title: Illegals Program

text: In July 2012, new details about the agents' activities were revealed that suggested that some of them planned to recruit their children to become agents.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids is an American animated television series created, produced, and hosted (in live action bookends) by comedian Bill Cosby, who also lent his voice to a number of characters, including Fat Albert and himself. Filmation was the production company for the series. The show premiered in 1972 and ran until 1985 (with new episodes being produced sporadically during that time frame). The show, based on Cosby's remembrances of his childhood gang, focused on Fat Albert (known for his catchphrase "Hey hey hey!"), and his friends.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: The show features an educational lesson in each episode, emphasized by Cosby's live-action segments. In addition, at the end of the early episodes, the gang typically joins in their North Philadelphia junkyard to play a song on their cobbled-together instruments, summarizing the show's lesson.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: "The New York Times" noted that the show "enjoyed enormous success" throughout its run. The show's success led Cosby to create a second animated series, "Little Bill", in the late 1990s. "Little Bill" was intentionally designed to be visually different from "Fat Albert", while retaining similar educational lessons and roots in Cosby's childhood experiences.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: The character Fat Albert first appeared in Bill Cosby's stand-up comedy routine "Buck Buck," as recorded on his 1967 album "Revenge". The stories were based upon Cosby's tales about growing up in inner city North Philadelphia. In 1969, Cosby and veteran animator Ken Mundie brought Fat Albert to animation in a prime-time special entitled "Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert".


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: The special, which aired on NBC, was a hybrid of live action and animation. The music for the special was written and performed by jazz pianist/keyboardist Herbie Hancock in 1969 and was released on the Warner Bros. album "Fat Albert Rotunda". For the animated portion of the special, it was necessary to develop the actual appearance of each of the Fat Albert Gang's characters. For this, Ken Mundie relied on animator Amby Paliwoda, a former Disney artist. Paliwoda not only created all the Gang's characters, but painted a "group portrait" which was eventually shown on the front page of "TV Guide" magazine shortly before the showing of the special.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: The producers wanted NBC to bring "Fat Albert" to Saturday mornings, but the network programming managers rejected this because the series was too educational. Bill Cosby and a new production company, Filmation Associates, then took the property to CBS. The Fat Albert gang's character images were primarily created by the artist Randy Hollar, with the assistance of one-time Disney animator Michelle McKinney, under the direction of Ken Brown.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: Retitled "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids", the series premiered on September 9, 1972, on CBS. Production lasted for 12 years, though production of the series was not continuous. It also spent another season in first-run syndication (1984–85). Three prime-time holiday specials (Halloween, Christmas, and Easter) featuring the characters were also produced. Like most Saturday morning cartoons of the era, "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" contained an adult laugh track, which was eliminated during the final season. The series was rerun on NBC Saturday mornings and on the USA Network in 1989.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: In the late 1990s, Bill Cosby developed a second animated series, "Little Bill", which was intentionally designed to look different from "Fat Albert". The executive producer of "Little Bill", Janice Burgess, stated that the Fat Albert character was "more broadly comic" and exaggeratedly cartoonish than "Little Bill". However, the two shows shared similar educational messages and were both based on Cosby's childhood in Philadelphia.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: Lou Scheimer, Erika Scheimer, Keith Allen, Lane Vaux, Pepe Brown, Dementra McHenry, Eric Suter, and Gerald Edwards provided additional voices.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: "Fat Albert" was honored and noted for its educational content, which included Cosby earning a Doctorate in Education. In every show's opening Cosby would playfully warn:


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: During each episode, Fat Albert and his friends (aka The Junkyard Gang), dealt with an issue or problem commonly faced by children, ranging from stage fright, first loves, medical operations, and personal hygiene to more serious themes (though toned down for younger children) including vandalism, stealing, racism, rape, smoking, being scammed by con artists, sexually transmitted diseases, child abuse, kidnapping, drug use, gun violence, and death.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: At the end of most episodes (with some exceptions in the case of particularly serious themes), the gang would sing a song about the theme of the day. This sequence, similar to those seen in other Filmation shows including "The Archie Show", has often been parodied. The musical sequence was dropped during the "Brown Hornet"/"Legal Eagle" years. When Fat Albert entered syndication, some of the episodes produced prior to 1979 had their songs removed in favor of a Brown Hornet story. This was the case with "Shuttered Window" which dealt with the issue of death, in which the Brown Hornet encountered a robotic teacher and leader who realizes that his functions are worn out will soon cease to function. The teacher informs Hornet of this fact and Hornet has to let the teacher's citizens know that they must go on without their leader/teacher. This sets up the real world story regarding the recurring character Undeen and the sudden death of her Uncle Monty (although no reference to the Brown Hornet story told by Fat Albert as is the normal case in the 1979–84 episodes).


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: In 1979, the show was re-titled The New Fat Albert Show and featured a new segment titled "The Brown Hornet" detailing the adventures of a black crime fighter in outer space whose design resembled a caricature of Bill Cosby, who also performed vocal talents on the character. His shows always contained an object lesson for the viewers. The gang would watch the program at the beginning of each episode, and then they would invariably face a situation that forced them to apply the object lesson.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: In 1984, the show was syndicated and renamed The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. The lack of network restrictions allowed the producer to delve into more mature subject matter. A notable episode ("Busted") featured the kids having an inadvertent brush with the law and given a "Scared Straight!"-style tour of an occupied maximum security prison; it even contained utterances (by the jail's inmates) of the words "damn" and "bastard" (Cosby had appeared in the beginning of the episode advising viewers that those words would be used as part of the story's dialogue to realistically depict jail life). Another notable episode, "Gang Wars", featured a child being shot and killed. Another segment was added: "Legal Eagle", a crime-fighting eagle with a pair of bumbling police deputy squirrels. Production of new episodes ceased in 1985.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: The theme song, "Gonna Have a Good Time", was composed by Ricky Sheldon and Edward Fournier, and performed by Michael Gray (vocals), Kim Carnes (background vocals) and Edward Fournier (background vocals).


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: A cover of the show's theme song, performed by Dig, is included on the 1995 tribute album "", produced by Ralph Sall and released on MCA Records. The song's chorus ("Na-na-na, gonna have a good time!") was also sampled in Fatboy Slim's 1998 hit single "Praise You".


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" received an Emmy nomination in 1974. Production of the final season of the series overlapped with the start of production of Bill Cosby's live-action sitcom, "The Cosby Show", which began airing on NBC in fall 1984.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: In 1993, "TV Guide" magazine named "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" the best cartoon series of the 1970s in its issue celebrating 40 years of television.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: In 2002, Fat Albert was placed at number 12 on TV Guide's list of the 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: In 2020, Joyce Slaton of Common Sense Media argued that the series is an "old-school cartoon...[with] strong positive messages." She noted that while the show's themes like kidnapping, racism, and child abuse may cause parents to be concerned, there is "fresh humor, funky music, and the strong positive messages".


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: As of 2013, "Fat Albert" was seen Saturday mornings on Retro Television Network (RTV), TheCoolTV, and weekdays and weekends on Bounce TV, both of which are digital networks. It was also seen weekdays on the now-defunct Sky Angel services Angel Two and Kids & Teens TV, as well as World Harvest Television. "Fat Albert" was also available streaming online from HallmarkSpiritClips.com.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: As of July 2015, "Fat Albert" was no longer on Bounce TV's lineup. Bounce TV had previously pulled the comedy series "Cosby" from their lineup in the wake of the Bill Cosby sexual assault allegations, but it is unclear if the cancelations of the "Fat Albert" episodes was related to these allegations. However, several months after returning reruns of "The Cosby Show" in December 2016, Bounce TV quietly re-added "Fat Albert" to its schedule in March 2017, until it was eventually removed from the schedule again in late April 2018.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: During the mid-1980s, Thorn EMI Video released several volumes of "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" on VHS as part of their "Children's Matinee" line of animated programs, with each cassette typically containing three episodes. Additional volumes were released later in the decade by Video Treasures, including the three holiday specials.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: In 2004, UrbanWorks Entertainment acquired the rights to the series, subsequently releasing several "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" DVDs including a two-volume collection featuring 24 episodes, as well as all specials to coincide with the theatrical release of the feature film adaptation. Volume 1 contains two DVDs with episodes 1–12 (airdates 9/9–11/25/1972), along with a CD containing the opening theme, the closing theme, and 12 songs from each of the 12 episodes shown in vol. 1 Volume 2 contains two discs with episodes 13–24 (airdates 12/2/1972–9/13/1975), along with a CD containing the opening theme, the closing theme, and 12 songs from each of the 12 episodes shown in vol. 2. In addition, UrbanWorks Entertainment released a Greatest Hits four-disc DVD box set, containing 20 uncut episodes in their original broadcast presentation and original airdate order, as well as a five-best episodes set via "Ventura Distribution".


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: In 2008, Classic Media acquired the rights to the series and stated at the time that they intended to release the entire series on DVD. This never happened as they only re-released "The Fat Albert Halloween Special" and "The Fat Albert Easter Special" on DVD via distribution partner Genius Products.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: On April 6, 2012, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series (under license from Classic Media) and planned to release a complete series box set on DVD. The DVD set was released on June 25, 2013.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: On September 4, 2012, Classic Media re-released all three holiday specials together in one collection entitled "The Hey Hey Hey Holiday Collection" on DVD in Region 1.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: Gold Key Comics released a comic book adaptation of "Fat Albert", which ran for 29 issues from 1974 to 1979.


title: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

text: In 2004, 20th Century Fox released a film adaptation of the series titled "Fat Albert". The film stars Kenan Thompson as Fat Albert, Kyla Pratt, and Bill Cosby. The film acts as a sequel to the series where Fat Albert and the boys journey into the real world after jumping out of a television in order to help a lonely girl named Doris (Kyla Pratt) with her social anxiety. The boys enjoy being in the real world but after a meeting with their creator, Bill Cosby, Fat Albert is informed that if he and the others do not return to the television world immediately, they will turn into celluloid dust.


title: Erik von Detten

text: Erik Thomas von Detten (born October 3, 1982) is an American singer and former actor. He is known for his roles in "Escape to Witch Mountain", "Toy Story", "Brink!", "Meego", "The Princess Diaries", "Complete Savages", and "So Weird". He voiced Erwin Lawson through the full run of "Recess" (1997-2001) and the series' four successive direct-to-video films.


title: Erik von Detten

text: Erik Thomas von Detten was born in San Diego, California, the son of Susan von Detten (née Farber), a photographer, and Volker von Detten. He has three sisters, Dolly, Britta and Andrea, and a brother, Timothy. He has German, English, and Russian Jewish ancestry. His family moved to a two-story house in El Segundo, California when he was a young child. In El Segundo, von Detten attended the local public elementary school, and was a member of the Cub Scouts.


title: Erik von Detten

text: One of von Detten's earliest roles was Nicholas Alamain on the daytime soap opera "Days of Our Lives" from 1992 until 1993, appearing in 55 episodes. Nicholas was revealed to be the secret son of Lawrence Alamain (Michael Sabatino) and Carly Manning (Crystal Chappell), two of the show's major characters. As a result, von Detten was heavily involved in some of the show's main storylines, despite only being 10 years old.


title: Erik von Detten

text: In 1995, when he was 13, von Detten provided the voice of the villainous and heartless toy-tormentor Sid Phillips in "Toy Story". He starred in the film "Christmas Every Day" in 1996, played Wally Cleaver in the 1997 film "Leave It to Beaver", and in 1998, had the lead as the title character in the Disney Channel original movie "Brink!". He followed this up on the television series "So Weird ", on which he played Clu Bell from 1999 to 2001. Von Detten also appeared in a theatrical release as Josh Bryant in "The Princess Diaries" in 2001. In addition, he has made several television appearances in shows such as "Dinotopia" (2002), the first celebrity edition of the ABC reality show "The Mole", the third season's "Celebrity Mole Hawaii" (2003), and Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle". Von Detten has also played the part of Chris Savage in the short-lived sitcom "Complete Savages".


title: Erik von Detten

text: In 2007, he made his stage debut in the children's play "The Christmas Princess" in Santa Monica. In 2009, he was featured in the music video "Wanted" by pop singer Jessie James. In 2010, he made a brief cameo appearance before he retired from acting in "Toy Story 3" reprising his role as Sid Phillips, who is now a garbageman in his 20s.


title: Erik von Detten

text: As of 2018, von Detten worked for Rosland Capital, a precious metals asset management firm. He is now a sales manager at a commodities brokerage firm.


title: Erik von Detten

text: Von Detten has been married to his wife, Angela, a Taiwanese-American real estate agent, since 2018. They have a daughter, Claire Elizabeth (b. 2019), and a son, Thomas Henry (b. 2021).


title: Banja Luka

text: Banja Luka (, ) or Banjaluka (, ) is the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city of Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is also the "de facto" capital of this entity. It is the traditional centre of the densely-forested Bosanska Krajina region of northwestern Bosnia. , the city proper has a population of 138,963, while its administrative area comprises a total of 185,042 inhabitants.


title: Banja Luka

text: The city is home to the University of Banja Luka and University Clinical Center of the Republika Srpska, as well as numerous entity and state institutions for Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina respectively. The city lies on the Vrbas river and is well known in the countries of the former Yugoslavia for being full of tree-lined avenues, boulevards, gardens, and parks. Banja Luka was designated European city of sport in 2018.


title: Banja Luka

text: The name "Banja Luka" was first mentioned in a document dated to 6 February 1494 by Ladislaus II of Hungary. The name is interpreted as the 'Ban's meadow', from the words "ban" (a mediaeval noble title), and "luka" ('valley' or 'meadow'). The identity of the ban and the meadow in question remains uncertain, and popular etymology combines the modern words "banja" ('bath' or 'spa'), or "bajna" ('marvelous') and "luka" ('port'). A different interpretation is suggested by the Hungarian name "Lukácsbánya", in English 'Luke's Mine'. In modern usage, the name is pronounced and usually written as one word ("Banjaluka").


title: Banja Luka

text: Banja Luka covers some of land in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is situated on both banks of the Vrbas in the Banja Luka valley, which is characteristically flat within the otherwise hilly region. Banja Luka's centre lies above sea level.


title: Banja Luka

text: The source of the Vrbas River is about to the south at the Vranica mountain. Its tributaries—the Suturlija, the Crkvena, and the Vrbanja—flow into the Vrbas at various points in the city. A number of springs can be found nearby.


title: Banja Luka

text: The area around Banja Luka is mostly woodland and acre fields, although there are many mountains further from the city, especially south from the city. The most notable of these mountains are Ponir (743 m), Osmača (950 m), Manjača (1,214 m), Čemernica (1,338 m), and Tisovac (1,173 m). These are all part of the Dinaric Alps mountain range.


title: Banja Luka

text: Banja Luka has a moderate humid subtropical climate with mild winters, infrequent frosts, and warm summers. The warmest month of the year is July, with an average temperature of . The coldest month of the year is January, when temperatures average around .


title: Banja Luka

text: The annual precipitation for the city is about . Banja Luka has an average of 104 rainy days a year. Due to the city's relatively high latitude and inland location, it snows in Banja Luka almost every year during the winter period. Strong winds can come from the north and northeast. Sometimes, southern winds bring hot air from the Adriatic sea.


title: Banja Luka

text: The history of inhabitation of the area of Banja Luka dates back to ancient times. There is substantial evidence of Roman presence in the region during the first few centuries A.D., including the fort "Kastel" () in the centre of the city. The area comprising Banja Luka was entirely in the kingdom of Illyria and then a part of the Roman province of Illyricum, which split into provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia of which Castra became a part. Ancient Illyrian maps call the settlement in Banja Luka's present day location as Ad Ladios, a settlement located on the river Vrbas.


title: Banja Luka

text: Slavs settled in the Balkans in the 6th century. Mediaeval fortresses in the vicinity of Banja Luka include Vrbas (1224), Župa Zemljanik (1287), Kotor Varoš (1323), Zvečaj (1404), and Bočac (1446). In one document written by king


title: Banja Luka

text: Vladislav II on 6 February 1494 Juraj Mikulasić was mentioned as castellan of Banja Luka. Below the town was a smaller settlement with one Catholic monastery.


title: Banja Luka

text: Banja Luka fell to the Ottomans in 1527. It became the seat of the Sanjak of Bosnia some time prior to 1554, until 1580 when the Bosnia Eyalet was established. Bosnian beylerbeys were seated in Banja Luka until 1639. Ferhad Pasha Sokolović, a relative of Grand Vizier Mehmed-pasha Sokolović, had upon his return to Bosnia in 1574, begun the building of over 200 buildings ranging from artisan and sales shops to wheat warehouses, baths and mosques. Among more important commissions were the Ferhadija and Arnaudija mosques during whose construction plumbing infrastructure was laid out, that served surrounding residential areas. This stimulated the economic and urban development of Banja Luka, which soon became one of the leading commercial and political centres in Bosnia. It was also the central sanjak in the Bosnia Eyalet. In 1688, the city was burned down by the Austrian army, but it quickly recovered. Later periodic intrusions by the Austrian army stimulated military developments in Banja Luka, which made it into a strategic military centre. Orthodox churches and monasteries near Banja Luka were built in the 19th century. Also, Sephardic Jews and Trappists migrated to the city in the 19th century and contributed to the early industrialisation of the region by building mills, breweries, brick factories, textile factories and other important structures.


title: Banja Luka

text: The Trappist monastery built in the 19th century lent its name to the neighbourhood of "Trapisti" and has left a large legacy in the area through its Trappist cheese and its beer production.


title: Banja Luka

text: In 1835 and 1836, during Ottoman administration, numerous people from Banja Luka emigrated to Lešnica, Lipnica and Loznica, the villages around Loznica, and to Šabac.


title: Banja Luka

text: Despite its leading position in the region, Banja Luka as a city was not modernised until Austro-Hungarian occupation in the late 19th century. Railroads, schools, factories, and infrastructure appeared, and were developed, which turned Banja Luka into a modern city.


title: Banja Luka

text: After World War I, the town became the capital of the Vrbas Banovina, a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.


title: Banja Luka

text: The provincial capital owed its rapid progress to the first Ban Svetislav Milosavljević. During that time, the Banski dvor and its twin sister, the Administration building, the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, a theatre and a museum were built, the Grammar School was renovated, the Teachers College enlarged, a city bridge was built and the park renovated.


title: Banja Luka

text: 125 elementary schools were functioning in Banja Luka in 1930. The revolutionary ideas of the time were incubated by the "Pelagić" association and the Students' Club. Banja Luka naturally became the organisational centre of anti-fascist work in the region.


title: Banja Luka

text: During World War II, Banja Luka was occupied by Axis troops and was included into the nazi puppet-state Ustaše Pavelić's Independent State of Croatia. Most of Banja Luka's Serbs and Jews were deported to concentration camps such as Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška. The Jasenovac camp was one of the largest extermination camps in Europe, which was notorious for its high mortality rate and the barbaric practices which occurred in it. On 7 February 1942, Ustashe paramilitaries, led by a Franciscan friar, Miroslav Filipović (aka Tomislav Filipović-Majstorović), killed more than 2,300 Serbs (among them 500 children) in Drakulić, Motike and Šargovac (a part of the Banja Luka municipality).


title: Banja Luka

text: The city's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and Orthodox church of the Holy Trinity were totally demolished by the Ustashe, as was the Church of St. George in Petrićevac. The Bishop of Banja Luka, Platon Jovanović, was arrested by the Ustaše on 5 May 1941, and was tortured and killed. His body was thrown into the Vrbanja river. The city was liberated by the Yugoslav Partisans on 22 April 1945.


title: Banja Luka

text: On 26 and 27 October 1969, two devastating earthquakes (6.0 and 6.4 on the Richter scale) damaged many buildings in Banja Luka. Around 20 to 23 people were killed, and over a thousand injured. A large building called Titanik in the centre of the town was razed to the ground, and the area was later turned into a central public square. With contributions from all over Yugoslavia, Banja Luka was repaired and rebuilt. During this period a large Serb population moved to the city from the surrounding villages, and from more distant areas in Herzegovina.


title: Banja Luka

text: During the 1990s, the city underwent considerable changes when the Bosnian War broke out. Upon the declaration of Bosnian-Herzegovinian independence and the establishment of the Republika Srpska, Banja Luka became the de facto centre of the entity's politics.


title: Banja Luka

text: Nearly all of Banja Luka's Croats and Bosniaks were expelled during the war and all of the city's 16 mosques, including the Ferhat Pasha Mosque, were stacked with explosives and destroyed. A court ruling resulted in the authorities of Banja Luka having to pay $42 million for the destruction of the mosques. Later, an estimated 40,000 Serbs from Croat- and Bosniak-dominated areas of Bosnia, having been exiled from their homes, settled in Banja Luka. However, the Banja Luka district court later overturned the ruling stating that the claims had exceeded a three-year statute of limitations. The Bosniak community vowed to appeal against the decision.


title: Banja Luka

text: On 7 May 2001, several thousand Serb nationalists attacked a group of Bosniaks and members of the diplomatic corps attending a ceremony of marking the reconstruction of the historic 16th-century Ferhadija mosque. There were indications of police collaboration. More than 30 individuals were injured during the attack, and on 26 May, Murat Badić, who had been in a coma after the attack, died from head injuries. Fourteen Bosnian Serb nationalists were jailed for starting the riots.


title: Banja Luka

text: Banja Luka plays an important role on different levels of Bosnia and Herzegovina's government structures. Banja Luka is the centre of the government for the Municipality of Banja Luka. A number of entity and state institutions are seated in the city. The Republika Srpska Government and the National Assembly are based in Banja Luka.


title: Banja Luka

text: The Bosnia and Herzegovina State Agencies based in the city include the Indirect Taxation (VAT) Authority, the Deposit Insurance Agency as well as a branch of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (formerly the National Bank of Republika Srpska). Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Serbia, the United Kingdom and the United States maintain diplomatic representation through consulates-general in Banja Luka.


title: Banja Luka

text: Although the city itself was not directly affected by the Bosnian war in the early 1990s, its economy was. In this period Banja Luka fell behind the world in key areas such as technology, resulting in a rather stagnant economy. However, in recent years, the financial services sector has gained in importance in the city. In 2002, the trading began on the newly established Banja Luka Stock Exchange. The number of companies listed, the trading volume and the number of investors have increased significantly. A number of big companies such as Telekom Srpske, Rafinerija ulja Modriča, Banjalučka Pivara and Vitaminka are all listed on the exchange and are traded regularly. Investors, apart from those from Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, now include a number of investment funds from the EU, and from Norway, the United States, Japan and China.


title: Banja Luka

text: A number of financial services regulators, such as the Republika Srpska Securities Commission and the RS Banking Agency are headquartered in Banja Luka. This, along with the fact that some of the major banks in Bosnia, the Deposit Insurance Agency and the value-added tax (VAT) authority are all based in the city, has helped Banja Luka establish itself as a major financial centre of the country.


title: Banja Luka

text: The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018):


title: Banja Luka

text: The Museum of Republika Srpska inherited the Ethnographic Museum established in 1930, and broadened its setting with collections of archeology, history, art history and nature. The Museum of Modern Art of Republika Srpska, also called MSURS, the Museum of Contemporary Art, displays exhibitions of both domestic and worldwide artists.


title: Banja Luka

text: Banja Luka is home to the National Theatre and National Library, both dating from the first half of the 20th century, and of numerous other theatres. The headquarters of the Archives of Republika Srpska is situated in the building known as "Carska kuća" or Imperial House, built around 1880. It has been in continuous public use longer than any other structure in Banja Luka.


title: Banja Luka

text: One of the best-known cultural sites in Banja Luka is the cultural centre of "Banski Dvor" (Halls of the Ban), built in the 1930s as the residence for the Bans of the Vrbas Banovina.


title: Banja Luka

text: There is a number of Cultural Artistic Associations in the city. The oldest is CAA "Pelagić" (founded 1927), one of the oldest institutions of this kind in Bosnia and Herzegovina.


title: Banja Luka

text: Banja Luka has one major football stadium and several indoor sports halls. The local handball, basketball and football teams bear the traditional name Borac ("fighter"). There are sixteen football clubs in the city, with the most notable being Luka are Borac Banja Luka (2020–2021 season champions of Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina), BSK Banja Luka, and Omladinac Banja Luka (both in the First League of the Republika Srpska), FK Naprijed Banja Luka and FK Vrbas Banja Luka


title: Banja Luka

text: FK Borac Banja Luka is one of the most popular football club in the Republika Srpska. The club has won several major trophies in its history such as trophies as a champion of Mitropa Cup, Yugoslav Cup, Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Cup, First League of the Republika Srpska, Republic Srpska Cup. The club has participated in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.


title: Banja Luka

text: The city has a long tradition of handball. RK Borac Banja Luka was the European Champion in 1976, the European Vice-Champion in 1975 and the winner of the IHF Cup in 1991.


title: Banja Luka

text: The local tennis tournament, "Memorijal Trive Vujića", has become professional and has been awarded ATP status in 2001, with the rank of a Challenger. The Banja Luka Challenger takes place in September each year. In 2006, the Davis Cup matches of the Europe/Africa Zone Group III took place in the city.


title: Banja Luka

text: Public transportation within Banja Luka is exclusively operated by the bus services. Over thirty bus lines connect the city centre with the rest of the city and its suburbs. The oldest bus link in the city is line No 1. Taxis are also readily available. The expressway E-661 (locally known as M-16) leads north to Croatia from Banja Luka by way of Gradiška, near the Bosnian/Croatian border. A wide range of bus services are available to most neighbouring and larger towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as to regional and European destinations such as Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, France, Italy, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and Slovakia.


title: Banja Luka

text: Banja Luka is a minor hub of the railway services of Željeznice Republike Srpske, which comprises one half of the railway network of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Services operate to most northern Bosnian towns, and two modern air-conditioned 'Talgo' trains run to Sarajevo every day. However, services are relatively slow and infrequent compared with neighbouring countries.


title: Banja Luka

text: Banja Luka International Airport (IATA: BNX, ICAO: LQBK) is located north of Banja Luka. The airport is served by Air Serbia, which operates flights to Belgrade and summer charters to Antalya and Athens, while Ryanair operates flights to Bergamo, Berlin, Brussels, Gothenburg, Stockholm-Arlanda Airport,Memmingen, Frankfurt–Hahn and Vienna. There is also Banja Luka Zalužani Airfield, a small airstrip.


title: Petrified wood

text: Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of "fossilized wood", the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. "Petrifaction" is the result of a tree or tree-like plants having been replaced by stone via a mineralization process that often includes permineralization and replacement. The organic materials making up cell walls have been replicated with minerals (mostly silica in the form of opal, chalcedony, or quartz). In some instances, the original structure of the stem tissue may be partially retained. Unlike other plant fossils, which are typically impressions or compressions, petrified wood is a three-dimensional representation of the original organic material.


title: Petrified wood

text: The petrifaction process occurs underground, when wood becomes buried in water-saturated sediment or volcanic ash. The presence of water reduces the availability of oxygen which inhibits aerobic decomposition by bacteria and fungi. Mineral-laden water flowing through the sediments may lead to permineralization, which occurs when minerals precipitate out of solution filling the interiors of cells and other empty spaces. During replacement, the plant's cell walls act as a template for mineralization. There needs to be a balance between the decay of cellulose and lignin and mineral templating for cellular detail to be preserved with fidelity. Most of the organic matter often decomposes, however some of the lignin may remain. Silica in the form of opal-A, can encrust and permeate wood relatively quickly in hot spring environments. However, petrified wood is most commonly associated with trees that were buried in fine grained sediments of deltas and floodplains or volcanic lahars and ash beds. A forest where such material has petrified becomes known as a petrified forest.


title: Petrified wood

text: Petrified wood forms when woody stems of plants are buried in wet sediments saturated with dissolved minerals. The lack of oxygen slows decay of the wood, allowing minerals to replace cell walls and to fill void spaces in the wood.


title: Petrified wood

text: Wood is composed mostly of holocellulose (cellulose and hemicellulose) and lignin. Together, these substances make up 95% of the dry composition of wood. Almost half of this is cellulose, which gives wood much of its strength. Cellulose is composed of long chains of polymerized glucose arranged into microfibrils that reinforce the cell walls in the wood. Hemicellulose, a branched polymer of various simple sugars, makes up the majority of the remaining composition of hardwood while lignin, which is a polymer of phenylpropanes, is more abundant in softwood. The hemicellulose and lignin encrust and reinforce the cellulose microfibrils.


title: Petrified wood

text: Dead wood is normally rapidly decomposed by microorganisms, beginning with the holocellulose. The lignin is hydrophobic (water-repelling) and much slower to decay. The rate of decay is affected by temperature and moisture content, but exclusion of oxygen is the most important factor preserving wood tissue: Organisms that decompose lignin must have oxygen for their life processes. As a result, fossil wood older than Eocene (about 56 million years old or older) has lost almost all its holocellulose, and only lignin remains. In addition to microbial decomposition, wood buried in an alkaline environment is rapidly broken down by inorganic reactions with the alkali.


title: Petrified wood

text: Wood is preserved from decomposition by rapid entombment in mud, particularly mud formed from volcanic ash. The wood is then mineralized to transform it to stone. Non-mineralized wood has been recovered from Paleozoic formations, particularly "Callixylon" from Berea Sandstone, but this is very unusual. The petrified wood is later exposed by erosion of surrounding sediments. Non-mineralized fossil wood is rapidly destroyed when exposed by erosion, but petrified wood is quite durable.


title: Petrified wood

text: Some 40 minerals have been identified in petrified wood, but silica minerals are by far the most important. Calcite and pyrite are much less common, and others are quite rare. Silica binds to the cellulose in cell walls via hydrogen bonding and forms a kind of template. Additional silica then replaces the cellulose as it decomposes, so that cell walls are often preserved in great detail. Thus silicification begins within the cell walls, and the spaces within and between cells are filled with silica more gradually. Over time, almost all the original organic material is lost; only around 10% remains in the petrified wood. The remaining material is nearly pure silica, with only iron, aluminum, and alkali and alkaline earth elements present in more than trace amounts. Iron, calcium, aluminum are the most common, and one or more of these elements may make up more than 1% of the composition.


title: Petrified wood

text: Just what form the silica initially takes is still a topic of research. There is evidence of initial deposition as opal, which then recrystallizes to quartz over long time periods. On the other hand, there is some evidence that silica is deposited directly as quartz.


title: Petrified wood

text: Wood can become silicified very rapidly in silica-rich hot springs. While wood petrified in this setting is only a minor part of the geologic record, hot spring deposits are important to paleontologists because such deposits sometimes preserve more delicate plant parts in exquisite detail. These Lagerstätte deposits include the Paleozoic Rhynie Chert and East Kirkton Limestone beds, which record early stages in the evolution of land plants.


title: Petrified wood

text: Most of the color in petrified wood comes from trace metals. Of these, iron is the most important, and it can produce a range of hues depending on its oxidation state. Chromium produces bright green petrified wood. Variations in color likely reflect different episodes of mineralization. In some cases, variations may come from chromatographic separation of trace metals.


title: Petrified wood

text: Wood can also be petrified by calcite, as occurs in concretions in coal beds. Wood petrified by calcite tends to retain more of its original organic material. Petrification begins with deposition of goethite in the cell walls, followed by deposition of calcite in the void spaces. Carbonized wood is resistant to silicification and is usually petrified by other minerals. Wood petrified by minerals other than silica minerals tends to accumulate heavy metals, such as uranium, selenium, and germanium, with uranium most common in wood high in lignin and germanium most common in wood preserved in coal beds. Boron, zinc, and phosphorus are anomalously low in fossil wood, suggesting they are leached away or scavenged by microorganisms.


title: Petrified wood

text: Less commonly, the replacement minerals in petrified wood are chalcocite or other sulfide minerals. These have been mined as copper ore at locations such as the Nacimiento Mine near Cuba, New Mexico.


title: Petrified wood

text: Scientists have attempted to duplicate the process of petrification of wood, both to better understand the natural petrification process and for its possible use as a ceramic material. Early attempts used sodium metasilicate as a source of silica, but tetraethyl orthosilicate has proven more promising.


title: Petrified wood

text: Petrified wood has limited use in jewelry, but is mostly used for decorative pieces such as book ends, table tops, clock faces, or other ornamental objects. A number of Ancestral Puebloan structures near Petrified Forest National Park were constructed of petrified wood, including the Agate House Pueblo. Petrified wood is also used in New Age healing.


title: Petrified wood

text: Petrified wood is found worldwide in sedimentary beds ranging in age from the Devonian (about 390 million years ago), when woody plants first appeared on dry land, to nearly the present. Petrified "forests" tend to be either entire ecosystems buried by volcanic eruptions, in which trunks often remain in their growth positions, or accumulations of drift wood in fluvial environments. Amethyst Ridge at Yellowstone National Park shows 27 successive forest ecosystems buried by eruptions, while Petrified Forest National Park is a particularly fine example of fluvial accumulations of driftwood.


title: Petrified wood

text: Volcanic ash is particularly suitable for preservation of wood, because large quantities of silica are released as the ash weathers. The presence of petrified wood in a sedimentary bed is often an indication of the presence of weathered volcanic ash. Petrified wood can also form in arkosic sediments, rich in feldspar and other minerals that release silica as they break down. The warm supermonsoon climates of the Carboniferous through Permian periods seem to have favored this process. Preservation of petrified forests in volcanic ash beds is less affected by climate and preserves a greater diversity of species.


title: Richard Patrick

text: Richard Michael Patrick (born May 10, 1968) is an American musician, singer and songwriter. He is the frontman for the rock band Filter and a founding member of the supergroups Army of Anyone and The Damning Well, and has served as a touring guitarist for Nine Inch Nails. He is the younger brother of actor Robert Patrick.


title: Richard Patrick

text: After a chance meeting with Trent Reznor in a Cleveland music store, Patrick landed a gig as touring guitarist in Reznor's live incarnation of Nine Inch Nails from 1989 to 1993. His only recorded contribution can be heard at the end of "Sanctified" on "Pretty Hate Machine". Patrick also appeared in the music videos for "Down in It", "Head Like a Hole", "Wish", and one of the two promo videos for "Gave Up" (along with Marilyn Manson), which was filmed in the living room of the infamous house where Sharon Tate was murdered in 1969, as Reznor had leased the house and installed a recording studio in it. Patrick chose to leave the band during the recording of "The Downward Spiral" in 1993 following a comment from Reznor to "get up off his ass and go write a record" in response to Patrick asking for more money, further suggesting Patrick to work as a delivery driver at a pizzeria.


title: Richard Patrick

text: In September 2022, Patrick joined Nine Inch Nails onstage for a special Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame induction performance, playing classic tracks from his time with the band as well as covering his Filter hit, "Hey Man Nice Shot".


title: Richard Patrick

text: Before his departure from Nine Inch Nails, Patrick formed his own band, Filter, with Brian Liesegang, who left the band after the recording of the band's first album, 1995's "Short Bus". Four years later, Richard Patrick released Filter's second album, "Title of Record", with help from guitarist Geno Lenardo.


title: Richard Patrick

text: Filter's third album, "The Amalgamut", was released in 2002, with Patrick canceling most of the supporting tour to check into rehab for alcoholism, a problem that had been plaguing him for years. An experience where he drank on an airplane inspired Filter's hit single "Take a Picture."


title: Richard Patrick

text: After a five-year hiatus, Filter released a fourth record on May 13, 2008, entitled "Anthems for the Damned". Patrick did the vocals and the majority of the instrumentation on the album except for the drumming, which was done by Josh Freese. He also worked with Wes Borland and John 5 on a few individual songs.


title: Richard Patrick

text: For the first time in the band's history, the band released an album without a three-to five-year break in between, with their fifth record, "The Trouble with Angels", which was released just over two years after "Anthems" on August 17, 2010. Patrick recorded the album with the "Anthems for the Damned" touring band, Mikea Fineo, Mitch Marlow, and John Spiker, but recruited a new guitarist (Rob Patterson) and bass player (Phil Buckman) for touring in support of the album.


title: Richard Patrick

text: Patrick returned to the studio in April 2012, to work with producer Bob Marlette and Kill Hannah guitarist, Jonny Radtke, on his next Filter album, under the working title "Gurney and the Burning Books". After Filter was signed to Wind-up Records in September 2012, Patrick released his sixth studio album "The Sun Comes Out Tonight" on June 4, 2013.


title: Richard Patrick

text: In early 2015, Patrick reunited with Ben Grosse, Michael "Blumpy" Tuller, Brian Virtue and former Filter guitarist Brian Liesegang to begin recording Filter's most recent album. After launching a PledgeMusic campaign, Patrick and contributing artists Oumi Kapila, Chris Reeve and Ashley Dzerigian released Filter's seventh studio album "Crazy Eyes" on April 8, 2016.


title: Richard Patrick

text: In 2018, Patrick reunited with Brian Liesegang to record a followup to "Short Bus" entitled "Rebus", and funded the project using PledgeMusic. The project remains unreleased due to PledgeMusic going bankrupt. Patrick and Liesegang decided to mount a "Title of Record" 20th anniversary tour in the Fall of 2019, but the tour was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts with deadlines for film scores that Patrick was working on. In lieu of the "Rebus" release, Patrick instead plans to release a new Filter album with a different lineup of musicians entitled "They Got Us Right Where They Want Us, at Each Other's Throats."


title: Richard Patrick

text: While writing songs for Filter's fourth album, Patrick called up the DeLeo brothers of Stone Temple Pilots to help him write a song. The result was a song called "A Better Place." Due to the chemistry the trio had while writing the song, they decided to form a supergroup, which became Army of Anyone.


title: Richard Patrick

text: On September 29, 2005, the formation of Army of Anyone was announced. Along with Dean and Robert DeLeo, future drummer for Korn, Ray Luzier, was also added to the line-up.


title: Richard Patrick

text: Army of Anyone's self-titled debut album was released on November 14, 2006. The album's first single, "Goodbye", peaked at number three on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.


title: Richard Patrick

text: On May 26, 2007, Army of Anyone played their last concert to date in El Paso, Texas. The band has since been on hiatus.


title: Richard Patrick

text: Patrick composed the score for Alexandros Avranas's 2016 film "Dark Crimes", a crime thriller based on a 2008 David Grann article published in "The New Yorker".


title: Richard Patrick

text: On August 25, 2008, Patrick wrote an editorial, "Talking About War", for the "Huffington Post". He has since started writing a column, called "Filtering The Truth," for Suicide Girls. His first post, about politics and religion, was posted on Election Day 2008.


title: Richard Patrick

text: Patrick and his wife Tina have a daughter, born in 2008, and a son, born in 2009. Patrick graduated from Bay High School in Bay Village, Ohio in 1987. After years of alcohol and drug abuse issues, he has been sober since September 2002.


title: Tax evasion

text: Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxpayer's tax liability, and it includes dishonest tax reporting, declaring less income, profits or gains than the amounts actually earned, overstating deductions, using bribes against authorities in countries with high corruption rates and hiding money in secret locations.


title: Tax evasion

text: Tax evasion is an activity commonly associated with the informal economy. One measure of the extent of tax evasion (the "tax gap") is the amount of unreported income, which is the difference between the amount of income that should be reported to the tax authorities and the actual amount reported.


title: Tax evasion

text: In contrast, tax avoidance is the legal use of tax laws to reduce one's tax burden. Both tax evasion and tax avoidance can be viewed as forms of tax noncompliance, as they describe a range of activities that intend to subvert a state's tax system, but such classification of tax avoidance is disputable since avoidance is lawful in self-creating systems. Both tax evasion and tax avoidance can be practiced by corporations, trusts, or individuals.


title: Tax evasion

text: In 1968, Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker first theorized the "economics of crime", on the basis of which authors M.G. Allingham and A. Sandmo produced, in 1972, an economic model of tax evasion. This model deals with the evasion of income tax, the main source of tax revenue in developed countries. According to the authors, the level of evasion of income tax depends on the detection probability and the level of punishment provided by law. Later studies however, pointed limitations of the model, highlighting that individuals are also more likely to comply with taxes when they believe that tax money is appropriately used and when they can take part on public decisions.


title: Tax evasion

text: The literature's theoretical models are elegant in their effort to identify the variables likely to affect non-compliance. Alternative specifications, however, yield conflicting results concerning both the signs and magnitudes of variables believed to affect tax evasion. Empirical work is required to resolve the theoretical ambiguities. Income tax evasion appears to be positively influenced by the tax rate, the unemployment rate, the level of income and dissatisfaction with government. The U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1986 appears to have reduced tax evasion in the United States.


title: Tax evasion

text: In a 2017 study Alstadsæter et al. concluded based on random stratified audits and leaked data that occurrence of tax evasion rises sharply as amount of wealth rises and that the very richest are about 10 times more likely than average people to engage in tax evasion.


title: Tax evasion

text: The tax gap describes how much tax should have been raised in relation to much tax is actually raised.


title: Tax evasion

text: The tax gap is mainly growing due to two factors, the lack of enforcement on the one hand and the lack of compliance on the other hand. The former is mainly rooted in the costly enforcement of the taxation law. The Iatter is based on the foundation that tax compliance is costly for individuals as well as firms (tax filling, bureaucracy), hence not paying taxes would be more economical in their opinion.


title: Tax evasion

text: Customs duties are an important source of revenue in developing countries. Importers attempt to evade customs duty by (a) under-invoicing and (b) misdeclaration of quantity and product-description. When there is ad valorem import duty, the tax base can be reduced through under-invoicing. Misdeclaration of quantity is more relevant for products with specific duty. Production description is changed to match a H. S. Code commensurate with a lower rate of duty.


title: Tax evasion

text: Smuggling is import or export of products by illegal means. Smuggling is resorted to for total evasion of customs duties, as well as for the import and export of contraband. Smugglers do not pay duty since the transport is covert, so no customs declaration is made.


title: Tax evasion

text: During the second half of the 20th century, value-added tax (VAT) emerged as a modern form of consumption tax throughout the world, with the notable exception of the United States. Producers who collect VAT from consumers may evade tax by under-reporting the amount of sales. The US has no broad-based consumption tax at the federal level, and no state currently collects VAT; the overwhelming majority of states instead collect sales taxes. Canada uses both a VAT at the federal level (the Goods and Services Tax) and sales taxes at the provincial level; some provinces have a single tax combining both forms.


title: Tax evasion

text: In addition, most jurisdictions which levy a VAT or sales tax also legally require their residents to report and pay the tax on items purchased in another jurisdiction. This means that consumers who purchase something in a lower-taxed or untaxed jurisdiction with the intention of avoiding VAT or sales tax in their home jurisdiction are technically breaking the law in most cases.


title: Tax evasion

text: This is especially prevalent in federal countries like the US and Canada where sub-national jurisdictions charge varying rates of VAT or sales tax.


title: Tax evasion

text: In liberal democracies, a fundamental problem with inhibiting evasion of local sales taxes is that liberal democracies, by their very nature, have few (if any) border controls between their internal jurisdictions. Therefore, it is not generally cost-effective to enforce tax collection on low-value goods carried in private vehicles from one jurisdiction to another with a different tax rate. However, sub-national governments will normally seek to collect sales tax on high-value items such as cars.


title: Tax evasion

text: One reason for taxpayers to evade taxes is the personal benefits that come with it, thus the individual problems that lead to that decision Additionally, Wallschutzky's exchange relationship hypothesis presents as a sufficient motive for many. The exchange relationship hypothesis states that tax payers believe that the exchange between their taxes and the public good/social services as unbalanced. Furthermore, the little capability of the system to catch the tax evaders poses as another incentive. Most often, it is more economical to evade taxes, being caught and paying a fine as a consequence, than paying the accumulated tax burden over the years. Thus, evasion numbers should be even higher than they are, hence for many people there seem to be moral objective countering this practice.


title: Tax evasion

text: The level of evasion depends on a number of factors, including the amount of money a person or a corporation possesses. Efforts to evade income tax decline when the amounts involved are lower. The level of evasion also depends on the efficiency of the tax administration. Corruption by tax officials makes it difficult to control evasion. Tax administrations use various means to reduce evasion and increase the level of enforcement: for example, privatization of tax enforcement or tax farming.


title: Tax evasion

text: In 2011 HMRC, the UK tax collection agency stated that it would continue to crack down on tax evasion, with the goal of collecting £18 billion in revenue before 2015. In 2010, HMRC began a voluntary amnesty program that targeted middle-class professionals and raised £500 million.


title: Tax evasion

text: Corrupt tax officials co-operate with the taxpayers who intend to evade taxes. When they detect an instance of evasion, they refrain from reporting it in return for bribes. Corruption by tax officials is a serious problem for the tax administration in many countries.


title: Tax evasion

text: Tax evasion is a crime in almost all developed countries, and the guilty party is liable to fines and/or imprisonment. In Switzerland, many acts that would amount to criminal tax evasion in other countries are treated as civil matters. Dishonestly misreporting income in a tax return is not necessarily considered a crime. Such matters are handled in the Swiss tax courts, not the criminal courts.


title: Tax evasion

text: In Switzerland, however, some tax misconduct (such as the deliberate falsification of records) is criminal. Moreover, civil tax transgressions may give rise to penalties. It is often considered that the extent of evasion depends on the severity of punishment for evasion.


title: Tax evasion

text: Professor Christopher Hood first suggested privatization of tax enforcement to control tax evasion more efficiently than a government department would, and some governments have adopted this approach. In Bangladesh, customs administration was partly privatized in 1991.


title: Tax evasion

text: Abuse by private tax collectors (see tax farming below) has on occasion led to revolutionary overthrow of governments who have outsourced tax administration.


title: Tax evasion

text: Tax farming is an historical means of collection of revenue. Governments received a lump sum in advance from a private entity, which then collects and retains the revenue and bears the risk of evasion by the taxpayers. It has been suggested that tax farming may reduce tax evasion in less developed countries.


title: Tax evasion

text: This system may be liable to abuse by the "tax-farmers" seeking to make a profit, if they are not subject to political constraints. Abuses by tax farmers (together with a tax system that exempted the aristocracy) were a primary reason for the French Revolution that toppled Louis XVI.


title: Tax evasion

text: Pre-shipment inspection agencies like Société Générale De Surveillance S. A. and its subsidiary Cotecna are in business to prevent evasion of customs duty through under-invoicing and misdeclaration.


title: Tax evasion

text: However, PSI agencies have cooperated with importers in evading customs duties. Bangladeshi authorities found Cotecna guilty of complicity with importers for evasion of customs duties on a huge scale. In August 2005, Bangladesh had hired four PSI companies – Cotecna Inspection SA, SGS (Bangladesh) Limited, Bureau Veritas BIVAC (Bangladesh) Limited and INtertek Testing Limited – for three years to certify price, quality and quantity of imported goods. In March 2008, the Bangladeshi National Board of Revenue cancelled Cotecna's certificate for serious irregularities, while importers' complaints about the other three PSI companies mounted. Bangladesh planned to have its customs department train its officials in "WTO valuation, trade policy, ASYCUDA system, risk management" to take over the inspections.


title: Tax evasion

text: Cotecna was also found to have bribed Pakistan's prime minister Benazir Bhutto to secure a PSI contract by Pakistani importers. She and her husband were sentenced both in Pakistan and Switzerland.


title: Tax evasion

text: In early October 2021, 11.9 million leaked financial records in addition to 2.9 TB of data was released in the name of Pandora Papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), exposing the secret offshore accounts of around 35 world leaders in tax havens to evade taxes. One of the many leaders to be exposed was the ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Sheikh Mohammed was identified as the shareholder of three firms that were registered in the tax havens of Bahamas and British Virgin Islands through an Emirati company, partially owned by an investment conglomerate, Dubai Holding and Axiom Limited, major shares of which were owned by the ruler.


title: Tax evasion

text: As per the leaked records, the Dubai ruler owned a massive number of upmarket and luxurious real estate across Europe via the cited offshore entities registered in tax havens.


title: Tax evasion

text: Additionally, the Pandora Papers also cites that the former Managing Director of IMF and French finance minister, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was permitted to create a consulting firm in the United Arab Emirates in 2018 after the expiry of tax exemptions of his Moroccan company, which he used for receiving millions of dollars worth of tax free consulting fees.


title: Tax evasion

text: A network of banks, stock traders and top lawyers has obtained billions from the European treasuries through suspected fraud and speculation with dividend tax. The five hardest hit countries have lost together at least $62.9 billion. Germany is the hardest hit country, with around €31 billion withdrawn from the German treasury. Estimated losses for other countries include at least €17 billion for France, €4.5 billion in Italy, €1.7 billion in Denmark and €201 million for Belgium.


title: Tax evasion

text: A paper by economists Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman, which used data from HSBC Switzerland ("Swiss leaks") and Mossack Fonseca ("Panama Papers"), found that "on average about 3% of personal taxes are evaded in Scandinavia, but this figure rises to about 30% in the top 0.01% of the wealth distribution... Taking tax evasion into account increases the rise in inequality seen in tax data since the 1970s markedly, highlighting the need to move beyond tax data to capture income and wealth at the top, even in countries where tax compliance is generally high. We also find that after reducing tax evasion—by using tax amnesties—tax evaders do not legally avoid taxes more. This result suggests that fighting tax evasion can be an effective way to collect more tax revenue from the ultra-wealthy."


title: Tax evasion

text: HMRC, the UK tax collection agency, estimated that in the tax year 2016–17, pure tax evasion (i.e. not including things like hidden economy or criminal activity) cost the government £5.3 billion. This compared to a wider tax gap (the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be collected by HMRC, against what is actually collected) of £33 billion in the same year, an amount that represented 5.7% of liabilities. At the same time, tax avoidance was estimated at £1.7 billion (this does not include international tax arrangements that cannot be challenged under the UK law, including some forms of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)).


title: Tax evasion

text: In 2013, the Coalition government announced a crackdown on economic crime. It created a new criminal offence for aiding tax evasion and removed the requirement for tax investigation authorities to prove "intent to evade tax" to prosecute offenders.


title: Tax evasion

text: In 2015, Chancellor George Osborne promised to collect £5bn by "waging war" on tax evaders by announcing new powers for HMRC to target people with offshore bank accounts. The number of people prosecuted for tax evasion doubled in 2014/15 from the year before to 1,258.


title: Tax evasion

text: In the United States of America, Federal tax evasion is defined as the purposeful, illegal attempt to evade the assessment or the payment of a tax imposed by federal law. Conviction of tax evasion may result in fines and imprisonment.


title: Tax evasion

text: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has identified small businesses and sole proprietors as the largest contributors to the tax gap between what Americans owe in federal taxes and what the federal government receives. Small businesses and sole proprietorships contribute to the tax gap because there are few ways for the government to know about skimming or non-reporting of income without mounting significant investigations.


title: Tax evasion

text: The IRS estimates that the 2001 tax gap was $345 billion and for 2006 it was $450 billion. A study of the 2008 tax gap found a range of $450–$500 billion, and unreported income to be about $2 trillion, concluding that 18 to 19 percent of total reportable income was not being properly reported to the IRS.


title: Tax evasion

text: Generally, individuals tend to evade taxes, while companies rather avoid taxes. There is a great heterogenic among people who evade people as it is a substantial issue in society, that is creating an excessive tax gap. Studies suggest that 8% of global financial wealth lies in offshore accounts. Often, offshore wealth that is stored in tax havens stays undetected in random audits. Even though there is high diversity among people who evade taxes, there is a higher probability among the highest wealth group. According to Alstadsæter, Johannesen and Zucman 2019 the extent of taxes evaded is substantially higher with higher income, and exceptionally higher among people of the top wealth group. In line with this, the probability to appear in the Panama Papers rises significantly among the top 0.01% of the wealth group, as does the probability to own an unreported account at HSBC. However, the upper wealth group is also more inclined to use tax amnesty.


title: Lu Han

text: Lu Han (Chinese: 鹿晗, born April 20, 1990), also known mononymously as Luhan, is a Chinese singer and actor. He was a member of the South Korean-Chinese boy group Exo and its sub-group Exo-M, before leaving the group in October 2014. That year, he was ranked the sixth most popular entertainment star in China by China National Radio. In 2017, Lu Han was listed as the second highest-paid celebrity in the "Forbes" China Celebrity 100, behind only Fan Bingbing.


title: Lu Han

text: Lu Han released his solo debut album "Reloaded" in 2015, and has starred in several box office hits such as "20 Once Again" (2015), "The Witness" (2015), and "Time Raiders" (2016). In 2017, he starred in his first television series, "Fighter of the Destiny".


title: Lu Han

text: Lu Han was born on April 20, 1990 in Haidian, Beijing. He graduated from Beijing Shida Middle School and attended Beijing Haidian Foreign Language Shi Yan School before leaving for South Korea to attend Yonsei University as an exchange student. He majored in Applied Music at the Seoul Institute of the Arts.


title: Lu Han

text: In 2008, Lu Han unsuccessfully auditioned for JYP Entertainment at their global audition in China. In 2010, while studying in Seoul, he was scouted while in Myeong-dong by an SM Entertainment representative who recommended he audition for the company; after which he became a trainee under the agency.


title: Lu Han

text: Along with Tao, Chen, and Kai, Luhan made his first televised performance at the "SBS Gayo Daejeon" on December 29, 2011. Following this appearance, he was the second member of Exo to be officially introduced, as one of the four Chinese members of the group and its Mandarin-language sub-group Exo-M.


title: Lu Han

text: On October 10, 2014, Luhan filed a lawsuit against SM Entertainment to nullify his contract and effectively left Exo.


title: Lu Han

text: Luhan often contributed to the soundtracks of movies he participated in. He sung the theme song for "20 Once Again", titled "Our Tomorrow". The music video of the song surpassed 1 million views in 47 minutes, setting a new record. He then released a rendition of "Tian mi mi" for the film "". Director Peter Chan is said to have asked Luhan to participate due to his gentle and clear voice as he felt it would be effective in expressing the emotions of the song.


title: Lu Han

text: Luhan first announced his solo album in July 2015, where he will collaborate with famous producer Djemba Djemba. This is also Djemba's first time producing an album for an Asian artist. The same month, he collaborated with David Tao in a bidding song for the 2022 Winter Olympics held in Beijing.


title: Lu Han

text: Luhan's first digital album "Reloaded I" was released on September 10, 2015 via QQ Music charts. It sold 880,000 copies on the first day, the highest recorded sales number on the first day of official release. "Reloaded I" also reached over one million sales on QQ Music, setting the record for fastest digital album sales. In November, he released the single "Medals", which also serves as the soundtrack for the 2015 film "The Witness". "Medals" topped the V Chart as well as "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming the first Mandarin single to top the latter. In December, he released "Deep", a promotional song for the Chinese version of "Kungfu Panda 3".


title: Lu Han

text: Luhan's first studio album, "Reloaded" was released on December 14, 2015. The album topped the Tower Records chart in Japan, and became the only album from mainland China to enter the Top 5 of Taiwan's G-Music year-end chart. "Reloaded" sold over 3 million copies and was also certified platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, becoming the first album in mainland China to do so.


title: Lu Han

text: Luhan attended the QQ Music Awards, winning the Best Digital Album of the Year for "Reloaded" as well as the Best Male Singer of the Year. He then embarked on his first solo concert tour, the "Luhan Reloaded: 2016 Luhan 1st China Tour". The tour traveled to Beijing on March 26, Guangzhou on April 2, and Shanghai on April 9. The same month, he won the All-round Artist of the Year and Media Recommended Album of the Year awards at the Chinese Golden Charts Awards; and the Album of the Year and Artist of the Year awards at the 4th V Chart Awards. He is also the first Chinese singer to achieve a double platinum record, having sold over 2 million copies of "Reloaded I".


title: Lu Han

text: Starting from late 2016, Luhan announced that he will be releasing a series of albums under the theme "XXVII", which stands for “Xperience”, “Xplore”, “Venture”, “Imagination" and "I". The albums are meant to document Luhan's growth story at the age of 27.


title: Lu Han

text: On October 21, 2016, Luhan unveiled his third digital album "Xperience" with the track "Catch Me When I Fall". The song is jointly produced by Santell, whom participated in Luhan's first solo album "Reloaded", and the Picard Brothers, a French producer team who has crafted songs for Diplo and Chris Brown. On December 27, 2016, he published his fourth digital album "Xplore", containing the tracks "Winter Song"


title: Lu Han

text: and "Skin to Skin". "Skin to Skin' is Luhan's second English-language song, and incorporates various genres such as R&B, Future Bass, Electro and House.


title: Lu Han

text: On February 21, 2017, Luhan unveiled his fifth digital album "Venture" with the songs "What if I Said" and "Roleplay". He participated in writing the lyrics for the track "Roleplay", which details his own experience in dealing with harassment from the paparazzi. "Imagination" was released in April 2017 and consisted of two tracks – "On Call" (his first attempt at the fusion jazz genre) and "Say It". "I", the last part of the album series, was released in June 2017 with two songs "Set It Off" and "On Fire".


title: Lu Han

text: On July 20, 2017, Luhan won the "Album of the Year" award at the Asian Music Gala for the "XXVII" album series. On September 9, 2017, he released a single for the soundtrack of the film "Sky Hunter".


title: Lu Han

text: On April 17, 2019, Luhan released a single album, "π-volume.1", which sold over 3.4 million copies. On August 30, 2019, he released a second single album, "π-volume.2", which sold over 1.2 million copies.


title: Lu Han

text: Luhan made his film debut in the 2015 film "20 Once Again", the Chinese remake of the Korean hit movie "Miss Granny". It topped box office charts and broke records to become the highest-grossing Korean-Chinese co-produced film. For his performance, he won the "Newcomer of the Year" award at the Beijing International Film Festival, as well as the "Most Popular Actor" award at the Beijing College Student Film Festival. The same year, he joined the cast of "Hurry Up, Brother", a spin-off from the original South Korean variety program "Running Man". Luhan then starred opposite Yang Mi in the crime thriller "The Witness", a remake of the 2011 Korean movie "Blind".


title: Lu Han

text: In 2016, he starred in the fantasy-action-adventure film "Time Raiders", based on the online novel series "Tomb Raiders". The film premiered on August 5 and topped box office charts, becoming the biggest summer hit of 2016. He then featured in "The Great Wall", a historical epic directed by Zhang Yimou.


title: Lu Han

text: In 2017, Luhan starred in his first television drama "Fighter of the Destiny", a fantasy wuxia series based on the novel of the same name. In June, he was cast in the youth sports drama "Sweet Combat" alongside Guan Xiaotong. In September, it was announced that Luhan was cast in the upcoming science fiction film "Shanghai Fortress" alongside Shu Qi. The film is adapted from the 2006 novel "Once Upon a Time in Shanghai" and was released in 2019.


title: Lu Han

text: Luhan has been dubbed by foreign media as the Chinese counterpart of popular pop star Justin Bieber, due to his massive popularity and dedicated fandom in China. The term "Luhan effect" was used to describe his massive influence among fans. He currently holds the Guinness World Record holder for the "Most Comments on a Weibo Post", which was established in August 2014 and subsequently surpassed by Luhan himself in September 2015. In 2016, he set a second Guinness World Record for the "Largest gathering of people wearing antlers" at the 2016 LuHan Reloaded China Tour, in Beijing, China. He is also noted for his achievements in both music and film, holding records on Chinese digital music platforms; and ranking at the top of the Star Box-office Chart on nuomi.com, one of the country's largest online ticket-buying platforms.


title: Lu Han

text: Yan Siwei, a broker who works in the entertainment industry, opined that Luhan stands for a new fandom model; in this model, the artist uses social media data instead of works to galvanize fans, and the fans are well-organized to protect the artist and maintain the fandom. "GQ" did an investigation on the fandom and call it "a systemic, detailed social labor division and powerful execution empire." After Luhan outsold Jay Chou by several million albums, some raised concerns about whether Mandopop has "died" or become over-commercialized. In 2019, the failure of "Shanghai Fortress" made some question if Luhan and this model would flop soon. A guest in a talk program opined that these kind of artists are "meteors" instead of "stars."


title: Lu Han

text: Luhan first appeared on the "Forbes" China Celebrity 100 in 2015, ranking 37th. He rose up 35 spots to rank 2nd in 2017, becoming the highest ranked male celebrity in China. In 2016, Luhan was featured on "Business of Fashion"'s "BOF 100" rankings, becoming the only Chinese celebrity to make it onto the rankings, and was given the title of "Most Anticipated Chinese Star". He is also the first celebrity born after 1990 to be named the "Artist of the Year" by "China Newsweek".


title: Lu Han

text: Luhan is one of the most in-demand brand ambassadors in China, particularly among the younger generation. His endorsement ranges from local products such as Oppo mobile phones and Baidu interactive maps to international ones like Puma and Cartier SA, of which he is their first Asian endorser.


title: Lu Han

text: On December 1, 2015, Luhan was announced to be the official China ambassador of "Star Wars". He released a single titled "The Inner Force", which is the official Chinese promotional theme song for "".


title: Lu Han

text: From 2015 to 2016, Luhan appeared on the cover of more than 20 magazines. He became the first Chinese celebrity to grace the covers of Elle China, GQ Style, Forbes China, Harper's Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan. He broke the record for having more than 200,000 people buy out a 20,000 limited edition run of a magazine cover in one second.


title: Lu Han

text: In August 2019, during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, Luhan shared photos of the Chinese flag accompanied by the hashtags "the Chinese national flag has 1.4 billion flag bearers" and "I am a flag bearer" on his official Weibo account.


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: Jasmin Bhasin (born 28 June 1990) is an Indian actress and model who appears in Hindi television shows. She made her debut in 2011 with Tamil movie Vaanam as priya. Bhasin is best known for playing Twinkle Taneja in "Tashan-e-Ishq" (2015-16) and Teni Bhanushali in "Dil Se Dil Tak" (2017-18). She was also participated in reality shows like "" and "Bigg Boss 14."


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: Her other notable works include portraying Happy mehra in "Dil Toh Happy Hai Ji" and Nayantara in "Naagin 4: Bhagya Ka Zehreela Khel".


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: Bhasin was born to a Sikh family in Kota, Rajasthan on 28 June 1990. She completed her schooling from Kota. She graduated from a hospitality college in Jaipur.


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: Bhasin started her acting career with the Tamil film "Vaanam" in 2011. She then acted in a few more South Indian films like Malayalam film "Beware of Dogs" (2014) Telugu films "Veta" (2014) and "Ladies & Gentlemen" (2015).


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: In August 2015, she made her television debut with Zee TV's popular romantic "Tashan-e-Ishq" as Twinkle Taneja opposite Zain Imam and Sidhant Gupta.


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: In January 2017, she was seen portraying Teni Bhanushali in Colors TV's love triangle show "Dil Se Dil Tak" opposite Sidharth Shukla and Rashami Desai. The show went off air in June 2018.


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: She made her reality debut through participating in the stunt-based show "" where she finished at 7th place. From January 2019, she began portraying Happy Mehra in StarPlus's "Dil Toh Happy Hai Ji" in June 2019, she got replaced by Donal Bisht.


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: In December 2019, she starred in Ekta Kapoor's popular supernatural franchise "Naagin 4: Bhagya Ka Zehreela Khel" portraying Nayantara Alongside Vijayendra Kumeria and Nia Sharma on Colors TV until her role ended two months later in February 2020 and Rashami Desai joins in with the same role.


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: In August 2020, she participated 2nd time in Colors TV's stunt-based reality show "" where she finished at 3rd place.


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: In October 2020, she participated in Colors TV's reality show "Bigg Boss 14" where she ended up at 11th position, gaining huge popularity.


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: In 2021, she did several Hindi and Punjabi music videos with channel such as T-Series, Desi Music Factory and Saregama.


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: In January 2022, Bhasin started shooting for her first Punjabi film "Honeymoon" opposite Gippy Grewal in Chandigarh, filming completed in London in April 2022, and the film released on 25 October 2022.


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: Bhasin met actor Aly Goni during "" in 2018. Later the two begun dating each other in 2021 after appearing in "Bigg Boss 14".


title: Jasmin Bhasin

text: Bhasin was ranked in The Times of India's Most Desirable Women of Indian Television at No. 16 in 2018, No. 12 in 2019 and No. 3 in 2020.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: The Curse of the Bambino was a superstitious sports curse in Major League Baseball (MLB) derived from the 86-year championship drought of the Boston Red Sox between and . The superstition was named after Babe Ruth, colloquially known as "The Bambino", who played for the Red Sox until he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1920. While some fans took the curse seriously, most used the expression in a tongue-in-cheek manner.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Prior to the drought, the Red Sox had been one of the most successful professional baseball franchises. They won five of the first fifteen World Series titles, including the first in 1903, more than any other MLB team at the time. During this period, Ruth was a contributor to the Red Sox's three championships in , , and . Following the sale of Ruth, however, the once lackluster Yankees became one of the most dominant professional sports franchises in North America, winning more than twice as many World Series titles as any other MLB team. The curse became a focal point of the Yankees–Red Sox rivalry over the years.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Talk of the curse as an ongoing phenomenon ended when the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series. The Red Sox's championship was prefaced by them overcoming a 0–3 deficit against the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series (ALCS), the first and, to date, only time an MLB team won a best-of-seven playoff series after losing the first three games.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: The curse had been such a part of Boston culture that when a "reverse curve" road sign on Longfellow Bridge over the city's Storrow Drive was graffitied to read "Reverse The Curse," officials left it in place until the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series. After the World Series that year, the road sign was edited to read "Reversed Curse" in celebration.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Although it had long been noted that the selling of Ruth had been the beginning of a decline in the Red Sox' fortunes, the term "curse of the Bambino" was not in common use until the publication of the book "The Curse of the Bambino" by Dan Shaughnessy in 1990. It became a key part of Red Sox lore in the media thereafter, and Shaughnessy's book became required reading in some high school English classes in New England.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Although the title drought dated back to , the sale of Ruth to the Yankees was completed January 3, 1920. In standard curse lore, Red Sox owner and theatrical producer Harry Frazee used the proceeds from the sale to finance the production of a Broadway musical, usually said to be "No, No, Nanette". In fact, Frazee backed many productions before and after Ruth's sale, and "No, No, Nanette" did not see its first performance until five years after the Ruth sale and two years after Frazee sold the Red Sox. In 1921, Red Sox manager Ed Barrow left to take over as general manager of the Yankees. Other Red Sox players were also later sold or traded to the Yankees.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Neither the lore, nor the debunking of it, entirely tells the story. As Leigh Montville wrote in "The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth", the production "No, No, Nanette" had originated as a non-musical stage play called "My Lady Friends", which opened on Broadway in December 1919. That play had, indeed, been financed as a direct result of the Ruth deal. Various researchers, including Montville and Shaughnessy, have pointed out that Frazee had close ties to the Yankees owners, and that many of the player deals, as well as the mortgage deal for Fenway Park itself, had to do with financing his plays.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Yankee fans taunted the Red Sox with chants of "1918!" one weekend in September 1990. The demeaning chant echoed at Yankee Stadium each time the Red Sox were there. Yankee fans also taunted the Red Sox with signs saying "1918!", "CURSE OF THE BAMBINO", pictures of Babe Ruth, and wearing "1918!" T-shirts each time they were at the Stadium.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Before Ruth left Boston, the Red Sox had won five of the first fifteen World Series, with Ruth pitching for the and championship teams (he was with the Sox for the 1915 World Series but the manager used him only once, as a pinch-hitter, and he did not pitch). The Yankees had not played in any World Series up to that time. In the 84 years after the sale, the Yankees played in 39 World Series, winning 26 of them, twice as many as any other team in Major League Baseball. Meanwhile, over the same time span, the Red Sox played in only four World Series and lost each in seven games.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Even losses that occurred many years before the first mention of the supposed curse, in 1986, have been attributed to it. Some of these instances are listed below:


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Red Sox fans attempted various methods over the years to exorcise their famous curse. These included placing a Boston cap atop Mount Everest and burning a Yankees cap at its base camp and finding a piano owned by Ruth that he had supposedly pushed into a pond near his Sudbury, Massachusetts farm, Home Plate Farm.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: In 1976, Laurie Cabot, the Official Witch of Massachusetts, was brought in to end a 10-game losing streak. While the losing streak ended, the Curse of the Bambino did not.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: In Ken Burns's 1994 documentary "Baseball", former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee suggested that the Red Sox should exhume the body of Babe Ruth, transport it back to Fenway and publicly apologize for trading Ruth to the Yankees.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Some declared the curse broken during a game on August 31, 2004, when a foul ball hit by Manny Ramírez flew into Section 9, Box 95, Row AA and struck a boy's face, knocking two of his teeth out. 16-year-old Lee Gavin, a Boston fan whose favorite player was Ramirez, lived on the Sudbury farm owned by Ruth. That same day, the Yankees suffered their worst loss in team history, a 22–0 clobbering at home against the Cleveland Indians.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Some fans also cite a comedy curse-breaking ceremony performed by musician Jimmy Buffett and his warm-up team (one dressed as Ruth and one dressed as a witch doctor) at a Fenway concert in September 2004. Just after being traded to the Red Sox, Curt Schilling appeared in an advertisement for the Ford F-150 pickup truck hitchhiking with a sign indicating he was going to Boston. When picked up, he said that he had "an 86-year-old curse" to break.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: In 2004, the Red Sox once again met the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. The Red Sox lost the first three games, including losing Game 3 at Fenway by the lopsided score of 19–8.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: The Red Sox trailed 4–3 in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 4. But the team tied the game with a walk by Kevin Millar and a stolen base by pinch-runner Dave Roberts, followed by an RBI single against Yankee closer Mariano Rivera by third baseman Bill Mueller, and won on a two-run home run in the 12th inning by David Ortiz. The Red Sox won the next three games to become the first and only MLB team to win a seven-game postseason series after losing the first three games.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: The Red Sox then faced the St. Louis Cardinals, the team to whom they had lost in and , and led throughout the series, winning in a four-game sweep. Cardinals shortstop Édgar Rentería, who wore the same number as Ruth (3), was the final out of the series, a ground ball back to pitcher Keith Foulke.


title: Curse of the Bambino

text: Glenn Stout argues that the idea of a curse was indirectly influenced by antisemitism, although that aspect was not part of its modern usage; he even says "This does not mean that ... anyone who writes or speaks of the Curse today—as a journalist or a fan—is either anti-Semitic or even remotely aware of the anti-Semitic roots of the Curse." Because Frazee was from New York and involved in theatre, it was assumed he was Jewish (he was actually a Presbyterian). Though Frazee was well respected in Boston, Henry Ford's "Dearborn Independent" ran a series of articles purporting to expose how Jews were "destroying America," and among these were articles lambasting Frazee, saying that with his purchase of the Red Sox "another club was placed under the smothering influences of the 'chosen race'." These articles turned the tide of both baseball owners and public opinion against Frazee, and Fred Lieb's vilification of Frazee in his history of the Red Sox portrayed him implicitly as a Jew. Stout argues that this hatred indirectly created the atmosphere where the "curse" could be accepted.


title: Bamako

text: Bamako ( "Bàmakɔ̌", "Bamako") is the capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2009 population of 1,810,366 and an estimated 2022 population of 2.81 million. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country.


title: Bamako

text: Bamako is the nation's administrative centre. The city proper is a cercle in its own right. Bamako's river port is located in nearby Koulikoro, along with a major regional trade and conference center. Bamako is the seventh-largest West African urban center after Lagos, Abidjan, Kano, Ibadan, Dakar, and Accra. Locally manufactured goods include textiles, processed meat, and metal goods as well as mining. Commercial fishing occurs on the Niger River.


title: Bamako

text: The area of the city has evidence of settlements since the Palaeolithic era. The fertile lands of the Niger River Valley provided the people with an abundant food supply and early kingdoms in the area grew wealthy as they established trade routes linking across west Africa, the Sahara, and leading to northern Africa and Europe. The early inhabitants traded gold, ivory, kola nuts, and salt. By the 11th century, the Empire of Ghana became the first kingdom to dominate the area.


title: Bamako

text: The Mali Empire grew during the early Middle Ages and replaced Ghana as the dominant kingdom in west Africa, dominating Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, and Mauritania. In the 14th century, the Mali Empire became increasingly wealthy because of the trade of cotton, gold and salt. Bamako became a center of commerce and Islamic learning, but declined when Mali was overthrown by the Songhai.


title: Bamako

text: The Scottish explorer Mungo Park visited Bamako in 1797 and 1806 during his exploration of the Niger River. He estimated that the city at the time held 6000 inhabitants, but it would decline in importance up until the French conquest in 1883 and Bamako being named the capital of French Sudan in 1908. A railroad connecting Bamako to Dakar was completed in 1923.


title: Bamako

text: Mali gained independence from France in April 1960, and the Republic of Mali was later established. At this time, Bamako had a population of around 160,000. During the 1960s, the country became socialist and Bamako was subject to Soviet investment and influence. However, the economy declined as state enterprises collapsed and unrest was widespread. Eventually, Moussa Traoré led a successful coup and ruled Mali for 23 years. However his rule was characterised by severe droughts and poor government management and problems of food shortages.


title: Bamako

text: In the late 1980s the people of Bamako and Mali campaigned for a free-market economy and multiparty democracy. In 1990, the National Congress for Democratic Initiative ("Congrès National d'Initiative démocratique", CNID) was set up by the lawyer Mountaga Tall, and the Alliance for Democracy in Mali ("Alliance pour la démocratie au Mali", ADEMA) by Abdramane Baba and historian Alpha Oumar Konaré. These with the "Association des élèves et étudiants du Mali" (AEEM) and the Association Malienne des Droits de l'Homme (AMDH) aimed to oust Moussa Traoré. Under the old constitution, all labor unions had to belong to one confederation, the National Union of Malian Workers (UNTM). When the leadership of the UNTM broke from the government in 1990, the opposition grew. Groups were driven by paycuts and layoffs in the government sector, and the Malian government acceding to pressure from international donors to privatise large swathes of the economy that had remained in public hands even after the overthrow of the socialist government in 1968. Students, even children, played an increasing role in the protest marches in Bamako, and homes and businesses of those associated with the regime were ransacked by crowds.


title: Bamako

text: On 22 March 1991, a large-scale protest march in central Bamako was violently suppressed, with estimates of those killed reaching 300. Four days later, a military coup deposed Traoré. The "Comité de Transition pour le Salut du Peuple" was set up, headed by General Amadou Toumani Touré. Alpha Oumar Konari officially became president on 26 April 1992.


title: Bamako

text: On 20 November 2015, two gunmen took 170 people hostage in the Radisson Blu hotel. Twenty-one people‚ including three Chinese businessmen were killed in the "Bamako hotel attack" along with the two gunmen during the seven-hour siege.


title: Bamako

text: Bamako is situated on the Niger River floodplain, which hampers development along the riverfront and the Niger's tributaries. Bamako is relatively flat, except to the immediate north where an escarpment is found, being what remains of an extinct volcano. The Presidential Palace and main hospital are located here.


title: Bamako

text: Originally, the city developed on the northern side of the river, but as it grew, bridges were developed to connect the north with the south. The first of these was the Pont des Martyrs (2-lane with two pedestrian sections) and the King Fahd Bridge (four-lane with two motorcycle and two pedestrian sections). Additionally, a seasonal causeway between the eastern neighborhoods of Sotuba and Misabugu was inherited from colonial times (alternated traffic on one lane with five crossing sections). The Sotuba Causeway ("Chaussée submersible de Sotuba" in French, and "Babilikoroni" in Bamanankan) is typically under water from July to January. A third bridge (1.4 km long, 24 m wide, four-lane with two motorcycle and two pedestrian sections) is being built at the same location to reduce downtown congestion, notably by trucks.


title: Bamako

text: In 2015, the Bamako city government privatized waste collection in the city. Before the introduction of this program there was a long standing informal waste collection system carried out by "Economic interest groups." Before the privatization these independent groups collected waste throughout the city. After privatization, not only did many waste collectors become unemployed but the corporation that they enlisted to do the job was collecting only 30% of Bamako's waste. The garbage build up creates toxic living conditions and it only worsens when it rains. Due to the prevalence of waste in Bamako's streets, including informal dumping sites near a school, citizens have taken to protesting, marching and it has even escalated to the point of property damage.


title: Bamako

text: Under the Köppen climate classification, Bamako features a tropical savanna climate (Köppen "Aw"). Located in the Sudano-Sahelian zone, Bamako is very hot on average all year round with the hottest months being between March and May. The mildest months are between November and February. During the dry season, rainfall is scarce: virtually none falls between November and April due to the dominance of the Saharan anticyclone and the dry trade winds. The rainy season occurs in the summer with the peak occurring with a few storms beginning in May, then transitioning to the monsoon from June to October.


title: Bamako

text: The District of Bamako has been divided into six communes (distinguished by numbers, and not named) since Ordinance No. 78-34/CNLM of 18 August 1978, and amended by a law in February 1982 establishing the new boundaries of Communes III and IV. Each commune is administered by the municipal council and a mayor elected from among its members. The last elections were held on 26 April 2009 and the Alliance for Democracy in Mali hold the majority of representatives for the communes.


title: Bamako

text: Commune I has a population of 335,407 people (2009) and covers . It is bounded to the north by the rural commune of Djalakorodji (Kati Cercle), west by the Commune II, north-east by the rural commune of Sangarebougou (Kati Cercle), on the east by the rural commune of Gabakourou and south by the Niger River. Nine neighborhoods comprise this commune: Banconi, Boulkassombougou, Djelibougou, Doumanzana Fadjiguila, Sotuba Korofina North, and South Korofina Sikoroni.


title: Bamako

text: Commune II has a population of 159,805 people (2009) and covers . It is bounded to the east by the backwater of Korofina at the west foot of the Point G hill, and to the south by Niger River. The municipality has eleven neighborhoods: Niaréla (the oldest), Bagadadji, Medina-Coura, Bozola, Missira, Hippodrome, Quinzambougou, Bakaribougou, TSF, Industrial Area, and Bougouba. The new Cité du Niger island is also located in the Commune II. The area is the most important in the industry sector in Bamako.


title: Bamako

text: Commune III has a population of 128,872 people (2009) and covers . It is bounded on the north by the Kati, east by the Boulevard du Peuple, which separates it from the Commune II, south by the portion of the Niger River, between the Pont des Martyrs and the Motel de Bamako, and west by the Farako River and Avenue Cheick Zayed El Mahyan Ben Sultan with the neighborhood of ACI-2000. Commune III is the administrative and commercial center of Bamako. It accommodates in particular the two largest markets in the capital, the Grand Market and Dibida. Twenty neighborhoods make up this commune and the villages of Koulouninko and Sirakorodounfing were attached to the Commune III.


title: Bamako

text: Commune IV has a population of 300,085 people (2009) and covers . It is bounded to the east by Commune III, north, west by Kati Cercle and south by the left bank of the Niger River. Commune IV consists of eight neighborhoods: Taliko, Lassa, Sibiribougou, Djikoroni Para, Sébénikoro, Hamdallaye, Lafiabougou and Kalabambougou.


title: Bamako

text: Commune V has a population of 414,668 people (2009) and covers . It is bounded to the north by the Niger River, south by the airport and the commune of Kalabancoro, and to the east by the Commune VI and Niger. It consists of eight neighborhoods: Badalabougou, Sema I, Quartier Mali, Torokorobougou, Baco-Djicoroni, Sabalibougou, Daoudabougou and Kalaban-Coura.


title: Bamako

text: Commune VI has a population of 470,269 people (2009) and covers . This is the largest of the communes that make up Bamako. It consists of ten neighborhoods: Banankabougou, Djanékéla, Faladié, Magnambougou, Missabougou, Niamakoro, Sénou, Sogoniko, Sokorodji and Yrimadio.


title: Bamako

text: Bamako contains the following neighborhoods (quartiers): ACI-2000, Badalabugu, Bajalan I, Bajalan II, Bako Jikoroni, Bagadaji, Bamako Kura, Bankoni, Bolibana, Bozola, Bugudani, Bulkasumbugu, Dar Salam, N'tomikorobougou, Dawdabugu, Dravela, Fajigila, Falaje, Garantigibugu, Jalakoroji, Janekela, Janjigila, Jelibugu, Jikoroni Para, Jumanzana, Hamdallaye, Hippodrome, Kalaban Koro, Kalaban Kura, Korofina, Kuluba, Kulubleni, Lafiabugu, Madina Kura, Magnambugu (Magnambugu Faso Kanu), Misabugu, Misira, Niarela, Ntomikorobugu, Point G, Quartier du Fleuve, Quartier Mali, Quinzanbugu, Sabalibugu I, Sabalibugu II, Safo, Same, Sangarebugu, Saranbugu, Sebeninkoro, Sikoroni, Sirakoro, Senu, Sibiribugu, Sokoniko, Sokoroji, Sotuba, Titibugu, Torokorobugu, TSF-Sans Fil, Wolofobugu, Yirimanjo, Zone Industrielle