title: Salting the earth

text: Various Hittite and Assyrian texts speak of ceremonially strewing salt, minerals, or plants (weeds, "cress", or "kudimmu", which are associated with salt and desolation) over destroyed cities, including Hattusa, Taidu, Arinna, Hunusa, Irridu, and Susa. The "Book of Judges" (9:45) says that Abimelech, the judge of the Israelites, sowed his own capital, Shechem, with salt, c. 1050 BC, after quelling a revolt against him. This may have been part of a ḥērem ritual (see Salt in the Bible).


title: Salting the earth

text: At least as early as 1863, various texts claimed that the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus plowed over and sowed the city of Carthage with salt after defeating it in the Third Punic War (146 BC), sacking it, and enslaving the survivors. The salting was probably modeled on the story of Shechem. Though ancient sources do mention symbolically drawing a plow over various cities and salting them, none mention Carthage in particular. The salting story entered the academic literature in Bertrand Hallward's article in the first edition of the "Cambridge Ancient History" (1930), and was taken up by others. In the 1980s, scholars raised strong arguments calling into question the Roman salting of Carthage.


title: Salting the earth

text: When Pope Boniface VIII destroyed Palestrina in 1299, he ordered that it be plowed "following the old example of Carthage in Africa", and also salted. "I have run the plough over it, like the ancient Carthage of Africa, and I have had salt sown upon it ..." The text is not clear as to whether he thought Carthage was salted. Later accounts of other saltings in the destructions of medieval Italian cities are now rejected as unhistorical: Padua by Attila (452), perhaps in a parallel between Attila and the ancient Assyrians; Milan by Frederick Barbarossa (1162); and Semifonte by the Florentines (1202).


title: Salting the earth

text: The English epic poem "Siege of Jerusalem" (c. 1370) recounts that Titus commanded the sowing of salt on the Temple, but this episode is not found in Josephus' account.


title: Salting the earth

text: In Spain and the Spanish Empire, salt was poured onto the land owned by a convicted traitor (often one who was executed and his head placed on a "picota", or pike, afterwards) after his house was demolished.


title: Salting the earth

text: This was done in Portugal as well. The last known event of this sort was the destruction of the Duke of Aveiro's palace in Lisbon in 1759, due to his participation in the Távora affair (a conspiracy against King Joseph I of Portugal). His palace was demolished and his land was salted. A stone memorial now perpetuates the memory of the shame of the Duke, where it is written:


title: Salting the earth

text: In this place were put to the ground and salted the houses of José Mascarenhas, stripped of the honours of Duque de Aveiro and others ... Put to Justice as one of the leaders of the most barbarous and execrable upheaval that ... was committed against the most royal and sacred person of the Lord Joseph I. In this infamous land nothing may be built for all time.


title: Salting the earth

text: In the Portuguese colony of Brazil, the leader of the Inconfidência Mineira, Tiradentes, was sentenced to death and his house was "razed and salted, so that never again be built up on the floor, ... and even the floor will rise up a standard by which the memory is preserved (preserving) the infamy of this heinous offender ..." He suffered further indignities, being hanged and quartered, his body parts carried to various parts of the country where his fellow revolutionaries had met, and his children deprived of their property and honor.


title: Salting the earth

text: An ancient legend recounts that Odysseus feigned madness by yoking a horse and an ox to his plow and sowing salt.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: In Cold Blood is a 1967 American neo-noir crime film written, produced and directed by Richard Brooks, based on Truman Capote's 1966 nonfiction book of the same name. It stars Robert Blake as Perry Smith and Scott Wilson as Richard "Dick" Hickock, two men who murder a family of four in Holcomb, Kansas. Although the film is in parts faithful to the book, Brooks made some slight alterations, including the inclusion of a fictional character, "The Reporter" (played by Paul Stewart).


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: The film was shot on location at sites where Smith and Hickock's crimes occurred, including the real Clutter home where they robbed and murdered all four members of the family. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2008, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: Told through flashback, ex-convicts Perry Smith and "Dick" Hickock meet in rural Kansas in the fall of 1959. Together, they concoct a plan to invade the farm home of the wealthy Clutter family, as patriarch Herbert Clutter supposedly keeps a large supply of cash in a wall safe. The two criminals break into the home in the middle of the night but are unable to find any safe, as Herbert uses checks for his personal business and his farm operations. In order to leave no witnesses to their robbery attempt, Smith and Hickock kill Herbert by cutting his throat, and proceed to murder his wife, Bonnie, and their two teenage children, Nancy, 16, and Kenyon, 14, with a shotgun. Their bodies are discovered the next day, and a Finney County sheriff's and Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) investigation is immediately launched, headed by detective Alvin Dewey.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: Based on a tip by a former cell mate of Hickock, the two men become the primary suspects for the Clutter murders. The fugitives elude law enforcement by heading to Florida, traveling southwest across the country, and eventually crossing the Mexican border. After two weeks in Mexico, the two return to the United States, and decide to travel to Las Vegas, Nevada, hoping to earn money in gambling winnings. Shortly after their arrival to Las Vegas, Smith and Hickock are arrested for driving a stolen car, violating parole, and passing bad checks.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: The Las Vegas Police Department and the KBI later separately interrogate the two men about the Clutter murders. Both Smith and Hickock admit to passing bad checks, but both deny knowing anything about the murders. The KBI attempts to scare the men into confessing, claiming that they left a witness behind who can testify against them. The KBI interrogation, however, is slowed by Smith's refusal to provide answers. Next, the KBI confront the two with evidence, such as a bloody footprint matching the boots worn by Smith. Finally, Hickock relents, confessing that he was present, but that Smith carried out the murders. He begs for immunity from the death penalty. After Smith learns that Hickock has confessed, he recounts how, it was in fact he, not Hickock, who wielded the knife and pulled the trigger in all four killings, but maintains that Hickock was present as an active accomplice.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: Both Smith and Hickock are charged with first-degree murder, found guilty on all counts, and each sentenced to death by hanging. After losing multiple appeals both men are hanged for their crimes with law enforcement officials and media representatives in attendance.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: Brooks, an acquaintance of Truman Capote, was given early drafts of Capote's book "In Cold Blood" before it was completed, as Capote was considering optioning a film version. Otto Preminger had initially expressed interest in directing an adaptation, but Brooks agreed to the project and purchased the rights from Capote for an estimated $400,000.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: Brooks's screenplay followed the structure of the book closely, shifting between Smith and Hickock and the Clutter family, though slight details were included that were not present in the source material. In his adaptation, Brooks intended to demonstrate the "indignity" of capital punishment through an exchange between Smith and a jail guard that occurs at the end of the film, in which Smith asks to use the bathroom before his execution, fearing he will "mess himself" in front of onlookers. Brooks held personal beliefs against the death penalty, and on the crimes, commented: "I think the crime without motive is really what this is about. The crime itself was senseless, the boys' lives before that were senseless, and the end is senseless because it solves nothing." Brooks also included a reporter character in the film who functions as a "Greek chorus" in the proceedings, which was not present in Capote's book. Capote would later admit he felt that the character's inclusion "didn't make sense". Brooks also eliminated discussion of two Clutter daughters who had not been present during the real attacks and had survived; they were allegedly "distraught" by the book and upset at the prospect of a film, so Brooks chose to eliminate them as characters.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: Aspiring to recreate a documentary aesthetic for the film, Brooks deliberately cast actors who were relative unknowns. Columbia Pictures originally wanted Paul Newman and Steve McQueen as Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, respectively, but Brooks refused as he felt their star statuses would render their performances less believable to audiences. Around 500 contenders were considered for the roles. Robert Blake was ultimately cast as Smith in November 1966, and Scott Wilson was cast as Hickock in January 1967. Blake had been a child actor and appeared in numerous films prior, but was not well known as an adult. The film marked Wilson's second feature and first major role. Wilson was personally recommended for the part by Sidney Poitier and Quincy Jones (the former of whom he co-starred with in "In the Heat of the Night", scored by Jones).


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: Principal photography of "In Cold Blood" occurred over 129 days in the spring of 1967. In accordance with Brooks's desire to achieve as much realism as possible, some scenes were filmed in Garden City and Holcomb, Kansas at the locations of the original events, including the Clutter family's farm where the murders took place. The family who owned the Clutter house were paid $15,000 in compensation for the crew's four weeks of filming. The bus station scene was shot at the Union Bus Terminal at 917 McGee in Kansas City, MO. Scenes were also shot in downtown Kansas City, KS on Minnesota Ave. The shoot in Kansas was covered extensively by journalists from both Los Angeles and New York who visited the sets. Permission was denied to film in Kansas State Penitentiary, so interiors of the execution chambers were replicated on Hollywood sets. Leather straps for the execution scene were purchased from the penitentiary, as well as officers' uniforms. The actual latrines in Smith and Hickock's cells were also purchased by the production and implemented in the set.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: Brooks's demeanor on set was noted as tempestuous by cast and crew members, with Wilson recalling that he was "focused [and] inspired" but "unpredictable...  a volcano who was going to erupt at some point". Wilson stated that he was frequently yelled at and at one point nearly walked off the set. Blake recalled Brooks's presence: "Sometimes Richard would flare up and get nuts and crazy and start screaming at people, and people thought that was because he was an asshole. It wasn't that, he was just frustrated. He didn't know how to get what he wanted. But when he sat alone at a typewriter, that was the best part for him."


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: In the scene where Blake's character discusses his father on the night of the execution, rain falls against the window of his prison cell. In rehearsals, cinematographer Conrad Hall noticed that the rain sliding down the glass was casting shadows on Blake's face, creating a visual effect that made it appear that Blake was crying. Hall pointed it out to Brooks and the blocking for Blake's character was changed so that the 'tears' would stay on his face throughout the scene. Hall, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the film, called this effect "purely a visual accident".


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: The score for the film was composed by Quincy Jones, who at the time had little experience with film scores. During the period, few black musicians were hired to compose scores for feature films, and Columbia Pictures initially pressed for Leonard Bernstein to compose the score, but Brooks insisted on Jones.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: In preparing the score, Jones accompanied Brooks on a visit to the penitentiary in which Smith and Hickock were confined, and was inspired to utilize two acoustic basses throughout the score to represent the two killers' "demented minds". The score was completed throughout the shoot, with Jones writing new music to accompany dailies.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: "In Cold Blood" premiered in the United States on December14, 1967, and grossed approximately $13million domestically. The film earned an additional $7,551 during a limited revival run in the United Kingdom in 2015.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: At the time of its release, it was rated "For Mature Audiences", which meant no children under 17 were allowed to see the film without parents or legal guardians of age; now the MPAA has rated the film "R", due to its violence and mature nature.


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" called the film an "excellent quasidocumentary, which sends shivers down the spine while moving the viewer to ponder". Roger Ebert gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, writing, "At times one feels this is not a movie but a documentary where the events are taking place now." Charles Champlin of "The Los Angeles Times" put it on his list of the ten best films of 1967, calling it "an honest, sobering, revealing motion picture, earnest and authentic, with only minor lapses into theatricality. As the killers, Scott Wilson and Robert Blake were compellingly convincing." "Variety" called it "a probing, sensitive, tasteful, balanced and suspenseful documentary-drama". Brendan Gill of "The New Yorker" wrote that "the note sounded throughout is not that of Hollywood but of a scrupulous documentary. This documentary effect is greatly enhanced by the two young men who play the murderers—Robert Blake as Perry Smith and Scott Wilson as Dick Hickock. Each in his own way is superbly mindless and menacing." "The Monthly Film Bulletin" was less positive, writing that "since Brooks places his emphasis so exclusively on the killers, omitting the spectacle of the actual murders while lingering censoriously over the hangings, one fails to appreciate the real irony—the total arbitrariness—of the Clutters' deaths: they are too crudely delineated to inspire much sympathy, and in consequence the sympathy Brooks generates for the killers seems unbalanced and misplaced".


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "In Cold Blood" holds a rating of 83% from 41 reviews with an average rating of 8.3/10. The site’s consensus reads: ""In Cold Blood" is a classic docudrama with a fictional thriller's grip -- and a pair of terrific lead performances from Robert Blake and Scott Wilson".


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: "In Cold Blood" has been noted as an example of Hollywood new realism by critics such as Chris Fujiwara. Capote biographer Tison Pugh characterizes the film as an exercise in a "relentless pursuit of authenticity", and adds: "By putting his characters in the actual settings of their real-life counterparts, Brooks imbued his film with a reality both mundane and unbearable." Scholar Joel Black considers the film and its representation of real-life violent incidents "a form of psychological or social documentary".


title: In Cold Blood (film)

text: A 1996 miniseries was also made based on the book, directed by Jonathan Kaplan and with a screenplay by Benedict Fitzgerald. In that adaptation, Anthony Edwards portrayed Dick Hickock, Eric Roberts played Perry Smith, and Sam Neill played Kansas Bureau of Investigation detective Alvin Dewey.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: Crowbar is an American sludge metal band formed in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1990. The band is fronted by vocalist/guitarist Kirk Windstein, Crowbar's sole constant member. Through infusing a slow, low-keyed, brooding doom metal sound with the aggression of hardcore punk, they pioneered a style known as sludge metal – albeit Windstein admitted a mild dislike to the term – alongside other bands of the New Orleans heavy metal scene such as Eyehategod, Soilent Green, Acid Bath, and Down.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: The band dates back to 1988, when Kirk Windstein joined the New Orleans hardcore punk band ShellShock. He met Jimmy Bower, who was their drummer, and they quickly became friends. The band collapsed when Mike Hatch, their guitarist, committed suicide in late 1988. The band hence replaced Hatch with Kevin Noonan and continued under the new name, Aftershock. Under that name they released a demo in mid-1989 and then renamed themselves again as Wrequiem, with their bassist Mike Savoie leaving the band and Todd Strange replacing him. They renamed themselves yet again in 1990 as The Slugs, and released a demo in mid-1990, but the band collapsed.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: Windstein considered becoming the bass player for New Orleans-based groove metal band Exhorder but he and Strange reformed their band, with Craig Nunenmacher as the drummer. Nunenmacher was later replaced by Tommy Buckley from Soilent Green, and Kevin Noonan returned on guitar. The band renamed themselves Crowbar in mid-1991, after their label warned them that another band called "The Slugs" already existed; the name Crowbar was borrowed from one of Windstein's side-projects. Windstein has listed Celtic Frost as one of the band's early influences in terms of sound.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: Crowbar's debut studio album, "Obedience thru Suffering", was released in 1991, but failed to achieve significant sales or airplay. By 1993's self-titled album, personal friend Phil Anselmo (Pantera, Down, and Superjoint Ritual) produced the record, which eventually led to national promotion on MTV's "Headbangers Ball". In addition, the videos for "All I Had (I Gave)" and "Existence Is Punishment" were played on "Beavis and Butt-Head". Following this success, the band went on to record music videos, embark on major tours with Pantera, and record more albums.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: Their stage antics, immortalized in Pantera's third home video and Crowbar's "Like Broken Glass" home video, became infamous. The band continued recording and touring. In 1994, the Pantera video for the song "I'm Broken" showed Anselmo wearing a Crowbar/Eyehategod T-shirt. Original drummer Nunenmacher left the band in 1996 and was replaced by Jimmy Bower from Down and Eyehategod, and for their 1996 release, Anselmo sang backup on a few tracks on "Broken Glass".


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: In 2000, after recording and releasing "Equilibrium" with Sid Montz on drums, Nunenmacher rejoined the band for the "Penchant for Violence Tour" with "The Brotherhood of Brewtality" Black Label Society and Sixty Watt Shaman. Halfway through the tour, Nunenmacher replaced BLS's drummer Phil Ondich and pulled double duty for the rest of the tour, eventually joining BLS permanently.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: The band continues to perform, borrowing members from New Orleans metal bands like Goatwhore and Acid Bath. In their 2005 release, "Lifesblood for the Downtrodden", Pantera bassist Rex Brown lent his bass skills and keyboard playing. Down's producer Warren Riker assisted in production. Also in 2005, the song "Existence" appeared on the "" No. 3 DVD.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: The band is also known for covering other bands' material and putting a heavy spin on it. Crowbar covered Gary Wright's "Dream Weaver" on their "Equilibrium" album, Iron Maiden's "Remember Tomorrow" on "Odd Fellows Rest", and Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter" on "Crowbar".


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: On April 21, 2008, the albums "Crowbar", "Time Heals Nothing", and the "Live+1" EP were reissued in Europe with bonus and multimedia tracks. On May 24, 2009, it was announced that Phil Anselmo's Housecore Records would be re-releasing Crowbar's back catalog.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: In December 2009, Crowbar toured with Hatebreed, The Acacia Strain, The Casualties, and Thy Will Be Done as part of the Stillborn Fest.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: As of September 2010, Crowbar is under contract with E1 Music in North America and Century Media in Europe, and released their ninth studio album, "Sever the Wicked Hand", on February 8, 2011. This date is the sixh anniversary of the release of their previous album, "Lifesblood for the Downtrodden". The band embarked on a six-date UK tour in January 2011.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: Bassist Pat Bruders left Crowbar in September 2013. Bruders explained he wanted to focus on touring with Down. He told "Louder than Hell", "It is better for all parties in Crowbar and in Down that I leave Crowbar. With Down's brutal tour schedule and overseas shows. It is better if I focus 100 percent of my time to Down. There are no hard feelings with my bandmates of Crowbar." Bruders was replaced by Jeff Golden, who formerly played with Six Feet Under, Thy Will Be Done, and Goatwhore.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: Crowbar entered the studio in late 2013 to begin recording "Symmetry in Black", which was released in North America on May 27, 2014, via E1 Music.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: In May 2016, bassist Jeff Golden announced on his Facebook page that he had been fired from the band.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: Shortly after Golden's departure, Windstein announced that founding bassist Todd Strange would return to the band. In July 2018, Strange had retired from touring although he will remain a member of the band. His final performance was at the "Odd Fellows Rest" 20th anniversary show on August 4, 2018. Shane Wesley is his live replacement and had already played on Crowbar's summer European tour.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: In mid 2017, Crowbar supported Overkill on the annual Metal Alliance tour. In the spring of 2018, Crowbar opened up for Hatebreed on their "20 Years of Desire" and "15 Years of Perseverance" tours. Crowbar opened up for Killswitch Engage on a short fall tour in November 2018.


title: Crowbar (American band)

text: Crowbar's twelfth studio album (and their first in six years) "Zero and Below" was released on March 4, 2022. The band toured the US and Europe with Sepultura and Sacred Reich in support of the album.


title: Brian Eno discography

text: The discography of Brian Eno, English electronic musician, music theorist and record producer, consists of 28 solo studio albums, 27 collaborative studio albums, 14 compilation albums, eight video albums, and nine singles.


title: Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005 video game)

text: Star Wars: Battlefront II is a 2005 first-person shooter and third-person shooter video game based on the "Star Wars" film franchise. Developed by Pandemic Studios and published by LucasArts, it is a sequel to 2004's "" and the second game in the . The game was released in PAL regions on October 31, 2005, on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Microsoft Windows, and Xbox platforms, and in North America on November 1 of the same year. It was released on the PlayStation Store on October 20, 2009, for download on the PSP. The PSP version was developed by Savage Entertainment.


text: The game features new vehicles, characters, game mechanics, maps, and missions compared to the original "Battlefront". Unlike its predecessor, "Battlefront II" features a more narrative-based campaign, retelling portions of the "Star Wars" story from the point of view of a veteran clone Imperial Stormtrooper, reminiscing about his tour of duty in service of both the Galactic Republic and the Galactic Empire. Gameplay additions over "Battlefront" include the use of Jedi and Sith, additional game modes such as hero assault, and objective-based space battles.


text: "Battlefront II" was well received, with the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions scoring in the mid 80s at aggregators GameRankings and Metacritic. The PC version scored slightly lower at both sites, scoring a 76.60% at GameRankings and 78 at Metacritic. The PSP version was the worst received, scoring 70.93% at GameRankings and 69 at Metacritic. Reviewers generally praised the narrative-based story; however, some felt that the upgrades from the original were not enough to merit the price. Like the original game, it was a commercial success.


text: GameSpy Technology scheduled a shut-down across all titles using the service for May 31, 2014, which included "Star Wars: Battlefront II" for PC, PS2, and Xbox. Electronic Arts announced it would extend support for "Battlefront II" until June 30, 2014. The extended support ended on July 25, 2014, taking all GameSpy online video games across all platforms offline. The Windows version was added to a list of supported games on GameRanger on May 31, 2014, which allows for continued online play. On October 2, 2017, multiplayer for the Windows version was again enabled, allowing for Steam and GOG cross-play.


text: "Battlefront II" is fundamentally similar to its predecessor, albeit with the addition of new gameplay mechanics, such as the ability to sprint and roll forward. The general objective in most missions is to eliminate the enemy faction, although there are game modes with a different objective, such as a capture the flag mode. Like its predecessor "Star Wars Battlefront", the game is split into two eras: the Clone Wars, with battles taking place between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and the Galactic Civil War, where battles between the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire take place. Players have the ability to choose between six classes during gameplay. Four class types are common to all factions: Infantry, Heavy, Sniper and Engineer. In addition to the four standard classes, every faction has two special classes, which are exclusive to each faction and are unlocked by scoring a predetermined number of points; there is a limited number of special classes that can be on the battlefield at the same time. The special classes are the Commander and the Jet Trooper for the Republic; the MagnaGuard and the Droideka for the Confederacy of Independent Systems; the Bothan Spy and the Wookiee for the Rebels; and the Officer and the Dark Trooper for the Empire.


text: "Battlefront II" introduces a new special class—Heroes—that allows players to control iconic characters from the "Star Wars" universe; heroes were featured in the original "Battlefront", but only as NPCs that spawned randomly during battles. Heroes are also unlocked by scoring a predetermined number of points, and are unique for every faction. Heroes serve as the most powerful class in the game and, as such, there can be a maximum of one hero for each faction on the battlefield at the same time. Each hero is available only on certain maps, although there is a team deathmatch mode, exclusive to the Mos Eisley map, that allows all heroes from all factions to compete against each other to earn points by performing kills.


text: Whereas the original "Battlefront"s campaign featured missions dependent on the chosen faction, "Battlefront II" contains only one campaign, called Rise of the Empire, which is found in every version of the game except the PlayStation Portable (PSP). This set of missions is presented as the narration from a veteran of the 501st Legion, starting with the Battle of Geonosis at the beginning of the Clone Wars (as depicted in ) and ending with the Battle of Hoth (as depicted in "The Empire Strikes Back"). There are a total of 18 missions, four of which are optional space missions.


text: The PSP version of "Battlefront II" does not feature the Rise of the Empire campaign. Instead it features three single-player Challenge modes: Imperial Enforcer, Rogue Assassin, and Rebel Raider. In Imperial Enforcer, the player is sent to eliminate indigenous species on several given planets, such as Gungans on Naboo and Ewoks on Endor. Rogue Assassin requires the player to eliminate all Imperial officers on a given sets of planets. Bonus points are awarded for any other kills. Finally, Rebel Raider tasks the player with locating specific objects in a map and returning them to a designated drop point, similar to Capture the flag.


text: Like its predecessor, "Battlefront II" includes Galactic Conquest. In this mode, the player commands a fleet throughout the galaxy conquering and protecting planets, much like a game of "Risk". When two opposing forces reach the same planet, the game switches to the traditional perspective, and the player must eliminate the enemy faction to gain control of that planet. Players gain credits for performing well which can be used to buy new character classes, a new fleet, or bonuses that provide additional support when attacking or defending a planet. While the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions allow cooperative and competitive battles in Galactic Conquest mode through split-screen gameplay, the PC version does not.


text: In Instant Action players can choose from any of the game's 24 maps, as well as any available eras and modes. Four other modes are included in addition to the traditional Conquest mode that was found in "Star Wars: Battlefront"; Hunt mode, Capture the Flag (CTF), which is available in 1-flag and 2-flag variants, Hero Assault and Space Assault.


text: In Conquest mode, players are required to capture and hold strategic points on the map, known in the game as command posts. Players capture command posts by standing near one until its holograph transitions to blue, indicating it is held by their forces. Players can capture both enemy command posts, which are designated red, and neutral command posts, which are white. For enemy command posts, enemy units can continue to spawn in the area until the post is de-energized and turns white. When all command posts belong to a given team, a twenty-second timer begins in which the opposing team must de-energize a command post or they lose. Alternatively, if one team eliminates all opposing reinforcements, they win.


text: In Hunt mode, players take on the role of the species indigenous to the chosen planet, or of a faction opposed to that species. The object when playing as the indigenous species is to repel the opposition, or to eliminate the indigenous species if playing as the opposing faction. In 1-flag CTF, both teams attempt to take a common flag and capture it at the enemy's base. This mode is the only one available on ground maps as well as in space. 2-flag CTF tasks players with stealing the enemy's flag and returning it to their base for points.


text: In Hero Assault, players control iconic "Star Wars" characters which are divided into two teams, heroes and villains. The sole objective is to be the first team to reach the number of required points, with each kill granting one point. Space Assault allows players to control a starfighter in order to destroy critical systems on the enemy's capital ship or destroy other enemy starfighters for points. The systems of an enemy capital ship can be destroyed in a starfighter by firing at key areas of the ship. Alternatively, players can land in the enemy hangar and sabotage critical systems internally. The game ends when one team has reached the required number of total points.


text: The game's campaign mode is told as an autobiography of an unknown clone trooper veteran who recounts the many battles of the 501st Legion. Originally part of the Grand Army of the Republic, the 501st are first deployed during the Battle of Geonosis at the beginning of the Clone Wars, where they capture a Separatist outpost occupied by battle droids and Geonosians. Over the following three years, the legion prove themselves as one of the most efficient in the Clone Army, and are assigned important missions throughout the Clone Wars.


text: Near the end of the war, the 501st are sent to Mygeeto to aid the 21st Nova Corps, led by Jedi General Ki-Adi Mundi, with the destruction of a Separatist energy generator. Unbeknownst to the Jedi, the clones receive special orders from Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to collect a sample of the generator after its destruction, which would later be used to help power the planet-destroying battle station known as the "Death Star". Following this, the 501st return to Coruscant, which has been attacked by Separatist forces commanded by General Grievous. The clones are ordered to clear the path for Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi to board Grievous' flagship and rescue a captured Palpatine. Next, the 501st are assigned to serve under General Aayla Secura, commander of the 327th Star Corps, on Felucia, where they defend a damaged AT-TE from several Acklays and Separatist forces in the area. Afterward, the 501st travel to Kashyyyk to clear a path through the Separatist blockade and defend a key Wookiee village, with help from Jedi Grandmaster Yoda.


text: Shortly after their victory on Kashyyyk, part of the 501st are sent to Utapau to assist the 212th Attack Battalion, led by Obi-Wan Kenobi, with the capture of a major Separatist stronghold and General Grievous. While the clones complete their mission, Obi-Wan eliminates Grievous, bringing the Republic one step closer to winning the Clone Wars. Upon their return to Coruscant, Palpatine issues Order 66, which brands all Jedi as traitors to the Republic and orders their summary executions. Under the command of the newly christened Sith Lord Darth Vader, the 501st storm the Jedi Temple to kill all its occupants, while the remaining Jedi who are spread across the galaxy are swiftly murdered by their clone troopers, effectively wiping out the Jedi Order. Meanwhile, Palpatine declares the end of the Clone Wars and the Republic's reorganization into the Galactic Empire.


text: Now part of the Imperial Army as Darth Vader's personal legion, the 501st are assigned various missions to solidify the Empire's rule, quickly earning the nickname "Vader's Fist" for their efficiency. Their assignments include forcing a regime change on Naboo by assassinating the Queen, destroying a droid factory on Mustafar that was reactivated by the rogue Geonosian Gizor Delso, and eliminating the Kaminoans' new batch of rogue clones, with the help of bounty hunter Boba Fett. Following the Kamino incident, the Empire halts clone production, and clone troopers are slowly replaced by stormtroopers. The 501st remains one of the few Imperial legions to consist mostly of former clone troopers.


text: Roughly nineteen years after the end of the Clone Wars, the Empire has been firmly established in the ashes of the Republic. With the galaxy seemingly at peace, the 501st are stationed on the Death Star, but during their watch, a prison break is initiated and a group of Rebel prisoners manage to escape with the battle station's schematics. Tasked with recovering them, the 501st attack a Rebel outpost on Polis Massa, and eventually track them down to the Rebel Blockade Runner "Tantive IV", which they ambush above Tatooine. Although the 501st manage to kill or capture everyone aboard, including Rebel leader Princess Leia Organa, whom they deliver to Vader, they fail to retrieve the stolen schematics, which are eventually delivered to the Rebel Alliance. Using the schematics to find a weakness in the Death Star, the Alliance leads a successful assault to destroy it. The Empire retaliates by attacking the Alliance's base on Yavin IV, which the 501st captures, avenging their brothers who died in the Death Star's destruction.


text: Three years later, the Empire locates another Rebel base on Hoth. Tasked with wiping out the weakened Rebel Alliance, the 501st capture the base and destroy most of the evacuating transports. This crushing defeat marks what appears to be the end of the Alliance. The narrator ends the story by stating that the Death Star was eventually rebuilt and the Empire's grip on the galaxy became stronger than ever, all thanks to the efforts of the 501st Legion.


text: "Star Wars: Battlefront II" was announced on April 21, 2005, during Star Wars Celebration III held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Developer Pandemic Studios used their in-house engine, known as Zero to develop "Battlefront II". The engine was used in Pandemic's other two "Star Wars" titles, "" and the game's predecessor, "Star Wars: Battlefront". As with "Battlefront" Lua was utilized as the game's scripting language. "Battlefront II"s release date would be set to coincide with the DVD release of "", similar to how "Battlefront" coincided with the release of the original trilogy on DVD. An Xbox demo of "Battlefront II" was also included on the "Revenge of the Sith" extras DVD to further promote the game. LucasArts looked to the fans for inspiration for "Battlefront II", browsing forums and using other means to provide feedback for the sequel. Josh Resnick, founder of Pandemic Studios noted that it was difficult to get assets from "Revenge of the Sith" in order to build the related in-game assets. Peter Hirschmann, vice president of product development at LucasArts, detailed the immense efforts required to get the game to a playable state on the PlayStation Portable. "It was a huge 'pop the champagne' day if you got back one whole frame a second," he stated. LucasArts Engineers working on Indiana Jones and Star Wars development teams were brought in to help optimize game code.


text: Bob Bergen voices Luke Skywalker, having voice doubled for Mark Hamill in previous "Star Wars" games such as the "" series. Voice actor Corey Burton recorded lines for Count Dooku, a role he has played in other "Star Wars" games as well as the "" animated series. Obi-Wan Kenobi is portrayed by James Arnold Taylor, who played the role in the 2002 game "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" as well as the cartoon series. Scott Lawrence, known for his role as Sturgis Turner in the television series "JAG", also returns to voice Darth Vader, a role he has portrayed since the 1990s. Other veteran "Star Wars" voice actors such as Tom Kane, Steve Blum and T.C. Carson also provide voice overs. Temuera Morrison portrays his signature roles Boba Fett, Jango Fett and the game's clone trooper narrator, but does not provide the in-game clone chatter as he did in "Battlefront".


text: On February 15, 2006, Pandemic released a patch for the PC version, which included support for mods and general improvement to the game. Mod tools for the Windows version of the game were subsequently released on February 21, 2006. Included in the download were many of the game's assets, several tutorials, and the tools required to make content for the PC version of the game. A plugin for Softimage XSI included in the mod tools allows users to create new 3D models and animations for the game. The "Battlefront II" mod tools provide a wider range of capabilities to the end user than the original "Battlefront", allowing a user to create anything from user interface changes, to additional gameplay levels, to large-scale modifications. The original assets used to build the retail version of the game were shipped with the mod tool package that was released and allowed users to either modify an existing level or create an entirely new map from scratch. Subsequently, modifications have been created which expand the game further into the ""Star Wars" expanded universe", adding additional locales, characters, "Star Wars" eras, and fan-created stories.


text: On December 19, 2005, LucasArts released the first of two downloadable packages for the Xbox version of "Battlefront II". The free content added the Hero Assault mode to Kashyyyk. Another Xbox Live download was made available on January 31, 2006, which added two new hero characters, Kit Fisto and Asajj Ventress, as well as four maps from the original "Star Wars: Battlefront"; Yavin 4: Arena, Bespin: Cloud City, Rhen Var Harbor and Rhen Var Citadel. In addition, Hero Assault modes were also added to Coruscant, Mygeeto, and Naboo. It sold for USD $4.99. The downloadable content is no longer available as the original Xbox Live servers were shut down on April 15, 2010. In late March 2006, the game was added to the Backwards Compatibility List for the Xbox 360, and is now playable on both the original Xbox and the Xbox 360.


text: On May 4, 2014, it was announced that the "Star Wars: Battlefront II Online" servers hosted by GameSpy were closing down on May 31, 2014. The Windows version was added to a list of supported games on GameRanger on May 31, 2014, which allows for continued online play. On October 2, 2017, a patch for the Windows version of the game re-enabled multiplayer and added Steam and GOG cross-platform play; a second patch on January 3, 2018, had minor bug fixes and performance optimizations. A Disney spokesperson told "Polygon" that GOG was "handling the back end for the game's online play, including the development of patches".


text: "Battlefront II" was well received overall. The highest aggregate scored was for the PlayStation 2, which holds an 84% at GameRankings and an 84/100 at Metacritic. The Xbox version ranked similarly, with 84% at GameRankings and 83/100 at Metacritic. The PC and PSP versions scored slightly lower, with a 75% and a 78/100 for the PC and the PSP a 71% and 69/100 at GameRankings and Metacritic, respectively. It placed sixth in overall sales for 2005, according to the NPD Group. The PlayStation Portable version sold over 500,000 copies. It was listed as the second most-played Xbox title in 2007, and placed third in 2008. In 2009 "Star Wars: Battlefront II" reclaimed second place once more. The PlayStation 2 version received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. The game's sales totaled 6 million copies by 2007.


text: "Battlefront II" was praised not only for having a much more engaging single-player storyline, but also for fixing many of the issues that plagued the original. Reviewers noted a slight improvement in the intelligence of AI units and praised new varied objectives to obtain victory. "PlayStation World" argued the strengthened single-player campaign was "unrelenting" and always a good challenge. Publications found the inclusion of space battles a welcome addition; however, GameSpot argued the addition of Jedi, though looking "good on paper", did not end up "feeling as epic" as expected.


text: Game Revolution argued if the multiplayer was taken away, even the new campaign was not enough to make "Battlefront II" worth the buy. IGN claimed the game suffers from problems remaining from the original "Battlefront", such as a lack of challenging AI characters in single-player mode. Computer-controlled opponents and allies tend to run headlong into gunfire, wander off ledges, and walk into walls. IGN felt that these, along with redundant use of planets featured in previous "Star Wars" settings, were problems carried over from the original. "X-Play" hosts Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb gave the game a 4 out of 5, but criticized the online multiplayer.


text: Non-video game publications praised the quality of the game. "CiN Weekly" gave it a score of 92 out of 100 and stated "The improved single-player games are worthwhile enough on their own, but if you can find well connected online matches, multiplayer games will keep you addicted for months." "The Sydney Morning Herald" gave it a score of four stars out of five, saying, "Space conflict complements ground-based action beautifully and jumping into the cockpit of an X-wing or TIE fighter is thrilling." "Detroit Free Press" gave the Xbox version a score of three stars out of four and said "The graphics are pretty, the score divine, the story-driven single-player game is actually cinematic and engaging and the lag, while annoying at times online, has been greatly reduced from the original."


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (, ; born 11 March 1962), also known as Farmaajo, is a Somali politician who served as president of Somalia from 2017 to 2022. He was prime minister of Somalia for six months, from November 2010 to June 2011. Mohamed is the founder and leader of the Tayo Party since 2012.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Mohamed was born in Mogadishu. Mohamed comes from the Marehan, a sub-clan of the Darod clan. His parents were activists affiliated with the Somali Youth League (SYL), Somalia's first political party. During the 1970s, his father worked as a civil servant in the national Department of Transportation. Mohamed attended a boarding school in Somalia. When the civil war started in 1991 he claimed asylum in Canada and was eventually granted a Canadian passport. Later, he studied in the US where he also claimed political asylum and achieved American citizenship.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: While living in Buffalo in the United States, Mohamed was a registered Republican Party member. Mohamed is a Somali citizen. Mohamed renounced his American citizenship in August 2019.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Mohamed is married to Saynab Abdi Moallim, the former First Lady of Somalia. The couple have four children—two daughters and two sons—who still reside in the United States, as of 2019.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: He worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Somalia in an administrative capacity from 1982 to 1985. Between 1985 and 1988, Mohamed acted as First Secretary in the Somali embassy in Washington. After his arrival in America he put himself through school and achieved entry to the University at Buffalo. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1993.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: From 1994 to 1997, Mohamed was chosen as an at-large Commissioner for the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority, and worked there as the finance chairman. He also served as case manager for a lead abatement program in the city from 1995 to 1999. Between 2000 and 2002, Mohamed was a minority business coordinator for the Erie County Division of Equal Employment Opportunity.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: From 2002 until his appointment as Prime Minister in late 2010, he worked as Commissioner for Equal Employment at the New York State Department of Transportation in Buffalo. During this time he also completed his master's degree in Political Science from the University at Buffalo with his thesis titled, ‘U.S. Strategic Interest in Somalia: From the Cold War Era to the War on Terror’ and taught leadership skills and conflict resolution at Erie Community College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY).


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In 2007, while Mohamed was leading a Somali community group in Buffalo, he was accused by some of the Somali-American leaders of manipulating the election process in the group, in order to stay in power, resulting in a split in the community.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: On 15 October 2010, Mohamed was appointed as new Prime Minister of Somalia. Mohamed was sworn into office on 1 November 2010, at a ceremony held in the presidential residence, Villa Somalia. On 12 November 2010, Mohamed named a new Cabinet, as per the Transitional Federal Government's (TFG) Charter. The allotted ministerial positions were significantly reduced in number, with only 18 administrative posts unveiled versus the previous government's 39 portfolios. Only two Ministers from the previous Cabinet were reappointed.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In his statement to the UN Security Council on his first 50 days in office, Mohamed stated that his administration had initiated the implementation of a full biometric register for the security forces which was to be completed within a window of four months. Members of the Independent Constitutional Commission were also appointed to engage Somali constitutional lawyers, religious scholars and experts in Somali culture over the nation's scheduled new constitution, a key part of the government's Transitional Federal Tasks. High-level federal delegations were dispatched to defuse clan-related tensions in several regions.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: To improve transparency, Cabinet ministers fully disclosed their assets and signed a code of ethics. An Anti-Corruption Commission with the power to carry out formal investigations and to review government decisions and protocols was also established so as to more closely monitor all activities by public officials. Furthermore, unnecessary trips abroad by members of government were prohibited, and all travel by ministers now require the Premier's consent. A budget outlining 2011's federal expenditures was also put before and approved by members of parliament, with the payment of civil service employees prioritized. In addition, a full audit of government property and vehicles was to be put into place.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Senior Advisor Abdirahman Omar Osman, mentioned Mohamed's attention to road repair, reopening public schools and the regular payment of soldiers and civil servants as issues which brought him support from the people during his brief tenure.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: The Kampala Accord was an agreement overseen by the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and the U.N. Special Envoy to Somalia Augustine Mahiga to bring an end to the 'transitional' phase of the TFG. The parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden said he could not work with Mohamed and so as part of the terms of the agreement, Mohamed was asked to resign. Sharif Hassan had been skeptical of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's decision to appoint Mohamed as Prime Minister and Mohamed had appointed the cabinet without much input from him, which would have led to Sharif Hassan having difficulty getting parliamentary support for programs. After his resignation, Mohamed returned to the United States and his old position at the New York State Department of Transportation.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In early 2012, Mohamed and members of his former Cabinet established the Tayo ("Quality") political party. According to Mohamed, the party's primary agenda would revolve around delivering services to Somalia's general population and encouraging the repatriation of Somali diasporans so as to assist in the post-conflict reconstruction process. After stepping down from office, Mohamed had been campaigning in various global destinations to amass support for his new party, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Sweden.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In early August 2012, Mohamed presented himself as a presidential candidate in Somalia's 2012 elections but was eliminated in the first round of voting.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: The parliamentary election was considered by experts to be one of the most corrupt political events in the history of the country. Amid widespread reports of vote-buying, investigators estimated at least $20 million had been paid as bribes. Much of the money used came from foreign nations with interests in Somalia, which hoped that the candidates they supported monetarily would help advance their interests. Once seated, the parliament voted on who would become president.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Mohamed, campaigning as an anti-corruption candidate, won the presidency in the second round of voting, after the field had been whittled down from over twenty to three. In the second round of voting he received 184 of the total 329 votes, a victory that was surprising to analysts. American news sources also highlighted his knowledge of American politics as one possible asset to help him as president.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Mohamed had campaigned on the promises of a new constitution, one person, one vote elections, and eliminating Al-Shabaab.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: The fledgling administration was initially praised by the International Monetary Fund for its fiscal reforms, and from diplomatic observers for its efforts to address corruption and waste in the armed forces. Domestically, the nation was divided in its support for the new president, with much of the opposition coming from clans based in the south-central parts of the country.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In December 2018, lawmakers filed an impeachment motion against Mohamed. The announcement was made following a raid on targeting opposition leader Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, a member of the rival Habar Gidir clan. The motion was eventually declared invalid after fourteen of the MPs whose names appeared on it claimed that they had never signed it.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In February 2020, a meeting between Mohamed and Muse Bihi Abdi, the President of the Republic of Somaliland, was brokered by Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, to discuss unification. No agreement was reached. 70% of the population were born since the Declaration of Independence in 1991, which despite prevailing issues such as clan based politics, women's rights and unemployment, marked the start of an era of 30 years of peace in Somaliland. In April 2021 Muse blamed Mohamed for on going unrest in Somalia.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In December 2020, Mohamed accused Kenya of interference in Somalia's internal affairs in a diplomatic row which resulted in Somalia cutting diplomatic ties with neighbouring Kenya, giving Kenyan diplomats seven days to leave Mogadishu. The Kenyan government denied the allegations, saying that the Somali government is ungrateful to Kenya for the support her country has provided to Somali refugees and its efforts to bring peace to Somalia. An IGAD fact finding commission report found no evidence that Kenya was interfering in Somalia affairs.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In November 2020, Gedar Andargachew, National Security Affairs Advisor to Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, met with Mohamed in Mogadishu. Mohamed is reported to have shown support for Ethiopia's action in Tigray, and Andargachew also expressed Ethiopia's will to continue its military support in Somalia, which has been important to the fight against Al-Shabaab.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Reports of an estimated 4000-7000 trainee Somali soldiers fighting in Tigray have led to protests in Mogadishu. The protesters, made up of the families of soldiers, say they have not had contact with their relatives since they left for training in Eritrea having been told they were signing up for security jobs in Qatar. A former deputy in Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency claimed that 370 Somali soldiers have died in Tigray. Ethiopia and Somalia deny that any Somali soldiers are involved in the conflict. A parliamentary committee in Somalia has called on Mohamed to investigate the whereabouts of the soldiers, while a member of the defense committee has blamed the long deployment and lack of communication on delays caused by COVID-19. In June 2021, the UNHCR confirmed that Somali troops had been taken from Eritrea to fight in Tigray.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Amnesty International produced a report in February 2020 titled "We live in perpetual fear" which focuses on deterioration of press freedom in the country since President Mohamed took office in February 2017. The report states that the greatest threats to the press in Somalia are the government and Al-Shabaab. It covered cases of eight journalists who had been forced to flee the country and eight who were killed. One of those killed was shot by federal police, two were killed by unknown assailants, and a further five were slain in Al-Shabaab attacks.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: There were also allegations in the report that Mohamed's office had bribed major media outlets through their directors and owners and that journalists who work for them were therefore unable to report freely. In April 2020 the National Security and Intelligence Agency declared Harun Maruf, a journalist working for Voice of America, a security threat. This prompted a response where he received near universal support from journalists, academics and politicians with the U.S. Embassy calling him "a respected professional" and "one of the most influential Somali journalists."


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Reporters without Borders noted in August 2020 that despite the overall danger for journalists in Somalia that efforts were being made to reduce attacks on them, but expressed concern that new media laws fell short of internationally accepted standards. They note that a police officer who shot a journalist dead was convicted and two soldiers were discharged from the military for abusing reporters. The attorney-general's office has also been ordered to investigate the deaths of more than fifty reporters who were killed in the last year.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In September 2020 human rights groups and journalists criticised Mohamed for remarks he made calling Somali journalists unprofessional and claiming that some of them had links to Al-Shabaab, although he provided no evidence of this. Amnesty International's researcher for Somalia, Abdullahi Hassan, said that journalist were routinely denied access to government buildings, including the parliament and Villa Somalia and that they were forbidden from holding interviews with government officials.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In 2020, Mohamed secured debt relief which cancelled $1.4 billion of arrears for Somalia. He commended the cabinet, Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre and the Finance Minister Hon. Abdirahman Duale Beyleh for this achievement.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Khaire resigned following a vote of no confidence on 25 July 2020, accusing him of failing to deliver promises including improving the national security and implementing a timely one person, one vote election. Removal of Prime Ministers in Somalia is not unusual, with only two of the over ten who have served since 2000 not being dismissed from the post. The Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres expressed concern, saying that the acting Prime Minister would not be able to perform certain constitutional duties because he was serving on an interim basis.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Meetings took place in Dhusamareb in July and August 2020 which laid the foundation for the agreement of an indirect election model. On 17 September 2020 the Federal Government of Somalia agreed with member states promising to hold parliamentary elections on 1 December 2020, followed by presidential elections in February 2021.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In November 2020, Jubaland President Ahmed Madobe accused Mohamed of violating the September election deal in which the FGS had promised to withdraw Somali National Army from Gedo, handing administration to Kismayo.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In November 2020, the Council of Presidential Candidates issued a statement calling for the dismissal of the electoral commissions and accusing Mohamed of being an impedance to the implementation of the election deal. In it they called on NISA chief Fahad Yasin to step down due to conflict of interest being that he is also the head of Mohamed's re-election campaign. The Council of Presidential Candidates accused Mohamed of "bypassing the electoral law by stacking the poll committee with his allies".


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: On 2 February 2021, Mohamed convened a three-day meeting in Dusmareb with federal state leaders to discuss the elections. The talks failed two days before the elections were scheduled to take place with both the Somali government and regional state presidents placing blame for the breakdown on lack of concessions from the other side. Mohamed blamed part of the impasse on foreign intervention, which angered the leader of Jubaland, whom he had repeatedly accused of being supported by Kenya. The night before the talks began Al-Shabaab attacked Dusmareb but was repelled, with government forces killing four and detaining two of the attackers.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: On 8 April 2021 it was announced that talks had collapsed between the Somali government and the regional presidents of Puntland and Jubaland. A political science teacher at the Somali National University explained that distrust was the main reason for the breakdown. He said the two sides are too focused on defeating one another rather than resolving the issues at hand.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: On 27 April 2021, in a statement backed by Roble, the States of Hirshabelle and Galmudug announced that they are against an extension of Mohamed's term, calling for a return to the election talks.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: On the night of 18 February the government stated that they had to repel attacks from armed militia groups near the presidential palace. On 19 February the government forces opened fire on peaceful protesters who were demonstrating against the election delays. Opposition candidates claimed Mohamed attempted to have them assassinated at the demonstrations and said he is staging a coup. Roble expressed sorrow over the violence and said that peaceful demonstrations are a democratic right but armed demonstrations are not. He also assured the people that elections would take place. A report from a health care worker in Mogadishu says that at least five soldiers are dead and more than a dozen, mostly civilians, have been injured in violence related to the clashes.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: After the European Union, United States, and United Nations office in Somalia said they would not support a term extension for Mohamed, on 25 March 2021 Information Minister Osman Dubbe warned foreign diplomats not to interfere with Somalia's sovereignty. A senior lecturer at the University of Somalia, Mohamed Maten, opined that the diplomats' comments about delayed elections were the 'norms of international law' and therefore in no way constitute interference in Somalia's sovereignty.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: On 12 April 2021 the lower house of the Somali parliament voted nearly unanimously to extend Mohamed's term. A few minutes later, the upper house objected, declaring the vote to be an unconstitutional move. In response to many objections from the international community, the Somali foreign ministry issued a statement in which they said that they 'reject any attempts to use the humanitarian assistance to blackmail the country.' The UK government have said that the move may result in a re-evaluation of the nature of their assistance to Somalia and their relationship with the Somali government, and said they would work with the international partners in order to do so. Bob Menendez, the chair of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee referred to the attempt as a 'breach of democratic norms', saying that such actions 'risk destabilising Somalia'.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Mohamed said in a radio interview on 16 April 2021 that he understands Somalia needs external support to prosper, but it does not need interference. Focusing on the prospect of a "one person, one vote" election, he said that the vote of parliament does not extend any mandate, and added that he has always endeavoured to enhance relations with all bilateral and multilateral partners, "this is the only way to deliver on the common interests of all nations and people".


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Violence once again broke out in Somalia on 25 April 2021 when militia forces opposed to Mohamed's term extension battled government security forces. The opposition blamed the escalation on attacks on the homes of two of their leaders, while the Somali minister of internal security denied the government had attacked, and placed the blame on unidentified foreign countries. Following three days of clashes in Mogadishu over Mohamed's term extension, which caused a split in security forces and 60,000 to 100,000 people to flee from their homes, Mohamed announced that he will not continue to pursue a two-year extension of his term.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: On 29 April 2021, Mohamed asked Roble to resign, which Roble refused. On 1 May 2021, Mohamed delegated the task of overseeing elections according to the 17 September agreement and responsibility for election security to Roble.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In August 2021 Roble publicly disagreed with Mohamed over a ban on commercial agreements with foreign parties that Mohamed had imposed during the election period, which Roble claimed was against the constitution, but the rift was resolved within four days.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In September 2021 a row broke out between Mohamed and Roble over the murder investigation of Ikran Tahlil Farah, after Roble suspended the director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) Fahad Yasin and Mohamed overturned his decision, declaring it unconstitutional. Roble accused Mohamed of "obstructing effective investigation of Ikran Tahlil Farah's case". On 8 September 2021, Villa Somalia announced that Yasin had resigned as head of NISA and Mohamed immediately reappointed him as his National Security Advisor. Somalia's international partners called for a credible investigation on Ikran's disappearance. On 16 September 2021, Mohamed revoked Roble's executive powers as prime minister in response to this ongoing feud, a move which Roble rejected as unlawful. The dispute was said to be resolved in October so that elections could go ahead without further delay.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: In December 2021, Mohamed revoked Roble's authority to organize upcoming elections and suggested that a new committee should be formed to oversee them. This prompted Roble to accuse Mohamed of sabotaging the electoral process on 26 December 2021. On 27 December, Mohamed announced that he was suspending Roble over alleged obstruction of corruption allegations.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: On 28 December 2021, Roble called on Mohamed to immediately step aside and concentrate on the campaign trail for the forthcoming elections.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: On 10 January 2022, Somali leaders announced they struck a deal to complete parliamentary elections by February 25, after repeated delays that have threatened the stability of the country. The agreement was reached after several days of talks hosted by Roble with state leaders aimed at ending an impasse over the polls.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: Four cases have been received and registered at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, against the Federal Government of Somalia while under the administration of Mohamed over crimes against humanity and serious human rights violations during his tenure. The cases were filed at the ICC by a group of international lawyers led by Yusuf Abdi Farah in September 2021. Lawyers are working on three additional cases.


title: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

text: At the 2019 UN General Assembly in New York, Mohamed jointly received the Concordia Leadership Award with co-recipients Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, and Isaias Afwerki, President of Eritrea.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: Politics (, "Politiká") is a work of political philosophy by Aristotle, a 4th-century BC Greek philosopher.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: The end of the declared that the inquiry into ethics necessarily follows into politics, and the two works are frequently considered to be parts of a larger treatise—or perhaps connected lectures—dealing with the "philosophy of human affairs".


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: The title of "Politics" literally means "the things concerning the πόλις : polis", and is the origin of the modern English word politics.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: Aristotle's "Politics" is divided into eight books, which are each further divided into chapters. Citations of this work, as with the rest of the works of Aristotle, are often made by referring to the Bekker section numbers. "Politics" spans the Bekker sections 1252a to 1342b.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: In the first book, Aristotle discusses the city (πόλις : "polis") or "political community" (κοινωνία πολιτική : "koinōnía politikē") as opposed to other types of communities and partnerships such as the household (οἶκος : oikos) and village.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: The highest form of community is the polis. Aristotle comes to this conclusion because he believes the public life is far more virtuous than the private and because men are "political animals". He begins with the relationship between the city and man (I. 1–2), and then specifically discusses the household (οἶκος : "oikos") (I. 3–13).


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: He takes issue with the view that political rule, kingly rule, rule over slaves and rule over a household or village are only different in size. He then examines in what way the city may be said to be natural.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: Aristotle discusses the parts of the household (οἶκος : "oikos"), which includes slaves, leading to a discussion of whether slavery can ever be just and better for the person enslaved or is always unjust and bad. He distinguishes between those who are slaves because the law says they are and those who are slaves by nature, saying the inquiry hinges on whether there are any such natural slaves.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: Only someone as different from other people as the body is from the soul or beasts are from human beings would be a slave by nature, Aristotle concludes, all others being slaves solely by law or convention. Some scholars have therefore concluded that the qualifications for natural slavery preclude the existence of such a being.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: Aristotle then moves to the question of property in general, arguing that the acquisition of property does not form a part of household management (οἰκονομική : "oikonomikē") and criticizing those who take it too seriously. It is necessary, but that does not make it a part of household management any more than it makes medicine a part of household management just because health is necessary.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: He criticizes income based upon trade and upon interest, saying that those who become avaricious do so because they forget that money merely symbolizes wealth without being wealth and "contrary to nature" on interest because it increases by itself not through exchange.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: Book I concludes with Aristotle's assertion that the proper object of household rule is the virtuous character of one's wife and children, not the management of slaves or the acquisition of property. Rule over the slaves is despotic, rule over children kingly, and rule over one's wife political (except there is no rotation in office). Aristotle questions whether it is sensible to speak of the "virtue" of a slave and whether the "virtues" of a wife and children are the same as those of a man before saying that because the city must be concerned that its women and children be virtuous, the virtues that the father should instill are dependent upon the regime and so the discussion must turn to what has been said about the best regime.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: Book II examines various views concerning the best regime. It opens with an analysis of the regime presented in Plato's "Republic" (2. 1–5), holding that communal share of property between the guardians will increase rather than decrease dissensions, and sharing of wives and children will destroy natural affection. He concludes that common sense is against this arrangement for good reason, and claims that experiment shows it to be impractical. Next, an analysis of the regime presented in Plato's "Laws" (2. 6). Aristotle then discusses the systems presented by two other philosophers, Phaleas of Chalcedon (2. 7) and Hippodamus of Miletus (2. 8).


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: After addressing regimes invented by theorists, Aristotle moves to the examination of three regimes that are commonly held to be well managed. These are the Spartan (2. 9), Cretan (2. 10), and Carthaginian (2. 11). The book concludes with some observations on regimes and legislators.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: "He who has the power to take part in the deliberative or judicial administration of any state is said by us to be a citizen of that state; and speaking generally, a state is a body of citizens sufficing for the purpose of life. But in practice a citizen is defined to be one of whom both the parents are citizens; others insist on going further back; say two or three or more grandparents."


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: After studying a number of real and theoretical city-states' constitutions, Aristotle classified them according to various criteria. On one side stand the true (or good) constitutions, which are considered such because they aim for the common good, and on the other side the perverted (or deviant) ones, considered such because they aim for the well being of only a part of the city. The constitutions are then sorted according to the "number" of those who participate to the magistracies: one, a few, or many. Aristotle's sixfold classification is slightly different from the one found in "The Statesman" by Plato. The diagram above illustrates Aristotle's classification.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: Moreover, following Plato's vague ideas, he developed a coherent theory of integrating various forms of power into a so-called mixed state:


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: To illustrate this approach, Aristotle proposed a first-of-its-kind mathematical model of voting, albeit textually described, where the democratic principle of "one voter–one vote" is combined with the oligarchic "merit-weighted voting"; for relevant quotes and their translation into mathematical formulas see (Tangian 2020).


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: The literary character of the "Politics" is subject to some dispute, growing out of the textual difficulties that attended the loss of Aristotle's works. Book III ends with a sentence that is repeated almost verbatim at the start of Book VII, while the intervening Books IV–VI seem to have different flavor from the rest; Book IV seems to refer several times back to the discussion of the best regime contained in Books VII–VIII. Some editors have therefore inserted Books VII–VIII after Book III. At the same time, however, references to the "discourses on politics" that occur in the "Nicomachean Ethics" suggest that the treatise as a whole ought to conclude with the discussion of education that occurs in Book VIII of the "Politics", although it is not certain that Aristotle is referring to the "Politics" here.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: Werner Jaeger suggested that the "Politics" actually represents the conflation of two, distinct treatises. The first (Books I–III, VII–VIII) would represent a less mature work from when Aristotle had not yet fully broken from Plato, and consequently show a greater emphasis on the best regime. The second (Books IV–VI) would be more empirically minded, and thus belong to a later stage of development.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: Carnes Lord, a scholar on Aristotle, has argued against the sufficiency of this view, however, noting the numerous cross-references between Jaeger's supposedly separate works and questioning the difference in tone that Jaeger saw between them. For example, Book IV explicitly notes the utility of examining actual regimes (Jaeger's "empirical" focus) in determining the best regime (Jaeger's "Platonic" focus). Instead, Lord suggests that the "Politics" is indeed a finished treatise, and that Books VII and VIII do belong in between Books III and IV; he attributes their current ordering to a merely mechanical transcription error.


title: Politics (Aristotle)

text: It is uncertain whether "Politics" was translated into Arabic like most of his major works. Its influence and ideas were, however, carried over to Arabic philosophers.


title: The Irish Times

text: The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. "The Irish Times" is considered a newspaper of record for Ireland.


title: The Irish Times

text: Though formed as a Protestant nationalist paper, within two decades and under new owners it had become the voice of British unionism in Ireland. It is no longer a pro unionist paper; it presents itself politically as "liberal and progressive", as well as being centre-right on economic issues. The editorship of the newspaper from 1859 until 1986 was controlled by the Anglo-Irish Protestant minority, only gaining its first nominal Irish Catholic editor 127 years into its existence.


title: The Irish Times

text: The paper's most prominent columnists include writer and arts commentator Fintan O'Toole and satirist Miriam Lord. The late Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald was once a columnist. Senior international figures, including Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, have written for its op-ed page. Its most prominent columns have included the political column "Backbencher", by John Healy, "Drapier" (an anonymous piece produced weekly by a politician, giving the 'insider' view of politics), "Rite and Reason" (a weekly religious column, edited by Patsy McGarry, the religious affairs editor) and the long-running "An Irishman's Diary". "An Irishman's Diary" was written by Patrick Campbell in the forties (under the pseudonym "Quidnunc"); by Seamus Kelly from 1949 to 1979 (also writing as "Quidnunc"); and more recently by Kevin Myers. After Myers' move to the rival "Irish Independent", "An Irishman's Diary" has usually been the work of Frank McNally. On the sports pages, Philip Reid is the paper's golf correspondent.


title: The Irish Times

text: One of its most popular columns was the biting and humorous "Cruiskeen Lawn" satire column written, originally in Irish, later in English, by Myles na gCopaleen, the pen name of Brian O'Nolan (Brian Ó Nualláin) who also wrote books using the name Flann O'Brien. "Cruiskeen Lawn" is an anglicised spelling of the Irish words "crúiscín lán", meaning 'little full jug'. "Cruiskeen Lawn" made its debut in October 1940, and appeared with varying regularity until O'Nolan's death in 1966.


title: The Irish Times

text: The first appearance of a newspaper using the name "The Irish Times" occurred in 1823, but this closed in 1825. The title was revived—initially as a thrice-weekly publication but soon becoming a daily—by a 22-year-old army officer, Lawrence E. Knox (later known as Major Lawrence Knox), with the first edition being published on 29 March 1859. It was founded as a moderate Protestant newspaper, reflecting the politics of Knox, who envisaged it as a "new conservative daily newspaper". Its headquarters were at 4 Lower Abbey Street in Dublin. Its main competitor in its early days was the Dublin "Daily Express".


title: The Irish Times

text: After Knox's death in 1873, the paper was sold to the widow of Sir John Arnott, a Member of Parliament (MP), a former Lord Mayor of Cork and owner of Arnotts, one of Dublin's major Department stores. The sale, for £35,000, led to two major changes. Its headquarters was shifted to 31 Westmoreland Street, remaining in buildings on or near that site until 2005. Its politics also shifted dramatically, becoming predominantly Unionist in outlook, and it was closely associated with the Irish Unionist Alliance. The paper, along with the "Irish Independent" and various regional papers, called for the execution of the leaders of the failed 1916 Easter Rising.


title: The Irish Times

text: Though the paper became a publicly listed company in 1900, the family continued to hold a majority shareholding until the 1960s (even after the family lost control, the great-grandson of the original purchaser was the paper's London editor). The last member of the Arnott family to sit on the paper's board was Sir Lauriston Arnott, who died in 1958.


title: The Irish Times

text: The editor during the 1930s, R. M. Smyllie, had strong anti-fascist views, and angered the Irish Catholic hierarchy by opposing General Franco during the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, "The Irish Times", like other national newspapers, had problems with Irish Government censorship. The Times was largely pro-Allies and was opposed to the Éamon de Valera government policy of neutrality.


title: The Irish Times

text: In 1974, ownership was transferred to a non-charitable trust, The Irish Times Trust. The former owner, Major Thomas McDowell, was made "president for life" of the trust which runs the paper and was paid a large dividend. However several years later the articles of the Trust were adjusted, giving Major McDowell 10 preference shares and one more vote than the combined votes of all the other directors should any move be made to remove him. Major McDowell died in 2009.


title: The Irish Times

text: The Trust was set up in 1974 as "a company limited by guarantee" to purchase The Irish Times Limited and to ensure that "The Irish Times" would be published as an independent newspaper with specific editorial objectives. (See below).


title: The Irish Times

text: The Trust is regulated by a legal document, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and controlled by a body of people (the Governors) under company law. It is not a charity and does not have charitable status. It has no beneficial shareholders and it cannot pay dividends. Any profits made by "The Irish Times" cannot be distributed to the Trust but must be used to strengthen the newspaper, directly or indirectly.


title: The Irish Times

text: The Trust is composed of a maximum of 11 Governors. The Trust appoints Governors who are required to be "representative broadly of the community throughout the whole of Ireland".


title: The Irish Times

text: As of June 2012, Ruth Barrington is the chair of the trust, and the governors are Tom Arnold, David Begg, Noel Dorr, Margaret Elliott, Rosemary Kelly, Eoin O'Driscoll, Fergus O'Ferrall, Judith Woodworth, Barry Smyth, and Caitriona Murphy.


title: The Irish Times

text: In 2015, "The Irish Times Trust Limited" joined as a member organization of the European Press Prize.


title: The Irish Times

text: In 1969, the longest-serving editor of "The Irish Times", Douglas Gageby, was allegedly called a "white nigger" by company chairman Thomas Bleakley McDowell, because of the newspaper's coverage of Northern Ireland at the outset of the Troubles, which was supportive of Irish nationalism.


title: The Irish Times

text: The paper established its first bureau in Asia when foreign correspondent Conor O'Clery moved to Beijing in 1996.


title: The Irish Times

text: The paper suffered considerable financial difficulty in 2002 when a drop in advertising revenue coincided with a decision by the company to invest its reserves in the building of a new printing plant. None of the journalists were laid off, but many took a voluntary redundancy package when the paper was greatly restructured. Some foreign bureaux were closed and it also stopped publishing "colour" pages devoted to Irish regions, with regional coverage now merged with news. The paper's problems stemmed partly from internal strife which led to McDowells's daughter, Karen Erwin, not being made chief executive. The reorganisation had the desired effect; after posting losses of almost €3 million in 2002, the paper returned to profit in 2003.


title: The Irish Times

text: John Waters, a columnist who spoke out about the perceived vast salaries of the editor, managing director and deputy editor, was sacked and re-hired a week later, in November 2003. Former editor Geraldine Kennedy was paid more than the editor of the UK's top non-tabloid newspaper "The Daily Telegraph", which has a circulation of about nine times that of "The Irish Times". Later, columnist Fintan O'Toole told the "Sunday Independent": "We as a paper are not shy of preaching about corporate pay and fat cats but with this there is a sense of excess. Some of the sums mentioned are disturbing. This is not an attack on Ms Kennedy, it is an attack on the executive level of pay. There is double-standard of seeking more job cuts while paying these vast salaries.


title: The Irish Times

text: On 23 December 2004, "The Irish Times" ran a front-page story on the Provisional IRA's denial of involvement in the Northern Bank robbery, one of Europe's largest ever, and on the same day refused to print a column by Kevin Myers which said that the Provisional IRA was responsible. Myers was reported to be shocked by the spiking of his column. Some two weeks later, the paper printed a report that there might, after all, be a "nationalist" connection. Myers later left the paper.


title: The Irish Times

text: The following May, the paper launched a new international edition, which was available in London and southeast England at the same time as other daily newspapers (previously, copies of the Irish edition were flown from Dublin to major cities in Britain on passenger flights, arriving around lunchtime). It was printed at the Newsfax plant in Hackney, and uses the "Financial Times" distribution network.


title: The Irish Times

text: The Irish Times tended to support the Lisbon Treaty. However, opposing views were also printed, including articles by Declan Ganley of Libertas Ireland, and other anti-Lisbon campaigners.


title: The Irish Times

text: The Central Bank of Ireland fined "The Irish Times" in 2008 after it admitted breaking market abuse rules.


title: The Irish Times

text: In 2009, the Supreme Court ordered the paper to pay €600,000 in costs despite winning its case about the importance of protecting journalistic sources, and called its destruction of evidence "reprehensible conduct".


title: The Irish Times

text: The newspaper has been criticized for its perceived support of the British Army. An article in "The Phoenix" magazine examined an article in "The Irish Times" published in August 2010 on Irish nationals serving in the British Army. According to "The Phoenix", the article romanticized the war in Afghanistan and was little more than a recruitment advertisement for the British Army. The magazine accused the editor Geraldine Kennedy and the Irish Times board of violating the Defence Act which prohibits any kind of advertising for recruitment for a foreign army and article 15.6.1 of the Constitution of Ireland which states "The right to raise and maintain military or armed forces is vested exclusively in the Oireachtas".


title: The Irish Times

text: On 9 September 2011, the paper published a pseudonymous article by Kate Fitzgerald. Unknown to the paper, she had taken her life on 22 August 2011. The revelation sparked a nationwide debate on suicide with her parents appearing on television to discuss suicide and depression. The article criticised the reaction to her illness by her employer, The Communications Clinic, although it was only after she was identified as the author that her employer became known. The article was later removed from the paper's website, causing controversy online. The editor later told her parents that sections of her article were factually incorrect, but could not say which ones. Kate's parents complained to the Office of the Press Ombudsman about an apology made to The Communications Clinic, their complaint was upheld.


title: The Irish Times

text: In September 2019, the paper reprinted an article from the "New York Times" by William Broad. The article claimed that "the blossoming anxiety over professed health risks of 5G [fifth generation wireless technology] 'can be traced to a single scientist and a single chart'". A complaint to the Office of the Press Ombudsman of the Press Council of Ireland was filed by Professor Tom Butler of the University College Cork. The Press Council Ombudsman upheld Butler's complaint, ruling that ""The Irish Times" breached Principle 1 (Truth and Accuracy) of the Code of Practice of the Press Council of Ireland".


title: The Irish Times

text: The company has diversified from its original "Irish Times" title as a source of revenue. Irish Times Limited has taken a majority share for €5m in the Gazette Group Newspapers, a group publishing three local newspapers in West Dublin, and has acquired a property website, MyHome.ie, the second-largest property internet website in Ireland, for €50m, seen as insurance against the loss of revenue from traditional classified property advertising. In June 2009, journalists called on the board and trust to review "the flawed investment and diversification strategy of the company" and passed a motion saying that "ongoing investment in loss-making projects poses a serious threat to employment" at the newspaper. Four months later, the company announced a loss of €37 million and that 90 staff would be made redundant. The director, Maeve Donovan, who instigated the "investment and diversification" strategy, subsequently retired. She dismissed suggestions that she would receive a significant "golden handshake", saying that her package would be "nothing out of the ordinary at all". She was given a €1m "ex-gratia" payment by the newspaper "relating to a commutation of pension rights agreed with her".


title: The Irish Times

text: The managing director said in 2009 that mobile phone applications would be a key investment for newspapers and "The Irish Times" now has an application for the iPhone and Android smartphones.


title: The Irish Times

text: In June 2010, Gazette group newspapers' managing director claimed the company's affairs were being conducted oppressively by its majority shareholder, the Irish Times.


title: The Irish Times

text: In 1895, the paper moved from its original offices on Middle Abbey Street to D'Olier Street in the centre of Dublin. "D'Olier Street" became a metonym of "The Irish Times" which in turn was personified as "The Old Lady of D'Olier Street". In October 2006, the paper relocated to a new building on nearby Tara Street.


title: The Irish Times

text: In 1994, "The Irish Times" established a website called Irish-times.ie; it was the first newspaper in Ireland and one of the first 30 newspapers in the world to do so. The company acquired the domain name "Ireland.com" in 1997, and from 1999 to 2008, used it to publish its online edition. It was freely available at first but charges and a registration fee were introduced in 2002 for access to most of the content. A number of blogs were added in April 2007 written by Jim Carroll, Shane Hegarty, and Conor Pope. On 30 June 2008, the company relaunched Ireland.com as a separate lifestyle portal and the online edition of the newspaper was now published at irishtimes.com. It was supplied free of charge, but a subscription was charged to view its archives.


title: The Irish Times

text: On 15 October 2012 John O'Shea, Head of Online, "The Irish Times", announced that the ireland.com domain name had been sold to Tourism Ireland, and that the ireland.com email service would end on 7 November 2012. The domain name was sold for €495,000. The ending of the email service affected about 15,000 subscribers.


title: The Irish Times

text: The newspaper announced on 17 February 2015 the reintroduction of a paywall for its website, "irishtimes.com", beginning on 23 February.


title: The Irish Times

text: The paper has the same standard layout every day. The front page contains one main picture and three main news stories, with the left-hand column, News Digest, providing a "teaser" of some of the stories inside the Home News, World News, Sport and Business Today sections as well as other information such as winning lottery numbers and weather forecasts. Inside, it usually contains eight to twelve pages of Irish news, called "Home News", covering the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It devotes several pages to important stories such as the publication of government reports, government budgets, important courts cases, and so on.


title: The Irish Times

text: World News contains news from its correspondents abroad and from news wires and services such as Reuters, the Guardian Service, and the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post service. The paper has correspondents in London, Paris, Brussels, and Washington.


title: The Irish Times

text: "The Irish Times" publishes its residential property supplement every Thursday, one of the printed residential property listings for the Dublin area. This is also online. Motoring and employment supplements are published on Wednesday and Friday respectively, and are also online.


title: The Irish Times

text: A business supplement is published every Friday, as is an entertainment supplement called "The Ticket", with film, music, theatre reviews, interviews, articles, and media listings. It features cinema writer Donald Clarke and music writers Jim Carroll, Brian Boyd, Tony Clayton-Lea and others. Michael Dwyer, the distinguished film critic and recipient of the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, wrote for the supplement until his death in 2010.


title: The Irish Times

text: On Saturdays, a Weekend section is published, with news features, arts profiles, television and radio columns, and book reviews of mainly literary and biographical works, with occasional reviews in the technology sector. The Saturday edition also includes the Magazine with consumer and lifestyle features on food, wine, gardening, and there are travel and sports supplements.


title: The Irish Times

text: Three Sudoku puzzles and two crosswords are published daily including a cryptic crossword, formerly compiled by "Crosaire", and a "Simplex" crossword. There is also a letters page.


title: The Irish Times

text: J.J. Walsh has contributed a chess puzzle to the paper since April 1955, originally weekly the puzzle became a daily fixture in September 1972.


title: The Irish Times

text: The paper carries political cartoons by Martyn Turner and the American cartoon strip, Doonesbury. The business section has a satirical illustration by David Rooney every Friday. Tom Mathews contributes an arts-inspired cartoon (called "Artoon") to the arts section on Saturday.


title: The Irish Times

text: In December 2017, it was reported that "The Irish Times" had reached an agreement to purchase the newspaper, radio and website interests of Landmark Media Investments which include the "Irish Examiner". Initially subject to regulatory approval, the sale was completed in July 2018.


title: The Irish Times

text: In September 2018, "The Irish Times" started a voluntary redundancy scheme. This followed the Landmark Media Investments acquisition.


title: The Irish Times

text: Average print circulation was approximately 100,000 copies per issue in 2011, dropping to approximately 62,000 by 2017. The circulation of the newspaper is no longer audited.


title: The Irish Times

text: ABC measure digital circulation based on paid for digital subscriptions that include an ePaper in the package. This means that the free student edition and the basic package, which does not include an ePaper, are excluded from the below statistics.


title: Mince pie

text: A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in the United States, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, being a mixture of fruit, spices and suet. The pies are traditionally served during the Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world. Its ingredients are traceable to the 13th century, when returning European crusaders brought with them Middle Eastern recipes containing meats, fruits, and spices; these contained the Christian symbolism of representing the gifts delivered to Jesus by the Biblical Magi. Mince pies, at Christmastide, were traditionally shaped in an oblong shape, to resemble a manger and were often topped with a depiction of the Christ Child.


title: Mince pie

text: The early mince pie was known by several names, including "mutton pie", "shrid pie" and "Christmas pie". Typically its ingredients were a mixture of minced meat, suet, a range of fruits, and spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Served around Christmas, the savoury Christmas pie (as it became known) was associated with supposed Catholic "idolatry" and during the English Civil War was frowned on by the Puritan authorities. Nevertheless, the tradition of eating Christmas pie in December continued through to the Victorian era, although by then its recipe had become sweeter and its size markedly reduced from the large oblong shape once observed. Today the mince pie, usually made without meat (but often including suet or other animal fats), remains a popular seasonal treat enjoyed by many across the United Kingdom and Ireland.


title: Mince pie

text: The ingredients for the modern mince pie can be traced to the return of European crusaders from the Holy Land. Middle Eastern methods of cooking, which sometimes combined meats, fruits and spices, were popular at the time. Pies were created from such mixtures of sweet and savoury foods; in Tudor England, shrid pies (as they were known then) were formed from shredded meat, suet and dried fruit. The addition of spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg was, according to the English antiquary John Timbs, "in token of the offerings of the Eastern Magi." Several authors, including Timbs, viewed the pie as being derived from an old Roman custom practised during Saturnalia, where Roman fathers in the Vatican were presented with sweetmeats. Early pies were much larger than those consumed today, and oblong shaped; the jurist John Selden presumed that "the coffin of our "Christmas"-Pies, in shape long, is in Imitation of the Cratch [Jesus's crib]", although writer T. F. Thistleton-Dyer thought Selden's explanation unlikely, as "in old English cookery books the crust of a pie is generally called 'the coffin'."