.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: Two Project 949 "Granit" submarines were built at Severodvinsk between 1975 and 1982 and assigned to the Soviet Northern Fleet. "K-525" was laid down in 1975 and "K-206" was laid down in 1979. After the construction of the first two submarines, production continued with the improved project 949A "Antey". Both submarines of the Project 949 were decommissioned in 1996 and scrapped in 2004.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: Eleven Project 949A "Antey" submarines were completed at Severodvinsk, of which five were assigned to the Soviet Northern Fleet. At one stage it had been planned to develop a new fourth-generation follow-on to the Project 949A, but this plan was later dropped. The external differences between the two classes were that the 949A class is about longer than its predecessor (approximately rather than ), providing space and buoyancy for improved electronics and quieter propulsion.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: Some sources speculate that the acoustic performance of the Oscar II class is superior to early but inferior to the "Akula II" class as well as subsequent (4th generation) designs. It also has a larger fin, and its propellers have seven blades instead of four.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: Like all post-World War II Soviet designs, they are of double hull construction. Similarly, like other Soviet submarine designs, Project 949 not only has a bridge open to the elements on top of the sail but, for use in inclement weather, there is an enclosed bridge forward and slightly below this station. A distinguishing mark is a slight bulge at the top of the fin. A large door on either side of the fin reaches this bulge. These are wider at the top than on the bottom, and are hinged on the bottom. The Federation of American Scientists reports that this submarine carries an emergency crew escape capsule; it is possible that these doors cover it. The VSK escape capsule can accommodate 110 people.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: Modernization of Project 949A submarines, first announced by the Russian Defence Ministry in 2011. As part of the modernization, submarines will have their 24 P-700 Granit anti-ship missiles replaced with up to 72 newer 3M-54 Kalibr or P-800 Oniks anti-ship cruise missiles. The upgrade requires no design changes to the hull as the new missiles will fit into the existing launchers outside the pressure hull. The modernized boats will also get upgraded Omnibus-M combat information and Simfoniya-3.2 navigation systems, as well as new fire-control system, communications, sonar, radar, and electronic intercept equipment. The modernization aims to bring the submarines up to the same technological level as Russia's next-generation Yasen-class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: In December 2012, construction began on a special purpose research and rescue submarine, designated Project 09852, and based on the incomplete Project 949A (Oscar II class) submarine "Belgorod". The submarine is reportedly designed to carry both manned (e.g. Project 18511 midget submarine) as well as unmanned (e.g. Klavesin-1R) underwater vessels. However, while carrying smaller unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) would be possible as-is on an Oscar-class hull, the accommodation of a midget submarine such as Project 18511 "Paltus" or the even larger Project 10831 "Losharik", would probably require a major hull extension in order to accommodate a docking compartment. For example, the length of the submarine BS-64 "Podmoskovye" was increased by even though the SLBM missile compartment was completely removed.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: "Belgorod" will be reportedly used as a carrier of the rumored Poseidon (NATO reporting name Kanyon) nuclear-powered, thermonuclear armed unmanned underwater device capable to carry a 100 Mt thermonuclear warhead, with at least four such devices being carried horizontally in place of the 24 P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 "Shipwreck") launchers for a total yield of 600 megatonnes of TNT.


title: Oscar-class submarine

text: On 23 April 2019, "Belgorod" was floated out of a slipway during a ceremony at the Sevmash shipyard, watched by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin via a TV-link. Further work was to be completed afloat and the submarine was scheduled to start its factory and state trials in 2020 after which it was to be delivered to the Russian Navy. However, this schedule was delayed with sea trials then projected to begin in May 2021. After some delays, sea trials were reported to have started on June 25, 2021. The submarine was delivered to the Russian Navy on 8 July 2022.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: The special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China are one of the provincial-level administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China directly under the control of its Central People's Government (State Council), being integral areas of the country. As a region, they possess the highest degree of autonomy from China. However, despite the relative autonomy that the Central People's Government offers the special administrative regions, the National People's Congress remains capable of enforcing laws for the special administrative regions.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: The legal basis for the establishment of SARs, unlike the other administrative divisions of China, is provided for by Article 31, rather than Article 30, of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China of 1982. Article 31 reads: "The state may establish special administrative regions when necessary. The systems to be instituted in special administrative regions shall be prescribed by law enacted by the National People's Congress in the light of the specific conditions".


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: At present, there are two SARs established according to the Constitution, namely the Hong Kong SAR and the Macau SAR, former British and Portuguese dependencies, respectively, transferred to China in 1997 and 1999, respectively, pursuant to the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 and the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration of 1987. Pursuant to their Joint Declarations, which are binding inter-state treaties registered with the United Nations, and their Basic laws, the Chinese SARs "shall enjoy a high degree of autonomy". Generally, the two SARs are not considered to constitute a part of Mainland China, by both SAR and mainland Chinese authorities.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: The provision to establish special administrative regions appeared in the constitution in 1982, in anticipation of the talks with the United Kingdom over the question of the sovereignty over Hong Kong. It was envisioned as the model for the eventual unification with Taiwan and other islands, where the Republic of China has resided since 1949.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: Under the one country, two systems principle, the Chinese Central Government is responsible for the diplomatic, military and other state-level affairs of the two SARs. But two SARs continue to possess their own multi-party legislatures, legal systems, police forces, separate customs territory, immigration policies, left-hand traffic, official languages, academic and educational systems, representation on certain international bodies and representation in international competitions, and other aspects that falls within the autonomous level.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: Special administrative regions should not be confused with special economic zones, which are areas in which special economic laws apply to promote trade and investments. The Wolong Special Administrative Region in Sichuan province is a nature preserve, and not a political division.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: There are currently two special administrative regions established according to Article 31 of the Chinese Constitution. For the Wolong Special Administrative Region in Sichuan Province, please see the section Wolong below.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: The two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau (created in 1997 and 1999 respectively) each have a codified constitution called Basic Law. The law provides the regions with a high degree of autonomy, a separate political system, and a capitalist economy under the principle of "one country, two systems" proposed by Deng Xiaoping.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: Currently, the two SARs of Hong Kong and Macau are responsible for all affairs except those regarding diplomatic relations and national defence. Consequently, the National People's Congress authorises the SAR to exercise a high degree of autonomy and enjoy executive, legislative and independent judicial powers, and each with their own Courts of Final Appeal.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: Special administrative regions are empowered to contract a wide range of agreements with other countries and territories such as mutual abolition of visa requirement, mutual legal aid, air services, extradition, handling of double taxation and others, with no Chinese government involvement. However, in some diplomatic talks involving a SAR, the SAR concerned may choose to send officials to be part of the Chinese delegation. For example, when former Director of Health of Hong Kong Margaret Chan became the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, she served as a delegate from the People's Republic of China to the WHO.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: The Government of Hong Kong and Government of Macao has established Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs) and Delegação Económica e Comercial de Macaus (DECM), in some countries as well as Greater China Region. HKETOs serve as a quasi-interests section in favour of Hong Kong. DECMs serve as a quasi-interests section in favour of Macao. For regions with no HKETOs and DECM, Chinese diplomatic missions take charge of protecting Hong Kong-related and Macau-related interests.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: Some countries which have a diplomatic relationship with the central Chinese government maintain Consulate-General offices in Hong Kong and Macau.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: In sporting events such as the Olympic Games or Asian Games, the SARs may have their own independent teams. They participate under the respective names of "Hong Kong, China" and "Macau, China", and compete as different entities as they had done since they were under foreign rules, but both SARs are usually allowed to omit the term ", China" for informal use.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: The People's Liberation Army is garrisoned in both SARs. PRC authorities have said the PLA will not be allowed to interfere with the local affairs of Hong Kong and Macau, and must abide by its laws. In 1988, scholar Chen Fang of the Academy of Military Science even tried to propose the "One military, two systems" concept to separate the defence function and public functions in the army. The PLA does not participate in the governance of the SAR but the SAR may request them for civil-military participation, in times of emergency such as natural disasters. Defence is the responsibility of the PRC government.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: A 1996 draft PRC law banned People's Liberation Army–run businesses in Hong Kong, but loopholes allow them to operate while the profits are ploughed back into the military. There are many PLA-run corporations in Hong Kong. The PLA also have sizeable land holdings in Hong Kong worth billions of dollars.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: Each of the SARs issues passports on its own to its permanent residents who are concurrently Chinese (PRC) citizens. PRC citizens must also satisfy one of the following conditions:


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: Apart from affording the holder consular protection by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, these passports also specify that the holder has right of abode in the issuing SAR.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: The National People's Congress has also put each SAR in charge of administering the PRC's Nationality Law in its respective realms, namely naturalisation, renunciation and restoration of PRC nationality and issuance of proof of nationality.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: Due to their colonial past, many inhabitants of the SARs hold some form of non-Chinese nationality (e.g. British National (Overseas) status, British citizenship, British Overseas citizenship or Portuguese citizenship). However, SAR residents who are Chinese descent have always been considered as Chinese citizens by the PRC authorities, an exception to this case is Macau, wherein residents of Chinese descent may choose Chinese or Portuguese nationality. Special interpretation of the Nationality Law, while not recognising dual nationality, has allowed Chinese citizens to keep their foreign "right of abode" and use travel documents issued by the foreign country. However, such travel documents cannot be used to travel to mainland China and persons concerned must use Home Return Permit. Therefore, master nationality rule applies so the holder may not enjoy consular protection while in mainland China. Chinese citizens who also have foreign citizenship may declare a change of nationality at the Immigration Department of the respective SARs, and upon approval, would no longer be considered Chinese citizens.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: SAR permanent residents who are not Chinese citizens (including stateless persons) are not eligible for SAR passports. Persons who hold a non-Chinese citizenship must obtain passports from foreign diplomatic missions which represents their countries of citizenship. For those who are stateless, each SAR may issue its own form of certificates of identity, e.g. Document of Identity, in lieu of national passports to the persons concerned. Chinese citizens who are non-permanent residents of two SARs are also ineligible for SAR passports but may obtain CIs just like stateless persons.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: The status of a special administrative region for Taiwan and other areas controlled by the Republic of China (ROC) was first proposed in 1981. The 1981 proposal was put forth by NPC chairman Ye Jianying called "Ye's nine points" (). A series of different offers have since appeared. On 25 June 1983 Deng Xiaoping appeared at Seton Hall University in the US to propose "Deng's six points" (), which called for a "Taiwan Special Administrative Region" (). It was envisioned that after Taiwan's unification with the PRC as an SAR, the PRC would become the sole representative of China. Under this proposal, Taiwan would be guaranteed its own military, its own administrative and legislative powers, an independent judiciary and the right of adjudication, although it would not be considered a separate government of China.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: In 2005 the Anti-Secession Law of the PRC was enacted. It promises the lands currently ruled by the authorities of Taiwan a high degree of autonomy, among other things. The PRC can also employ non-peaceful means and other necessary measures to defend its claims to sovereignty over the ROC's territories in the event of an outright declaration of independence by Taiwan (ROC).


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: In January 2019, the 40-year anniversary of a statement made by the PRC to Taiwan in 1979, Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping outlined in a speech how the "one country, two systems" principle would be applied to Taiwan. Several major points from the speech include:


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: The Wolong Special Administrative Region () is located in the southwest of Wenchuan County, Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan. It was formerly known as Wolong Special Administrative Region of Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province and was founded in March 1983 with approval of the State Council. It was given its current name and placed under Sichuan provincial government with administrative supervision by the provincial department of forestry. Its area supersedes Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve and its administrative office is the same as the Administrative Bureau of the State Forestry Administration for the reserve. It currently has a population of 5,343.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: Despite its name, the Wolong Special Administrative Region is not an SAR as defined by Article 31 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. This is primarily because the Wolong Special Administrative Region was established with the approval of the State Council, rather than "by law enacted by the National People's Congress" as stipulated in Article 31 of the Constitution.


title: Special administrative regions of China

text: In the Republic of China (ROC) era between 1912 and 1949, the "special administrative regions" () were historically used to designate special areas by the Beiyang government, most of which were eventually converted into provinces by the Nationalist government in 1928. All were "de facto" suspended or abolished after the end of the Chinese Civil War, with the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the ROC government's retreat to Taiwan (a former Japanese colony taken by the ROC in 1945 after World War II), but these continued to exist as provinces "de jure". The regions were:


title: Alexandra Paul

text: Alexandra Elizabeth Paul (born July 29, 1963) is an American actress, activist, health coach, and former model. Paul began her career modeling in New York before landing her first major role in John Carpenter's horror film "Christine" (1983). This was followed with prominent roles in "American Flyers" (1985), "8 Million Ways to Die" (1986), and "Dragnet" (1987).


title: Alexandra Paul

text: She is best known for her role as Lt. Stephanie Holden in the television series "Baywatch" from 1992 to 1997. She has performed in a total of over 100 movies and television programs.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: Paul was born in New York City to Sarah, a social worker from England, and Mark Paul, an American investment banker. Paul was raised alongside her identical twin sister, Caroline, and younger brother, Jonathan, in the rural town of Cornwall, Connecticut. According to Paul, her mother was "a very liberal Democrat and [her] father was a very conservative Republican." Her twin sister Caroline has been a San Francisco firefighter (where she is often mistaken as Alexandra) and best-selling author. Her brother, Jonathan, is an animal rights activist.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: Paul attended the Cornwall Consolidated School, and the Groton School in Massachusetts. At ages 17 and 18, Paul underwent two major abdominal operations to remove choledochal cysts, which left her with a scar spanning from her sternum to her naval. Paul was accepted into Stanford University, but chose not to attend so that she could focus on an acting career.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: Paul worked prominently in television from the late 1980s onward, perhaps most recognizable in her starring role on "Baywatch", from 1992 to 1997. Paul began her career working as a model in New York City, and later moved to Los Angeles when she decided to pursue a career in acting. Her first role was in the television film "Paper Dolls" (1982), followed by a role in the independent Canadian horror film "American Nightmare" (1983). Paul then landed a leading role in John Carpenter's horror film "Christine" (1983), opposite Keith Gordon, followed by a supporting role in the comedy "Just the Way You Are" (1984).


title: Alexandra Paul

text: She later appeared in the sport drama "American Flyers" (1985) with Kevin Costner, "8 Million Ways to Die" (1986), and the comedy "Dragnet" (1987), opposite Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd. She also starred in the films "Death Train" (1993) and "Nightwatch" (1995) opposite Christopher Lee and Pierce Brosnan, as well as the horror films "The Paperboy" (1994) and "Spectre" (1996).


title: Alexandra Paul

text: Since 1999, she has starred in 15 films for Lifetime Network. She has also starred in the Fox TV series "Fire Company 132" and appeared in the last eight episodes of "Melrose Place". She guest-starred on "Mad Men" in 2008. She hosted non-fiction TV shows, including 's "Winning Women" and a southern California local environmentalism show, "Earth Talk Today". She made a cameo appearance with Sacha Baron Cohen in "" in a deleted scene parodying her "Baywatch" role. She did a cameo in the comedy spoofs "Spy Hard" and "".


title: Alexandra Paul

text: Paul co-wrote and co-produced two documentaries: "Jampacked", a documentary on the world population crisis, and "The Cost of Cool: Finding Happiness in a Materialistic World". "Jampacked" received a Bronze Apple Award and first place recognition at the EarthVision Environmental Film and Video Festival. "The Cost of Cool" won a CINE Golden Eagle Award. She also produced eight PSAs on the benefits of driving electric vehicles for the non-profit Plug In America.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: In 2019, Alexandra acted in three movies, among them, ''Escaping My Stalker'. In 2020 Alexandra appeared in 4 projects, and in 2022 she starred in the independent films Tethered and Baby Steps.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: Paul has been married to Ian Murray since 2000. She became a vegetarian at age fourteen after reading the book "Diet for a Small Planet" by Frances Moore Lappé, and became a vegan in 2010.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: As an athlete, Paul raced the Hawaii Ironman in 1997. She ran the 2000 Boston Marathon. She has also swum the 11 mile Fiji Swim, the 12.5 mile Swim Around Key West and the 2014 Reto Acapulco 14 mile swim, among others.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: Paul is an outspoken animal rights, environmental, peace and gay rights activist. She walked 5 1/2 weeks on the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament in 1986. Paul has been arrested for civil disobedience over a dozen times at the Nevada Test Site between 1987 and 2000. In 1989, she was arrested for peacefully advocating on behalf of people with HIV. She was arrested twice in 2003 for civil disobedience protesting the Iraq War and spent five days in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center after refusing to pay the $50 fine. In 2005, she was arrested for protesting the crushing of the EV1, and performed 80–100 hours of community service for electric car organizations. Paul's younger brother, Jonathan, is also an animal rights activist, who served 51 months in prison for his role in the arson of a slaughterhouse.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: She has traveled to Nicaragua with Operation USA and to South Africa to register voters. Paul volunteered in Sierra Leone with the non profit Population Media Center. In 2006, Paul donated $250 to the Ned Lamont campaign against Joe Lieberman, because Lieberman supported the war in Iraq.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: She received the 2014 Vegan of the Year by Last Chance for Animals, and in 2007 received a United Nations Environment Programme honor for her contribution to overpopulation issues.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: In 2016, Alexandra joined Direct Action Everywhere in an open rescue of several pigs from a factory farm.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: In 2017, Alexandra joined a sit-in at an Oakland, California slaughterhouse and was arrested. In 2018, Alexandra was arrested for a civil disobedience action at Sunrise Chicken Farm. In 2019, she was arrested for peacefully protesting at Reichardt Duck Farm and spent two days in Sonoma County jail. In September, 2020, Alexandra and 6 other DxE activists were arrested for trying to rescue a pig from a Farmer John slaughterhouse in Vernon, California. In September, 2021, Alexandra rescued a chicken outside a Foster Farms slaughterhouse and goes on trial in late 2022.


title: Alexandra Paul

text: I am sure there are some who do not like me for my outspokenness and my views, and I totally respect their right to boycott my projects. I actually respect folks who stand up for their beliefs — even if I disagree with them — more than the folks who do not care, are afraid to 'get involved', or who cannot be bothered. I admire passion and commitment. A woman once told me she could not watch those slaughterhouse videos because she 'loves animals so much' and it would upset her. I would prefer to hang out with a hunter who believes he is doing the right thing, than a wuss like her.


title: Brion James

text: Brion Howard James (February 20, 1945 – August 7, 1999) was an American character actor. He portrayed Leon Kowalski in "Blade Runner" and appeared in "Southern Comfort", "48 Hrs.", "Another 48 Hrs.", "Silverado", "Tango & Cash", "Red Heat", "The Player", and "The Fifth Element". James was frequently cast as an antagonist, appearing more frequently in lower-budget horror and action films and TV shows throughout the 1980s and 1990s. James appeared in more than 100 films before he died of a heart attack at the age of 54.


title: Brion James

text: James was born in Redlands, California. He spent his early years in Beaumont, California, where his parents owned and operated a movie theater; James said, "My story is like "Cinema Paradiso". Every night in my life since I was two years old... I ran movies". After graduating from high school in 1964, James attended San Diego State University as a Theater Arts major. Migrating to New York, James immersed himself in the theatre scene, taking on bit roles here and there.


title: Brion James

text: In 1975, James landed a small role in the made-for-television film, "The Kansas City Massacre", playing John Dillinger gang member Homer Van Meter. Higher profile roles followed in 1976, with his casting in "Nickelodeon" and "Harry and Walter Go to New York". James also appeared in the television miniseries "Roots" and popular 1970s shows such as "Gunsmoke", "The Incredible Hulk", "Mork and Mindy", "Chico and the Man", "CHiPs".


title: Brion James

text: James's career took a sudden upturn in the early 1980s with roles in "Southern Comfort" and "48 Hrs." (which were both directed by Walter Hill), but it was his performance as Leon Kowalski in the 1982 film "Blade Runner" that gave him his greatest, most lasting fame. James followed this up with roles in "Enemy Mine", "Flesh + Blood", "A Breed Apart", "Silverado", "Armed and Dangerous", "Red Heat", "Steel Dawn", "Red Scorpion", "Tango & Cash", and "Showdown". James had guest spots in the television shows "Benson", "Quincy, M.E.", "The A-Team", "Little House on the Prairie", "The Dukes of Hazzard", "Matlock", "Miami Vice", "Hunter", along with the "Hunter" take off "Sledge Hammer!", and "Dynasty". In the 1990s, he appeared in "", and as Sheriff Bowman in the "Millennium" season 2 episode "Luminary". He lent his voice to the character of Parasite in "". In 1982, he was in the made-for-TV-movie "Hear No Evil" as Billy Boy Burns.


title: Brion James

text: James starred in the low-budget 1989 supernatural horror film "The Horror Show" (aka "House III"), where he played serial killer "Meat Cleaver Max" Jenke. In 1994, he played a grouchy sponsor who became a victim of the gruesome goings-on during a 1939 radio show in the film "Radioland Murders". Near the end of his career, he appeared as the amiable General Munro in "The Fifth Element" (1997), a rare non-villainous role. Two months before his death, James reprised his role as Parasite in "Superman 64", a video game based on "".


title: Brion James

text: Concerning his talent for playing villains in films, he stated in an interview in "Fangoria" magazine, "I consider myself a classical character actor like Lon Chaney, Wallace Beery, Charles Laughton. I always like to play bad guys. I'm real good at psychotic behavior."


title: Brion James

text: James died in 1999 after suffering a heart attack at his home in Malibu, California. He appeared in five feature films that were released posthumously. The last of these was "Phoenix Point" (2005).


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: Argos (; ; ) is a city in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and the oldest in Europe. It is the largest city in Argolis and a major center for the area.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: Since the 2011 local government reform it has been part of the municipality of Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 138.138 km. It is from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour. A settlement of great antiquity, Argos has been continuously inhabited as at least a substantial village for the past 7,000 years.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: A resident of the city of Argos is known as an Argive ( , ; ). However, this term is also used to refer to those ancient Greeks generally who assaulted the city of Troy during the Trojan War; the term is more widely applied by the Homeric bards.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: Numerous ancient monuments can be found in the city today. Agriculture is the mainstay of the local economy.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: There are several proposed etyma. The name is associated with the legendary Argus, the third king of the city in ancient times, who renamed it after himself, thus replacing its older name Phoronikon Asty (Φορωνικόν Άστυ, "Citadel of Phoroneus"). Both the personal name and placename are linked to the word αργός (argós), which meant "white" or "shining"; possibly, this had to do with the visual impression given of the Argolic plain during harvest time. According to Strabo, the name could have even originated from the word αγρός "field" by antimetathesis of the consonants.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: Herodotus first recorded the myth of the traditional story of Argos being the origin of the ancient Macedonian royal house of the Argead dynasty (Greek: Ἀργεάδαι, Argeádai) of Philip II and Alexander the Great. As a strategic location on the fertile plain of Argolis, Argos was a major stronghold during the Mycenaean era. In classical times, Argos was a powerful rival of Sparta for dominance over the Peloponnese, but was eventually shunned by other Greek city-states after remaining neutral during the Greco-Persian Wars.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: There is evidence of continuous settlement in the area starting with a village about 7,000 years ago in the late Neolithic, located on the foot of Aspida hill. Since that time, Argos has been continually inhabited at the same geographical location. And while the name "Argos" is generally accepted to have a Hellenic Indo-European etymology, "Larissa" is generally held to derive from a Pre-Greek substrate.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: The city is located at a rather propitious area, among Nemea, Corinth and Arcadia. It also benefitted from its proximity to lake Lerna, which, at the time, was at a distance of one kilometre from the south end of Argos.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: Argos was a major stronghold of Mycenaean times, and along with the neighbouring acropolis of Mycenae and Tiryns became a very early settlement because of its commanding positions in the midst of the fertile plain of Argolis.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: Argos experienced its greatest period of expansion and power under the energetic 7th century BC ruler King Pheidon. Under Pheidon, Argos regained sway over the cities of the Argolid and challenged Sparta’s dominance of the Peloponnese. Spartan dominance is thought to have been interrupted following the Battle of Hyssiae in 669–668 BC, in which Argive troops defeated the Spartans in a hoplite battle. During the time of its greatest power, the city boasted a pottery and bronze sculpturing school, pottery workshops, tanneries and clothes producers. Moreover, at least 25 celebrations took place in the city, in addition to a regular local products exhibition. A sanctuary dedicated to Hera was also found at the same spot where the monastery of Panagia Katekrymeni is located today. Pheidon also extended Argive influence throughout Greece, taking control of the Olympic Games away from the citizens of Elis and appointing himself organizer during his reign. Pheidon is also thought to have introduced reforms for standard weight and measures in Argos, a theory further reinforced with the unearthing of six "spits" of iron in an Argive Heraion, possibly remainders of a dedication from Pheidon.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: In 494 BC, Argos suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of its regional rival, Sparta, at the Battle of Sepeia. Following this defeat, Herodotus tells us the city suffered a form of "stasis". The political chaos is thought to have resulted in a democratic transition in the city. Argos did not participate in the Hellenic Alliance against the Persian Invasion of 480 BC. This resulted in a period of diplomatic isolation, although there is evidence of an Argive alliance with Tegea prior to 462 BC.


title: Argos, Peloponnese

text: In 462 BC, Argos joined a tripartite alliance with Athens and Thessaly. This alliance was somewhat dysfunctional, however, and the Argives are only thought to have provided marginal contributions to the alliance at the Battle of Oenoe and Tanagra. For example, only 1,000 Argive hoplites are thought to have fought alongside the Athenians at the Battle of Tanagra. Following the allies' defeat at Tanagra in 457 BC, the alliance began to fall apart, resulting in its dissolution in 451 BC.