title: Singlish

text: "Leh" (), from Chinese (), is used to soften a command, request, claim, or complaint that may be brusque otherwise:


title: Singlish

text: "Hor" (), from Hokkien (), also spelled "horh", is used to ask for the listener's attention and consent/support/agreement: It is usually pronounced with a low tone.


title: Singlish

text: "Ar" (), also spelled "arh" or "ah", is inserted between topic and comment. It often, but not always, gives a negative tone:


title: Singlish

text: "Ar" () with a mid-level tone, on the other hand, is used to mark a genuine question that does require a response: ("or not" can also be used in this context):


title: Singlish

text: "Hah" (), also spelled "har", originating from the British English word "huh" or Hokkien (), is used to express disbelief, shock or used in a questioning manner.


title: Singlish

text: , also spelled "sia" or "siah", is used to express envy or emphasis. It is a derivative of the Malay vulgar word (derivative of the parent, used interchangeably but sometimes may imply a stronger emphasis). Originally, it is often used by Malay peers in informal speech between them, sometimes while enraged, and other times having different implications depending on the subject matter:


title: Singlish

text: Malays may also pronounce it without the "l", not following the "ia" but rather a nasal "aah". This particular form of usage is often seen in expressing emphasis. There is a further third application of it, in that a "k" is added at the end when it will then be pronounced with the same nasal quality only when ending the word. It is similarly used in emphasis.


title: Singlish

text: However, Singlish itself takes influence only from the general expression of the term without any negative implication, and non-Malay speakers (or Malays speaking to non-Malays) pronounce it either as a nasal "sia" or simply "siah":


title: Singlish

text: Nia, which originated from Hokkien, means 'only', mostly used to play down something that has been overestimated.


title: Singlish

text: "Then you know" is a phrase often used at the end of a sentence or after a warning of the possible negative consequences of an action. Can be directly translated as "and you will regret not heeding my advice". Also a direct translation of the Chinese .


title: Singlish

text: "There is/there are" and "has/have" are both expressed using got, so that sentences can be translated in either way back into British/American/Australasian English. This is equivalent to the Chinese ('to have'):


title: Singlish

text: Can is used extensively as both a question particle and an answer particle. The negative is "cannot".


title: Singlish

text: The Malay word with the same meaning, , can be used in place of "can" to add a greater sense of multiculturalism in the conversation. The person in a dominant position may prefer to use instead:


title: Singlish

text: The phrase like that is commonly appended to the end of the sentence to emphasize descriptions by adding vividness and continuousness. Due to its frequency of use, it is often pronounced lidat ():


title: Singlish

text: In British English, "also" is used before the predicate, while "too" is used after the predicative at the end of the sentence. In Singlish (also in American and Australian English), "also" (pronounced oso, see phonology section above) can be used in either position.


title: Singlish

text: "Also" is also used as a conjunction. In this case, "A also B" corresponds to "B although A". This stems from Chinese, where the words , or (meaning 'also', though usage depends on dialect or context) would be used to express these sentences.


title: Singlish

text: "Ownself" is often used in place of "yourself", or more accurately, "yourself" being an individual, in a state of being alone.


title: Singlish

text: Not all expressions with the "-self" pronouns should be taken literally, but as the omission of "by":


title: Singlish

text: Some people have begun to add extra "ed"s to the past tense of words or to pronounce "ed" separately, sometimes in a form of exaggeration of the past tense. Most of the time, the user uses it intentionally to mock proper English.


title: Singlish

text: Much of Singlish vocabulary is derived from British English, in addition to many loanwords from Sinitic languages, Malay and Tamil. There has been a rise in American English influence in recent years.


title: Singlish

text: An instance of a borrowing from Hokkien is , which means 'frightened of losing out', and is used to indicate behaviour such as queueing overnight to obtain something; and the most common borrowing from Malay is , meaning 'to eat'.


title: Singlish

text: In many cases, words of English origin take on the meaning of their Chinese counterparts, resulting in a shift in meaning. This is most obvious in such cases as "borrow/lend", which are functionally equivalent in Singlish and mapped to the same Hokkien word, (), which can mean to lend or to borrow. (' (from Southern Min, although Singaporeans spell it as ), '); and "send" can be used to mean 'accompany someone', as in "", possibly under the influence of the Hokkien word (). However, the Malay can also be used to mean both 'send a letter' and 'take children to school', so perhaps both Malay and Chinese have combined to influence the usage of 'send' in Singapore.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Edward Ellsworth Annis (born February 2, 1980) is a Canadian-American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Teddy Hart. He currently wrestles on the independent circuit. He wrestled on a National scale for Major League Wrestling (MLW) as the leader of The Hart Foundation, where he held the MLW World Middleweight and MLW Tag Team championships. He has also wrestled for AAA, the short-lived Wrestling Society X, Jersey All Pro Wrestling, and Dragon Gate USA. He operates a wrestling school in Edmonton. He is the son of Georgia Hart of the Hart wrestling family and wrestler B. J. Annis. He is also the nephew of former professional wrestlers, Bret Hart and Owen Hart. Hart achieved an early degree of fame when he became the youngest wrestler to be signed to the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). His subsequent release, controversial actions while wrestling on the independent circuit and various legal problems have earned him a measure of infamy.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Outside of the ring, Annis has been a mentor to several young wrestlers and has been a trainer at wrestling schools. Among his trainees are Jack Evans, Pete Wilson and his younger cousin Matt Hart. Annis is also a cat lover and breeder of Persian cats which he has used sometimes in storylines and brought with him to matches.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Annis is the oldest male grandchild of Stu and Helen Hart and the second oldest overall. His mother is of Greek descent through her maternal grandmother and Irish through her maternal grandfather. His maternal grandfather was of Scots-Irish, English and Scottish descent. On his father's side he is part Italian. He is the nephew of former professional wrestlers, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Bruce Hart, Keith Hart, Smith Hart, Ross Hart, Dean Hart, and Wayne Hart. Annis holds dual citizenship with Canada and the United States.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Annis grew up with three siblings, two sisters named Annie and Angela, as well as a younger brother named Matthew who died of necrotizing fasciitis in 1996. Annis is the cousin of fellow professional wrestlers Natalya Neidhart, Mike Hart, Matt Hart, Harry Smith, Bruce Hart Jr. and Torrin Hart as well as wrestling personalities Lindsay Hart and Georgia Smith.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Hart debuted in July 1995 at Rockyford, Alberta, where he teamed up with his brother, Matthew, and defeated his cousin, Harry Smith, and TJ Wilson. In the Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling promotion, Hart teamed with Smith, Wilson and Jack Evans. In 2000, he wrestled for and was a key creative figure in the Matrats promotion. At the age of 16, he wrestled in the opening match of a World Wrestling Federation house show in Calgary, teaming with his cousin, Harry Smith, against Andrew Picarnic and T.J. Wilson (Tyson Kidd) as a tribute to his brother, Matthew, who had recently died.


title: Teddy Hart

text: In 1998, Hart became the youngest person ever to be signed to a World Wrestling Federation developmental contract, and was sent to train with Dory Funk, Jr. at the "Funkin' Conservatory". However, he was later released by the WWF, due to alleged attitude problems.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On September 20, 2003, Teddy wrestled for Ring of Honor in Philadelphia on their September event "Glory by Honor II", where he defeated partner and friend, TJ Wilson. Backstage, however, the Special K faction confronted Hart, and mocked him for not being a good high-flying wrestler. On November 1, 2003, Hart competed at a Ring of Honor show in Elizabeth, New Jersey as part of a Scramble Cage match. After losing the match, he began to perform moonsaults and executed a shooting star press from the top of the cage rather than selling the moves he had taken. Hart then vomited at ringside. His actions attracted the ire of many wrestlers, as he endangered some wrestlers by performing moves on them which they were not anticipating. Hart attributes his actions to a concussion suffered during the match, and has since only wrestled at two ROH shows, "At Our Best", on March 13, 2004, and "Final Battle 2009" against Jack Evans.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Hart made several appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. In August 2003, he defeated Jonny Storm and then lost to Juventud Guerrera in the course of the Super X Cup Tournament. He returned in March 2004 as a member of Team Canada, and represented them as its original captain in the second America's X-Cup, where Hart defeated Mr. Águila in the first match. He was released from the promotion following an altercation in a restaurant with CM Punk stemming from the Elizabeth ROH show, where Sabu had to separate the two.


title: Teddy Hart

text: The Hart Foundation stable would later compete in Major League Wrestling, where Hart teamed with Evans as The Hart Foundation 2.0, as well as being labeled "The New Hart Foundation". MLW's TV series, "MLW Underground" would be the first appearance for Hart, Smith, Evans and TJ Wilson on a major cable television network.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On January 9, 2004, Hart defeated Bryan Danielson in a match billed as "Shawn Michaels' top protégé (Danielson) vs. the last student of the Hart family dungeon (Hart), playing up the Montreal screwjob and bitter real-life rivalry between Michaels and Bret Hart.


title: Teddy Hart

text: In 2004, Hart began competing for Jersey All Pro Wrestling, and won the promotion's Tag Team Championship with Jack Evans by defeating The Strong Style Thugs (Homicide and B-Boy) in a steel cage tag team match at "Caged Fury", with help from Hart's uncle Jim Neidhart. After being champions for nearly four months, Evans and Hart lost the titles to the Backseat Boyz. Three months later, Hart teamed up Homicide, one of the men he beat for the Tag Team Championship, to defeat the Backseat Boyz for the titles, giving Hart his second reign and Homicide his fifth. A little over a week later, however, they lost the titles back to the Backseat Boyz.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On January 7, 2006, Hart defeated Azrieal to become the new Light Heavyweight Champion in a Gauntlet match at "Wild Card II". Four months later, Hart lost the title to Frankie Kazarian in a triple threat match also involving A.J. Styles.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On July 29, 2006, Hart took on Jay Lethal at a JAPW event in Aberdeen, New Jersey. The match culminated with Hart climbing on top of a soda machine and delivering a moonsault onto Lethal. The match was briefly stopped while Hart stepped out into the parking lot to recover. Hart managed to recuperate in time and then returned to the ring, where he won the match.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On October 28, 2006, Hart defeated Homicide, Low Ki, and Necro Butcher at the JAPW ninth Anniversary Show in Rahway, New Jersey to win the vacated JAPW Heavyweight Championship (the reigning JAPW champion, Rhyno had no showed the event). On January 23, 2007, Hart was stripped of the JAPW Heavyweight Championship due to problems with the promoter and was released from the company.


title: Teddy Hart

text: In 2005, he made several appearances with WWE, wrestling in dark matches, where he was defeated by Harry Smith and working as an enhancement talent on "Velocity", teaming with JD Michaels against The Basham Brothers.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On April 1, 2006, Hart and several of his relatives attended the induction of his uncle Bret into the WWE Hall of Fame. After WSX folded, Hart moved to Florida in hopes of earning a development deal with World Wrestling Entertainment, which he received. After being re-signed, he was assigned to the Florida Championship Wrestling developmental facility of WWE.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Hart appeared at the July 18 Ohio Valley Wrestling television taping, participating in a battle royal where the winner faced John Cena at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom on July 27. Although he lost, it was announced that he and Harry Smith (along with Nattie Neidhart) would face Shad Gaspard and JTG at the same show. The "Next Generation Hart Foundation", began teaming regularly, and would go on to defeat teams such as the James Boys, Charles Evans and Justin LaRouche, Mr. Strongko and Ramon Loco, and Jamin Olivencia and TJ Dalton.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Hart appeared at the debut show for Florida Championship Wrestling, as he defeated Shawn Osbourne and competed in a battle royal and a triple threat match. On September 25, TJ Wilson and Ted DiBiase, Jr. joined the Next Generation Hart Foundation stable alongside Hart, Smith, and Neidhart. On October 2, Hart competed in his last match for the promotion as he and TJ Wilson defeated Mike Mondo and Nick Nemeth. On October 11, Hart was released from the company.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On July 1, 2006, Hart made his One Pro Wrestling debut at "Fight Club II" in Yorkshire, England, and defeated PAC. During the next two months, Hart competed regularly for 1PW, including a 10-man brawl, in which he was eliminated by Abyss after Hart's teammate Steve Corino turned on him.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On September 13, 2006, Hart and Corino wrestled in a grudge match at Pro Wrestling Xplosion's debut show "Lighting the Fuse" at the infamous ECW Arena. The match ended in a no contest after the referee, who was associated with Corino, claimed that Hart had submitted when he had not. Hart then challenged Corino to a fight in the parking lot, which led to another brawl.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Hart made his debut with AZW Hawaii at their March 29 event "Revenge and Retribution". He wrestled in both a singles against SABAKI and a six-man tag team match, where he was partnered with SABAKI and Mark Anarchy against AkuA, DDB and Rocko Shinoda.


title: Teddy Hart

text: He debuted for Florida's Pro Wrestling Dynasty in 2006 as part of "Team Vision" (with Chasyn Rance and Mister Saint Laurent) and helped them win in the main event. He also wrestled the next night for Florida's Coastal Championship Wrestling teaming with Rance, defeating Pablo Marquez and J.P. Ace. He also wrestled for UXW Wrestling in Florida on their June 16, 2006 event "Xtreme Havoc", where he defeated Rance.


title: Teddy Hart

text: December 1, 2007, All Pro Wrestling: Markus Riot & Teddy Hart defeated Dana Lee & Brian Cage in the main event.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On March 22, 2008, Hart and Jack Evans defeated Ruckus and Trent Acid at "PWS Majestic Mayhem" in round one of the Majestic Tournament to crown the first ever PWS Champion. In the second round, Evans defeated Hart by countout in a 30-minute match which received a standing ovation. A best of five series was made and the two met for their second encounter on May 2 at "Belleville Breakdown", where Hart was victorious. Future bouts in the series are yet to be announced due to both Hart and Evans working in Mexico.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On May 4, 2012, in Rahway, New Jersey Hart defeated Matt Hardy and Colt Cabana in a triple threat match for Pro Wrestling Syndicate.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Hart was part of MTV's Wrestling Society X project, which was filmed in 2006 and premiered in January 2007. He appeared in the inaugural contract rumble, where he was the second man to enter the ring, but did not win. Hart also wrestled tag team matches on later episodes of the show with "M-Dogg 20" Matt Cross, where their tag team was known as "The Filth and the Fury". As a team, Hart and Cross managed to defeat The Trailer Park Boys and Team Dragon Gate. On the fifth episode, Hart had to be stretchered away following his match after landing leg-first on the guardrail and then climbing to the top of the set and executing a moonsault, clashing heads as he landed. WSX ceased operations after their television show was cancelled.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On October 27, 2007, Teddy Hart returned to JAPW after interfering in the fight between Homicide and Low Ki at the JAPW tenth Anniversary Show. On December 8, 2007, Teddy Hart teamed with Low Ki against The Latin American Xchange (LAX) (Homicide and Hernandez) and BLK OUT (Eddie Kingston and Slyk Wagner Brown) in a three-way match for the JAPW Tag Team Championship at "Seasons Beatings", however LAX retained.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On January 19, 2008, Hart defeated Homicide and Eddie Kingston in a 3-Way No Disqualification New Jersey Street Fight at "Reclaiming Hudson". Less than a month later on February 16, 2008, Hart defeated Kenny Omega and Xavier in a 3-way elimination match at "Wild Card IV". After the match, Hernandez hit Hart with the Border Toss. That same night, Hart, in response to being attacked by Hernandez, announced that he would challenge LAX for the Tag Team Titles at "Caged Fury" and that his partner would be Samoa Joe. On March 8, 2008, LAX defeated Hart and Samoa Joe in a steel cage match to retain the Tag Team Championship at "Caged Fury".


title: Teddy Hart

text: On December 19, 2009, more than five and a half years after his last appearance, Hart returned to Ring of Honor at their first live pay-per-view Final Battle 2009, where he was defeated by Jack Evans.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Hart made his AAA debut on November 20, 2007, in an Extreme Four Way tag team Ladder Match, where he teamed with Sabu against Crazy Boy and Joe Líder, Charly Manson and Chessman, Extreme Tiger and Halloween for the AAA World Tag Team Championship at "Guerra de Titantes". Soon after joining, Hart joined Konnan's heel stable Legión Extranjera (Foreign Legion), where he regularly teams with Evans as The Hart Foundation 2.0. Part of his villainous character is that he cannot speak Spanish and during his promos, AAA captions his remarks in Spanish.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On March 16, 2008, Hart lost a $2500 Ladder Battle Royal Match to Xtreme Tiger, which also included Chessman, Juventud Guerrera, Halloween and Joe Líder at Rey de Reyes.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On June 13, The Mexican Powers (Crazy Boy, Último Gladiador and Ricky Marvin) defeated La Legión Extranjera (Bryan Danielson, Jack Evans and Teddy Hart), and La Familia de Tijuana (Extreme Tiger, Halloween and TJ Xtreme) in a Three Way Elimination match at Triplemanía XVI.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On September 14, La Hermandad Extrema (Joe Líder and Nicho El Millonario) defeated The Hart Foundation 2.0 (Teddy Hart and Jack Evans), The Mexican Powers (Crazy Boy and Último Gladiador) and La Familia de Tijuana (Extreme Tiger and Halloween) in a Four Way Ladder match for the World Tag Team Championship at Verano de Escandalo. After the loss, Hart and Evans began feuding with Líder and Nicho and on October 24, La Hermandad Extrema defeated The Hart Foundation 2.0 (Teddy Hart and Jack Evans), and Los Bello Stones (Alan and Chris Stone) in a Three Way Ladder match for the World Tag Team Championship at the 2008 Antonio Peña Memorial Show.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On December 6, Hart and Evans wrestled to a double countout against Líder and Nicho for the World Tag Team Championship at Guerra de Titanes.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On March 15, 2009, El Zorro, Hart and Evans defeated Charly Manson and D-Generation Mex (X-Pac and Alex Koslov) at Rey de Reyes. In June 2009 Hart and the rest of Legion Extranjera turned on Evans and kicked him out of the stable. On June 13, Team AAA (El Hijo del Santo, La Parka, Vampiro, Octagón and Jack Evans) defeated La Legion Extranjera (Silver King, Chessman, Kenzo Suzuki, Electroshock and Teddy Hart) at Triplemania XVII to regain control over AAA and force Konnan out of the company. On August 21 at Verano de Escandalo Konnan and Hart returned to AAA with their new version of La Legion Extranjera. In early 2010 AAA suspended Hart indefinitely.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Hart returned to AAA on March 18, 2012, at "Rey de Reyes", where he teamed with Chessman in a four-way tag team match, which was won by Joe Líder and Juventud Guerrera and also included the teams of Extreme Tiger and Fénix, and Halloween and Nicho el Millonario. On April 1, El Hijo del Perro Aguayo, who had recently been feuding with Hart's former partner Jack Evans, named Hart the newest member of his "Los Perros del Mal" stable. On August 5 at "Triplemanía XX", Hart reunited with Evans for one night to take part in a "Parejas Suicidas" steel cage match, featuring three other former tag teams. However, both Hart and Evans managed to escape the cage and avoid having to face each other in a Hair vs. Hair match.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On February 22, 2013, Hart participated on the AAA Canada: Next Generation Wrestling event, competing in the NGW World Title Tournament. Hart reached the finals of the tournament but ultimately would not win the championship.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On April 5, 2014, Hart competed for Dragon Gate USA where Hart, Chuck Taylor and Biff Busick faced Anthony Nese, Caleb Konley and Trent Baretta in a losing effort. on May 31, at an ACW event, Hart, Dan Maff and Monsta Mack defeated Azrieal, Danny Demanto and Damien Darling. on October 5, 2014, Hart competed for the Inspire Pro Pure Prestige title in a triple threat match which was won by Thomas Shire.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On August 21, 2015, it was announced that Hart would make his debut for NOVA Pro Wrestling. In January 2016 Hart debuted for Canadian Wrestling's Elite. On July 14, 2016, made debut for Lucha Libre Elite, Hart was defeated by Diamante Azul.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Hart returned to Major League Wrestling (MLW) in 2017 as part of New Era Hart Foundation with cousin Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Brian Pillman Jr. He is a former World Middleweight Champion. At MLW Saturday Night SuperFight on November 2, 2019, Hart defeated Austin Aries via the Canadian Destroyer to retain the MLW World Middleweight Championship. On the November 11, 2019 edition of MLW Fusion Hart was defeated by Myron Reed for the Middleweight Championship. On December 6, MLW posted on their website and social media that Hart had been released from the company. While MLW offered no official explanation for Harts release, anonymous sources speculated that it was the result of ongoing disciplinary issues with Hart, including no showing an event and appearing in the crowds of AEW and NXT shows.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On April 20, Hart made his return to the company after 5 years away from the AAA, attacking Joe Líder and Pagano. That same night he reappeared with Juventud Guerrera and Kevin Kross, attacking Dr. Wagner Jr., Vampiro and Hernandez after the main event by the AAA Mega Championship. The trio called themselves MAD, and vowed to meet against their upcoming incumbents.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Annis was the subject of the 2009 documentary "A Hart Still Pounding". The project was originally named "Ted Hart's Truth and Reality" and was almost was shut down by the creator, due to having problems with working with Hart. Hart also appeared in the 2016 documentary "Hart Still Beating", which is about his uncle Smith and cousin Matt.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Annis is also the subject of the documentary "Hart of Darkness" by directors Kurt Spenrath and Fred Kroetsch.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Annis is a third-generation wrestler; his father, B. J. Annis, and his grandfather Stu Hart were both wrestlers. Annis has a son, Bradley, with his ex-girlfriend Kim. Annis suffers from Bipolar disorder but does not medicate. Annis's great-grandfather Harry Smith also had bipolar disorder, as did his brother Frank.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Annis was married to Fay, and she was involved in his wrestling career, mainly in the Hart Legacy promotion. In 2016 Annis and his wife divorced.


title: Teddy Hart

text: Annis holds Canadian citizenship as a result of his birth in Canada to a Canadian-born mother. He also holds American citizenship due to being born to an American-born father.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On November 19, 2016, Annis's girlfriend Samantha Louise Michelle Fiddler disappeared in Bartow, Florida.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On December 3, 2014, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that Annis was wanted on sexual assault charges involving two women. The charges were dropped in June 2016. Annis later opened up about several personal/real-life topics including his rape accusations in an interview hosted by wrestlers Chuckie T and Trent Barreta in January 2015.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On January 1, 2017, Annis was arrested in Arlington, Texas, and was charged with DUI, evading arrest, and auto theft. The charges against Annis were later dropped.


title: Teddy Hart

text: In February 2020, Annis was arrested in Virginia and was charged with possession of a schedule III controlled substance with the intent to sell or distribute.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On March 4, 2020, Annis was once again arrested in Virginia, this time for violating the conditions of his bail by not staying under house arrest.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On March 26, 2020, Annis was arrested in Virginia for a third time after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, female independent wrestler Maria Manic at the home of another independent wrestler, Ace Montana. Montana claims he had pulled a gun on Annis in order to get him off of Manic. He then called the cops and Annis was arrested and charged with strangulation resulting in wounding/bodily harm. He was held without bail in the Richmond City jail until his court date on April 22.


title: Teddy Hart

text: On October 23, 2020, Annis was arrested in Texas and charged with injuring a disabled person, evading arrest, and being in possession of a controlled substance. Annis was arrested again on the same charges on February 16, 2021, this time in northern Virginia.


title: 2020 in video games

text: In the video game industry, 2020 saw the launch of the next generation of video game consoles, with both Microsoft and Sony Interactive Entertainment having released the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 consoles, respectively, in November 2020. The industry was heavily affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which had begun in March and was characterized by COVID-19 lockdowns and remote work. While this caused numerous delays in software and hardware releases and the cancellation of live conferences and events in favor of virtual shows, it also created a boon for the industry as people turned to gaming as a means to pass the time. The industry also reacted to various political/cultural events.


title: 2020 in video games

text: Mobile gaming continued its growth as a major platform for video gaming; as part of this, Epic Games initiated the Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit over mobile app store revenue cut policies. Major planned acquisitions included Xbox Game Studios' acquisition of ZeniMax Media and its subsidiaries, and Electronic Arts outbidding Take-Two Interactive for Codemasters.


title: 2020 in video games

text: Metacritic is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities.


title: 2020 in video games

text: The global market for video games based on 2020 revenues was estimated to exceed according to the International Data Corporation; the growth of 20% over 2019 revenues is attributes to the surge in spending in video games from the COVID-19 pandemic along with the releases of the new consoles.


title: 2020 in video games

text: SuperData Research estimated the global video game market grew by 12% in 2020 to a total in revenues. Mobile games accounted for over or 58% of the market, with computer games at and console games at . Virtual and augmented reality had about , while video gaming content such as online streamers generated an additional .


title: 2020 in video games

text: Newzoo estimated the global market for video games in 2020 was , a 23.1% increase from 2019, buoyed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Newzoo anticipated that the 2021 market will see a small decline as the world recovers from COVID-19 and spending on video games slows down, but otherwise the industry would remain on track to break in revenue by 2023.


title: 2020 in video games

text: According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, while the overall global entertainment and media market dropped by 3.8% during 2020, the video game market grew by 10% over the year, due to the use of video games to help with social distancing during COVID-19 lockdowns.


title: 2020 in video games

text: According to market research firm Newzoo, the following countries were the largest video game markets in 2020.


title: 2020 in video games

text: The following are the top ten highest-grossing video games of 2020. Each of the top ten titles grossed more than , while the top four grossed more than each. The majority of the top ten titles are published by Asian companies, including three from Chinese conglomerate Tencent which holds the top two spots.


title: 2020 in video games

text: The following titles were the top ten highest-grossing free-to-play games in 2020. Three of the top ten free-to-play titles are published by Tencent, which holds the top two spots.


title: 2020 in video games

text: "Fortnite" grossed more than in 2020, but less than . It fell out of the top ten, dropping from its top spot in 2019.


title: 2020 in video games

text: The following titles were the best-selling premium games (including buy-to-play titles) in 2020. Three of the top ten best-selling titles are published by Nintendo, including the year's top-selling game.


title: 2020 in video games

text: The following were 2020's top ten best-selling video games by region (excluding microtransactions and free-to-play titles) on PC and console platforms, for Australia, Japan, Europe, and the United States.


title: 2020 in video games

text: The highly contagious coronavirus disease 2019, first observed in China in December 2019, began a major outbreak across the world in January 2020, which is ongoing as of November 2021. Within China, steps to prevent spread of the disease came around such as large-scale quarantine of affected populations which have impacted production within the country. This has had a large number of impacts on social, medical, and economic systems worldwide. The video game industry has been impacted by the outbreak in various ways, most often due to concerns over travel to and from China or elsewhere, or related to slowdowns in manufacturing processes within China. Numerous games have been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and most industry events were cancelled or reformated into virtual showcases.


title: 2020 in video games

text: The video game industry in general was boosted by the pandemic, since people under pandemic lockdowns were forced to stay home, with video games becoming a popular pastime. Total spending in video games grew to in the United States during the first nine months of 2020 compared to for the same period in 2019. Easy-to-learn games with little to no narrative and large audience enjoyment potential, including "Fall Guys", "Among Us", and the "Jackbox Party Packs", saw great increases in popularity during the pandemic as a means to avoid the "cultural trauma" of the situation.


title: 2020 in video games

text: In the wake of the George Floyd protests and resurgence of support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement across several entertainment sectors in June 2020, the video game industry also responded. Most large publishers and developers shared their support of the protests and BLM as with other larger entertainment companies. A number of video game announcement events had been planned on the week of June 6 and onward as a virtual replacement for E3 2020 (cancelled from the COVID-19 pandemic), but most of these were shifted by a week or more to allow the voices of the protests to have the necessary focus. Many companies announced plans to donate funds towards black-oriented organizations, including Electronic Arts, 2K Games, Riot Games and Humble Bundle committing to such foundations, while others like Ubisoft, Square Enix and The Pokémon Company also committed to significant donations. Itch.io raised over for black charities through sales of a game bundle with games from over 1,300 developers. Electronic Arts and Infinity Ward pledged to combat racism that they were aware had persisted by users in their games in light of the events.


title: 2020 in video games

text: In late June and early July, as a continuation of prior #MeToo movement effects on the industry from 2017, several people started speaking out of specific accounts of sexual misconduct and harassment towards others in the industry. Initial complaints had been directed towards Twitch streamers but soon had reached major companies including Insomniac Games, and Electronic Arts, with most studios taking actions to deal with the accused and instituting better policies to handle internal and external issued related to sexual misconduct. In particular, charges were made toward the CEO of Evolution Championship Series (EVO), Joey Cuellar, who was subsequently let go. Multiple publishers that had backed the event had pulled out on this news, and the EVO event, which had already been reworked as an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was subsequently cancelled. A large number of cases were found through Ubisoft's executive-level staff, leading to a number of high-level departures and major internal review of how the company handled such complaints in the future.


title: 2020 in video games

text: Major hardware discontinuations in 2020 include the Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital versions, which were discontinued on July 16. The Nintendo 3DS family was discontinued on September 17.


title: 2020 in video games

text: Series with new installments include "Animal Crossing", "Assassin's Creed", "", "Bomberman", "Call of Duty", "Cook, Serve, Delicious!", "Crash Bandicoot", "Danganronpa", "Deadly Premonition", "Dirt", "Doom", "Dragon Ball", "Dragon Quest", "Final Fantasy", "Granblue Fantasy", "Half-Life", "Kingdom Hearts", "The Last of Us", "The Legend of Zelda", "Lego", "Mafia", "Mana", "Medal of Honor", "Megami Tensei", "Microsoft Flight Simulator", "Minecraft", "", "Mystery Dungeon", "Nioh", "Oddworld", "One Piece", "Ori", "Paper Mario", "Persona", "Project CARS", "Resident Evil", "Rune Factory", "Serious Sam", "Shantae", "Spelunky", "Spider-Man", "Star Wars", "Streets of Rage", "Super Mario", "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six", "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater", "Total War", "Trails", "", "Wasteland", "Watch Dogs", "Windjammers", "Yakuza", "Command and Conquer", and "".


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen (1480 – 23 July 1562), also known as Götz of the Iron Hand, was a German (Franconian) Imperial Knight ("Reichsritter"), mercenary, and poet. He was born around 1480 into the noble family of Berlichingen in modern-day Baden-Württemberg. Götz bought Hornberg Castle (Neckarzimmern) in 1517, and lived there until his death in 1562.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: He was active in numerous military campaigns during a period of 47 years from 1498 to 1544, including the German Peasants' War, besides numerous feuds; in his autobiography he estimates that he fought 15 feuds in his own name, besides many cases where he lent assistance to his friends, including feuds against the cities of Cologne, Ulm, Augsburg and the Swabian League, as well as the bishop of Bamberg.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: His name became famous as a euphemism for a vulgar expression ("Er kann mich am Arsch lecken" – "Gruaisenffith") attributed to him by writer and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), who wrote a play based on his life.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: In 1497, Berlichingen entered the service of Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. In 1498, he fought in the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, seeing action in Burgundy, Lorraine, and the Brabant, and in the Swabian War the following year. By 1500, Berlichingen had left the service of Frederick of Brandenburg, and formed a company of mercenaries, selling his services to various Dukes, Margraves, and Barons.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: In 1504, during the War of the Succession of Landshut, Berlichingen and his mercenary army fought for Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria. During the siege of the city of Landshut, he lost his right arm at the wrist when cannon fire forced his sword against him. In the following years, he had two mechanical prosthetic iron replacements made. The first iron hand was a more simple device, claimed to have been made by a local blacksmith and a saddle maker. The second, more famous prosthetic hand was capable of holding objects from a shield or reins to a quill. Both are on display today at the . In spite of this injury, Berlichingen continued his military activities. In the subsequent years he was involved in numerous feuds, both of his own and in support of friends and employers.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: In 1512, near the town of Forchheim, due to a long running and bitter feud with Nuremberg he raided a group of Nuremberg merchants returning from the great fair at Leipzig. On hearing this, Emperor Maximilian placed Berlichingen under an Imperial ban. He was only released from this in 1514, when he paid the large sum of 14,000 gulden. In 1516, in a feud with the Principality of Mainz and its Prince-Archbishop, Berlichingen and his company mounted a raid into Hesse, capturing Philip IV, Count of Waldeck, in the process. A ransom of 8,400 gulden was paid for the safe return of the count. For this action, he was again placed under an Imperial ban in 1518.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: In 1519, he signed up in the service of Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg, who was at war with the Swabian League. He fought in the defence of Möckmühl, but eventually was forced to surrender the town, owing to a lack of supplies and ammunition. In violation of the terms of surrender, he was held prisoner and handed over to the citizens of Heilbronn, a town he had raided several times. His fellow knights Georg von Frundsberg and Franz von Sickingen successfully argued for his release in 1522, but only after he paid a ransom of 2,000 gulden and swore not to take vengeance on the League.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: In 1525, with the outbreak of the German Peasants' War, Berlichingen led the rebel army in the district of Odenwald against the Ecclesiastical Princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Despite this, he was (according to his own account) not a fervent supporter of their cause. He agreed to lead the rebels partly because he had no other option, and partly in an effort to curb the excesses of the rebellion. Despite his wishes to stop wanton violence, Berlichingen found himself powerless to control the rebels and after a month of nominal leadership he deserted his command and returned to the Burg Jagsthausen to sit out the rest of the rebellion in his castle.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: After the Imperial victory, he was called before the Diet of Speyer to account for his actions. On 17 October 1526, he was acquitted by the Imperial chamber. Despite this, in November 1528 he was lured to Augsburg by the Swabian League, who were eager to settle old scores. After reaching Augsburg under promise of safe passage, and while preparing to clear himself of the old charges against him made by the league, he was seized and made prisoner until 1530 when he was liberated, but only after repeating his oath of 1522 and agreeing to return to his Burg Hornberg and remain in that area.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: Berlichingen agreed to this, and remained near the Hornberg until Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, released him from his oath in 1540. He served under Charles in the 1542 campaign against the Ottoman Empire of Suleyman the Magnificent in Hungary, and in 1544 in the Imperial invasion of France under Francis I of France. After the French campaign, Berlichingen returned to the Hornberg and lived out the rest of his life in relative peace. He died on 23 July 1562 in Hornberg Castle at the age of 81 or 82. Berlichingen married twice and left three daughters and seven sons to carry on his family name.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: Götz left an autobiography in manuscript form ("Rossacher Handschrift"). The text was published in 1731 as "Lebens-Beschreibung des Herrn Gözens von Berlichingen" ("Biography of Sir Götz von Berlichingen"), and republished in 1843 as "Ritterliche Thaten Götz von Berlichingen's mit der eisernen Hand" ("Knightly Deeds of Götz von Berlichingen with the Iron Hand") (ed. M. A. Gessert). A scholarly edition of the manuscript text was published in 1981 by Helgard Ulmschneider as "Mein Fehd und Handlungen " ("My Feuds and Actions").


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: When invited to surrender by the Swabian League, Götz reportedly said of the Swabian general: "He can lick my ass!" This anecdote helped popularise the phrase, which came to be called the Swabian salute in his honour.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: Goethe in 1773 published the play "Götz von Berlichingen" based on the 1731 edition of the autobiography.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: The Waffen-SS 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen in World War II was named after him.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: The and each bore the emblem of a "War Glove" with the legend "Götz von Berlichingen!," while an emblem used by the "U-69" pictured signal flags spelling out ""L.M.A."" – an initialism of the famed vulgar quote.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: From commissioning in June 1958 until decommissioning in June 2006, the 2nd Fast Patrol Boat Squadron (2. Schnellbootgeschwader) of the German Navy used the clenched 'Iron Fist' of Götz von Berlichingen in the center of their squadron crest.


title: Götz von Berlichingen

text: During World War II, one of the armed merchant cruisers sent by the "Kriegsmarine" to Japan was named "Götz von Berlichingen" by its captain after Kriegsmarine HQ rejected his initial suggestion "Michael". The swap may refer to Berlichingen's famous imprecation: "Er kann mich im Arsche lecken" ("he can lick me in the arse").


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (; born 1 August 1949) is an Afghan politician, former mujahideen leader and drug trafficker. He is the founder and current leader of the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin political party, so called after Mohammad Yunus Khalis split from Hezbi Islami in 1979 to found Hezb-i Islami Khalis. He has twice served as Prime Minister during the 1990s.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Hekmatyar joined the Muslim Youth organization as a student in the early 1970s, where he was known for his Islamic radicalism rejected by much of the organization. He spent time in Pakistan before returning to Afghanistan when the Soviet–Afghan War began in 1979, at which time the CIA began funding his rapidly growing Hezb-e Islami organization through the Pakistani intelligence service, ISI, one of the largest of the Afghan mujahideen. He received more CIA funding than any other mujahideen leader during the Soviet-Afghan War.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: In the late 1980s, Hekmatyar and his organization used the funds and weapons provided to them by the CIA to start trafficking opium, and later moved into manufacturing heroin. He established himself and his group amongst the leading heroin suppliers in the Middle East. Given the CIA's earlier connection, this became a subject of diplomatic embarrassment for the US foreign service. Following the ouster of Soviet-backed Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, Hekmatyar declined to form part of the new government and, with other warlords, engaged in the Afghan civil war, leading to the death of around 50,000 civilians in Kabul alone. Hekmatyar was accused of bearing the most responsibility for the rocket attacks on the city. In the meantime, as part of the peace and power-sharing efforts led by Ahmad Shah Massoud, Hekmatyar became Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1993 to 1994 and again briefly in 1996, before the Taliban takeover of Kabul forced him to flee to Iran's capital Tehran.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Sometime after the Taliban's fall in 2001 he went to Pakistan, leading his paramilitary forces into an unsuccessful armed campaign against Hamid Karzai's government and the international coalition in Afghanistan. In 2016, he signed a peace deal with the Afghan government and was allowed to return to Afghanistan after almost 20 years in exile. Following the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, on 17 August 2021, Hekmatyar met with both Hamid Karzai, former President of Afghanistan, and Abdullah Abdullah, former Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and former Chief Executive, in Doha seeking to form a government. However they were subdued as the Taliban formed a non-inclusive government in September 2021. Hekmatyar remains in Kabul.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was born in 1949 in Imam Saheb, Kunduz province, in the north of what was then the Kingdom of Afghanistan, a member of the Kharoti tribe of Ghilji Pashtuns. His father, Ghulam Qader, who migrated to Kunduz, is originally from the Ghazni province. Afghan businessman and Kharoti tribal leader Gholam Serwar Nasher deemed Hekmatyar to be a bright young man and sent him to the Mahtab Qala military academy in 1968, but he was expelled due to his political views two years later. From 1969 to 1972, Hekmatyar attended Kabul University's engineering department. During his first year at the university he wrote a 149-page book entitled "The Priority of Sense Over Matter", where he refutes communists denying the existence of God by quoting European philosophers and scientists like Hegel or Francesco Redi. Though he did not complete his degree, his followers still address him as "Engineer Hekmatyar".


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: During his years in university, Hekmatyar joined the Sazman-i Jawanan-i Musulman ("Organization of Muslim Youth") which was gaining influence because of its opposition to the Soviet influence in Afghanistan increasing through the PDPA elements in Daoud's government. He was one of the foundational members of the organization. He may have also been influenced by the ideological teachings of Muslim Brotherhood member Sayyid Qutb. By his own account he became an Islamist when he heard of Qutb's death in 1966, on radio, and also contradicts that he was a communist during his youth. Although some believe that Hekmatyar threw acid at multiple female students, others have attributed this claim to the Soviet KGB's black propaganda. Hekmatyar's radicalism put him in confrontation with elements in the Muslim Youth surrounding Ahmad Shah Massoud, also an engineering student at Kabul University. In 1975, trying to assassinate a rival for the second time in three years, Hekmatyar with Pakistani help tried to assassinate Massoud, then 22 years old, but failed. In 1975, the "Islamic Society" split between supporters of Massoud and Burhanuddin Rabbani, who led the Jamiat-e Islami, and elements surrounding Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who then founded the Hezb-i Islami. Akbarzadeh and Yasmeen describe Hekmatyar's approach as "radical" and antagonistic as opposed to an "inclusive" and "moderate" strategy by Rabbani.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: The arrival of Afghan opposition militants in Peshawar coincided with a period of diplomatic tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, due to Daoud's revival of the Pashtunistan issue. Under the patronage of Pakistani General Naseerullah Babar, then governor of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and with the blessing of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, camps were set up to train Hekmatyar and other anti-Daoud Islamists. The Islamist movement had two main tendencies: the "Jamiat-e islami" ("Islamic society") led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, that advocated a gradualist strategy to gain power, through infiltration of society and the state apparatus. Rabbani advocated for the "building of a widely based movement that would create popular support". The other movement, called "Hezb-i Islami" ("Islamic Party"), was led by Hekmatyar, who favored a radical approach in the form of violent armed conflict. Pakistani support largely went to Hekmatyar's group, who, in October 1975, undertook to instigate an uprising against the government. Without popular support, the rebellion ended in complete failure, and hundreds of militants were arrested.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami was formed as an elitist avant-garde based on a strictly disciplined Islamist ideology within a homogeneous organization that Olivier Roy described as "Leninist", and employed the rhetoric of the Iranian Revolution. It had its operational base in the Nasir Bagh, Worsak and Shamshatoo refugee camps in Pakistan. In these camps, Hezb-i Islami formed a social and political network and operated everything from schools to prisons, with the support of the Pakistani government and their Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). From 1976–1977 Afghan President Daoud made overtures to Pakistan which led to reconciliation with Pakistani leader Bhutto. Bhutto's support to Hekmatyar, however, continued and when Bhutto was removed from power in Pakistan by Zia-ul-Haq in 1977, Zia continued supporting Hekmatyar.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: During the Soviet–Afghan War, Hekmatyar received large amounts of aid from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States. Hekmatyar also gained the support of the British MI6 and even met Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street. According to the ISI, their decision to allocate the highest percentage of covert aid to Hekmatyar was based on his record as an effective anti-Soviet military commander in Afghanistan. Others describe his position as the result of having "almost no grassroots support and no military base inside Afghanistan", and thus being the much more "dependent on Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq's protection and financial largesse" than other mujahideen factions. Author Peter Bergen states that "by the most conservative estimates, $600 million" in American aid through Pakistan "went to the Hizb party ... Hekmatyar's party had the dubious distinction of never winning a significant battle during the war, training a variety of militant Islamists from around the world, killing significant numbers of mujahideen from other parties, and taking a virulently anti-Western line. In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid, Hekmatyar also received the lion's share of aid from the Saudis." Hekmatyar's constant scheming against all of the mujahideen factions led Pakistani general and leader Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq to warn Hekmatyar that it was Pakistan that made him an Afghan leader and that Pakistan could and would destroy him if he resisted operational control by ISI.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: As the Soviet-Afghan War was coming to its end, Hekmatyar used the funds and weapons provided to him by the CIA and ISI to establish his organization as one of the leading heroin producers in the Middle East. Hekmatyar first became involved in the narcotics trade in the summer of 1988, as it became apparent that the Soviets were intending to withdraw. Initially becoming involved in trafficking opium, Hekmatyar's was the first of the mujahideen groups to establish and operate heroin production factories in the region. Hekmatyar's involvement in the production and distribution of illegal narcotics became a subject of diplomatic embarrassment for the United States' foreign service. The CIA officer with responsibility for its operations in Afghanistan at the time, Charles Cogan, said "Every situation has its fallout...There was fallout in terms of drugs, yes. But the main objective was accomplished."


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Hezb-e-Islami distinguished itself among the mujahideen by its practice of "takfir", or pronouncing apostasy against other Muslims. On that basis it regularly attacked other mujahideen factions as well as the Soviet occupation. Hekmatyar's conflict with Jamiat-e Islami and its commander Ahmad Shah Massoud was particularly contentious. Massoud was arrested in Pakistan for espionage in 1976 with Hekmatyar's cooperation. Later Massoud and Hekmatyar agreed to stage a takeover operation in the Panjshir valley. Hekmatyar at the last minute refused to engage his part of the offensive, leaving Massoud open and vulnerable. Massoud's forces barely escaped with their lives. In July 1989 Hezb-e-Islami commander Sayyed Jamal ambushed and killed 30 commanders of Massoud's "Shura-ye-Nazar" at Farkhar in Takhar province. The attack was typical of Hekmatyar's strategy of trying to cripple rival factions, and incurred widespread condemnation among the mujahideen.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Hekmatyar's faction also attacked non-combatants such as British cameraman Andy Skrzypkowiak, who was killed in 1987 while carrying footage of Massoud's successes to the West. Despite protests from British representatives, Hekmatyar did not punish the culprits, and instead rewarded them with gifts. The same year Médecins Sans Frontières reported that Hekmatyar's guerrillas hijacked a 96-horse caravan bringing aid into northern Afghanistan, stealing a year's supply of medicine and cash that was to be distributed to villagers. This would have allowed the villagers to buy food. French relief officials also asserted that Thierry Niquet, an aid coordinator bringing cash to Afghan villagers, was killed by one of Hekmatyar's commanders in 1986. It is thought that two American journalists traveling with Hekmatyar in 1987, Lee Shapiro and Jim Lindelof, were killed not by the Soviets, as Hekmatyar's men claimed, but during a firefight initiated by Hekmatyar's forces against another mujahideen group.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Hekmatyar made an unlikely alliance with hardline communist and Minister of Defence Shahnawaz Tanai who launched a failed coup attempt in March 1990 against President Najibullah. Many senior members of his party resigned in protest of the coalition, and other Mujahideen groups ridiculed Hekmatyar for uniting with Khalqists to oust the Parcham government. In addition, there were frequent reports throughout the war of Hekmatyar's commanders negotiating and dealing with pro-Communist local militias in northern Afghanistan.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Overall, Hekmatyar has been accused of spending "more time fighting other Mujahideen than killing Soviets." Through the anti-Soviet war and beyond, he remained a controversial yet persistently influential figure whom "The New York Times" described as "perhaps the most brutal of a generally brutal group".


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: A highly controversial commander, Hekmatyar has been dubbed the "Butcher of Kabul", accused of being responsible for the destruction and civilian deaths Kabul experienced in the early 1990s.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: According to the U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan in 1989–1992, Peter Tomsen, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was hired in 1990 by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to conquer and rule Afghanistan in the benefit of Pakistani interests. The plan was delayed until 1992 due to US pressure to cancel that plan.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: In April 1992, as the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan began to collapse, government officials joined the mujahideen, choosing different parties according to their ethnic and political affinities. For the most part, the members of the "khalq" faction of the PDPA, who were predominantly Pashtuns, joined with Hekmatyar. With their help, he began on 24 April to infiltrate troops into Kabul, and announced that he had seized the city, and that should any other leaders try to fly into Kabul, he would shoot their plane down. The new leader of the "Islamic Interim Government of Afghanistan", Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, appointed Ahmad Shah Massoud as defense minister, and urged him to take action. This he did, taking the offensive on 25 April, and after two days heavy fighting, the Hezb-i Islami and its allies were expelled from Kabul. A peace agreement was signed with Massoud on 25 May 1992, which made Hekmatyar Prime Minister. However, the agreement fell apart when he was blamed for a rocket attack on President Mojaddedi's plane. The following day, fighting resumed between Burhanuddin Rabbani's and Ahmed Shah Massoud's Jamiat, Abdul Rashid Dostum's Jumbish forces and Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami forces.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: From 1992 to 1996, the warring factions destroyed most of Kabul and killed thousands, many of them civilians, during the Afghan civil war. All the different parties participated in the destruction, but Hekmatyar's group was responsible for most of the damage, because of his practice of deliberately targeting civilian areas. Hekmatyar is thought to have bombarded Kabul in retaliation for what he considered its inhabitants' collaboration with the Soviets, and out of religious conviction. He once told a "New York Times" journalist that Afghanistan "already had one and a half million martyrs. We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic." His attacks also had a political objective: to undermine the Rabbani government by proving that Rabbani and Massoud were unable to protect the population. In 1994 Hekmatyar would shift alliances, joining with Dostum as well as "Hizb-e-Wahdat", a Hazara Shi'a party, to form the "Shura-i Hamahangi" ("Council of coordination"). Together they laid Siege on Kabul, unleashing massive barrages of artillery and rockets that led to the evacuation of U.N. personnel from Kabul, and caused several government members to abandon their posts. However the new alliance did not spell victory for Hekmatyar, and in June 1994, Massoud had driven Dostum's troops from the capital.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: The Pakistani military had supported Hekmatyar until then in the hope of installing a Pashtun-dominated government in Kabul, which would be friendly to their interests. By 1994, it had become clear that Hekmatyar would never achieve this, and that his extremism had antagonised most Pashtuns, so the Pakistanis began turning towards the predominantly Pashtun Taliban. After capturing Kandahar in November 1994, the Taliban made rapid progress towards Kabul, making inroads into Hezb-e Islami positions. They captured Wardak on 2 February 1995, and moved on to Maidan Shahr on 10 February and Mohammed Agha the next day. Very soon, Hekmatyar found himself caught between the advancing Taliban and the government forces, and the morale of his men collapsed. On 14 February, he was forced to abandon his headquarters at Charasiab, from where rockets were fired at Kabul, and flee in disorder to Surobi.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Nonetheless, in May 1996, Rabbani and Hekmatyar finally formed a power-sharing government in which Hekmatyar was made prime minister. Rabbani was anxious to enhance the legitimacy of his government by enlisting the support of Pashtun leaders. However, the Mahipar agreement did not bring any such benefits to him as Hekmatyar had little grassroots support, but did have many adverse effects: it caused outrage among Jamiat supporters, and among the population of Kabul, who had endured Hekmatyar's attacks for the last four years. Moreover, the agreement was clearly not what the Pakistanis wanted, and convinced them of Hekmatyar's weakness, and that they should shift their aid entirely over to the Taliban. Hekmatyar took office on 26 June, and immediately started issuing severe decrees on women's dress that struck a sharp contrast with the relatively liberal policy that Massoud had followed until then. The Taliban responded to the agreement with a further spate of rocket attacks on the capital. The Rabbani/Hekmatyar regime lasted only a few months before the Taliban took control of Kabul in September 1996. Many of the Hezb-e Islami local commanders joined the Taliban, "both out of ideological sympathy and for reason of tribal solidarity." Those that did not were expelled by the Taliban. In Pakistan, Hezb-e Islami training camps "were taken over by the Taliban and handed over" to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) groups such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Hekmatyar then fled to Massoud's stronghold in Panjshir who, despite Hekmatyar's history of animosity towards him, helped him flee to Iran in 1997, where he is said to have resided for almost six years. Isolated from Afghanistan he is reported to have "lost ... his power base back home" to defections or inactivity of former members. He was also distrusted by the Iranian Government, who found him too unpredictable, unreliable, and an unnecessary liability, considering its tense relations at the time with the Taliban and the Pakistani government. Despite his pleas, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards refused to establish a proxy through any of his organizations or assist him in any way. Allegedly, they even cut his phone lines and turned away anyone who wished to see him in his villa in North Tehran.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: After the 9/11 attacks in the United States Hekmatyar, who had allegedly "worked closely" with bin Laden in early 1990s, declared his opposition to the US campaign in Afghanistan and criticized Pakistan for assisting the United States. After the U.S. entry into the anti-Taliban alliance and the fall of the Taliban, Hekmatyar rejected the U.N.-brokered accord of 5 December 2001 negotiated in Germany as a post-Taliban interim government for Afghanistan. As a result of pressure by the U.S. and the Karzai administration, on 10 February 2002 all the offices of Hezb-e-Islami were closed in Iran and Hekmatyar was expelled by his Iranian hosts.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: The United States accused Hekmatyar of urging Taliban fighters to re-form and fight against Coalition troops in Afghanistan. He was also accused of offering bounties for those who kill U.S. troops. He has been labeled a war criminal by members of the U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai's government. ISAF identified Hekmatyar in 2002 as the number one security threat, ahead of the Taliban or al-Qaeda. He was also a suspect behind the 5 September 2002 assassination attempt on Karzai in Kandahar and a bomb the same day that killed more than a dozen people in Kabul. That same month, he released newsletters and tape messages calling for jihad against the United States. One of his commanders commented that there "will be suicide attacks [...] against soldiers". On 25 December 2002, news broke that American spy organizations had discovered Hekmatyar attempting to join al-Qaeda. According to the news, he had said that he was available to aid them. However, in a video released by Hekmatyar 1 September 2003, he denied forming alliances with the Taliban or al-Qaeda, but praised attacks against U.S. and international forces.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: On 10 February 2003, the Afghan government reported that Hekmatyar was planning an alliance with Taliban and al-Qaeda factions. His group was involved in an intense battle with the U.S. army near Spin Boldak. On February 19, 2003 the United States State Department and the United States Treasury Department jointly designated Hekmatyar a "global terrorist." This designation meant that any assets Hekmatyar held in the U.S., or held through companies based in the U.S., would be frozen. The U.S. also requested the United Nations Committee on Terrorism to follow suit, and designate Hekmatyar an associate of Osama bin Laden. In October 2003, he declared a ceasefire with local commanders in Jalalabad, Kunar, Logar and Surobi, and stated that they should only fight foreigners.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: In May 2006, he released a video to Al Jazeera in which he accused Iran of backing the U.S. in the Afghan conflict and said he was ready to fight alongside Osama bin Laden and blamed the ongoing conflicts in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan on U.S. interference. In an audiotape released the same month, he called for revolt against U.S. forces and Karzai's "puppet government", and directly threatened to kill Lt. General Karl Eikenberry. In September 2006, he was reported as captured, but the report was later retracted. In December 2006, a video was released in Pakistan, where Gulbuddin Hekmatyar claimed "the fate Soviet Union faced is awaiting America as well." In January 2007 CNN reported that Hekmatyar claimed "that his fighters helped Osama bin Laden escape from the mountains of Tora Bora five years ago." BBC news reported a quote from a December 2006 interview broadcast on GEO TV, "We helped them [bin Laden and Zawahiri] get out of the caves and led them to a safe place."


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: In May 2008, the Jamestown Foundation reported that after being "sidelined from Afghan politics" since the mid-1990s, Gulbuddin's HIG group had "recently reemerged as an aggressive militant group, claiming responsibility for many bloody attacks against Coalition forces at the time, primarily the International Security Assistance Force and the administration of President Hamid Karzai." The re-emergence of him as an "experienced guerrilla strategist" came at a propitious time for insurgency, following the killing of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, when some elements of the Taliban were becoming "disorganized and frustrated." HIG claimed responsibility for and is thought to have at least assisted in a 27 April 2008 attempt on the life of President Karzai in Kabul that killed three Afghan citizens, including a member of parliament. Other attacks for which it was thought to be responsible included the 2 January 2008 shooting down in Laghman province of a helicopter containing foreign troops; the shooting and forcing down of a U.S. military helicopter in Sarubi district of Kabul on 22 January; and blowing up a Kabul police vehicle in March 2008, killing 10 soldiers.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: In interviews he demanded "all foreign forces to leave immediately unconditionally." Offers by President Hamid Karzai to open talks with "opponents of the government" and hints that they would be offered official posts "such as deputy minister or head of department", were thought to be directed at Hekmatyar. It was reported in 2008 that Hekmatyar lived in an unknown location in southeastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistani border. In 2008, he denied any links with the Taliban or al-Qaeda and was even considered for prime minister. At the time, Hekmatyar was believed to shuttle between hideouts in Pakistan's mountainous tribal areas and northeast Afghanistan.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: In January 2010, he was still considered one of the three main leaders of the Afghan insurgency. By then, he held out the possibility of negotiations with President Karzai and outlined a roadmap for political reconciliation. This contrasted with the views of Taliban leader Mullah Omar and allied insurgent chief Sirajuddin Haqqani, who refused any talks with Kabul as long as foreign troops remained in the country, Hekmatyar appeared less reluctant.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: On 10 February 2014, Gulbuddin's HIG group executed an attack which killed two US civilians, Paul Goins and Michael Hughes, and wounded two other Americans and seven Afghan nationals. HIG was also responsible for a 16 May 2013 suicide VBIED attack in Kabul, which destroyed a US armored SUV and killed two US soldiers, four US civilian contractors, eight Afghans—including two children—and wounded at least 37 others. The attack marked the deadliest incident against US personnel in Kabul in 2013.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: On 22 September 2016, Hekmatyar was pardoned by the Afghan government as part of a peace deal between Hezb-i-Islami and the government. The deal also allowed for the release of Hezb-i-Islami prisoners and the return of Hekmatyar to public life. The deal led a group of young activists to organise a protest against the pardoning less than a mile away from the signing ceremony. Human Rights Watch called the deal "an affront to victims of grave abuses". Hezb-i-Islami agreed to cease hostilities, cut ties to extremist groups and respect the Afghan Constitution in exchange for government recognition of the group and support for the removal of United Nations and American sanctions against Hekmatyar, who was also promised an honorary post in the government.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: The agreement was formalised on 29 September 2016 with both Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Hekmatyar, who appeared via a video link in the presidential palace, signing the agreement. UN sanctions on him were formally lifted on 3 February 2017. On 4 May 2017, he returned to Kabul along with his fighters to meet President Ghani after spending two decades in hiding.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: He has then called on the Taliban to end their insurgency and lay down arms. Hekmatyar ran in the 2019 Afghan presidential election and finished a distant third.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and his organization are reported to have joined the Council of Reconciliation formed by the Taliban. He voiced his support of the Taliban in September 2021 even if he and his party will not be included in governance. In October 2022, Hekmatyar told a sermon in Kabul that the talks of Bonn (2001) and Doha (2019-2020) failed to bring peace to Afghanistan because of the influence of "foreigners". He proposed intra-Afghan talks to form an inclusive government to replace the current interim Taliban government.


title: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

text: Having been described as a "prolific writer" who, "despite rarely ceasing to fight, has authored more than 60 (reportedly 79) books on linguistics, Pashto grammar, comparative religion and political analysis", some of his publications include :


title: Bagheera

text: Bagheera ( / "Baghīrā") is a fictional character in Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli stories in "The Jungle Book" (coll. 1894) and "The Second Jungle Book" (coll. 1895). He is a black panther (melanistic Indian leopard) who serves as friend, protector and mentor to the "man-cub" Mowgli. The word "bagheera" is Hindi for panther or leopard, although the root word "bagh" means tiger.


title: Bagheera

text: Born in captivity in the menagerie of the Raja of Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, Bagheera begins to plan for his freedom after his mother dies. Once he is mature and strong enough, he breaks the lock on his cage and escapes into the jungle, where his ferocity and cunning nature win him the respect of all its other inhabitants, except for Shere Khan the Tiger. Bagheera reveals all this to Mowgli later. None but Mowgli ever learn that Bagheera once wore a collar and chain, explaining the cat's special insight concerning men. Because he had learned the ways of men, he was also more loving to the abandoned human child who came to be under his care and protection.


title: Bagheera

text: When Father Wolf and Mother Wolf of the Seeonee (Seoni) wolf pack adopt the human "cub" Mowgli and the pack demands that the new cub should be spoken for, Bagheera buys Mowgli's life with a freshly killed bull and helps to raise him as one of the pack. Because his life has been bought by a bull, Mowgli is forbidden to eat cattle (coincidentally, just as the Hindu villagers of the region are also forbidden). Bagheera will frequently remind Mowgli of this debt by swearing an oath referencing his own previous captivity. As Bagheera swears, "By the broken lock that freed me," so Mowgli answers back "By the bull that bought me."


title: Bagheera

text: At one point, during one of Mowgli's many lessons in the Laws of the Jungle under the tutelage of Baloo the Bear, Bagheera says "I am more likely to give help than to ask it," as Mowgli learns the many sacred words needed to call on the assistance of all kinds of species of animals living in the jungle. Bagheera, having freed himself from the captivity of humans, is a proud animal aware of his own abilities, though he acknowledges Mowgli's growing power over each of the animals as the boy grows older. Bagheera shows Mowgli that none of the animals may stare into his eyes, even those who love him.


title: Bagheera

text: Bagheera shares in many of Mowgli's adventures as he grows, but eventually the time comes when the man-cub becomes a man and has to return to human society. Bagheera frees Mowgli of his debt to the wolf pack by killing another bull, and Mowgli returns to his adopted human mother Messua.


title: Bagheera

text: Bagheera is one of Mowgli's mentors and best friends. He, Baloo and Kaa sing for Mowgli "The Outsong" of the jungle. He also calls out to Mowgli in farewell, "Remember, Bagheera loved thee...Remember, Bagheera loved thee."


title: Bagheera

text: Bagheera appears in the 1967 animated adaptation by Walt Disney Productions. His voice is provided by Sebastian Cabot. As in the Kipling books, Bagheera is Mowgli's intelligent guardian; however, while developing the film, Walt Disney chose to omit Bagheera's past and scars and not let him spoil Mowgli more. Baloo in the film often calls Bagheera "Baggy" as a nickname.


title: Bagheera

text: Bagheera finds Mowgli as a baby and brings him to a pack of wolves to ensure his survival, knowing Mowgli will eventually need to return to the human world. When Shere Khan returns to the jungle, Bagheera offers to take Mowgli to a nearby human village for his safety. Bagheera conflicts with Baloo regarding Mowgli, but Bagheera reminds him of Shere Khan and convinces him to help him. When Mowgli runs away from Baloo, Bagheera tries to gain help from Hathi and his herd of elephants in finding him. Bagheera consoles Mowgli when he thinks Shere Khan has killed Baloo trying to defend him, but Baloo wakes much to Bagheera's anger, having thought him dead. When Mowgli follows Shanti a human girl into the village, Bagheera encourages him and consoles Baloo, assuring him of Mowgli's safety. He and Baloo walk off afterward singing "The Bare Necessities" as the film ends.


title: Bagheera

text: Though Bagheera is absent from the series "TaleSpin", which uses several characters from the 1967 film, many of Shere Khan's employees and military personnel are black panthers strongly resembling him.


title: Bagheera

text: Bagheera appears as a cub in the prequel series "Jungle Cubs", where his friends often make fun of him. Like Shere Khan and Hathi, Bagheera has an American accent as opposed to his English accent in the 1967 film. Bagheera is voiced in "Jungle Cubs" by E.G. Daily and Dee Bradley Baker as a cub and by Jim Cummings as an adult on special animated segments.


title: Bagheera

text: Bagheera appears in "The Jungle Book 2", voiced by Bob Joles. When Shere Khan returns to take revenge on Mowgli, Bagheera tries to stop Baloo from helping Mowgli, suspecting he wants to bring him back to the jungle. Bagheera fails despite gaining the aid of Hathi, and Baloo tricks him into thinking Mowgli is not with him, though Bagheera is unsure. Bagheera rushes to help Mowgli and his friend Shanti after Shere Khan attacks them but has to wait outside the temple where they are trapped, warning Baloo to be careful as he travels inside. Mowgli manages to trap Shere Khan, after which he introduces Shanti to Bagheera. At the end of the film, he is shown playing with Mowgli's adoptive brother Ranjan.


title: Bagheera

text: In the 1994 live-action film, Bagheera is portrayed by a black leopard named Shadow. As opposed to other adaptations, Bagheera and the other animals in the 1994 film do not speak.


title: Bagheera

text: Bagheera finds Mowgli and his pet wolf, Grey Brother, after they are separated from civilization. Hearing Shere Khan's roar, Bagheera leads them by his tail to a pack of wolves, who adopt them as Mowgli is kind to one of their species. When Mowgli is an adult and has learned the ways of men, he introduces Bagheera to his love interest Kitty Brydon, though he is hostile toward Kitty's fiancé Captain Boone and his soldiers. Bagheera saves Mowgli from being shot by soldiers working for Boone, and later saves their friend Dr. Plumford from being killed by Buldeo and a caravan of bandits. When Mowgli is tied to a tree, Bagheera arrives and chews through the ropes, freeing him. At the end of the film Bagheera is seen crossing a bridge with a triumphant Mowgli and Kitty.


title: Bagheera

text: Bagheera appears in the 2016 remake of the 1967 film as a computer-generated character, where he is voiced by Ben Kingsley. Bagheera's role in the 2016 film is largely similar to the 1967 animated version, serving as a mentor to Mowgli and a voice of reason to him and Baloo.


title: Bagheera

text: Bagheera rescues Mowgli after Shere Khan kills the boy's father and raises him to be a creature of the jungle as part of Akela's wolf pack. When Shere Khan threatens Mowgli's life, Bagheera agrees to guide him to a human village, but Shere Khan ambushes them en route. Bagheera fights Shere Khan, buying Mowgli enough time to escape. He reunites with Mowgli after Baloo saves him from Kaa, and tries to have Baloo lie to Mowgli in order to ensure he stays in the village. Bagheera and Baloo help Mowgli escape King Louie and his gang of monkeys, but Mowgli is furious with them for failing to tell them Shere Khan has killed Akela. Bagheera helps Baloo and the wolf pack fight Shere Khan long enough to allow Mowgli to lure the tiger over a pit of fire, into which he falls to his death. Bagheera is seen sitting with Baloo and Mowgli as the film ends, Mowgli having found his true home in the jungle.


title: Bagheera

text: Kingsley described Bagheera in an interview as an adoptive parent to Mowgli whose personality was somewhat militaristic, saying "he's instantly recognizable by the way that he talks, how he acts, and what his ethical code is." Kingsley's voice acting was praised by Rotten Tomatoes as "[bringing] the appropriate level of gravitas to the strait-laced Bagheera," and was ranked as the best animal performance in the film by Vox, who called Bagheera "the concerned parent, worried about what his child will find around the next corner, the big cat who knows he has to let go just a little but can't find it in himself to do so".


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: Jung Ryeo-won (born January 21, 1981) is a South Korean-born Korean Australian actress. She began her entertainment career as a singer in the now-defunct girl group Chakra, and first rose to fame in the hit television series "My Name Is Kim Sam-soon". She is also known for her roles in "Two Faces of My Girlfriend", "Castaway on the Moon", and "History of a Salaryman".


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: The second of three children, Jung Ryeo-won was born in 1981, and emigrated to Brisbane, Australia in 1992 with her family. She encountered discrimination in grade school, which made her determined to become fluent in English. By junior high school, she had adapted to the Australian way of life. After attending MacGregor State High School, she graduated from Griffith University with a major in international business.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: While she was an exchange student at Korea University from Griffith University in the 2000s, Jung was discovered on the streets of Apgujeong by Lee Sang-min, thereby changing her life and career path. She was placed in the K-pop girl group Chakra, along with Eeni, Eun and Hwangbo; their first album was released in 2000. Jung's morale was at a low in 2002, saying she sometimes felt alienated from her fellow Koreans, and was uncomfortable with the sexy clothes she was made to wear as a singer.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: Chakra disbanded in 2004, and Jung pursued acting full-time. After undergoing 11 unsuccessful auditions that year, she said she began doubting her decision to become an actress. In 2005, she gained recognition in the cult vampire sitcom "Hello Franceska", then made her breakthrough in the romantic comedy "My Name Is Kim Sam-soon". The series was a massive success with average ratings of over 37%, and 50.5% for the finale. Jung was praised for her portrayal of a fragile but good-natured character who fights for the hero's love, and eventually became one of the few successful singer-turned-actresses in the country.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: Her follow-up series "Autumn Shower" received low ratings, but she rebounded with "Which Star Are You From?", in which she played a country bumpkin living in the mountains of Gangwon Province. She was cast in her first movie leading role as a girl with multiple personality disorder in 2007's "Two Faces of My Girlfriend", and though it was not a box office hit, she won Best New Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: As the titular character in 2009's "Princess Jamyung", Jung starred in her first period drama. She then played a hikikomori in "Castaway on the Moon", arguably her most notable film yet.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: Both her 2011 big screen projects had elements of romance. She played a teacher in a small South Korean village who meets a North Korean officer in the war comedy/drama "In Love and War", and in Kwak Kyung-taek's melodrama "Pained", she played a hemophiliac who falls for her opposite, a man with analgesia, the inability to sense physical pain.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: Jung began 2012 by starring as the heroine in quirky series "History of a Salaryman". Playing one of the most unusual female characters in Korean drama history, she delivered a fun, no-holds-barred performance as a red-haired, constantly swearing, selfish, reckless rich snob, but injected heart and raw emotion into a character that could've otherwise been very unlikable. Critics and audiences were impressed with her performance, and her series nabbed the top spot on the Monday and Tuesday primetime ratings lineup while she later won a Top Excellence Award at the SBS Drama Awards.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: She then starred in "Never Ending Story", a romantic comedy about two people diagnosed with terminal illness who decide to spend their remaining time together preparing for death. In June 2012, Jung's contract with Won Entertainment expired and she signed with Bae Yong-joon's agency, KeyEast. Later that year, she played an idealistic screenwriter in "The King of Dramas".


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: In January 2013, Jung unveiled her official website, through which she hopes to connect with her fans. Messages from the actress are uploaded in the "From rw" section. She then reunited with "Pained" costar Kwon Sang-woo in the medical drama "Medical Top Team", playing a charismatic and ambitious thoracic surgeon.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: Jung next played an impatient and careless radio producer in the cable series "Bubble Gum" in 2015; she and co-star Lee Dong-wook previously appeared together in the 2003 sitcom "Do the Right Thing". In 2017, she starred in the legal procedural drama, "Witch at Court", playing a highly ambitious prosecutor who speaks her mind and is known for her aggressive investigation tactics. For her portrayal, she received the Top Excellence Award at the 2017 KBS Drama Awards.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: In 2018, Jung starred in the black comedy film "Gate". She then starred in the SBS' gastronomy drama "Wok of Love".


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: In September 2020, Jung's contract with KeyEast expired. She subsequently signed with H & Entertainment. In July 2022, Jung renewed her contract with H & Entertainment.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: Jung published "Ryeo-won's Sketchbook" in 2007, which contained her drawings and writings about her Christian faith. Though she hasn't received formal instruction in fine arts, Jung likes to express herself through drawing in her spare time. Two of her artwork pieces were sold at a charity auction in 2012.


title: Jung Ryeo-won

text: In March 2014, Jung began hosting "Art Star Korea" on cable channel StoryOn, an audition program/reality show featuring contemporary artists. She also participated in the program '살아보니 어때'.


title: Martina Big

text: Martina Big (baptised in 2018 as Malaika Kubwa, born 17 May 1988) is a German model and actress known for her extremely large breast implants, and for receiving skin-darkening treatments and facial procedures which she claims have transformed her into a black woman.


title: Martina Big

text: After receiving a high school diploma, Big (as she was then known) began her career as a flight attendant alongside her longtime partner Michael, who was a pilot. She stopped working as a flight attendant in 2012 to pursue modeling and acting full-time. In 2017, Big confirmed in the Swedish television show "Outsiders" that she had the biggest breasts in Europe, employing a water displacement test.


title: Martina Big

text: On 3 December 2012, Big underwent a breast augmentation with large expandable implants. Since then she had 23 procedures to add volume to her breasts, reaching a bra size of 32 S.


title: Martina Big

text: In January 2017, Big had a medical treatment that darkened her skin. In February 2018, she traveled to Kenya, where a local clergyman baptized her and, according to Big, declared her to be a true Kenyan woman. She was given the baptismal name Malaika Kubwa; in Swahili, malaika means angel and kubwa means big.


title: Martina Big

text: In May 2019 she replaced her previous breast implants with new, bigger, expandable models, which are the biggest breast implants in the world, each with a rated volume of 20,000cc.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: The Brides of Dracula are fictional characters in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula". They are three seductive female vampire "sisters" who reside with Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania, where they entrance men with their beauty and charm, and then proceed to feed upon them. Dracula provides them with victims to devour, mainly implied to be infants.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: Like Dracula, they are the living dead, repulsed by sunlight, garlic and religious objects. In chapter three of the novel, two are described as having dark hair and red eyes, like Dracula, while the other as being fair, with blonde hair and blue eyes.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: Sometime near the beginning of the novel, after Jonathan Harker arrives in Dracula's castle, he warns Harker that if he leaves his room to never sleep in any other room in the castle, but does not tell him why, clearly aware that the sisters will kill him.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: Late one night Jonathan explores the castle. He sits at a table writing in his journal and, as he begins to fall asleep, sees three women standing in the moonlight who cast no shadows. The women proceed to seduce him and, as one of them begins to kiss his neck, he feels her sharp teeth barely scrape against his flesh. Dracula then grabs her neck and hurls her away, chastising the brides for trying to feed on Harker when he wasn't done with him. He promises to give Harker to them after his business deal is concluded and gives them a "wiggling bag" (presumed by Harker to be a human child) to appease them. Harker soon fears for his life, at one point thinking he sees the brides dancing in the sky outside his bedroom, which strengthens his resolve to escape. Dracula makes good on his word and leaves Harker to the sisters when he heads for England. Though Harker manages to escape the castle shortly after, he is badly traumatized by the encounter and is diagnosed with brain fever. Though they lose their victim, the brides continue to haunt the castle and terrorize the nearby village.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: The sisters are seen again near the end of the novel as the protagonists pursue Count Dracula to Transylvania. The sisters suddenly appear at a camp consisting of Abraham Van Helsing and Jonathan's wife Mina. Sensing that Mina is cursed with vampirism, they beckon her to join them, referring to her as their "sister" and promising not to harm her. However, Van Helsing had previously crushed a Sacred wafer and scattered it in a circle around the campsite. Due to this protective barrier, both Mina and the sisters are unable to cross its border. Although the vampires kept away from the camp they remained in the darkness until sunrise upon which they fled back to the castle. At the coming of daylight, Van Helsing finds that their horses are dead. After Van Helsing binds Mina in another ring of sacramental bread, he subsequently goes to Dracula's castle alone to destroy the vampires and sterilize Dracula's tomb, keeping him from ever being able to enter it again. After locating the vampires' graves, he finds them asleep 'open-eyed'. He attempts to kill the first but almost fails as his eyes befall her beauty. Caught in an enchantment, he becomes entranced and lost in a state of uncertainty. Becoming overwhelmed with emotions, he feels compelled to protect her instead and even contemplates love for her. He suddenly hears a 'Soul Wail' from Mina which breaks the enchantment, allowing him to finish his work. First using a blacksmith hammer, he strikes a stake into her, then proceeds to operate on her, detaching the head from the body and filling the mouth with garlic. He repeats this process with the other two, taking him an entire day to complete.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: In the novel, the three vampire women are not individually named. Collectively, they are known as the "sisters", and are at one point described as the "weird sisters". Although the three vampire women in "Dracula" are generally referred to as the "Brides of Dracula" in popular culture and media, they are never referred to as such in the novel. Whether they are married to Dracula is not mentioned in the novel, nor are they described as having any other relation to him.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: The origin and identity of the Sisters, as well as the true nature of their relationship with Count Dracula, is never revealed. One of the three may have been identified in the short story "Dracula's Guest", as the vampire named Countess Dolengen of Gratz. The protagonist of the story, who is never identified, but presumed to be Jonathan Harker, encounters her at her tomb in Munich. Just as she is about to bite him, a great wolf who is presumed to be Dracula intervenes and destroys her. The wolf keeps the protagonist warm from the cold and yelps for nearby soldiers to come to their location. In the novel, Harker writes about one of the female vampires in the moment he is with them, stating, "I seemed somehow to know her face and to know it in connection with some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at the moment how or where."


title: Brides of Dracula

text: The two dark-haired vampire women are described as facially resembling the Count, in that the three have aquiline noses. It has been suggested from this that it may have been Stoker's intent that these two are Dracula's daughters, extending the sexuality metaphor of vampirism to incest. When the brides first discover Harker, the blonde vampire is encouraged to feed on him first, with one of the others stating, "Yours is the right to begin," signifying that she has some status over the others. This could imply that the blonde vampire is Dracula's wife or consort, and the mother of the two dark-haired women if they are indeed his daughters. When Van Helsing discovers the sisters' tombs, the blonde is far more opulent than the others', as if for a loved one or one of high status. Harker describes the women as "ladies by their dress and manner", indicating that the vampires are of high lineage, further suggesting the idea that they are Dracula's family. The blonde vampire is shown to act in a mildly rebellious manner toward Dracula when he scolds her for attempting to feed on Harker; Dracula's reaction upon discovering the sisters with Harker is both that of a jealous husband and an angry father. The vampire women claim that Dracula does not love them, nor has he ever loved them, but Dracula insists he does love them and shows he cares for them by providing them with victims to feed upon. However, it is not explained why he left them behind in Transylvania rather than taking them to London with him.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: Even though it is never specified, it is possible that the term "sister" wasn't meant in the literal sense and is, instead, more comparable to the relationship of the women and not as they are to Dracula. They are also depicted in the novel calling Mina Harker their sister after she is forced to drink Dracula's blood, afflicting her with vampirism. Mina and her best friend (and Dracula's future victim) Lucy Westenra also call each other sisters in the novel despite not having any blood relation. The vampire women may be his wives throughout his lifetime, descendants of his whom he turned into vampires or simply nonspecific women he killed and turned into vampires to create more of his kind.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: As vampires, the sisters are powerful in their own right; their beauty and seductive charm belie lethal, predatory interiors. Their beauty and flirtatious manner appear to be their greatest power when it comes to bewitching their victims into a trance-like state. Harker and Van Helsing are both attracted to and yet repulsed by them. They can seemingly appear out of nowhere and are inhumanly strong, as shown when they kill Van Helsing's horses. They also have the power of flight, as seen when they fly in the air with their dresses trailing behind them.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: The vampires serve as foreshadowing for the threat of vampirism in the story which, as seen with Lucy, later on, includes Dracula's power of corruption over his victims once he has drained their blood and transformed them into vampires.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: Commonly all three brides appear in film adaptations of the novel, though some film adaptations depict them as a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead. They are typically depicted as enchantingly beautiful young women, coquettish and seductive in manner, often appearing like succubi in the night, dressed in flowing silk nightgowns, and behaving in a wild and sexually aggressive manner.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: In 2015, NBC began to develop a TV series about the Brides of Dracula characters titled "Brides", written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and produced by Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter. The series was built on the premise "What if Van Helsing did NOT kill the three brides of Dracula? What if they survived for centuries and are now living in New York City?", with the series being described as a sexy reimagining of Dracula as a family drama with a trio of strong, diverse female leads, a show about empowered women and their attempts to maintain wealth, prestige, legacy, and their non-traditional family. In October 2019, the series was still being developed with the intention to sell it to a streaming service.


title: Brides of Dracula

text: On January 8, 2020, it was announced that ABC handed out a pilot order to the series. Aguirre-Sacasa will pen the script and exec produce alongside Berlanti and Schechter. Maggie Kiley will direct the pilot. "The Brides" will be a co-production between ABC Studios and Warner Bros. Television. In March 2020, "Deadline Hollywood" reported the cast: Gina Torres as Cleo Phillips, the leader of this vampire trio and now a maven of New York City real estate; Katherine Reis as Lily Stevens, the youngest sister and now a striving singer; Chris Mason as Roland Grant, a stylish real estate mogul who arrives in town to challenge Cleo for professional supremacy and who has secret ties to Dracula; Sophia Tatum as Justine Strang, an aspiring model; Goran Višnjić as Dracula, the powerful, ageless, and iconic King of Night who “turned” each of his three brides and was left for dead at his destroyed castle in the Carpathian mountains; Erin Richards as Renée Pélagie, the sister who is now the head of a top modeling agency in New York City, known for her torrid affairs with her beautiful female models; and Charlie McElveen as Arthur Seward, an ambitious young news reporter working the graveyard shift at his paper covering news of the bizarre, and the love interest to Lily. On June 29, 2020, ABC decided to drop the series from the 2020-2021 lineup in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the series is being pitched to other networks.


title: Camille O'Sullivan

text: Camille O'Sullivan is an Irish musician, vocalist, and actress. O'Sullivan is known for her unique, dramatic musical style and covers of artists such as Radiohead, Tom Waits, and David Bowie. As an actress, O'Sullivan has appeared in Mrs Henderson Presents, Rebellion (miniseries), and "Pick Ups".


title: Camille O'Sullivan

text: O'Sullivan was born in London, England, to Denis O'Sullivan, an Irish racing driver and World Champion sailor, and Marie-José, a French artist. She was raised in the town of Passage West, County Cork. After finishing secondary school, O'Sullivan studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. She dropped out of her course after a year because she felt "if I study any more that might kill my love for it." On her parents' advice, she enrolled in University College Dublin and studied architecture for four years. Whilst in UCD, she became known as "the singing architect" as she performed in all available university productions and was a member of Dramsoc.