title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: The pattern of buildings in Los Angeles to feature these "flat roofs" was the result of a 1974 fire ordinance which required all tall buildings in the city to include rooftop helipads in response to the devastating 1974 Joelma Fire in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in which helicopters were used to effect rescues from the flat rooftop of the building. The Wilshire Grand Center was the first building granted an exception by the Los Angeles City Fire Department in 2014. However, as the building was under construction, L.A. City Council removed the flat roof ordinance as of 2015.


title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Central Health Center in Downtown Los Angeles.


title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: The Southern California Liaison of the California Department of Education has its office in the Ronald Reagan State Building in Downtown Los Angeles.


title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: DTLA is a node in the tech economy that extends beyond Silicon Beach. A venture capital firm counted 78 tech-oriented firms in DTLA in 2015. This included mobile apps, hardware, digital media and clean-tech companies plus co-working spaces, start-up incubators, and other related businesses.


title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: The Arts District has become a popular spot for companies seeking out something different from typical modern offices. The central location is accessible from various parts of the Los Angeles Basin. The cultural life has also made the area attractive to young tech employees.


title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: Anschutz Entertainment Group has its corporate headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles. BYD Company, a Chinese technology firm, has its North American headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles.


title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: The Last Bookstore is an independent bookstore that was called California’s largest new and used bookstore by "Conde Nast Traveler" in 2019. Cathay Bank has its headquarters in the Los Angeles Chinatown.


title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: Downtown residents aged 25 and older holding a four-year degree amounted to 17.9% of the population in 2000, about average in the city and the county, but there was a high percentage of residents with less than a high school diploma.


title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising is at 800 S. Hope St., and the Colburn School for music and the performing arts is at 200 S. Grand Ave.


title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: Dignity Health-California Hospital Medical Center is located in the South Park district of Downtown LA at 1401 S. Grand Ave. The 318-bed community hospital has been providing high-quality care to residents of the district and its neighboring communities for over 126 years. Dignity Health-California Hospital Medical Center is known for its wide range of medical services, from women's health and maternal child to orthopedics and cardiology. The hospital also operates the only Level II Trauma Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and its emergency room treats over 70,000 patients each year. The hospital's neighbors include Staples Center, L.A. Live, Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and the Fashion District.


title: Downtown Los Angeles

text: The Los Angeles Police Department operates the Central Area Community Police Station in Downtown Los Angeles.


title: Roman law

text: Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the "Corpus Juris Civilis" (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law forms the basic framework for civil law, the most widely used legal system today, and the terms are sometimes used synonymously. The historical importance of Roman law is reflected by the continued use of Latin legal terminology in many legal systems influenced by it, including common law.


title: Roman law

text: After the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman law remained in effect in the Eastern Roman Empire. From the 7th century onward, the legal language in the East was Greek.


title: Roman law

text: "Roman law" also denoted the legal system applied in most of Western Europe until the end of the 18th century. In Germany, Roman law practice remained in place longer under the Holy Roman Empire (963–1806). Roman law thus served as a basis for legal practice throughout Western continental Europe, as well as in most former colonies of these European nations, including Latin America, and also in Ethiopia. English and Anglo-American common law were influenced also by Roman law, notably in their Latinate legal glossary (for example, "stare decisis", "culpa in contrahendo", "pacta sunt servanda"). Eastern Europe was also influenced by the jurisprudence of the "Corpus Juris Civilis", especially in countries such as medieval Romania (Wallachia, Moldavia, and some other medieval provinces/historical regions) which created a new system, a mixture of Roman and local law. Also, Eastern European law was influenced by the "Farmer's Law" of the medieval Byzantine legal system.


title: Roman law

text: Before the Twelve Tables (754–449 BC), private law comprised the Roman civil law ("ius civile Quiritium") that applied only to Roman citizens, and was bonded to religion; undeveloped, with attributes of strict formalism, symbolism, and conservatism, e.g. the ritual practice of mancipatio (a form of sale). The jurist Sextus Pomponius said, "At the beginning of our city, the people began their first activities without any fixed law, and without any fixed rights: all things were ruled despotically, by kings". It is believed that Roman Law is rooted in the Etruscan religion, emphasizing ritual.


title: Roman law

text: The first legal text is the Law of the Twelve Tables, dating from the mid-fifth century BC. The plebeian tribune, C. Terentilius Arsa, proposed that the law should be written in order to prevent magistrates from applying the law arbitrarily. After eight years of political struggle, the plebeian social class convinced the patricians to send a delegation to Athens to copy the Laws of Solon; they also dispatched delegations to other Greek cities for a like reason. In 451 BC, according to the traditional story (as Livy tells it), ten Roman citizens were chosen to record the laws, known as the "decemviri legibus scribundis". While they were performing this task, they were given supreme political power ("imperium"), whereas the power of the magistrates was restricted. In 450 BC, the "decemviri" produced the laws on ten tablets ("tabulae"), but these laws were regarded as unsatisfactory by the plebeians. A second decemvirate is said to have added two further tablets in 449 BC. The new Law of the Twelve Tables was approved by the people's assembly.


title: Roman law

text: Modern scholars tend to challenge the accuracy of Latin historians. They generally do not believe that a second decemvirate ever took place. The decemvirate of 451 BC is believed to have included the most controversial points of customary law, and to have assumed the leading functions in Rome. Furthermore, questions concerning Greek influence on early Roman Law are still much discussed. Many scholars consider it unlikely that the patricians sent an official delegation to Greece, as the Latin historians believed. Instead, those scholars suggest, the Romans acquired Greek legislations from the Greek cities of Magna Graecia, the main portal between the Roman and Greek worlds. The original text of the Twelve Tables has not been preserved. The tablets were probably destroyed when Rome was conquered and burned by the Gauls in 387 BC.


title: Roman law

text: The fragments which did survive show that it was not a law code in the modern sense. It did not provide a complete and coherent system of all applicable rules or give legal solutions for all possible cases. Rather, the tables contained specific provisions designed to change the then-existing customary law. Although the provisions pertain to all areas of law, the largest part is dedicated to private law and civil procedure.


title: Roman law

text: Among the most consequential laws passed during the early Republic were the "Lex Canuleia" (445 BC), which allowed marriage —"conubium"— between patricians and plebeians; the "Leges Liciinae Sextiae" (367 BC), which restricted the amount of public land —"ager publicus"— that any citizen could occupy, and stipulated that one of the two annual consuls must be plebeian; the "Lex Ogulnia" (300 BC), which permitted plebeians to hold certain priestly offices; and the "Lex Hortensia" (287 BC), which stated that the determinations of plebeian assemblies —"plebiscita"— would henceforth be binding on the entire "populus Romanus", both patricians and plebeians.


title: Roman law

text: Another important statute from the Republican era is the "Lex Aquilia" of 286 BC, which may be regarded as the root of modern tort law. However, Rome's most important contribution to European legal culture was not the enactment of well-drafted statutes, but the emergence of a class of professional jurists ("prudentes" or "jurisprudentes", sing. "prudens") and of a legal science. This was achieved in a gradual process of applying the scientific methods of Greek philosophy to the subject of law, a subject which the Greeks themselves never treated as a science.


title: Roman law

text: Traditionally, the origins of Roman legal science are connected to Gnaeus Flavius. Flavius is said to have published around the year 300 BC the formularies containing the words which had to be spoken in court to begin a legal action. Before the time of Flavius, these formularies are said to have been secret and known only to the priests. Their publication made it possible for non-priests to explore the meaning of these legal texts. Whether or not this story is credible, jurists were active and legal treatises were written in larger numbers before the 2nd century BC. Among the famous jurists of the republican period are Quintus Mucius Scaevola who wrote a voluminous treatise on all aspects of the law, which was very influential in later times, and Servius Sulpicius Rufus, a friend of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Thus, Rome had developed a very sophisticated legal system and a refined legal culture when the Roman republic was replaced by the monarchical system of the principate in 27 BC.


title: Roman law

text: In the period between about 201 to 27 BC, we can see the development of more flexible laws to match the needs of the time. In addition to the old and formal "ius civile" a new juridical class is created: the "ius honorarium", which can be defined as "The law introduced by the magistrates who had the right to promulgate edicts in order to support, supplement or correct the existing law." With this new law the old formalism is being abandoned and new more flexible principles of "ius gentium" are used.


title: Roman law

text: The adaptation of law to new needs was given over to juridical practice, to magistrates, and especially to the praetors. A praetor was not a legislator and did not technically create new law when he issued his edicts ("magistratuum edicta"). In fact, the results of his rulings enjoyed legal protection ("actionem dare") and were in effect often the source of new legal rules. A Praetor's successor was not bound by the edicts of his predecessor; however, he did take rules from edicts of his predecessor that had proved to be useful. In this way a constant content was created that proceeded from edict to edict ("edictum traslatitium").


title: Roman law

text: Thus, over the course of time, parallel to the civil law and supplementing and correcting it, a new body of praetoric law emerged. In fact, praetoric law was so defined by the famous Roman jurist Papinian (142–212 AD): ""Ius praetorium est quod praetores introduxerunt adiuvandi vel supplendi vel corrigendi iuris civilis gratia propter utilitatem publicam"" ("praetoric law is that law introduced by praetors to supplement or correct civil law for public benefit"). Ultimately, civil law and praetoric law were fused in the "Corpus Juris Civilis".


title: Roman law

text: The first 250 years of the current era are the period during which Roman law and Roman legal science reached its greatest degree of sophistication. The law of this period is often referred to as the "classical period of Roman law". The literary and practical achievements of the jurists of this period gave Roman law its unique shape.


title: Roman law

text: The jurists worked in different functions: They gave legal opinions at the request of private parties. They advised the magistrates who were entrusted with the administration of justice, most importantly the praetors. They helped the praetors draft their edicts, in which they publicly announced at the beginning of their tenure, how they would handle their duties, and the formularies, according to which specific proceedings were conducted. Some jurists also held high judicial and administrative offices themselves.


title: Roman law

text: The jurists also produced all kinds of legal punishments. Around AD 130 the jurist Salvius Iulianus drafted a standard form of the praetor's edict, which was used by all praetors from that time onwards. This edict contained detailed descriptions of all cases, in which the praetor would allow a legal action and in which he would grant a defense. The standard edict thus functioned like a comprehensive law code, even though it did not formally have the force of law. It indicated the requirements for a successful legal claim. The edict therefore became the basis for extensive legal commentaries by later classical jurists like Paulus and Ulpian. The new concepts and legal institutions developed by pre-classical and classical jurists are too numerous to mention here. Only a few examples are given here:


title: Roman law

text: The assemblies passed laws and made declarations of war; the Senate controlled the treasury; and the consuls had the highest juridical power.


title: Roman law

text: By the middle of the 3rd century, the conditions for the flourishing of a refined legal culture had become less favourable. The general political and economic situation deteriorated as the emperors assumed more direct control of all aspects of political life. The political system of the principate, which had retained some features of the republican constitution, began to transform itself into the absolute monarchy of the dominate. The existence of legal science and of jurists who regarded law as a science, not as an instrument to achieve the political goals set by the absolute monarch, did not fit well into the new order of things. The literary production all but ended. Few jurists after the mid-3rd century are known by name. While legal science and legal education persisted to some extent in the eastern part of the Empire, most of the subtleties of classical law came to be disregarded and finally forgotten in the west. Classical law was replaced by so-called vulgar law.


title: Roman law

text: The Roman Republic's constitution or "mos maiorum" ("custom of the ancestors") was an unwritten set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. Concepts that originated in the Roman constitution live on in constitutions to this day. Examples include checks and balances, the separation of powers, vetoes, filibusters, quorum requirements, term limits, impeachments, the powers of the purse, and regularly scheduled elections. Even some lesser used modern constitutional concepts, such as the block voting found in the electoral college of the United States, originate from ideas found in the Roman constitution.


title: Roman law

text: The constitution of the Roman Republic was not formal or even official. Its constitution was largely unwritten, and was constantly evolving throughout the life of the Republic. Throughout the 1st century BC, the power and legitimacy of the Roman constitution was progressively eroding. Even Roman constitutionalists, such as the senator Cicero, lost a willingness to remain faithful to it towards the end of the republic. When the Roman Republic ultimately fell in the years following the Battle of Actium and Mark Antony's suicide, what was left of the Roman constitution died along with the Republic. The first Roman emperor, Augustus, attempted to manufacture the appearance of a constitution that still governed the Empire, by utilising that constitution's institutions to lend legitimacy to the Principate, e.g. reusing prior grants of greater imperium to substantiate Augustus' greater imperium over the Imperial provinces and the prorogation of different magistracies to justify Augustus' receipt of tribunician power. The belief in a surviving constitution lasted well into the life of the Roman Empire.


title: Roman law

text: "Stipulatio" was the basic form of contract in Roman law. It was made in the format of question and answer. The precise nature of the contract was disputed, as can be seen below.


title: Roman law

text: "Rei vindicatio" is a legal action by which the plaintiff demands that the defendant return a thing that belongs to the plaintiff. It may only be used when plaintiff owns the thing, and the defendant is somehow impeding the plaintiff's possession of the thing. The plaintiff could also institute an "actio furti" (a personal action) to punish the defendant. If the thing could not be recovered, the plaintiff could claim damages from the defendant with the aid of the "condictio furtiva" (a personal action). With the aid of the "actio legis Aquiliae" (a personal action), the plaintiff could claim damages from the defendant. "Rei vindicatio" was derived from the ius civile, therefore was only available to Roman citizens.


title: Roman law

text: To describe a person's position in the legal system, Romans mostly used the expression "togeus". The individual could have been a Roman citizen ("status civitatis") unlike foreigners, or he could have been free ("status libertatis") unlike slaves, or he could have had a certain position in a Roman family ("status familiae") either as the head of the family ("pater familias"), or some lower "member"—"alieni iuris"—which lives by someone else's law. Two status types were senator and emperor.


title: Roman law

text: The history of Roman Law can be divided into three systems of procedure: that of "legis actiones", the "formulary system", and "cognitio extra ordinem". The periods in which these systems were in use overlapped one another and did not have definitive breaks, but it can be stated that the legis actio system prevailed from the time of the XII Tables (c. 450 BC) until about the end of the 2nd century BC, that the formulary procedure was primarily used from the last century of the Republic until the end of the classical period (c. AD 200), and that of cognitio extra ordinem was in use in post-classical times. Again, these dates are meant as a tool to help understand the types of procedure in use, not as a rigid boundary where one system stopped and another began.


title: Roman law

text: During the republic and until the bureaucratization of Roman judicial procedure, the judge was usually a private person ("iudex privatus"). He had to be a Roman male citizen. The parties could agree on a judge, or they could appoint one from a list, called "album iudicum". They went down the list until they found a judge agreeable to both parties, or if none could be found they had to take the last one on the list.


title: Roman law

text: No one had a legal obligation to judge a case. The judge had great latitude in the way he conducted the litigation. He considered all the evidence and ruled in the way that seemed just. Because the judge was not a jurist or a legal technician, he often consulted a jurist about the technical aspects of the case, but he was not bound by the jurist's reply. At the end of the litigation, if things were not clear to him, he could refuse to give a judgment, by swearing that it wasn't clear. Also, there was a maximum time to issue a judgment, which depended on some technical issues (type of action, etc.).


title: Roman law

text: Later on, with the bureaucratization, this procedure disappeared, and was substituted by the so-called "extra ordinem" procedure, also known as cognitory. The whole case was reviewed before a magistrate, in a single phase. The magistrate had obligation to judge and to issue a decision, and the decision could be appealed to a higher magistrate.


title: Roman law

text: When the centre of the Empire was moved to the Greek East in the 4th century, many legal concepts of Greek origin appeared in the official Roman legislation. The influence is visible even in the law of persons or of the family, which is traditionally the part of the law that changes least. For example, Constantine started putting restrictions on the ancient Roman concept of "patria potestas", the power held by the male head of a family over his descendants, by acknowledging that persons "in potestate", the descendants, could have proprietary rights. He was apparently making concessions to the much stricter concept of paternal authority under Greek-Hellenistic law. The "Codex Theodosianus" (438 AD) was a codification of Constantian laws. Later emperors went even further, until Justinian finally decreed that a child "in potestate" became owner of everything it acquired, except when it acquired something from its father.


title: Roman law

text: The codes of Justinian, particularly the "Corpus Juris Civilis" (529–534) continued to be the basis of legal practice in the Empire throughout its so-called "Byzantine" history. Leo III the Isaurian issued a new code, the "Ecloga", in the early 8th century. In the 9th century, the emperors Basil I and Leo VI the Wise commissioned a combined translation of the Code and the Digest, parts of Justinian's codes, into Greek, which became known as the "Basilica". Roman law as preserved in the codes of Justinian and in the Basilica remained the basis of legal practice in Greece and in the courts of the Eastern Orthodox Church even after the fall of the Byzantine Empire and the conquest by the Turks, and, along with the Syro-Roman law book, also formed the basis for much of the "Fetha Negest", which remained in force in Ethiopia until 1931.


title: Roman law

text: In the west, Justinian's political authority never went any farther than certain portions of the Italian and Hispanic peninsulas. In Law codes issued by the Germanic kings, however, the influence of early Eastern Roman codes on some of these is quite discernible. In many early Germanic states, Roman citizens continued to be governed by Roman laws for quite some time, even while members of the various Germanic tribes were governed by their own respective codes.


title: Roman law

text: The "Codex Justinianus" and the Institutes of Justinian were known in Western Europe, and along with the earlier code of Theodosius II, served as models for a few of the Germanic law codes; however, the "Digest" portion was largely ignored for several centuries until around 1070, when a manuscript of the "Digest" was rediscovered in Italy. This was done mainly through the works of glossars who wrote their comments between lines ("glossa interlinearis"), or in the form of marginal notes ("glossa marginalis"). From that time, scholars began to study the ancient Roman legal texts, and to teach others what they learned from their studies. The center of these studies was Bologna. The law school there gradually developed into Europe's first university.


title: Roman law

text: The students who were taught Roman law in Bologna (and later in many other places) found that many rules of Roman law were better suited to regulate complex economic transactions than were the customary rules, which were applicable throughout Europe. For this reason, Roman law, or at least some provisions borrowed from it, began to be re-introduced into legal practice, centuries after the end of the Roman empire. This process was actively supported by many kings and princes who employed university-trained jurists as counselors and court officials and sought to benefit from rules like the famous "Princeps legibus solutus est" ("The sovereign is not bound by the laws", a phrase initially coined by Ulpian, a Roman jurist).


title: Roman law

text: There are several reasons that Roman law was favored in the Middle Ages. Roman law regulated the legal protection of property and the equality of legal subjects and their wills, and it prescribed the possibility that the legal subjects could dispose their property through testament.


title: Roman law

text: By the middle of the 16th century, the rediscovered Roman law dominated the legal practice of many European countries. A legal system, in which Roman law was mixed with elements of canon law and of Germanic custom, especially feudal law, had emerged. This legal system, which was common to all of continental Europe (and Scotland) was known as "Ius Commune". This "Ius Commune" and the legal systems based on it are usually referred to as civil law in English-speaking countries.


title: Roman law

text: Only England and the Nordic countries did not take part in the wholesale reception of Roman law. One reason for this is that the English legal system was more developed than its continental counterparts by the time Roman law was rediscovered. Therefore, the practical advantages of Roman law were less obvious to English practitioners than to continental lawyers. As a result, the English system of common law developed in parallel to Roman-based civil law, with its practitioners being trained at the Inns of Court in London rather than receiving degrees in Canon or Civil Law at the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge. Elements of Romano-canon law were present in England in the ecclesiastical courts and, less directly, through the development of the equity system. In addition, some concepts from Roman law made their way into the common law. Especially in the early 19th century, English lawyers and judges were willing to borrow rules and ideas from continental jurists and directly from Roman law.


title: Roman law

text: The practical application of Roman law, and the era of the European "Ius Commune", came to an end when national codifications were made. In 1804, the French civil code came into force. In the course of the 19th century, many European states either adopted the French model or drafted their own codes. In Germany, the political situation made the creation of a national code of laws impossible. From the 17th century, Roman law in Germany had been heavily influenced by domestic (customary) law, and it was called "usus modernus Pandectarum". In some parts of Germany, Roman law continued to be applied until the German civil code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB) went into effect in 1900.


title: Roman law

text: Today, Roman law is no longer applied in legal practice, even though the legal systems of some countries like South Africa and San Marino are still based on the old "jus commune". However, even where the legal practice is based on a code, many rules deriving from Roman law apply: no code completely broke with the Roman tradition. Rather, the provisions of the Roman law were fitted into a more coherent system and expressed in the national language. For this reason, knowledge of the Roman law is indispensable to understand the legal systems of today. Thus, Roman law is often still a mandatory subject for law students in civil law jurisdictions. In this context, the annual International Roman Law Moot Court was developed in order to better educate the students and to network with one another internationally.


title: Roman law

text: As steps towards a unification of the private law in the member states of the European Union are being taken, the old "jus commune", which was the common basis of legal practice everywhere in Europe, but allowed for many local variants, is seen by many as a model.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (originally called Strange Truth: Fact or Fiction during production) is an American television anthology series created by Lynn Lehmann, presented by Dick Clark Productions, and produced and aired by the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. Starting in 2021, a fifth season was produced for the German market, where new episodes are released each Halloween. Each episode featured stories, all of which appeared to defy logic, and some of which were allegedly based on actual events. The viewer was offered the challenge of determining which are true and which are false. At the end of the show, it was revealed to the viewer whether the tales were true or works of fiction.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: The series was hosted by James Brolin in season one and by Jonathan Frakes in seasons two, three and four. The show was narrated by Don LaFontaine for the first three seasons and by Campbell Lane for the fourth and final season.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: The stories told in the program all have some connection with the supernatural, ghosts, psychic phenomena, coincidences, destiny, or other such unusual occurrences.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: Each episode of the show, as well as all stories within, are introduced with a pun or some other form of witticism pertaining to the particular story and episode, and they all include the underlying moral that not everything we perceive as truth and falsehood is as such, and that it can often be difficult to truly separate fact from fiction, hence the show's title. Since the Frakes era, the intros are filmed on a set resembling the interior of a Victorian mansion.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: Each episode typically features five stories, at least one of which is supposedly true and at least one of which is a complete fabrication. The majority of true stories on the show are based on first-hand research conducted by author Robert Tralins yet mostly perpetuate hearsay or urban legends as facts, while many of the ones that turned out to be false are either completely fictional or modern-dressed re-tellings of untrue urban legends.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: From season two onwards Jonathan Frakes would end each story with a pun related to the story, while James Brolin always retold a story instead of showing a clip.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction" had a sporadic airing schedule on its original networks, sometimes going for weeks or even months between airings. There is a two-year lag between Don LaFontaine and Campbell Lane's stints as narrator for the show, during which time it was believed that it had been cancelled, only for it to be brought back for another season in the summer of 2002. It was cancelled after its 2002 season. During his stint as narrator, Lane played the character John August in the Season 4 segment 'The Cigar Box'.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: In Germany, where "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction" is known as "X-Factor: Das Unfassbare" ("The Unfathomable"), the show was especially successful and still has a cult following. This led to the "X-Factor" brand being extended to other shows: "The Paranormal Borderline" became "X-Factor: Die fünfte Dimension" ("The Fifth Dimension"), "X-Factor: Wahre Lügen" ("True Lies") is a German series, and "Scariest Places on Earth" became "X-Factor: Die wahre Dimension der Angst" ("The Real Dimension of Fear").


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: Starting on 4 November 2018, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series' premiere in Germany, RTL II produced two special episodes under the name "X-Factor: Das Unfassbare kehrt zurück (The Unfathomable Returns)", hosted by Detlef Bothe. While directly copying much of the original's style and studio setup, this revival was heavily panned by audiences due to the poorer production quality in comparison to the original. The show was continued in 2019 and 2020 on RTL II and now has a total of six episodes, with the latest episodes receiving slightly more favorable reviews.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: In October 2021, it was announced by the German private channel RTL II that there will be a revival of "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction". It was confirmed that Jonathan Frakes is set to return to reprise his role as the host. The first new episode was broadcast in German-speaking countries on October 31, 2021. Unlike previous seasons, the segments were produced and set in Germany, while the introductions by Jonathan Frakes were recorded in Los Angeles. Another set of two episodes has been announced to air in Germany on October 30, 2022. The new episodes have been filmed in and around Los Angeles and are dubbed for German television. The production was executed by German studios "Superama Film" and "Wiedemann & Berg Television" and will feature 10 new stories.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: Of the 239 stories told over the course of the 48 episodes, 139 were declared to be "fact." Each episode of the series' run had at least one "fiction" story and at least two "fact" stories.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: This season premiered in Germany over two months before it aired on FOX. The episodes were filmed in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, unlike with previous seasons, which were filmed in California.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: This season was produced exclusively for the German television market by German channel RTL II. The first episode premiered in Germany on Halloween 2021, with further episodes being released each following Halloween. Unlike previous seasons, the segments of the first episode were produced and set in Germany, while the introductions by Jonathan Frakes were recorded in Los Angeles. Multiple German media personalities such as Gronkh made guest appearances. Eight more episodes of season 5 were filmed in and around Los Angeles in 2022, with the first two episodes airing on October 30, 2022 in Germany. As of 2022, the English versions of these episodes have not been released in any market.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: During its final run of Fox, the series was picked up for reruns by the Sci-fi Channel, which ran from July 8, 2002 to September 6, 2005. It would later air on the now defunct Chiller channel from 2009 to 2015.


title: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

text: "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction Season One" was released on DVD in Region 1 on August 28, 2007. In 2018, FilmRise obtained the rights to the series, and made it available for video streaming via Amazon Prime and other services, including their YouTube channel.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: Quarantine is a 2008 American found footage horror film directed and co-written by John Erick Dowdle, produced by Sergio Aguero, Doug Davison, and Roy Lee, and co-written by Drew Dowdle, being a remake of the Spanish film "REC". The film stars Jennifer Carpenter, Jay Hernandez, Columbus Short, Greg Germann, Steve Harris, Dania Ramirez, Rade Šerbedžija, and Johnathon Schaech. It follows a reporter and her cameraman assigned to a pair of Los Angeles firemen who follow a distress call to an apartment building where they discover a deadly mutated strain of rabies spreading among the building's occupants; escape becomes impossible once the government descends upon the building to prevent the virus from spreading beyond it, and the pair continue to record the events that unfold inside, of which the film itself is the result. "Quarantine" features no actual musical score, using only sound effects, and differs in its characters, dialogue, and explanation of the virus from its source material.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: "Quarantine" was released in the United States by Sony's subsidiary Screen Gems on October 10, 2008. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its atmosphere and scares. It grossed $41.3 million worldwide at the box office against a $12 million budget. It was followed by a sequel, "" (2011).


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: On the evening of March 11, 2008, news reporter Angela Vidal and her cameraman Scott Percival are filming their report on the night shift at the Los Angeles Fire Department. Two firefighters, Jake and George Fletcher, receive an emergency call from a local apartment building. Screams from the apartment of elderly resident Mrs. Espinosa were heard by the landlord Yuri, his wife Wanda, and other residents: veterinarian Lawrence, opera teacher Bernard, his roommate Sadie, lawyer Randy, mother Kathy, her daughter Briana, and immigrant couple Nadif and Jwahir. The crew enters with police officers Danny and James. They are attacked by an aggressive Espinosa who bites James and Fletcher. Danny shoots her down. The team finds another resident Elise in a similar condition and brings her downstairs with the others. Those wounded by Espinosa become sick and delirious.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: The authorities and CDC quarantine the building, not allowing anyone to leave. Angela interviews Briana, who states that her dog is at the vet because he was sick. Lawrence recognizes the symptoms as similar to those of rabies. Angela, Scott, Bernard and Sadie witness a rabid dog maul Randy to death. They are attacked by Elise and Scott kills her in self-defense. CDC officers wearing hazmat suits enter the building to test Fletcher and James, who awaken to attack one of the officers and Lawrence. The surviving inspector reveals that Briana's dog is the reason the CDC has quarantined the building, as it was infected. Briana succumbs and bites her mother before fleeing. The group finds Briana, who is now infected. She bites Danny, which forces the others to rush back downstairs as all the infected break loose. Kathy is killed and Nadif and Jwahir are infected by Lawrence.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: The remaining group locks themselves in a room upstairs but discovers both the inspector and Sadie have been bitten. Bernard attempts to escape the building but is killed by a sniper outside. Yuri deduces that the basement, which connects to the sewers, may be the only way out. Yuri is attacked and bitten by the health inspector who has just succumbed to the infection. Wanda refuses to leave her husband behind and gets bitten by Sadie. Jake, Angela, and Scott flee.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: The trio manage to find the basement key whilst overcoming most of the infected along the way. Jake is bitten by the infected Yuri, leaving Angela and Scott as the sole survivors. The pair are forced upstairs to the attic apartment by the infected, where they find lab equipment and newspaper clippings belonging to a former tenant, who was a member of a doomsday cult that broke into a military's biological facility and stole a biological weapon called the "Armageddon Virus." The virus is a mutated form of rabies, which is highly contractable and deadly.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: A trapdoor opens from the attic and Scott loses the camera light when an infected boy swats at it. Scott turns on the night vision before he and Angela hear banging noises inside the apartment. The source of the noises is an emaciated person, apparently unaware of them, blindly searching.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: They attempt to escape but Scott drops the camera as the figure attacks him. Angela retrieves it and sees the infected person eating Scott before she is also attacked. She drops the camera and is dragged into the darkness, screaming.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: Ben Messmer, who starred in director John Erick Dowdle's previous film "The Poughkeepsie Tapes", makes an appearance as firefighter Griffin.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: After the success of the Spanish horror film, "REC", in 2007, Sony Pictures and Screen Gems had begun working on a remake of the original film. Duo filmmakers John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle were hired to write and direct the film, while Roy Lee, Sergio Aguero and Doug Davison are serving as producers.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: Unusually for a Hollywood production, "Quarantine" does not feature a musical score. The apartment complex was a set but a fully functioning one with four floors.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: Principal photography on their film began in January 2008 and wrapped in March 2008 in Downtown, Los Angeles, California. The film was shot in chronological order and the average shot was between four and six minutes long.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: "Quarantine" was released in the United States on October 10, 2008, by Screen Gems. On its opening day, the film grossed $5,379,867, ranking #1 in the box office. The film opened at #2, behind the second weekend of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua", earning $14,211,321 in its opening weekend. It grossed a total of $41,319,906 worldwide against a production budget of $12 million.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film reports an 56% of critics gave positive reviews based on 86 reviews; the average rating is 5.67/10. The site's critical consensus reads ""Quarantine" uses effective atmosphere and consistent scares to stand above the crop of recent horror films." Metacritic reported the film had an aggregate score of 53/100 based on 14 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: Reviewing it in "The New York Times", Jeannette Catsoulis praised its "solid acting and perfectly calibrated shocks".


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: "Quarantine" received a 3.5/5 stars from Bloody Disgusting, which wrote, "A study in claustrophobia, expertly cast, edited and staged with expert meticulousness and precision, the film’s only major flaw is the need to explain that which never needed explaining." Michael Gingold of "Fangoria" rated it 3/4 stars and called it "an acceptable substitute" for the original film. "Empire" was lukewarm in its response but critical of the rushed and copied-verbatim style of the remake.


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: Paul Nicholasi of Dread Central rated it 1.5/5 stars and called it hard to watch, both because of the shaky cam and the pacing. Joe Leydon of "Variety" described it as "a modestly inventive, sporadically exciting thriller that nonetheless proves too faithful to its central conceit for its own good."


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: Jaume Balagueró, who co-wrote and directed the "REC" series, expressed distaste for "Quarantine" by saying, "It's impossible for me to like, because it's a copy. It's the same, except for the finale. It’s impossible to enjoy "Quarantine" after "REC". I don’t understand why they avoided the religious themes; they lost a very important part of the end of the movie."


title: Quarantine (2008 film)

text: Paco Plaza stated that "Quarantine" "helped "REC" to become more popular than it was. It moved a spotlight onto our film. You know, the fact that it was going to be remade in Hollywood, it was big news in Europe. Everyone knew that it existed, this tiny Spanish film."


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: Hans Krebs (4 March 1898 – 2 May 1945) was a German Army general of infantry who served during World War II. A career soldier, he served in the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht. He served as the last Chief of Staff of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) during the final phase of the war in Europe (1 April to 1 May 1945). Krebs tried to open surrender negotiations with the Red Army; he committed suicide in the "Führerbunker" during the early hours of 2 May 1945, two days after Adolf Hitler killed himself.


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: Krebs was born in Helmstedt. He volunteered for service in the Imperial German Army in 1914, becoming an officer in 1915. Krebs spoke fluent Russian.


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: In 1931, Krebs worked in the Defence Ministry, where he maintained contacts with the Red Army in the context of joint military exercises conducted by the two countries. Krebs held strong antisemitic and anti-Communist views, as evidenced by his description of the members of the Soviet military delegation that visited Berlin in 1932: "a sly and cunning Jew... [and] a Jewish half-breed ... insincere, with a suspicious and treacherous nature, apparently a fanatic Communist."


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: In 1936, Krebs was posted to the German embassy in Moscow as acting military attaché; he held this position up to the invasion of the Soviet Union. As such, he played a role in the Wehrmacht's faulty intelligence into the capabilities of the Red Army.


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: During World War II, Krebs reached the position of chief of staff of various army groups. While serving on the Eastern Front, Krebs was promoted to the rank of "Generalmajor" when Chief of Staff of the 9th Army in February 1942. In March 1943, he was made Chief of Staff of Army Group Centre. In April 1943, he was promoted to "Generalleutnant" and became a General of Infantry in August 1944. Krebs served as Chief of Staff of Army Group B on the Western Front from September 1944 to February 1945, when he was appointed Deputy Chief of the Army General Staff.


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: On 1 April 1945, Krebs was appointed Chief of the Army General Staff (OKH). Krebs was in the "Führerbunker" below the Reich Chancellery garden during the Battle of Berlin.


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: On 28 April 1945, Krebs made his last telephone call from the "Führerbunker". He called Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel at the new Supreme Command Headquarters in Fürstenberg. He told Keitel that if relief did not arrive within 48 hours, all was lost. Keitel promised to exert the utmost pressure on General Walther Wenck, who commanded the German 12th Army, and General Theodor Busse, who commanded the German 9th Army. The 12th Army was attacking towards Berlin from the west and the 9th Army was attacking from the south. Adolf Hitler had ordered both armies to link up and to come to the relief of Berlin. In addition, forces under General Rudolf Holste were to attack towards Berlin from the north.


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: Later on 28 April, when it was discovered that Heinrich Himmler was trying to negotiate a backdoor surrender to the western Allies via Count Folke Bernadotte, Krebs became part of a military tribunal ordered by Hitler to court-martial Himmler's SS liaison officer Hermann Fegelein. Fegelein was by that time Eva Braun's brother-in-law. SS-General Wilhelm Mohnke presided over the tribunal which, in addition to Krebs and Mohnke, included SS-General Johann Rattenhuber and General Wilhelm Burgdorf. However, Fegelein was so drunk that he was crying, vomiting and unable to stand up; he even urinated on the floor. It was the opinion of the judges that he was in no condition to stand trial. Therefore, Mohnke closed the proceedings and turned Fegelein over to Rattenhuber and his security squad instead.


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: On 29 April, Krebs, Burgdorf, Joseph Goebbels, and Martin Bormann witnessed and signed the last will and testament of Adolf Hitler. Hitler dictated the document to his personal private secretary, Traudl Junge. Bormann was head of the Party Chancellery ("Parteikanzlei") and private secretary to Hitler. Late that evening, Krebs contacted General Alfred Jodl (Supreme Army Command) by radio and made the following demands: "Request immediate report. Firstly, of the whereabouts of Wenck's spearheads. Secondly, of time intended to attack. Thirdly, of the location of the 9th Army. Fourthly, of the precise place in which the 9th Army will break through. Fifthly, of the whereabouts of General Holste's spearhead."


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: In the early morning of 30 April, Jodl replied to Krebs: "Firstly, Wenck's spearhead bogged down south of Schwielow Lake. Secondly, 12th Army therefore unable to continue attack on Berlin. Thirdly, bulk of 9th Army surrounded. Fourthly, Holste's Corps on the defensive." Later that afternoon, Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide.


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: On 1 May, after Hitler's suicide on 30 April, Goebbels sent Krebs and Colonel Theodor von Dufving, under a white flag, to deliver a letter he had written to General Vasily Chuikov. Dufving was Helmuth Weidling's Chief of Staff. The letter contained surrender terms acceptable to Goebbels. Chuikov, as commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, commanded the Soviet forces in central Berlin. Krebs arrived shortly before 4:00 a.m. Krebs, who spoke Russian, informed Chuikov that Hitler and Eva Braun, his wife, had killed themselves in the "Führerbunker". Chuikov, who was not aware that there was a bunker complex under the Reich Chancellery or that Hitler was married, calmly said that he already knew all that. Chuikov was not, however, prepared to accept the terms in Goebbels' letter or to negotiate with Krebs. The Soviets were unwilling to accept anything other than unconditional surrender, as had been agreed with the other Allies. Krebs was not authorized by Goebbels to agree to such terms and so the meeting ended with no agreement. According to Traudl Junge, Krebs returned to the bunker looking "worn out, exhausted". Krebs' surrender of Berlin was thus impeded as long as Goebbels was alive.


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: At around 8:30 p.m. on 1 May, Goebbels removed this impediment by committing suicide. After Goebbels' death, Krebs himself became suicidal. The responsibility for surrendering the city fell to General Helmuth Weidling, the commander of the Berlin Defense Area. On 2 May, with Krebs in no condition to do it himself, Weidling contacted Chuikov to again discuss surrender. Weidling and Chuikov met and had the following conversation in which Chuikov asked about Krebs:


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: Weidling: "I saw him yesterday in the Reich Chancellery. I thought he would commit suicide. At first he (Krebs) criticized me because unofficial capitulation started yesterday. The order regarding capitulation has been issued today."


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: As the Soviets advanced on the Reich Chancellery, Krebs was last seen by others, including Junge, in the "Führerbunker" when they left to attempt to escape. Junge relates how she approached Krebs to say goodbye and how he straightened up and smoothed his uniform before greeting her for the last time. Krebs and General Wilhelm Burgdorf, along with SS-"Obersturmbannführer" Franz Schädle of the "Führerbegleitkommando", stayed behind with the intention of committing suicide. Sometime in the early morning hours of 2 May, Krebs and Burgdorf committed suicide together by gunshot to the head. Their bodies were later found when Soviet personnel entered the bunker complex. Schädle also committed suicide by gunshot on 2 May 1945.


title: Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)

text: Thereafter, the corpses of Krebs, the Goebbels family along with the remains of Hitler's dogs were repeatedly buried and exhumed by the Soviets. The last burial was at the SMERSH facility in Magdeburg on 21 February 1946. In 1970, KGB chief Yuri Andropov authorised an operation to destroy the remains. On 4 April 1970, a Soviet KGB team with detailed burial charts secretly exhumed five wooden boxes. The remains from the boxes were thoroughly burned and crushed, with the ashes then thrown into the Biederitz river, a tributary of the nearby Elbe.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: The demolition of the Babri Masjid was illegally carried out on 6 December 1992 by a large group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations. The 16th-century Babri Masjid in the city of Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, had been the subject of a lengthy socio-political dispute, and was targeted after a political rally organised by Hindu nationalist organisations turned violent.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: In Hindu tradition, the city of Ayodhya is the birthplace of Rama. In the 16th century a Mughal general, Mir Baqi, had built a mosque, known as the Babri Masjid at a site identified by some Hindus as "Ram Janmabhoomi", or the birthplace of Rama. The Archaeological Survey of India states that the mosque was built on land where a non-Islamic structure had previously existed. In the 1980s, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) began a campaign for the construction of a temple dedicated to Rama at the site, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its political voice. Several rallies and marches were held as a part of this movement, including the "Ram Rath Yatra" led by L. K. Advani.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: On 6 December 1992 the VHP and the BJP organised a rally at the site involving 150,000 people. The rally turned violent, and the crowd overwhelmed security forces and tore down the mosque. A subsequent inquiry into the incident found 68 people responsible, including several leaders of the BJP and the VHP. The demolition resulted in several months of intercommunal rioting between India's Hindu and Muslim communities, causing the death of at least 2,000 people. Retaliatory violence against Hindus also occurred in Pakistan and Bangladesh.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: In Hinduism the birthplace of the deity Rama, known as "Ram Janmabhoomi", is considered a holy site. This site is often believed to be at the place where the Babri Masjid stood in the city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh: historical evidence to support this belief is scarce. There is a rough scholarly consensus that in 1528, following the Mughal conquest of the region, a mosque was built at the site by the Mughal general Mir Baqi, and named the "Babri Masjid" after the Mughal emperor Babur. Popular belief holds that Baqi demolished a temple of Rama to build the mosque; historical basis for the belief is debated. Archaeological evidence has been found of a structure pre-dating the mosque. This structure has been variously identified as a Hindu temple and a Buddhist structure.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: For at least four centuries, the site was used for religious purposes by both Hindus and Muslims. The claim that the mosque stood on the site of a temple was first made in 1822, by an official of the Faizabad court. The Nirmohi Akhara sect cited this statement in laying claim to the site later in the 19th century, leading to the first recorded incidents of religious violence at the site in 1855. In 1859 the British colonial administration set up a railing to separate the outer courtyard of the mosque to avoid disputes. The status quo remained in place until 1949, when idols of Rama were surreptitiously placed inside the mosque, allegedly by Hindu Mahasabha activists. This led to an uproar, with both parties filing civil suits laying claim to the land. The placement of the idols was seen as a desecration by the users of the Masjid. The site was declared to be in dispute, and the gates to the Masjid were locked.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: In the 1980s, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) began a campaign for the construction of a temple dedicated to Rama at the site, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its political voice. The movement was bolstered by the decision of a district judge, who ruled in 1986 that the gates would be reopened and Hindus permitted to worship there. This decision was endorsed by Indian National Congress politician Rajiv Gandhi, then the Prime Minister of India, who sought to regain support from Hindus he had lost over the Shah Bano controversy. Nonetheless, the Congress lost the 1989 general election, and the BJP's strength in parliament grew from 2 members to 88, making its support crucial to the new government of V. P. Singh.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: In September 1990, BJP leader L. K. Advani began a "Rath Yatra", a political rally travelling across much of north India to Ayodhya. The "yatra" sought to generate support for the proposed temple, and also sought to unite Hindu votes by mobilizing anti-Muslim sentiment. Advani was arrested by the government of Bihar before he could reach Ayodhya. Despite this, a large body of Sangh Parivar supporters reached Ayodhya and attempted to attack the mosque. This resulted in a pitched battle with the paramilitary forces that ended with the death of several rioters. The BJP withdrew its support to the V. P. Singh ministry, necessitating fresh elections. The BJP substantially increased its tally in the union parliament, as well as winning a majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: On 6 December 1992, the RSS and its affiliates organised a rally involving 150,000 VHP and BJP supporters at the site of the disputed structure. The ceremonies included speeches by BJP leaders such as Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti. During the first few hours of the rally, the crowd grew gradually more restless, and began raising slogans. A police cordon had been placed around the structure in preparation for attack. However, around noon, a young man managed to slip past the cordon and climb the structure itself, brandishing a saffron flag. This was seen as a signal by the mob, who then stormed the structure. The police cordon, vastly outnumbered and unprepared for the size of the attack, fled. The mob set upon the building with axes, hammers, and grappling hooks, and within a few hours, the entire structure, made from mud and chalk, was levelled.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: A 2009 report, authored by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan, found 68 people to be responsible for the demolition of the Masjid, mostly leaders from the BJP. Among those named were Vajpayee, Advani, Joshi and Vijay Raje Scindia. Kalyan Singh, who was then the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, also faced severe criticism in the report. Liberhan wrote that he posted bureaucrats and police officers to Ayodhya, whose record indicated that they would stay silent during the mosque's demolition. Anju Gupta, a police officer who had been in charge of Advani's security on that day, stated that Advani and Joshi made speeches that contributed to provoking the behaviour of the mob. The report notes that at this time several BJP leaders made "feeble requests to the kar sevaks to come down... either in earnest or for the media's benefit". No appeal was made to the rioters not to enter the sanctum sanctorum or not to demolish the structure. It further noted: "This selected act of the leaders itself speaks of the hidden intentions of one and all being to accomplish demolition of the disputed structure." The report holds that the "icons of the movement present [that day]... could just as easily have... prevented the demolition."


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: In a March 2005 book, former Intelligence Bureau head Maloy Krishna Dhar claimed that Babri mosque demolition was planned 10 months in advance by top leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), BJP and VHP, and criticised the manner in which the then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao handled the issue. Dhar claimed that he was directed to arrange security for a meeting between individuals from the BJP and other constituents of the Sangh Parivar, and that the meeting "proved beyond doubt that they (RSS, BJP, VHP) had drawn up the blueprint of the Hindutva assault in the coming months and choreographed the "pralaya nritya" (dance of destruction) at Ayodhya in December 1992. The RSS, BJP, VHP and the Bajrang Dal leaders present in the meeting amply agreed to work in a well-orchestrated manner." Claiming that the tapes of the meeting were personally handed over by him to his boss, he asserts that he has no doubts that his boss had shared the contents with the Prime Minister (Rao) and the Home Minister (Shankarrao Chavan). The author claimed that there was silent agreement that Ayodhya offered "a unique opportunity to take the Hindutva wave to the peak for deriving political benefit."


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: In April 2014, a sting operation by Cobrapost claimed that the demolition was not an act of frenzied mobs but an act of sabotage planned with so much secrecy that no government agency got wind of it. It further said that the sabotage was planned several months in advance by Vishva Hindu Parishad and Shiv Sena, but not jointly.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: The destruction of the Babri Masjid sparked Muslim outrage around the country, provoking several months of inter-communal rioting in which Hindus and Muslims attacked one another, burning and looting homes, shops and places of worship. Several of the BJP leaders were taken into custody, and the VHP was briefly banned by the government. Despite this, the ensuing riots spread to cities like Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Delhi, Bhopal and several others, eventually resulting in over 2000 deaths, mainly Muslim. The Mumbai Riots alone, which occurred in December 1992 and January 1993 and which the Shiv Sena played a big part in organising, caused the death of around 900 people, and estimated property damage of around 9,000 crore ($3.6 billion). The demolition and the ensuing riots were among the major factors behind the 1993 Mumbai bombings and many successive riots in the coming decade. Jihadi groups including the Indian Mujahideen cited the demolition of the Babri Masjid as a reason for their terrorist attacks.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: On 16 December 1992, the Union home ministry set up the Liberhan Commission to investigate the destruction of the mosque, headed by retired High Court Judge M. S. Liberhan. After 399 sittings over sixteen years, the Commission submitted its 1,029-page report to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 30 June 2009. According to the report, the events of 6 December 1992, in Ayodhya were "neither spontaneous nor unplanned". In March 2015, the Supreme Court of India admitted a petition alleging that, with a BJP government in power, the CBI would not pursue conspiracy charges against senior BJP leaders including L. K. Advani and Rajnath Singh. The Court asked the CBI to explain its delay in filing an appeal. In April 2017, a special Central Bureau of Investigation court framed criminal conspiracy charges against Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, and several others.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: On 30 September 2020, the court acquitted all the 32 accused including L. K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and several others in the case on account of inconclusive evidence. The special court judge said, "The demolition was not pre-planned."


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: In Pakistan, the government closed offices and schools on 7 December to protest against the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry summoned the Indian ambassador to lodge a formal complaint, and promised to appeal to the United Nations and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to pressure India to protect the rights of Muslims. Strikes were held across the country, while Muslim mobs attacked and destroyed as many as 30 temples in one day by means of fire and bulldozers, and stormed the office of Air India, India's national airline, in Lahore. The retaliatory attacks included rhetoric from mobs calling for the destruction of India and of Hinduism. Students from the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad burned an effigy of the then-Prime Minister of India, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and called for "Jihad" against Hindus. In subsequent years, thousands of Pakistani Hindus visiting India sought longer visas, and in some cases citizenship of India, citing increased harassment and discrimination in the aftermath of the demolition.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: Following the demolition, Muslim mobs in Bangladesh attacked and burned down Hindu temples, shops and houses across the country. An India-Bangladesh cricket match was disrupted when a mob of an estimated 5,000 men tried to storm the Bangabandhu National Stadium in the national capital of Dhaka. The Dhaka office of Air India was stormed and destroyed. 10 people were reportedly killed, 11 Hindu temples and several homes destroyed. The aftermath of the violence forced the Bangladeshi Hindu community to curtail the celebrations of Durga Puja in 1993 while calling for the destroyed temples to be repaired and investigations be held into the atrocities.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: At its summit meeting in Abu Dhabi, the Gulf Cooperation Council strongly condemned the Babri Masjid demolition. It adopted a resolution which described the act as a "crime against Muslim holy places." Among its member states, Saudi Arabia severely condemned the act. The United Arab Emirates, home to large expatriate communities of Indians and Pakistanis, conveyed a more moderate reaction. In response, the Indian government criticised the GCC for what it regarded as interference in its internal affairs. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the demolition, and called upon India to do more to protect its Muslim population. Although its government condemned the events, the UAE experienced severe public disturbances due to the demolition of the Babri Mosque. Street protests broke out, and protesters threw stones at a Hindu temple and the Indian Consulate in Dubai. In Al-Ain, 250 km east of Abu Dhabi, angry mobs set fire to the girls wing of an Indian school. In response to the violence, UAE police arrested and deported many expatriate Pakistanis and Indians who had participated in the violence. The Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai police force, Dhahi Khalfan, condemned the violence by foreign nationals in the country.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: Several temples were attacked in the UK in suspected acts of revenge. Attacks included petrol bombings and arson. Hindu and Sikh temples, Hindu community centres and other cultural buildings were attacked. One temple was reportedly completely destroyed by fire. Hindu and Muslim leaders appealed for peace following the attacks.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: Malayalam author N. S. Madhavan's short story "Thiruthu" is based on the Babri Masjid demolition. The Ayodhya dispute and the riots following the demolition form part of the backdrop to Antara Ganguly's 2016 novel, "Tanya Tania". "Lajja" (Shame), a 1993 novel by Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin, was partially inspired by the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh that intensified after the demolition of the Babri Masjid.


title: Demolition of the Babri Masjid

text: The documentary "Ram ke Naam" (In the name of Ram) by Anand Patwardhan examines the events preceding the demolition. The Bollywood film "Mausam" (2011) is based on the events surrounding the demolition. The riots that followed the demolition are an important part of the plot of several films, including "Bombay" (1995) set in the Bombay riots. "Daivanamathil" (2005) explores the repercussions of the demolition on Muslims in Kerala. Both "Bombay" and "Daivanamathi" won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration at the respective National Film Awards. The 2007 film "Black Friday" was based upon the 1993 Bombay bombings which were considered to be the after effect of the demolition of the mosque.


title: You (season 4)

text: The fourth season of the American psychological thriller television series "You" was ordered by Netflix on October 13, 2021. "You" series co-creator Sera Gamble returns as showrunner. Series star Penn Badgley returns as Joe Goldberg and Tati Gabrielle reprises her role as Marienne Bellamy, with Lukas Gage, Charlotte Ritchie, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman and Ed Speleers joining the main cast. Filming began in March 2022, and concluded in August. The season is slated to be split in two parts, with the first part set to be premiered on February 9, 2023, and the second part on March 9, 2023.


title: You (season 4)

text: On October 13, 2021, ahead of the third season premiere, "You" was renewed by Netflix for a fourth season.


title: You (season 4)

text: The season is primarily set in London, the first time outside the United States, and showrunner Sera Gamble said protagonist Joe Goldberg is "great when he's in an environment that's not natural to him, that's foreign to him". Part of the decision to set the story in another country arose from Gamble's decision to explore the world further after watching many other international series on Netflix while quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic. The story is also briefly set in Paris, the idea being co-creator Greg Berlanti's, and Gamble noted that since it is not a familiar place to Joe, he is like a "fish out of water". Penn Badgley, who portrays Joe, said that while the fourth season would retain the tone of the series, "We're using a different format [...] It's almost like we're shifting the genre slightly".


title: You (season 4)

text: In February 2022, Lukas Gage was cast as a series regular for the season. A month later, Charlotte Ritchie was also cast as a regular. Tati Gabrielle was also confirmed to be returning from the third season, though unclear in what capacity. In April 2022, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, and Ed Speleers were cast as new series regulars, with Gabrielle confirmed to be returning as a regular, while Niccy Lin, Aidan Cheng, Stephen Hagan, Ben Wiggins, Eve Austin, Ozioma Whenu, Dario Coates, Sean Pertwee, Brad Alexander, Alison Pargeter and Adam James joined the cast in recurring roles for the fourth season.


title: You (season 4)

text: Filming began on March 22, 2022, in the United Kingdom, and concluded on August 27. According to reports on social media, in April 2022, filming took place at Royal Holloway, University of London. In June, a scene was filmed by River Thames.


title: You (season 4)

text: The season is slated to be split in two parts, with the first part set to premiere February 9, 2023, and the second part on March 9, 2023.


title: Lior Raz

text: Lior Raz (; born 24 November 1971) is an Israeli actor and screenwriter. He is best known for portraying Doron Kabilio in the political thriller television series "Fauda" and Segev Azulai in "Hit & Run".


title: Lior Raz

text: Raz was born in Ma'ale Adumim, a town of 40,000 inhabitants seven kilometers from Jerusalem, where he grew up as well. His parents immigrated to Israel from Iraq and Algeria. His father served in Israel in Shayetet 13 and in Shin Bet before later running a plant nursery. His mother is a teacher. His native language is Hebrew, although Raz grew up also speaking Arabic with his father and grandmother at home, and with some Arab workers, who were his playmates, at his father's plant nursery.


title: Lior Raz

text: After Raz graduated from high school at the age of 18, he enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and became a commando in the elite undercover counter-terrorism unit known as Sayeret Duvdevan. He also served in the Duvdevan Unit in the reserves for 20 years.


title: Lior Raz

text: For three years, until Raz was 19, he had a girlfriend named Iris Azulai. In October 1990, a Palestinian Arab stabbed her to death with a 15-inch knife in Jerusalem. The man who stabbed her was later released from prison in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in which 1,027 prisoners were released in order to obtain the release from captivity of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held prisoner by Hamas for five years.


title: Lior Raz

text: In 1993, after his military service, Raz moved to the United States, and was hired by a security contracting firm as Arnold Schwarzenegger's bodyguard. In an interview with "Israel Hayom" he said: “the company turned to me since they knew my military background, for me it was the most glamorous thing, to be the watchdog of Schwarzenegger and his wife".


title: Lior Raz

text: In his early acting years, Raz acted in various plays, such as "Don Juan" at Gesher Theater, "Macbeth" and "The Teenagers". He also played small roles on Israeli TV series. In 2004, he played a police investigator in "Michaela", and 'referee Ben Shabat' in "Adumot". In 2005 he appeared as Shimi in his first feature film "Gotta Be Happy". In 2008 he appeared in television drama "Srugim" as Yisrael, and a year later in comedy-drama "Mesudarim" as a Shin Bet agent, and as Maor in "Noah's Ark". In 2011 he played a police unit commander in Nadav Lapid's drama film "Policeman", and as Asa'el in the political drama "Prime Minister's Children" alongside Rami Heuberger.


title: Lior Raz

text: In 2012, Raz portrayed Nissan Title in yes psychological thriller spying-drama "The Gordin Cell", and appeared in the film "The World is Funny" as Barak. In 2013, he played the role of the police commander in the fourth season of the crime drama series "The Arbitrator", and in 2014 appeared in the film "The Kindergarten Teacher".


title: Lior Raz

text: In 2014, he created with "Haaretz" journalist Avi Issacharoff the critically acclaimed political thriller television series "Fauda", in which Raz stars as Doron Kabilio, the commander of an undercover counter-terrorism Mista'arvim unit. In 2016, the show won six awards, including Best Drama Series, at the Israeli Academy Awards. In December 2017, "The New York Times" voted "Fauda" the best international show of 2017. In 2018, the show won 11 Israeli TV Academy Awards, including best TV drama, best actor for Raz, and best screenplay, casting, cinematography, recording, and special effects.


title: Lior Raz

text: In 2018, Raz played a Magdala community leader in the film "Mary Magdalene", written by Helen Edmundson. The same year, he appeared in "Operation Finale", playing Isser Harel, the Director of Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad.


title: Lior Raz

text: In August 2021, Netflix released a new series named "Hit & Run" which stars Raz. The show was co-created by Raz, Avi Issacharof, Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin.


title: Lior Raz

text: Raz is married to Israeli actress Meital Berdah, and they have four children. They reside in Ramat Aviv, Israel.


title: Valley

text: A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a very long period. Some valleys are formed through erosion by glacial ice. These glaciers may remain present in valleys in high mountains or polar areas.


title: Valley

text: At lower latitudes and altitudes, these glacially formed valleys may have been created or enlarged during ice ages but now are ice-free and occupied by streams or rivers. In desert areas, valleys may be entirely dry or carry a watercourse only rarely. In areas of limestone bedrock, dry valleys may also result from drainage now taking place underground rather than at the surface. Rift valleys arise principally from earth movements, rather than erosion. Many different types of valleys are described by geographers, using terms that may be global in use or else applied only locally.


title: Valley

text: Valleys may arise through several different processes. Most commonly, they arise from erosion over long periods by moving water and are known as river valleys. Typically small valleys containing streams feed into larger valleys which in turn feed into larger valleys again, eventually reaching the ocean or perhaps an internal drainage basin. In polar areas and at high altitudes, valleys may be eroded by glaciers; these typically have a U-shaped profile in cross-section, in contrast to river valleys, which tend to have a V-shaped profile. Other valleys may arise principally through tectonic processes such as rifting. All three processes can contribute to the development of a valley over geological time. The flat (or relatively flat) portion of a valley between its sides is referred to as the valley floor. The valley floor is typically formed by river sediments and may have fluvial terraces.


title: Valley

text: The development of a river valley is affected by the character of the bedrock over which the river or stream flows, the elevational difference between its top and bottom, and indeed the climate. Typically the flow will increase downstream and the gradient will decrease. In the upper valley, the stream will most effectively erode its bed through corrasion to produce a steep-sided V-shaped valley. The presence of more resistant rock bands, of geological faults, fractures, and folds may determine the course of the stream and result in a twisting course with interlocking spurs.


title: Valley

text: In the middle valley, as numerous streams have coalesced, the valley is typically wider, the flow slower and both erosion and deposition may take place. More lateral erosion takes place in the middle section of a river's course, as strong currents on the outside of its curve erode the bank. Conversely, deposition may take place on the inside of curves where the current is much slacker, the process leading to the river assuming a meandering character. In the lower valley, gradients are lowest, meanders may be much broader and a broader floodplain may result. Deposition dominates over erosion. A typical river basin or drainage basin will incorporate each of these different types of valleys.


title: Valley

text: Some sections of a stream or river valleys may have vertically incised their course to such an extent that the valley they occupy is best described as a gorge, ravine, or canyon. Rapid down-cutting may result from localized uplift of the land surface or rejuvenation of the watercourse as a result for example of a reduction in the base level to which the river is eroded, e.g. lowered global sea level during an ice age. Such rejuvenation may also result in the production of river terraces.


title: Valley

text: There are various forms of valleys associated with glaciation. True glacial valleys are those that have been cut by a glacier which may or may not still occupy the valley at the present day. Such valleys may also be known as glacial troughs. They typically have a U-shaped cross-section and are characteristic landforms of mountain areas where glaciation has occurred or continues to take place.


title: Valley

text: The uppermost part of a glacial valley frequently consists of one or more 'armchair-shaped' hollows, or 'cirques', excavated by the rotational movement downslope of a cirque glacier. During glacial periods, for example, the Pleistocene ice ages, it is in these locations that glaciers initially form and then, as the ice age proceeds extend downhill through valleys that have previously been shaped by water rather than ice. Abrasion the movement of ice and particularly by rock material embedded within it causes the widening and deepening of the valley to produce the characteristic U or trough shape with relatively steep, even vertical sides and a relatively flat bottom.


title: Valley

text: Interlocking spurs associated with the development of river valleys are preferentially eroded to produce truncated spurs, typical of glaciated mountain landscapes. The upper end of the trough below the ice-contributing cirques may be a trough-end. Valley steps (or 'rock steps') can result from differing erosion rates due to both the nature of the bedrock (hardness and jointing for example) and the power of the moving ice. In places, a rock basin may be excavated which may later be filled with water to form a ribbon lake or else by sediments. Such features are found in coastal areas as fjords. The shape of the valley which results from all of these influences may only become visible upon the recession of the glacier that forms it. A river or stream may remain in the valley; if it is smaller than one would expect given the size of its valley, it can be considered an example of a misfit stream.


title: Valley

text: A tunnel valley is a large, long, U-shaped valley originally cut under the glacial ice near the margin of continental ice sheets such as that now covering Antarctica and formerly covering portions of all continents during past glacial ages. Such valleys can be up to long, wide, and deep (its depth may vary along its length). Tunnel valleys were formed by subglacial water erosion. They once served as subglacial drainage pathways carrying large volumes of meltwater. Their cross-sections exhibit steep-sided flanks similar to fjord walls, and their flat bottoms are typical of subglacial glacial erosion.


title: Valley

text: In northern Central Europe, the Scandinavian ice sheet during the various ice ages advanced slightly uphill against the lie of the land. As a result, its meltwaters flowed parallel to the ice margin to reach the North Sea basin, forming huge, flat valleys known as Urstromtäler. Unlike the other forms of glacial valleys, these were formed by glacial meltwaters.


title: Valley

text: Depending on the topography, the rock types, and the climate, a variety of transitional forms between V-, U- and plain valleys can form. The floor or bottom of these valleys can be broad or narrow, but all valleys have a shoulder. The broader a mountain valley, the lower its shoulders are located in most cases. An important exception is canyons where the shoulder almost is near the top of the valley's slope. In the Alps – e.g. the Tyrolean Inn valley – the shoulders are quite low (100–200 meters above the bottom). Many villages are located here (esp. on the sunny side) because the climate is very mild: even in winter when the valley's floor is filled with fog, these villages are in sunshine.


title: Valley

text: In some stress-tectonic regions of the Rockies or the Alps (e.g. Salzburg), the side valleys are parallel to each other, and are hanging. Smaller streams flow into rivers as deep canyons or waterfalls.


title: Valley

text: A hanging valley is a tributary valley that is higher than the main valley. They are most commonly associated with U-shaped valleys, where a tributary glacier flows into a glacier of larger volume. The main glacier erodes a deep U-shaped valley with nearly vertical sides, while the tributary glacier, with a smaller volume of ice, makes a shallower U-shaped valley. Since the surfaces of the glaciers were originally at the same elevation, the shallower valley appears to be 'hanging' above the main valley. Often, waterfalls form at or near the outlet of the upper valley.


title: Valley

text: Hanging valleys also occur in fjord systems underwater. The branches of Sognefjord are much shallower than the main fjord. The mouth of Fjærlandsfjord is about 400 meters deep while the main fjord nearby is 1200 meters deep. The mouth of Ikjefjord is only 50 meters deep while the main fjord is around 1300 meters at the same point.


title: Valley

text: Glaciated terrain is not the only site of hanging streams and valleys. Hanging valleys are also simply the product of varying rates of erosion of the main valley and the tributary valleys. The varying rates of erosion are associated with the composition of the adjacent rocks in the different valley locations. The tributary valleys are eroded and deepened by glaciers or erosion at a slower rate than that of the main valley floor; thus the difference in the two valleys' depth increases over time. The tributary valley, composed of more resistant rock, then hangs over the main valley.


title: Valley

text: Trough-shaped valleys also form in regions of heavy topographic denudation. By contrast with glacial U-shaped valleys, there is less downward and sideways erosion. The severe downslope denudation results in gently sloping valley sides; their transition to the actual valley bottom is unclear. Trough-shaped valleys occur mainly in periglacial regions and in tropical regions of variable wetness. Both climates are dominated by heavy denudation.


title: Valley

text: Box valleys have wide, relatively level floors and steep sides. They are common in periglacial areas and occur in mid-latitudes, but also occur in tropical and arid regions.


title: Valley

text: Rift valleys, such as the Albertine Rift and Gregory Rift are formed by the expansion of the Earth's crust due to tectonic activity beneath the Earth's surface.


title: Valley

text: Similar geographical features such as gullies, chines, and kloofs, are not usually referred to as valleys.


title: Valley

text: The terms corrie, glen, and strath are all Anglicisations of Gaelic terms and are commonly encountered in place-names in Scotland and other areas where Gaelic was once widespread. Strath signifies a wide valley between hills, the floor of which is either level or slopes gently. A glen is a river valley which is steeper and narrower than a strath. A corrie is a basin-shaped hollow in a mountain. Each of these terms also occurs in parts of the world formerly colonized by Britain. "Corrie" is used more widely by geographers as a synonym for (glacial) "cirque", as is the word "cwm" borrowed from Welsh.


title: Valley

text: The word dale occurs widely in place names in the north of England and, to a lesser extent, in southern Scotland. As a generic name for a type of valley, the term typically refers to a wide valley, though there are many much smaller stream valleys within the Yorkshire Dales which are named "(specific name) Dale". Clough is a word in common use in northern England for a narrow valley with steep sides. "Gill" is used to describe a ravine containing a mountain stream in Cumbria and the Pennines. The term combe (also encountered as "coombe") is widespread in southern England and describes a short valley set into a hillside. Other terms for small valleys such as hope, dean, slade, slac"k" and bottom are commonly encountered in place-names in various parts of England but are no longer in general use as synonyms for "valley".


title: Valley

text: The term vale is used in England and Wales to describe a wide river valley, usually with a particularly wide flood plain or flat valley bottom. In Southern England, vales commonly occur between the outcrops of different relatively erosion-resistant rock formations, where less resistant rock, often claystone has been eroded. An example is the Vale of White Horse in Oxfordshire.


title: Valley

text: Some of the first human complex societies originated in river valleys, such as that of the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Indus, Ganges, Yangtze, Yellow River, Mississippi, and arguably the Amazon. In prehistory, the rivers were used as a source of fresh water and food (fish and game), as well as a place to wash and a sewer. The proximity of water moderated temperature extremes and provided a source for irrigation, stimulating the development of agriculture. Most of the first civilizations developed from these river valley communities. Siting of settlements within valleys is influenced by many factors, including the need to avoid flooding and the location of river crossing points.


title: Valley

text: Numerous elongate depressions have been identified on the surface of Mars, Venus, the Moon, and other planets and their satellites and are known as valles (singular: 'vallis'). Deeper valleys with steeper sides (akin to canyons) on certain of these bodies are known as chasmata (singular: 'chasma'). Long narrow depressions are referred to as fossae (singular: 'fossa'). These are the Latin terms for 'valley, 'gorge' and 'ditch' respectively. The German term 'rille' or Latin term 'rima' (signifying 'cleft') is used for certain other elongate depressions on the Moon.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: George John Mitchell Jr. (born August 20, 1933) is an American politician, diplomat, and lawyer. A leading member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator from Maine from 1980 to 1995, and as Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. After retiring from the Senate, Mitchell played a leading role in negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. He was appointed United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland (1995–2001) by President Clinton and as United States Special Envoy for Middle East Peace (2009–2011) by President Barack Obama.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell was a primary architect of the 1996 Mitchell Principles and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, and was the main investigator in two "Mitchell Reports": one on the Arab–Israeli conflict (2001); and one on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball (2007).


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell served as chairman of The Walt Disney Company from March 2004 until January 2007, and later as chairman of the international law firm DLA Piper. He was the Chancellor of Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, from 1999 to 2009. Mitchell also has served as a co-chair of the Housing Commission at the Bipartisan Policy Center.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell was born in Waterville, Maine. His father, George John Mitchell Sr. (born Joseph Kilroy), was born in Ireland and adopted by a Lebanese American when he was orphaned. Mitchell's father was a janitor at Colby College in Waterville, where Mitchell was raised. Mitchell's mother, Mary ("née" Saad), was a textile worker who immigrated to the United States in 1920 from Bkassine, Lebanon, at the age of eighteen.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell was raised a Maronite Catholic and in his childhood served as an altar boy at St. Joseph's Maronite Church in Maine. Throughout junior high school and high school, he worked as a janitor. In the family of five children, all three of his brothers were athletes; though a talented student as a child, he found himself overshadowed by his brothers' athletic achievements.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: After graduating from high school at the age of sixteen, Mitchell attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he worked several jobs and played on the basketball team. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954, intending to attend graduate school and then teach, but instead served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956, rising to First Lieutenant. In 1961, Mitchell received his Bachelor of Laws from Georgetown University Law Center by attending its part-time program at night. He has since received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Bates College.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: After having performed well academically at Georgetown, Mitchell served as a trial attorney for the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice in Washington from 1960 to 1962, and then as executive assistant to Senator Edmund S. Muskie from 1962 to 1965, where he first gained interest in the political world. Afterwards, Mitchell practiced law with Jensen & Baird in Portland, Maine, from 1965 to 1977 and was assistant county attorney for Cumberland County, Maine, in 1971.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: In 1974 Mitchell won the Democratic nomination for governor of Maine, defeating Joseph E. Brennan. He lost in the general election to independent candidate James B. Longley, but was appointed United States Attorney for Maine by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Mitchell served in that capacity from 1977 to 1979.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell was nominated by President Carter on July 31, 1979, to the United States District Court for the District of Maine, to a new seat authorized by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the Senate on October 4, 1979, and received his commission on October 5, 1979. His service terminated on May 16, 1980, due to his resignation.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell was appointed to the United States Senate in May 1980 by the governor of Maine, Joseph Brennan, when Edmund Muskie resigned to become US Secretary of State.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: After serving out the remainder of Muskie's term, Mitchell was elected to his first full term in 1982 with approximately 61 percent of the vote against Congressman David Emery, and rose quickly in the Senate Democratic leadership. He was elected as the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1984, helping the Democrats regain control of the Senate in 1986 with a net eight new seats and a 55—45 majority in the Senate. He served as Deputy President pro tempore in the 100th United States Congress, because of the illness of President pro tempore John C. Stennis, and remains the only senator other than Hubert Humphrey to have held that post.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: The position of Deputy President pro tempore was created specifically to be held by a current Senator who is a former president or former Vice President of the United States. Humphrey is a former Vice President of the United States and Mitchell is the only person to have been Deputy President pro tempore who has never held one or both of the two highest offices of the US government.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: In 1988 Mitchell was reelected with 81 percent of the vote, the largest margin of victory in a Senate election that year and the largest majority ever for a senator from Maine.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell voted in favor of the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday and the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (as well as to override President Reagan's veto). Mitchell voted against the nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, stating explicitly that he believed Thomas’ nomination constituted a racial quota.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell served as Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. While in this role, Mitchell led the movement to reauthorize the Clean Air Act in 1990 and pass the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Additionally, under his leadership, the Senate approved the North American Free Trade Agreement and the formation of the World Trade Organization.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: In 1994, he turned down an offer of appointment by President Bill Clinton to the United States Supreme Court, to replace the retiring Harry A. Blackmun so that he could continue helping with efforts in the Senate to pass significant health-care legislation. The seat ultimately went to Stephen Breyer. Nevertheless, Congress was not able to pass any significant health-care legislation at the time, and Mitchell did not run for reelection in 1994.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: For 1994, Mitchell's last year in the Senate, the American Conservative Union gave him a rating of 0.00 on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being most conservative. For the same year, the Americans for Democratic Action gave him a score of 90 on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being most liberal.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell has served as a director of companies including Walt Disney Company; FedEx; Xerox; Unilever; Staples, Inc.; Starwood; and the Boston Red Sox baseball team. After leaving the Senate, Mitchell joined the Washington, D.C., law firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand; he later became the firm's chairman. He was criticized for lobbying on behalf of the firm's Big Tobacco clients. He is also senior counsel to Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, Pachios, Orlick & Haley in Portland, Maine. He is Partner and Chairman of the Global Board of DLA Piper, US LLP, a global law firm. Mitchell served as an Advisor of ZeniMax Media Inc. He has also served on the advisory board of The Iris Network, a nonprofit blindness rehabilitation agency in Portland.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: In 2007, Mitchell joined fellow former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Bob Dole, and Tom Daschle to found the Bipartisan Policy Center, a non-profit think tank that works to develop policies suitable for bipartisan support.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell was reportedly among those considered by Al Gore as a running mate for his 2000 presidential run, but Gore selected Joe Lieberman. Had Mitchell been nominated and had the Democratic ticket won that year, he would have been the first Arab American to serve as the Vice President of the United States, and only the second Vice President from Maine, after Hannibal Hamlin. He also was mentioned in both 2000 and in 2004 as a potential Secretary of State for a Democratic administration, due to his role as Senate Leader and the Good Friday agreements.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Since 2002, Mitchell has been a Senior Fellow and Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University's Center for International Conflict Resolution, where he works to help end or avert conflicts between nations. He was the Chancellor of the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, until his resignation in April 2009, and namesake of the George J. Mitchell Scholarship, which sponsors graduate study for twelve Americans each year in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: He is the founder of the Mitchell Institute, in Portland, Maine, whose mission is to increase the likelihood that young people from every community in Maine will aspire to, pursue and achieve a college education. In 2007, he became a visiting Professor in Leeds Metropolitan University's School of Applied Global Ethics, and the university is developing a new Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution bearing his name.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell led an American fact-finding commission initiated under President Bill Clinton in 2000 intended to find solutions for solving the situation between Israel and the Palestinians. Mitchell's report, published in 2001, stressed the need for Israel to halt the expansion of its settlements in the Palestinian territories and for the Palestinians to prevent violence. Interest in the report was renewed when Mitchell was named Special Envoy for Middle East Peace in 2009.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: Mitchell served as co-chairman (with Newt Gingrich) of the Congressionally mandated Task Force on the United Nations, which released its findings and recommendations on June 15, 2005, after having been formed that January.


title: George J. Mitchell

text: George J. Mitchell serves as an Honorary Co-chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.